Tron Ride: First Render Test

This is my first render test for a Tron-themed ride project I just started (just for fun and practice). I used Indigo Renderer on a Google Sketchup scene. Click HERE to see the original.

Unfortunately, this is an incomplete render. Getting this far took 36 hours and the next step would be another 36. Obviously I have issues to resolve and I'm looking into other render options now (like Blender). There are goofs in here on my part like the blue on the omnimovers, missing glow on the lightcycle, and a big ugly reflection of an unfinished room in the background. This is challenging but I'm having fun. I have decided that I'm going to continue pursuing this. Glitches aside, this did render almost exactly as I imagined it. I think that's a good sign.

The ride is about halfway finished from a Sketchup perspective (see HERE). I'll post the ride-through video and regular Sketchup graphic shots when they're done and then get back to playing with the rendering. I may try to create some interactive walk-throughs of this and past rides with Unity (already downloaded). I saw it work nicely HERE.

Design for Fun: Starting a TRON Ride

My inner 12 year old is very happy today. I've decided what my next design-for-fun project is going to be. Since I was a kid, I've always wanted to do a few things:

- Design a new ride for an existing space. I just think that's a fun challenge.
- Design a ride for Disney.
- Design an attraction based on the TRON universe.

I started with the idea of doing a new ride in an existing space and I wanted to stick with a traditional and gimmick-free dark ride (no shooting galleries or motion bases). In the Sketchup 3D Warehouse, I found a nice full model of Disneyland's Adventure Thru Inner Space. I decided to pretend that it didn't already turn into Star Tours and began cleaning out the model (virtual demolition, essentially). Only the major walls and track remain as you can see in the photo. I am further along than that now though.

I'm creating a ride that technically would belong at Disneyland and in Tomorrowland. After rejecting some other futuristic ideas, I decided to do the TRON thing. It was only a matter of time. I figure WDI is probably working on something now so I should get my play project done before their real attraction influences me. My ride will be an open house by ENCOM to take you on a tour of the future as Flynn saw it. Guests board vehicles that are transfered to the grid for a tour of the digital city including stops at the Game Grid and End of Line Club (newly refurbished). The Mighty Microscope is now the laser. My working title for the ride right now is TRON: Excursion.

This project will be a little bit different (and time-consuming) for another reason. I recently got a copy of Indigo Renderer for Sketchup. It will allow me to realistically render my scenes including the use of lighting and reflections. I think a Tron dark ride is the perfect environment to test this out. Here is an example of someone else's work with this program that I think gives you an idea of what I'm thinking. I'll post render tests as I finish them.

Now back to work on the future that never was and most likely can't be...

Operation: "Portfolio Fix" is Done (probably)

I've felt a change in the air lately.  I don't know if it's going to play out exactly like I expect (it rarely does).  It doesn't matter.  What matters is that when I feel like this, I always get this overwhelming urge to tie things up and update the outdated.  And I generally can't stop until I get it done.  This particular impending change has inspired me to fix job-related stuff: resume, portfolios, etc.  I've started and stopped this effort many times in the past two years without much to show for it.  This time, I started about a week ago and finally "finished" tonight.

My main goal was to get all of my recent work (professional and personal) in the resume and portfolio (online and PDF versions).  Most of the 2000's were not represented but I fixed that a few days ago.  Tonight, I centralized all of my online portfolio stuff.  All of the missing links are in and most of the external links are gone.  It's all one website now.  I also felt the need to clean up the visual clutter and the junk in the code too.  Microsoft worked against me there.  There's still one weird bug with the "back buttons" on two pages that I can't quite kill.  Maybe I'll find them later.

Anyway, if you're curious about the kind of stuff I've done for work or to keep myself amused (and you aren't already sick of seeing it in various forms on this blog), head on over HERE.  Some pages may require refreshes if you've been there recently.  I'm also open to feedback, especially if something is wrong or bad.  I'm a little obsessed with getting it all fixed up right now.

For now, I think I'm done.  Next week, I'll have a new obsession.

 

Design for Fun #8: Mobius Coaster

It's been a few weeks since I felt inspired to do a little ride design. This one has no theme and is just a ride concept. It's also my first attempt to do a coaster. Tracks are hard in Sketchup, by the way.

My coaster is based on a Mobius Strip. The track has rails on top and bottom. The vehicles ride the upper rails then do a half-twist to an inverted position on the lower rails. Because of the twist, the upper and lower rails form one long track. The vehicles do 2 loops on the track, passing under the station on the first loop and stopping in the station at the end of the second.

