Disneyland in 3D!

[BassBone]

But it's not trying to install anything on my machine like it is with someone else, someone who I suspect has a PC. My guess is that imageshack is not doing so for you because you have an account.

[Datameister]

My guess is that imageshack is not doing so for you because you have an account.

Mmm. I don't recall having problems before, though, and there have been very recent times when I've signed out and not had any popup problems. Let me try again--yup, I signed out and clicked the link. Firefox didn't indicate that it blocked any popups.

[BassBone]

Strange.

[Datameister]

Indeed.

(By the way, I'm sprucing up the area around the Indy show building at the moment. Adding doors, stairs, the area of dirt in front, etc.)

[Lost Boy]

I am using my sisters IBM laptop and have no pop ups or any other issue with Fliker. The images show just fine. When at home I have a PC and whenever I have followed you link to Fliker and have never had a problem there either. We both use Firefox as well.

On the render showing the Temple and the Show Building, is that big building right up against the right side of the Temple the Pirates Building as it doesn't seem that close in reality, but then again there is a tremendous amount of foliage and trees right there as well, so it might be pretty much hidden. At first I thought the queue line was incorrect but the more I look at it and think about it I guess is is correct.

I had thought that the queue line was underground, but then remembered the big wooden doors on either side just before you enter the bat cave, and those are at ground level so the trucks can drive through at night to get from one side of the Park to the other at night for deliveries and such.

But I don't remember the train going through a tunnel where you show it. The only tunnel I know of is just before you enter Critter country and that is behind Splash Mountain where you can see the showboat scene from the train. The other one behind NOS is very short and I don't know if that is what you are showing. I know the train passes right over the spot where the falling ceiling is (when the pole works of course).

[Datameister]

On the render showing the Temple and the Show Building, is that big building right up against the right side of the Temple the Pirates Building as it doesn't seem that close in reality, but then again there is a tremendous amount of foliage and trees right there as well, so it might be pretty much hidden. At first I thought the queue line was incorrect but the more I look at it and think about it I guess is is correct.

That is indeed Pirates! Bizarre, isn't it? I can't get over how close the two are. This is indeed correct--unless Disney purposely leaked numerous incorrect blueprints, that is--and the queue is actually right up against Pirates from the obelisk room through the bamboo canyon. You can see the Pirates show building in just one spot by Indy, though. If you stand right outside the exit for Indy, you can see the building above the rockwork. It's covered in camouflage netting in that spot, so it generally blends in very well, but you can see the flat, unnatural roofline.

I had thought that the queue line was underground, but then remembered the big wooden doors on either side just before you enter the bat cave, and those are at ground level so the trucks can drive through at night to get from one side of the Park to the other at night for deliveries and such.

Yup, most of the queue is actually aboveground. Right after those elephant doors, when you go into the bat caves, you actually are underground. The berm cuts across the top of the bat caves, spike room, and hall of descending blocks, with the train tracks going over the spike room in the middle. The rotunda is where you emerge from underground, right into the northeast corner of the main show building.

But I don't remember the train going through a tunnel where you show it. The only tunnel I know of is just before you enter Critter country and that is behind Splash Mountain where you can see the showboat scene from the train. The other one behind NOS is very short and I don't know if that is what you are showing. I know the train passes right over the spot where the falling ceiling is (when the pole works of course).

Now, this comment is confusing me a little. Are you talking about the latest render? There's no train tunnel visible in that one. Perhaps you're looking at part of the Indy queue. In any case, you're right that the train passes right over the spike room, and that spot of the track is visible in numerous renders.

[Lost Boy]

Wow, have never turned around after leaving the exit and never even noticed the big building behind me. Your rendering show things we never get to see.

Oops, my mistake. I was looking at the HM rendering showing the train going through the berm instead of on top of it. Come to think of it I don't remember ever seeing the train go by the HM while standing in the queue line. Never dawned on me that it is going through the tunnel it enters right as you leave the Frontierland/NOS station. Funny how when you are at the Park and intent on a ride, you don't put two and two together. I never even thought about it. See, you can teach and old dog (or in my case and old wolf) new things. While you are doing this project for fun and sharing everything with us, we are getting a real education in the reality of the Park's infrastructure. Thanks for suddenly being a Disneyland Master, and we your Padawans.

[Datameister]

Wow, have never turned around after leaving the exit and never even noticed the big building behind me. Your rendering show things we never get to see.

