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RUDE-OLPH
he idea to build an angry, animatronic reindeer
had been floating around our office since mid-
summer. But it was only at the end of November that
our client, Scottish lager brand Tennent’s, gave us the
go-ahead to build it.
My starting point with Rude-olph was to build a
small prototype from wood. I decided to base the neck movement
around a flexible spine to give a more realistic animal movement
than you’d get from a fixed hinge or pivot.
For the full-scale version, we wanted to keep the reindeer
lightweight, so we built the head around a foam model. Servos were
added for mouth movement, and LEDs embedded to give him his
trademark glowing nose. For the main neck movement, we opted
for a heavy-duty 270° servo, mated to a pulley driving two bicycle
brake cables that run the length of Rudy’s neck. The spine uses
heavy-gauge piano wire and foam pipe lagging.
Rude-olph runs off a Raspberry Pi 3, which provides both motor
control and a live video feed from the reindeer. My web-based
soundboard – also running on the Pi – lets operators choose from
over 140 stock phrases, all of which are synchronised to the
reindeer’s head, mouth, and light-up nose.T
By Grant Gibson @grant_gibsonRight
With just ten days
from green light
to his first public
appearance, it was
a mad rush to get
Rude-olph built,
tested, and out the
door for the season