Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM

This discussion of using CDs/tape as sequencers reminds me of something
interesting, especially when cross-referenced with the Raymond Scott stuff
of a few weeks ago.

In the Sixties, before low-cost computerization, the way that Walt Disney's
animatronics worked at Disneyland was by a huge cam system. They designed
cardboard cams on an LP turntable for each individual action of a character.
So to animate say one animatronic 'puppet' in the "Haunted Mansion," for
instance, there would be a vertical stack of like thirty of these 12"-16"
cams spinning on a spindle, one cam controlling eye blinking, another the
left wrist, etc.

Very physical, but it worked!