Hehe, I hadn't neither, until an online friend and fellow Disney nerd pointed it out to me. He thought it was the Indy queue building, though. I ended up realizing it was for Pirates when I compared blueprints and aerial photos.

Oops, my mistake. I was looking at the HM rendering showing the train going through the berm instead of on top of it. Come to think of it I don't remember ever seeing the train go by the HM while standing in the queue line. Never dawned on me that it is going through the tunnel it enters right as you leave the Frontierland/NOS station. Funny how when you are at the Park and intent on a ride, you don't put two and two together. I never even thought about it. See, you can teach and old dog (or in my case and old wolf) new things. While you are doing this project for fun and sharing everything with us, we are getting a real education in the reality of the Park's infrastructure. Thanks for suddenly being a Disneyland Master, and we your Padawans.

Hehehe, I'm honored to be your Jedi Master, my young padawan learner. Isn't it weird how these things never "click" until you're forced to see and understand it? I get the exact same thing. In fact, I'm doing this for the same reason you're watching--I want that education, too, and I didn't know any of this stuff until I embarked on this project.

In the case of this area you're talking about, here's how it works. The berm sits behind NOS station, with the train tracks sitting on level ground near the onstage edge of the berm. The ridge of earth then curves around a little bit to pass behind the Haunted Mansion. The train tracks go right into this part of the berm, so there's a tunnel through the heart of it. (I didn't take that shot.) This tunnel passes through the berm behind the Haunted Mansion facade. You go right over the intersection of the portrait hall and the HM loading area, but you're looking in the direction the facade. All you see is a dark tunnel with a few dimly-lit rock outcroppings. Then the berm ends and you pass directly into another, very short tunnel. This one looks like part of Splash Mountain on the front side, and the back side is just a green wall. Seconds later, you pass into Splash Mountain itself. And the rest, as they say, is history.

[Lost Boy]

Just so you know I am a very old Padawan. Not for lack of trying or being inept, I just spent too much time in Neverland and never grew up. But in reality I am 65 and have been coming to Disneyland since the day it opened, my birthday. So I am an old elf and just have no talent in this CGI art form you are working in. RCT3 is about all I can handle.

Now a question. When this project finally is finished and the entire Park is done, are you going be able to show it all at one time and then fly down through it? Or walk through via a camera move? Are you going to do two versions? One with all the trees and landscaping in place and one with no trees or shrubs to show just the buildings and various tunnels and other such stuff? I read in a post just a few back that you were going to start with the doors, ground cover and trees around the Indiana Jones ride so that is what prompted me to ask this question.

[Datameister]

Just so you know I am a very old Padawan. Not for lack of trying or being inept, I just spent too much time in Neverland and never grew up. But in reality I am 65 and have been coming to Disneyland since the day it opened, my birthday. So I am an old elf and just have no talent in this CGI art form you are working in. RCT3 is about all I can handle.

Hey, it's all good. Very cool to talk with someone who's been going to the park since the beginning! And believe me, I'm no great modeler. I've just honed my ability to model the simpler parts of theme parks. And apparently I'm a lot younger than a lot of people online assume I am, so it just goes to show how deceptive the Internet can be.

Now a question. When this project finally is finished and the entire Park is done, are you going be able to show it all at one time and then fly down through it? Or walk through via a camera move?

I can do either one or both. The thing is, rendering an animation takes a long time. With my current computer, rendering the minute-long video I have up on YouTube took at least 60 hours. And that was just covering the areas I've completed, which constitute quite a small part of Disneyland. So that's the only huge limitation. That and the fact that like Disneyland, this project will never be finished. My reason is different, though, from Walt Disney's--the level of detail in the park and the scarcity of information make it nearly impossible for me to ever finish this project. It's doomed to be an eternal work in progress, which I'm okay with. I'll keep working on it as long as I'm enjoying it.

Are you going to do two versions? One with all the trees and landscaping in place and one with no trees or shrubs to show just the buildings and various tunnels and other such stuff? I read in a post just a few back that you were going to start with the doors, ground cover and trees around the Indiana Jones ride so that is what prompted me to ask this question.

I actually may not do the rest of the trees and shrubbery at all. It's a difficult task, and one that requires lots of images of trees and plants that look similar but not identical, and have similar lighting, and are taken from head-on using a telephoto lens from a distance. And then all they do is obscure the structures I've worked so hard to build! Anyway, we'll see. But for now, I'm leaving the park barren of one of the things that helps make the real Disneyland so beautiful.