I mocked up this ride on a Wild Mouse Coaster scale. The single car vehicles are mounted on a yolk with a vertical rotation. This keeps the riders upright when the vehicle flips to the inverted side of the track and gives it a little swing. Because of the geometry, this also means the vehicles travel backwards when inverted.

As always, there are tons of technical issues to work out with something like this (load and unload being a big one). Also, please forgive the jerky animation. I'm using the animation feature in Google Sketchup and there isn't a lot of fine control there. The flip-overs are especially wonky. I think the idea gets across though.

After I came up with this and figured out how to make it work, I did a little research. Turns out this Mobius Strip idea is not a first but I think my interpretation is unique. THIS is the most common Mobius interpretation. Just wanted to say I'm not stealing it. :-)

Enjoy the ride...

Old Drawing Makeovers

I'm still dedicating some of my spare time to designing imaginary themed experiences for my own amusement. For the last project and the current one, I've been updating old ideas from my past and having a good time doing it. Now that I feel fairly comfortable with Sketchup, I'm finding it easier to get across some of the original ideas in a more detailed and 3-dimensional way. For your amusement (or probably just mine), I've included some comparisons of the old and new stuff below.

This first one was an old design for a waterpark based on Atlantis. I'm currently working on this one but thought it was far enough along to show a screenshot. I really like the idea of the waterslides moving in and out of the mountain, waterfalls, aqueducts and little Greek buildings. It's looking a little more Splash Mountain than I planned but it isn't done yet.

The next drawings are from an old project that has been recycled twice. The first incarnation was a lobby feature for a "Haunted Hotel". That feature (and drawings) got reused in a restaurant design called "Raven's Mansion". And finally, they got the Sketchup redo for my practice design called "Monster Mansion" a few weeks back.

Design for Fun

I've decided to abandon my self-imposed aggressive schedule that I was calling Design-a-Week. I want to continue working on these little projects as skill development / brain exercise / hobby but the once a week thing wasn't really necessary and rarely worked out anyway. I feel like I can keep doing this without a deadline. Now, it's just Design-for-Fun or something like that.

My next one is certainly going to take more than a week. I want to do an entire waterpark. Way back in early 1990-something, I did some sketches of a waterpark based on an Atlantis theme. Not revolutionary, I know but the way I saw it was pretty cool, I thought. The images in my mind were very multi-leveled and complex with landscaping, attractions, pathways and buildings merging and twisting around each other. I also wanted to do this not as an ancient lost civilization but more like what it would look like if it were clean and new. As you can see from the drawing on the right, I did not have the skill to draw what I was thinking. Now that I'm more comfortable with Sketchup, I'm going to try again and see how close I can get to what I'm envisioning. I want to take my time and get it right.

This design is not going to be about the specific attractions as much as it is about the master planning. I'm going to use standard slides and even steal some attractions from existing waterparks. I doubt I'll bother with any interiors or back areas at all but the slides and pools will be complete. The landscaping and rockwork will be my big lesson to learn this time.

I've already started below. This shot shows 3 slides at different points in progress based off a Google Maps image of my first employer, Splashtown USA in TX. I'm pretty excited by the idea. Now, let's see if I can finish it without a deadline before a shiny object distracts me.

See the projects completed so far:

#1 - Rolling Flight Simulator
#2 - Cartoon Crash ‘n Smash Destruction Derby
#3 - Caverns of Charybdis
#4 - Seahorse Aquarium Courtyard
#5 - Scream: A Gravity-Defying Musical Experience
#6 - FerriX Wheel
#7 - Monster Mansion
#8 - Mobius Coaster
#9 - TRON: Adventures Thru Digital Space

Design a Week #7 - Monster Mansion

Here is my latest "theme park design for my own amusement" project. This one started off as a simple update to an old design and kind of snowballed into something more ambitious than a single week and my computer's hardware would easily allow.

MONSTER MANSION

This attraction is a collection of 9 self-paced and interactive haunted attractions in a single building. They include a live special effects show, interactive games, haunted walk-throughs, a maze, a small ride and animatronics shows. The entire attraction is tied together with an overall mystery that has clues in each room. Guests are invited to solve the mystery in the finale.

