Because part of the Indiana Jones show building is readily visible from the tram stop, an attempt at disguising it was made a few years back, around the time DCA was built. The murals that now adorn 2.5 sides of the building (half of the east mural was removed in the last year) are faded, abstract views of the jungle, partially obscured by real vegetation growing in front of them. Does the tactic work? Maybe partially. In a brief, unscientific survey of some moderate Disneyland fans, most didn't immediately think of the building when asked about the tram stop. When prodded further, they referred to it as "that big beige wall" and so forth, noting that it was kind of ugly but that it didn't particularly bother them.
I'm not sure where I stand on the mural issue, but they're there, whether we like it or not. And so I'm adding them to the model, at long last. Getting the texture images set up in Photoshop is a tricky task for two reasons. Firstly, in photos, the foliage typically makes it impossible to see at least the lower half of the murals, so I have to clone stamp a bunch of existing areas into the regions I can't see.
Secondly, the building is big, which means lots of perspective distortion in most photos, so I have to correct for that. Luckily, I've managed to get it all working for the half-mural on the east wall, as you can see in this latest render.
The bit of the south mural that you
think you can see, though...don't be fooled. I just Photoshopped that bit to make it look like I'd done that side, too. The front is a very, very tricky beast that I've tried before and will have to try again, perhaps multiple times, before I get it working.
This render also showcases some other details on and around the show building. I've cleaned up the aerial photo used for the ground, added various machinery and such, made the lights on the building glow a little, and so forth. This render also gives a better idea of how backstage runs into the berm, upon which travel the railroad tracks and beyond which lies the Jungle Cruise.
4 comments:
AMAZING JOB! Very cool how your able to do all this so precise. Loving it. I REALLY cannot wait to see Splash Mountain finished.
Thanks! =) It's been a lot of fun, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon. Splash Mountain will definitely be tricky, but I've gradually come across a few more bits of information about it over the last few months, so I should be able to whip it into shape fairly well once I finally return to working on it.
Awesome stuff! I'm impressed with the amount of backstage detail you're including. Backstage has always been a fascination of mine -- I can't wait to see more.
Thanks so much! Always a pleasure to hear from a fellow backstager. It's truly a bizarre and intriguing place, isn't it? I always crack up when a cast member or what have you tries to tell me that I wouldn't actually like backstage very much if I experienced it in person. I then have to explain that:
a) I've already been backstage on several occasions.
b) The time I've spent studying and re-creating backstage in 3D amounts to weeks, I'm sure, and I first became interested in doing so over two years ago.
c) I take photos of backstage (from onstage) every time I visit the park, and I treasure those photos like a child's Christmas presents.
Some of them still don't believe me. XP
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