Splash Mountain blueprints!

[Datameister]

when you starting the actual mountian?

I've actually started it already. I think I posted a render a few pages back; it looks really weird, and I basically haven't done anything since. The thing is, modeling the mountain itself is far more difficult than everything else. After all, it's got a very complex shape with a lot of holes and nooks and crannies. Understanding the mountain's shape and figuring out how to model it are both very difficult. And there's another problem--my computer will quickly get overwhelmed by the number of polygons, so navigating around and rendering my model will become a very slow process.

Keep in mind that my original purpose was to develop a better understanding of how the different onstage and backstage areas relate to each other spatially, so there are actually some advantages to not building the outside.

We'll see how it plays out. I'm just wingin' it over here.

[Hilsbro]

the closest thingin the renderings to the mnt. is the cone...lol

[Datameister]

Nope, I found it--check page 4 of this thread, about halfway down, post #44. It's the funky-looking brown wormish thing. Weird, n'est-ce pas?

[ryborg]

Datameister: Have you considered making this project open source and letting others contribute. With a source control system like cvs, svn, or sourceforge you could probably split this thing up into logical pieces (perhaps by lands), and really get this thing going. I would love to see something like that take off.

[Datameister]

I've actually given that serious thought at a few points. It'd certainly be cool to have all of Disneyland, onstage and backstage, immaculately reproduced in 3D. I guess there are two reasons I haven't so far:

1. The logistics. While I'm sure organizing a project like this isn't too difficult, I don't really want to learn how.
2. Selfishness. If I see someone else building on my model, I'll be less likely to do so myself. That'd be sad. I mean, I've seen fantastic re-creations of Tomorrowland, including the fabulous Space Station 77 site. As a result, I'm deeply impressed with the creators but deeply apathetic about building a Tomorrowland of my own. I'd hate to have that happen for other parts of the park. Yup, like I said, it's pretty selfish.

So I may end up making this an open source project or maybe not. I don't have a problem with sharing the .blend file, though. If anyone's really itching for it, send me a PM.

[Datameister]

There is no rest for the weary, nor for those who obsess about building Disneyland with their computers. Work continues on the queue and load/unload area. I've now added the two small bridges that arch over the maintenance track, spread the floor all the way across the unloading zone, and added the stairs that take you up to the queue's second floor. I also realized that there was supposed to be a stone chimney hidden in the foliage, so I modeled this too.

In case you're wondering which areas the numerous sections of track correspond to, here's the deal. That piece of track sharply ascending at the top right is the big lift before the final drop. Curving around it, closer to us, is one of the outdoor turns after the mill lift. This loops around the bear cave and enters the first drop, which is clearly visible heading toward and beneath us after passing directly over the train tunnel, which stretches across the render horizontally. Down below, the track on the right is the load/unload area and the one on the left is the maintenance track.

I understand all the masses of gray are starting to become confusing. I'm going to begin differentiating the colors more soon, I think, though I doubt I'll ever truly texture any of this model.

[BassBone]

Holy frak, that's awesome. I can't wait for the next update. Now I'll be getting whiplash looking around for the next change.

[Datameister]

Hey, thanks! Careful with that neck of your, now...

Okay, so this render covers an area that I've been curious about for some time. Just before you pull into the loading area in your log, there's a waterway leading off to your left with a barrier over it, but you can see sunlight underneath. I always wondered what was behind this, and where it led. Now, thanks to blueprints and the magic of 3D, I can say that this is what you'd see if you had x-ray vision.



That curve at the very bottom is the edge of the track, so the loading station is a ways to the right of this render. The water extends across all the brown areas. This is also the start of the maintenance track, by the way. The green wall in the foreground on the left is an exterior wall of Splash Mountain, visible only from backstage; beyond that is the green outer wall of the Haunted Mansion show building. Then the back building for Splash Mountain is off in the distance, too. That swath of dark brown going over us at at the upper right is the big lift into the final drop. The more distant stretch of track to the right of that is right after the first drop, leading into the show building. It's rather difficult to tell, but the section below that is a little semicircle that exits and re-enters the show building briefly, going clockwise through a pitch-black area right after the hilly drop into the laughing place.

Sorry for the floating buildings again! I swear, I'm gonna fix those eventually.

[Hilsbro]

wow....nice angle

[Datameister]

Thanks! That's one I was curious about for a long time.

FYI, the web site is still movin' along. I haven't coded any HTML for a year or two, and this is one bicycle that you really can't just hop back onto. I had some major problems with formatting tables, but that's all cleared up now. Maybe I'll be able to get something online by the end of tomorrow. Fingers crossed...

Here's another render. Nothing groundbreaking; all I've really done is extended the pathways that run alongside the maintenance track. They now continue into the backstage areas that house the start of the big lift hill. I've also added three trailer-like objects that sit behind the HM show building. This was from yesterday; today, I've spent all my free time working on the site, not modeling.

[Hilsbro]

that is nice....the website will be up..and Just in time for Splash reopening...lol

[Datameister]

Heh, I hadn't thought about that. Niiiice.

[Datameister]

Wow, web design can be a true pain in the posterior. I'm throwing in the towel with my circa-1999 table-based layout, citing irreconcilable differences, and opening a can of CSS. How was that for a mixed metaphor? Anyway, I don't know how long the re-design will take, but I'm hoping to create a leaner, cleaner code that will allow me to use iframes properly and still mainting cross-browser compatibility.

</technical jargon>

Bottom line, I dunno how long this will take. I hope to be done soon, since the web design stuff is proving far less enjoyable than the modeling.

[Datameister]

Then again...the transition hasn't been too bad so far, and the new code is incredibly clean by comparison. Perhaps I'll be able to open the site sooner than I thought.

[Datameister]

After a long day of failures and successes in the coding process, I'm hitting the hay. I've got all the hard stuff done; now I just have to fill in the content for the other pages. If I were going to have as much time tomorrow as I've had today, the site would be up within 24 hours for sure. Unfortunately, I'm going to be pretty busy, so it'll probably still be another couple of days.

Wow, that took way more hours than it should have.