PHOTOS, VIDEO: Hondo Audio-Animatronic of The Smuggler Race in Star Wars – Galaxy's Edge in Action, List of Leading Batuu AA Figures



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If you thought we had finished with the new information and you were staring behind the scenes at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, you were also wrong that Jabba the Hutt wanted to challenge Luke Skywalker.

Through Techcrunch, we have more information on the audio-animatronic characters that will inhabit Batuu and beyond when opening the grounds later this year:

As you can imagine with a prestigious Disney Park property, Batuu will house a variety of Animatronics animated robots in Imagineering jargon. From droids to shop owners to ride characters from before the show, there's lot of animated characters in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.

Since the 1980s, Disney's hydro-based animatronics was based on the A-100 chassis. A kind of basic humanoid model. The animatronics on Batuu are all based on a new A-1000 series chassis, which can be configured in different ways and in different sizes, with one major difference: the electric motors.

The electric motors were launched in 2009 with Mr. Lincoln's head. Since then, they have been used in enchanting tales with the Belle, Frozen Ever After and Na've River Journey attractions. Rocket Raccoon in the Guardians of the Galaxy mission: Breakout is also an electric figure.

Unlike the hydraulic, electric motors allow much more precise movements. They can start and stop almost instantly, have less rise and fall time, and allow smoother transitions between directional motions. In addition, you reduce by half the amount of cabling going to the number by eliminating the hydraulic lines. This reduces the installation size of the figure and the size of the control cabinet, making it possible to make more interesting placements in scenes where it is not necessary to cover all these elements and to facilitate maintenance. .

The new characters are smooth, capable and really fun to watch in action.

Here are some of the main AA characters who will live in the Star Wars country:

Hondo Ohnaka – A Weequay hacker introduced into Clone Wars, Hondo is now the owner of Ohnaka Transport Solutions and loaned the Chewie Millennium Falcon for "deliveries". The animatronic figure itself is about 7 feet tall and uses the latest electric motors instead of hydraulics. The Hondo figure includes about 50 functions (movement points) in total and is the second most complicated animatronics of the Disney parks. The most complicated, for information, is the shaman Na'vi, mentioned above, who has 40 functions in front only, not to mention the rest of the body. We had the shaman at our robotics event a few years ago, it's amazing to watch. Hondo is not far behind, with fluid movements, smooth facial contortions and credible interactions between him and his R5 droid.

DJ R-3X – You already know him as RX-24 or Captain Rex, the pilot at Star Tours. He is now DJ at Oga's Cantina on Batuu. He plays music composed by the Imagineering team and a variety of artists from around the world. It is about poppy and synth and a little more than 80 years old, with some classical mixtures of classical melodies of Cantina. His chest and arms move to make the controls work and the dance. He has a three-hour music and dialogue cycle to entertain clients. Fun fact, Matt Martin, Creative Director at Lucasfilm, explains that he has many, many pages on the story of how Rex found himself on Batuu.

Dok-Ondar – An Ithorian trader, Don is renowned for his collection of Jedi and Sith artifacts. I've been able to see Dok fully active in the Imagineering animation building and it looks amazing. The figure stands several feet above the guests' heads, sitting behind the counter and interacting with store employees. The detail is charming here, with a rich and smooth set of animations for the hands and neck, his entire body rising up and down. The lips of his two mouths wave as he speaks in a resonant stereophonic voice.

Nien Nunb – A Sullustun pilot famous for flying the Millennium Falcon as part of his mission to destroy the second death star in Return of the Jedi. On Batuu, he will fly the transport ship that you will board at the Rise of the Resistance attraction.

One of the most minor, but no less intriguing characters, includes a Dianoga beast that will make its appearance inside a fountain, arising from very dark water (by show) intermittently to surprise the guests. You'll also see a ton of animated creatures inside the creature's stall, including favorites, such as the Loth Cat and a Worrt. The Droid Shop is also meant to be filled with animated droids of all kinds. On the outside, the droids will interact with customers via the PLAY Disney app and will receive a refreshing bath of lubricant.

Interestingly, I'm aware of some of the droid projects that Disney is working on that have not yet appeared in any official revelations. There is much more to come in the interactive figures department and Imagineering has already planned to develop Batuu with new experiences. Nor was I able to be told whether the Loth Cat and other small creatures that will be featured here were part of the semi-autonomous Tiny Life interactive project that I had previously written.

The process of animating figures has also been updated with the chassis.

"One of the things that worked so well on this project is that some of our software partners have developed tools that allow us to import and export design software data into a software package. modeling and animation, "says Victoria Thomas, associate mechanical engineering associate. "We are able to give them a 3D representation of the exact nature of the figure, the exact position of the pivots. They are able to take that and animate exactly how fast they want their joints to move. We are able to get a lot of excellent feedback, such as, "Oh, well, the shoulder pivot is pretty out of the way. Is it possible for you to adjust that? "

"Getting these comments early in the process allows us to change, improvise, adapt and overcome everything that happens with the numbers."

Animations, like all other data constituting the territory, are hosted in BIM. This pre-visualization work saves a lot of grief and physical confusion on the back.

"Doing things early allows us to solve problems before they become serious problems. With the Hondo figure in particular, we were able to determine: "Oh, based on its setting and location, there is not enough room for audio in its scene. He needs an on-board speaker, "says Thomas.

"In another scene, we were able to determine," Oh, there are big speakers on the stage where we expected a maintenance officer to access the numbers. If these speakers are present, you can not maintain the chassis. "

Because of the BIM and the preview, we were allowed to do a lot of that. One of the other benefits is that we were able to get motion capture data on these numbers initially to prove that human displacement would be a human gesture. How would it look natural? How can we make this look as organic as possible to enhance the customer experience? "

The resulting figures are some of the most beautiful creations that Disney can do right now, and they are at the forefront of this preview work with electrically driven figures. It's as close to an extraterrestrial real life that you will never meet.

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