To build and control your own animatronic.
Fun To Build
Louie comes with an interactive 3D assembly program, to teach you step by step how to put him together.
Easy To Animate
Louie is built fully integrated with Bottango, a state-of-the-art animatronic animation studio, designed to be as user friendly as possible.
When will Louie be available, and what does he cost?
The honest answer is, we're not sure to either! We've been working on getting Louie available to everyone really hard for a long time, and have learned a lot! But we're still facing challenges on getting him manufactured. Once we know more, we'll be sure to update everyone!
If you want an Animatronic kit now, check out Maxwell, a Bottango animatronic you can purchase TODAY!
What exactly comes with Louie?
It's our goal to give you 100% of everything you need to build and control your own animatronic.
With Louie you get:
1) Parts to form the structures and mechanisms of Louie.
2) Six servo motors, configured for Maxwell.
3) Power supply and motor and logic control boards, and a USB cable.
4) All required hardware, including bolts, nuts, push rods, ball joints, etc.
5) Premium silicone cosmetics to form his head, arms, and bottom, and a custom made Hawaiian shirt for him to wear!
Who can build Louie? Do I need to know how to code or build circuits?
Louie is meant to be as accessible as possible! We think that creative expression through robotics and animatronics is something everyone of all backgrounds can enjoy! Louie comes with everything you need to build him, and doesn't require any soldering or circuit building. Because of Louie's integration with Bottango, you can control and animate him without needing to write any code.
That being said, you need to be comfortable assembling parts together, as well as running and learning software, and learning new skills. Louie is a bit more complex of a build than Maxwell.
How exactly do I control Louie?
Louie is made by Bottango, the company that created a state of the art, intuitive animatronic animation studio. Louie is made to work seamlessly with Bottango.
In Louie, you can animate animatronics the same way you animate 3D characters for movies and TV. You move a 3D representation of Louie into desired poses, creating keyframes, and synchronizing those movements with audio. If you have ever done any kind of 3D animating, the workflow will be very familiar. And if you haven't, it's easy to learn!
Louie also comes with an example animation to learn from in a Bottango example project. However, the point of Louie is for you to build your own movements and animations. Louie is a platform for you to build animations on, not a robot with a prebuilt set of behaviors and interactions.
What kinds of movements is Louie capable of?
Louie is currently designed with six axes of movement:
1) Mouth movement.
2) Eyebrow movement.
3) Roll his head left and right.
4) Tilt his head up and down.
5) Move up and down at the waist.
6) Move both arms together up and down.
How big is Louie?
Louie is designed sitting down. Fully assembled he is about 15" tall.
Can Louie be used standalone or does he need to be connected to a computer?
The most easy, and straightforward way to use Louie is with him connected to your computer. While Louie is connected to your computer, any movements you make on screen will be mirrored onto your real world animatronic as well. It is possible to export animations to be played back on Louie standalone, without an active computer connection, however there are some limitations and it's an advanced feature of Bottango.
Can Louie play audio? What does Louie sound like when he's animating?
Louie himself doesn't have any speakers. That being said, Bottango, the software used to control Louie, is built with audio playback as a key feature. You can animate Louie to audio in Bottango, and play audio back in perfect sync with your animations via Bottango on whatever speakers you would like.
One other note: Louie isn't silent. You will hear motor movement while Louie is animating. It's simply a reality of motors at this size and gear reduction that you will hear some amount of motor sound.
Can I control multiple Bottango kits at once?
Unfortunately, right now you can only control one Bottango animatronic kit at a time on your computer. This is functionality we're hoping to add in the future though, and is a software only change.
Will replacement parts be available?
We designed Louie to be as robust, but moving parts wear down and need TLC over time. When Louie is released, replacement parts will be available, as well as 3d model files for customers.
Who's designed Louie?
The principle designers of Louie are:
Evan McMahon - Bottango founder and software / experience developer.
Torrey Sprague - Hardware and animatronic developer.
I have another question.
We're easy to get ahold of!
The best way to talk with us is to join the developers in our Discord community! There you can talk about Louie, Maxwell, and Bottango: https://discord.gg/wyhSMQb
If you have general questions about Maxwell: Contact@Bottango.com
Press or Media? Cool! We're excited to talk to you: Press@Bottango.com
Anything else: Contact@Bottango.com