"Welcome to the home of Victor Raven, Master of the Monster Movie. You may remember some of his classics like Attack of the 50 foot Librarian, Vegetarian Vampires from Venus, Curse of the Mummy’s Mommy and The Monster that Ate Des Moines. Mister Raven was more than just a monster creator... he was also a collector. Here in his mansion, you will encounter many of the creatures and magical artifacts that inspired his films. Your journey begins in the library where you will learn the history of Victor Raven and learn of his recent mysterious disappearance. Next, you will move into the hub of the house, the gallery. The gallery is hosted by the magical Jin, a giant floating purple head. He'll tell you about the 7 rooms, or adventures, you can experience at your own pace. And he tells it in the most poetic way. Enjoy the rooms but keep an eye out. There are clues to solve the mystery of Raven's disappearance in each. Finally, when your time with us is done, you'll exit through the study. On the way out, stop at a desk and make a guess about what happened to Raven. There's a reward. Now, let's begin our tour of Monster Mansion. Be afraid."

Pictures and Descriptions of each section:

LIBRARY: Monster Mansion begins with a short, live show filled with special effects. The butler tells the history of Victor Raven's movie career and the collection of monsters within the mansion. He also tells guests that Victor disappeared in the mansion and clues to what happened can be found throughout the house. As he talks, strange events occur like the piano playing itself, books rearranging themselves and images forming in the flames of the fireplace. The show ends with a giant monster smashing the windowed dome above the room and the painting of Raven stretching out at the guests. The lights flash out with a lightning strike and when they turn back on, everything is restored to normal.

GALLERY: The Gallery is the hub of Monster Mansion where guests choose their next adventures. It is a large rotunda with framed posters from Raven's movies. Occasionally, the images in the posters will change or move. Between the posters, doors lead to 7 small attractions, restrooms and the final exit. Guests can move around this room and try the various attractions at their own pace and in any order. In the center of the room, the large floating head of a genie named Jin recites short, comedic poems describing each attraction.

MIRROR ROOM: Filled with strange and magical mirrors, this room doesn't always reflect what you expect. Some of the mirrors are normal or distorted like a funhouse. Other mirrors are video screens that appear to reflect strange angles (like the back of the observer or a view from above) or have CGI enhancements like ghost images, blurring or tracing. On one wall, some mirrors are actually windows into a copy of the room, which makes it appear as though the observers aren't reflected at all.

CATACOMBS of the RED BANSHEE: This is an exploration maze game where players try to find the 5 skeleton rooms while avoiding the red banshees. Each group is given a small handheld guide device that draws a map of the maze walls as they discover them. An encounter with a red banshee temporarily erases part of that map while entering one of the 2 sanctuary rooms restores it. The teams with the best times of the day are displayed on the poster in the gallery closest to this attraction's door.

GREENHOUSE: The greenhouse is located "outside" in the mansion's gardens where it is dark and stormy all the time. Inside the greenhouse, rains pounds the glass as 5 giant man-eating plants perform for visitors. The plants tell jokes and sing harmonies but between acts, they speak to and interact with guests live.

SWAMP MONSTER: This area also appears to be outdoors at night. Guests walk on old wooden walkways over green, swampy water. This tour is a self-paced walk-through haunted attraction with animatronic monsters. Some of the encounters include mysterious bubbles, jumping alligators, giant spiders, swamp creatures (from the Black Lagoon) and zombies.

MONSTER HUNTER: Guests grab a shotgun and help control the monster population in this classic shooting gallery. This scene has the most cartoon-like style of the entire mansion. This shooting gallery includes plenty of mechanical and water effects but it also has targets that are video projected, including the entire back wall of the room.

MUSIC ROOM: In this room, floating instruments play music, following a guest conductor's every move. The instruments appear to be played by CGI-driven "Pepper's Ghost" musicians that are reflected from an opening in the ceiling. The platform that the guest conductor stands on senses their presence and cameras interpret their upper body movements. The ghosts change songs and speeds based on these movements.

THE VORTEX: In this part of the mansion, gravity is twisted. The queue for this attraction looks like various rooms of the mansion that have been turned sideways or upside-down. Furniture sticks to walls or hangs from the ceiling. In the last room of the queue, guests cross a bridge through a rolling room where the floor passes over their heads about once a minute. The actual attraction is a large round room where guests stand against the wall. The room spins causing guests stick to the walls as the floor drops out from under them. As the spinning stops, they slide down to meet the floor. The ride can be bypassed if guests just want to experience the queue rooms.

STUDY: Before they exit Monster Mansion, visitors pass through the study. There, they are invited to stop by one of the desks and guess the answer to the overall mystery of Monster Mansion. Did they figure out the clues to what happened to Victor Raven?