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| - The Final Touches The full sized animatronic was initially designed by Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr, who knew instantly the the project would require hydraulics. Initially, Stan Winston wished to construct the full sized Tyrannosaurus as a life sized puppet, but early tests of the idea quickly nullified the notion. Stan also wished to use an electric motor based system, however the electric motors of the early 1990′s would not give the animatronic the speed that Stan Winston wanted. In the end, Stan Winston too decided upon the use of hydraulics to fully bring the character to life. The designs for the animatronic were all created in miniature to test the feasibility in the larger final animatronic. Key participant in the construction Richard Landon. Landon conducted the construction of the internal mechanics and main armature of the animatronic. He also oversaw the designs of the miniature concept designs, and himself designed the walking rig for the animatronic; the animatronic’s legs moved separately from the body on a track. The animatronic was built on a main base of a device based on designs for flight simulators custom built by McFadden Systems for SWS. The motion based platform that would provide the gross movements for the animatronic that would be built upon it. The platform could be controlled by a four-person operated telemetry device, dubbed “Wally”, which was a miniature of the motion based platform. Before either the platform or the animatronic would be built, however, the floors of both the SWS shop and of Stage 16 where the animatronic would be used had to be specially reinforced to handle the expected weight of the animatronic. The animatronic was constructed of steel, though aluminum and other materials were considered. The decision was made when Stan Winston asked welder Armando Gonzales what material would be the easiest to repair should the animatronic break down during production. Gonzales was also responsible for final welds on the rig, buffing and dulling any sharp points or corners on the armature that could have any chance of puncturing the foam latex skin that would later go over the graphite-fiber frame. The portions of the frame that provided large movement, such as the neck and tail, were constructed through spiral rings. Rather than separate circular rings that were commonly constructed by animatronic makers of the day, the spiral rings did not let the frame slide or bunch up in places and therefore was more stable. However, because Newtonian Laws still enacted upon the character, SWS fitted the animatronic with an accelerometer, to stabilize the animatronic in gross movement, which could reach 90 inches per second. The skin overlaying the frame was two inch thick foam rubber, and was cast in sections in order to be fitted onto the animatronic. Because of this, more foam rubber had to be cast in order to fill in the gaps. In the end, the entire full sized animatronic weighed 9 tons, was 40 ft long, and could raise itself 24 ft into the air. The fifty-seven functions and movements on the character were all hydraulic based, save for the eyes which were radio controlled. Despite assurances to Stan Winston from Universal Studios that the Tyrannosaurus rig would not be directly rained upon, the animatronic ended up becoming drenched daily while shooting the Main Road scene. Due to the absorbent nature of foam rubber, the skin of the quickly would become saturated during filming, forcing film crews to have to halt shooting in order to dry the animatronic with towels. Overnight crews would have to set fans onto the animatronic in order to dry it fully by morning for shooting. The main problem of the saturation was that the animatronic’s hydraulic build meant that the rig was highly susceptible to the weight added by the water. If the animatronic became too wet, the entire rig would shake violently. Between the constant weight changes dependent on how wet or dry the animatronic was, the animatronic had to be weighed constantly. One unfortunate night, the overnight crew had to call an emergency meeting when they discovered the bottom jaw had broken on the animatronic. Through half the next day, Stan Winston and his crew took time to repair the animatronic, meaning no filming took place that day. Despite all the water problems, the animatronic performed fantastically well, allowing director Steven Spielberg to shave four days off of the filming schedule.
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