The Bull 

Early Design 

Turning Ideas into 3D Reality

To give the Bull initial form, a clay maquette was modelled. This became the first key phase of turning the idea into a 3-dimensional reality. Not only could this be scaled up, it was scanned and fed into a computer to start working out the structure.  But old-style pencil sketching formed the basis of the detailed design, which was then passed to the CAD team to work out accurate dimensions.

Supporting The Structure

It was also decided at an early stage that the best solution for moving it around would be to incorporate a telehandler into the design, supporting the structure safely upright while driving it around. Thus the arm of the telehandler was incorporated into the design, enabling the bull to tilt forward.

The Build 

Breaking Down the Build Activity

The physical build broke down into distinct parcels of activity: the legs, the main body, the head, and the method of dressing the whole surface.  The Bull had to walk, kneel, paw at the ground, rear up, and when it walked it had to move in time with the telehandler.  So computer controlled motors and gearboxes were required, and as time was short, and supplier delivery times unpredictable, decisions once made could not always be reversed. The legs had to be structurally designed, and we went through 3 prototypes before being happy with the final structure.  Alongside this the computer control work had to be started to prove to ourselves and to the client that the system could actually support and move the enormous legs. All legs had 4 axes of movement like a real bull, from hoof joint up to hip, for as much realism as possible.

The Core

An aluminium truss box structure formed the core onto which everything was attached and which itself was supported on the telehandler. The legs mounted onto the 4 corners, the head to the central axis, and a series of aluminium tubes formed the ribs. Within this core ran walkways and handrails for access to allow puppeteers and effects technicians to get at everything and animate the head, which itself moved up/down, left/right, and had an extending neck. Onto all this mechanical ingenuity was attached a dense foam outer skin, and internal Victoriana/steampunk dressing. The whole structure is 10m high x 4.5m wide x 15m long – but weighed in at only 2.5 tonnes.

The Telehandler

The weight of the beast was critical.  It needed a telehandler with enough ballast to be very secure, and substantial enough to add many fixings to it, one of which was a 1 tonne 3 phase generator to power everything on board. The wheels were foam-filled to virtually eliminate bounce.  The actual telehandler was eventually sourced from Europe and weighed 17 tonnes. Once adapted to take the Bull the aim was to keep the Bull as light as possible, and as immune to wind as possible. There were many parameters that needed consideration as the plan developed.

Animation 

The eventual animations included full 4 leg animation, full head animation, horns, ears, eyes, mouth, snorting nostrils and a grappling hook tail.

Special Effects 

Smoke from the body and nostrils, tears of blood and lighting from within – were used to show the Bull’s emotions as it interacted with performers depicting Birmingham’s journey through difficult parts of its history through to the present day.