[Lost Boy]

Cool, I was just curious. And I know about rendering but not to that degree. RCT3 has a built in camera tool that let you ride a ride after you have built it and by pressing a combination of keys you can actually have the computer make a High Res Windows Media file. It does this one frame at a time, so a 4 1/2 minute train ride takes over 12 hours to make. Then they have a built in "Flying Camera" program that allows you to place a camera on a starting position and press a key and the flying part starts. You then move the camera to next position, press the key again, and then just repeat. The camera placement can be close to each other or far apart. When you finish you can then watch the results as the computer takes over and in real time "flies" the camera from the starting point through each point you place till it reaches the last one. You can then go make and move cameras and make adjustments. When you are satisfied with the result, you press the "record" button and walk away. The filming starts, again one frame at a time, and it takes a long, long time to finish a long fly through, but the results are really worth it. I made a complete Harry Potter Park, then made many fly overs and through, plus the ride camera shots and kept them numbered. Then I used Movie Maker to edit all these little shots together, add music and titles then had Movie Maker render and save the file as a High Content, NTSC video. That rendering process took a complete overnight session. Then I took the finished product and used Nero 7.1 to add more sounds, more titles and special effects. Then I had Nero burn a DVD that ran over 1hour and 33 minutes. It took several hours to do this, but I got a great DVD that I saved as a master disc to copy whenever someone wanted a copy for himself. I have given away about 20 copies and everyone loves it. Of course I had plans to keep it updated to the books, but that computer died, taking all the files with it. I still have the master disc, but the computer I use now until they either fix the broken one or I replace it, won't even run RCT3 so I can't keep the Park as up to date as I would like.

Sorry, I rambled on about my project when this is about your project. Just keep us updated as you add new things and we will be very happy.

[Datameister]

Please don't apologize! I love hearing about other projects. I dabbled with RCT3 for a while, too. Tried to do Disneyland, but I didn't have enough information, and it was just too difficult to do accurately in that game. I had fun with the "D Lean" cheat, too. There are numerous methods of animating cameras in Blender, but it's possible to do it almost the exact same way you would using the camera editor in RCT3. My current method isn't too different.

Here's a look at one of the mazes of backstage areas within the Indy show building, this one being underneath the Tunnel of Torment and Gates of Doom. Also visible to the left is the ceiling of the rotunda in the queue, the PhotoPass building outside (near the top middle-right), and the back of the Indy entrance temple in the distance (near the top left). Bruce, try clicking this link and tell me if it yields popups. It shouldn't; I changed the code to take you straight to the image instead of Imageshack's "for friends" viewing page.

[Bruce Bergman]

Originally Posted by Datameister

Here's a look at one of the mazes of backstage areas within the Indy show building, this one being underneath the Tunnel of Torment and Gates of Doom. Also visible to the left is the ceiling of the rotunda in the queue, the PhotoPass building outside (near the top middle-right), and the back of the Indy entrance temple in the distance (near the top left). Bruce, try clicking this link and tell me if it yields popups. It shouldn't; I changed the code to take you straight to the image instead of Imageshack's "for friends" viewing page.

Ahh, that one didn't trigger any alarms... I'm using my "antique" (2/2005) HP Pavillion dv1156cl laptop most of the time for MiceChat - Centrino (Pentium M) 1.7 Ghz, 512MB/60GB, Windows XP, IE7, McAfee Total Protection 2008 suite.

And I'm keeping it and my equally decrepit desktop (P4 3Ghz) running XP till they die - that, or till Microsloth finally gets all the drivers for legacy hardware in Vista. Note that I'm not holding my breath...

The people that said "I didn't see any pop-ups" and are running Macs or Firefox, that doesn't count. If you are running Microsloth productivity software, it only has it's hooks in other Microsloth programs. It can be changed, but for some strange reason it never works quite right when you do... You don't think they're still sabotaging the links used by third-party apps, now do you...?

--<< Bruce >>--

[Datameister]

IE7

Yup. There's your problem right there. Luckily, there's an easy and free solution.

While you're taking care of things on your end , I'll keep doing what I did for that render in the mean time.

[dland_lover]

Originally Posted by Datameister

Yup. There's your problem right there. Luckily, there's an easy and free solution.

Yeah- it's called Safari!