I guess the first video Disney World released on the gigantic chandeliers at the Beauty & The Beast themed Be Our Guest restaurant was pretty popular. They’ve now released a second video with even more information and more video of the restaurant. That’s certainly going… Read More »Be Our Guest – More Video Details From Disney’s Imagineers
The Beauty and the Beast themed Be Our Guest restaurant promises to add a whole new dimension of immersive story telling as guests get the chance to be right in the memorable ballroom scene where Belle and the Beast danced together from the classic Disney animated film. Here’s a sneak peek inside the Be Our Guest ballroom with a look at the Chandeliers that will occupy much of the overhead space in the room.
The three chandeliers hang in the main dining room, the largest measuring twelve feet in length and eleven feet across with 80 lights and 100 large crystals. The two smaller chandeliers on each side measure 9.5 feet in length and eight feet across with 50 lights each. The trio of chandeliers are inspired by ones seen in the dining room in Beast’s Castle.
Read More »Be Our Guest restaurant – Video of Inside the Ballroom
EPCOT’s re-imagined Test Track attraction will put the guest inside a computer as they partake in a digital test environment from the queue, through the ride, and even into the post ride experience. Modern day automotive design relies on computer aided-design significantly more than it did when they original blueprints for Test Track were drawn up. Now that Chevrolet has become the attraction’s new sponsor Disney is taking the opportunity to update the experience to a new concept.
Guests in the queue will be able to make design choices for their car based on the four qualities of Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness, and Power. After they experience the attraction they will be able to compare the results of their choices with other people in their car.
Read More »Test Track Re-invisioned Puts You In The Computer
It does my heart good to see some of the details Imagineers are busy adding to Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure. Part of the re-made entry way to the park, this busy California street will take you back to 1923, when Walt Disney… Read More »Buena Vista Street – They’re Doing It Right at DCA
This article should really be titled ‘Walt Disney Imagineering builds Star Trek Holodeck and refuses to share it with anybody.’ For a few years now WDI has used a Digital Immersive Showroom (aka The DISH) to assist in developing attractions, buildings, and even whole lands to make sure all the story details are right even before the first coat of paint is applied.
The DISH involves ultra high definition display walls combined with high precision motion capture systems and a system of goggles you wear to give you an overlay effect on the environment. Haptic feedback, markup and notation is also possible.
If you listen carefully, you can hear Imagineer Dr. Mark Mine mention that The DISH uses CAVE technology. That is the same technology that 12+ years ago Tony Baxter was rumored to be developing a new type of theme park with a virtual reality holodeck at its core. Alas, the technology wasn’t quite there yet at the turn of the millennium. I wonder if WDI considers it there now. It looks like it as Mine is now the head of the Creative Technology Group, charged with creating more uses for these technologies.
If you look at this video you can see the practical applications for simulation testing. Indeed WDI works with a number of military scale simulation technologies similar to The DISH and Central Florida is the center of the simulation industry. Can you conceive of an attraction that would use this technology to tell a story and complete the ride experience?
Anyone who wants to work for Walt Disney Imagineering could do worse that follow Mark Mine’s path. In 1997 he published a dissertation on what it means to work in a virtual world. “Exploiting Proprioception in Virtual-Environment Interaction” is not lite reading, to say the least, but it is a fascinating look at the state of the art 15 years ago.
More about Mark Mine:
Read More »Virtual Reality, just one of Imagineering’s many story telling tools
Despite creating the genre and 57 years of experience in the theme park industry, The Walt Disney Company has not hit every attraction out of the park. In fact, some were complete strikeouts. Here are a few of my nominees for the worst Disney Attraction… Read More »Worst Disney Attraction Ever
The kind souls at Walt Disney Imagineering were nice enough to share this time-lapse video of construction at New Fantasyland. The video runs through about March 23rd or so, so the latest construction on the Mine Train isn’t shown. But it is still an enjoyable… Read More »New Fantasyland Time-Lapse Video
It makes me incredibly happy to hear that Disneyland has finally decided to honor the accomplishements of Alice Davis with a window on Main Street USA at Disneyland. These windows serve as the ‘credits’ to the full experience of the park, Davis’ husband Marc has… Read More »Alice Davis to Finally Appear On Main Street Window at Disneyland