A quick demo

While I can be surprisingly fast creating projects originally, it sometimes takes me a while to get around to scanning them or taking photos. So until I have a free day to track the progress of my current projects, I will share a few of my older works.

Gotta have something to start off the blog, after all!
Here we go...




Here's something Disneyland fans might recognise. The cool, robust mine explorer vehicles from Disneysea's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth". When I first heard about this ride, I searched EVERYWHERE for good documentation and photos. Sadly, I could find very little.
I took the scraps of blurry photos and few rider reports I had gathered and tried to sketch it down on paper. How close was I? No idea! One day I will journey far enough overseas to find out though.



Another famous Disney ride vehicle. These beauties run on the Paris version of Space Mountain- a Jules Verne inspired steampunk rollercoaster of epic proportions. With onboard speakers (brand new tech at the time!) and theming wrapped all over it, these trains look stunning!



Here's an old study I did of a standard Vekoma Suspended coaster vehicle. I was just looking at ways to theme it a little.



Aaaand finally, a generic mine themed water ride. There's no story here, specifically... I just wanted to try my hand at putting together a mountain with a waterfall ride =)

These sorts of one-off doodles are what I do for a "quick fix" between major projects. Sometimes it’s just good to chuck out a bunch of ideas. Keeps things productive.

It begins

It feels weird, writing for a blog audience who I’ve yet to advertise myself to and therefore don’t yet exist, but to set myself up properly for this project I will need an introduction. Readers can come later… it will still be relevant.

Simply, I dream of designing theme park attractions.

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by theme parks and the attractions and experiences they offer. Unlike literature, plays and even movies, a themed environment offers a completely enveloping sense of participation to the viewer. The setting is right there! You are in them, they feel real, and they look real. There are no borders, no framed scenes and nobody telling you how to go about exploring it.

It is this sort of involvement from the viewer that I believe is the peak of storytelling opportunities, and thankfully, many companies over the years have realised this. Theme parks exist almost everywhere, and expand/change almost every season.

There are a good few companies doing this sort of work and I can barely find fault in any of them. They consist of creative geniuses and people sporting massive ranges of skills, and I would be proud to work amongst ANY of them!

However, since the majority of my inspiration and love for the scene of theme park design originates from observing (and experiencing!) the work of Disney’s Imagineers, it seemed more relevant for me to style my own projects after theirs.

A tribute, if you will! =)

So there it is folks! Theme park fans like myself, I think it’s safe to assume!

Where my muse and free time allows, I will try to get some of my daydreams into forms where I can share them with you and hopefully inspire you to discuss them with me and share some of your own ideas!

Thanks for reading

With many thanks to Joe Cardello, who through his own home imagineering projects finally gave my the motivation I needed to pick up on mine.