My main focuses over the course of the last month have been, in approximately chronological order: adding basic structural elements like walls and so forth, developing details along the backside of the train tunnel between HM and Splash, modeling the queue building, adding elements located just south and north of the show building, and adding the steel I-beams that constitute part of the infrastructure of the front building. As always, go ahead and click on the thumbnails for full-sized versions, and once you've savored the hi-res yumminess, click Back to the Flickr photo page links so you can view versions with notes that point out interesting tidbits in the images.
This first render from a month ago shows the inside of the show building. Note how convoluted the track layout is—you end up unwittingly passing over and under other scenes quite a bit.
Here are some details on the backside of the train tunnel. If you've got photos or video of this area, I'd really love to see 'em! Same goes for any hidden area of the park, really. =P
These walls (ostensibly made of concrete) aren't visible in real life; the rockwork covers them up. But they're there!
I next started working like mad on the queue building, adding a lot of details that never made it into my first attempt, as you can see in the next four renders. I apologize for the stone texture...it's not my best work. The model itself, however, should be quite accurate thus far, thanks to fairly detailed blueprints and a collection of photo reference from my camera and many others'.
I actually wish I'd rendered this shot a bit later, so that you could see all the steel framework in here. But oh well. It still does a pretty good job of showing all the stuff that surrounds the big lift hill.
I wish I'd waited to do this one, too, since I added the trash compactor and other details around this area shortly after creating this shot. You can see the flume inside the show building, thanks to the magic of Photoshop. Remember that the whole wall on the left is covered by rockwork, even though most of it is behind a backstage gate.
Here's that steel taking shape. Almost all the positions of the vertical I-beams are provided by the blueprints, but their heights and the positioning of the horizontal beams are made possible by these absolutely fabulous construction photos. (You know what I'm gonna say, Mojave...come on... ;D) Also notice the presence of a berm next to the show building...as far as I can tell, it's there purely so trees can be planted outside the park and make Critter Country feel bigger.
Last but not least, this render was from today. I've used Photoshop again to add an appropriately ghostly Haunted Mansion show building (and its contents) into the mix.
Thanks for reading! Hope this was enlightening, and as always, please feel free to comment. =)
