Stairs from Pirates to Indy queue

Hello, all! Finally got another new render to post. I was in the park on Tuesday, and I totally freaked out when I saw this area at the end of the Pirates queue. I'd actually built some of this area in my model already...I just didn't know what it was. I had blueprints of it, but they said they were for Indy, and I couldn't read what else they said. Turns out it's a stairwell inside Pirates that leads into and above the Indy queue, as well as up to the Pirates tower. I recognized it when I saw it in the park, so I've been modifying what I'd built so it fits into the appropriate spot in the Pirates show building and adding stuff from other blueprints. Not too shabby!

Finally, a new Indy render!

Hey all! For the first time this year, I have a new render for this blog! =D It's not a very big deal, actually, but it's better than nothing. Again, I'm so sorry I haven't been doing much lately, but perhaps this is a new beginning.

Anyway, due to some Indiana Jones construction photos turning up online (here and here), I've grown a bit in my understanding of the queue. This MiceChat thread deals a bit with my most important realization: the bat caves, spike room, and hall of descending blocks are not the only parts of the queue with earth above them! There's a short passage between the visible temple entrance and the obelisk chamber that's housed in a concrete, arch-shaped tunnel, very much like the one that contains the aforementioned underground parts of the queue. This had constituted a very small but significant gap in my knowledge about the queue, and once it came to my attention, it seemed too important to ignore. So here's what the area of the model NOW looks like. Still not complete, but it's more accurate than it was. Note the small flat roof between the temple and the berm in question. I believe this is now correct.

The doldrums...continued

I am so sorry, folks. I know it's been forever since I posted an update. This is the longest break I've ever taken from this incarnation of the project, and I'm not sure when it's going to end. I've been using the time mostly for music-related stuff, and I've been enjoying myself, certainly, but I still feel bad for not having anything to post here.

The good news is that I DID do a little bit of modeling a week ago or so. I made the outer walls, roof, and some traffic pads for the huge warehouse at the northwest corner of the resort. Not much else, though. And there's more bad news...my Flickr account has switched from "Pro" to the standard free account, which means my older stuff can no longer be viewed directly, nor can my collections. =( The good news is that any renders or photos I've linked to in this blog or elsewhere will still work. I checked. This makes sense, because Flickr doesn't delete photos when this happens—they just hide them until you decide to get a Pro account again. No sense in changing every single URL, so they just keep 'em the same. This means it's going to be more difficult for y'all to go through my stuff, but at least a lot of it is still there, in a way.

The doldrums

Hello all! I'm so sorry about the recent lack of updates. Progress slowed to a snail's pace and finally to a full stop during December...my laptop is just too slow. I'm back on my main computer now, though. I still haven't really gotten anything done on the model, although I did just transfer what little progress I made last month onto this computer. The exit of Splash Mountain is shaping up pretty well.

I'm kinda low on motivation for the project at the moment, I must admit. I've been absorbed in editing complete soundtracks for the Indiana Jones movies, but I'll be done with that before too long, and I'm sure I'll regain interest in the model too. =)

Slowness

Yeah, my computer is really slow. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get much done on the model until January, unfortunately. Sorry about this, but I hope to have more to show before too long.

Mini-rant & Mickey's House

So, I've got to admit...I am REALLY not a fan of using slow computers. I get very impatient, and the problem is of course enormously exacerbated when I try to use Blender or Photoshop or what have you. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to deal with my exasperation for a few weeks, since I'm stuck with a vastly inferior computer until shortly after New Year's. I believe I'm working with half the RAM and processor speed I'm used to, as well as a cheap video card. And the model was already starting to seriously frustrate my main computer! Just navigating through Splash Mountain is proving difficult. But...oh well. Hopefully, I'll still manage to get a fair amount done. I snuck into the exit of Splash Mountain when I was in the park a few weeks ago, taking lots of reference photos of the layout of the area. Turns out my blueprints aren't as inaccurate in that spot as I thought, but they're not perfect, and the shots are helping me figure out where everything goes. Maybe if we're lucky I'll get to post some renders of the area before too long.

In the mean time, here's a render from a week ago showing more details on the show building for Mickey's House. I'm not making this stuff up! As I said, the trip backstage was very informative. =D This stuff can be seen in aerial photos like this one, of course, but the resolution is too low to make out many of the details, so...you're welcome. ;) And I've accomplished more since I made this render, but showing it off hasn't been feasible yet.

2 back of house renders and some bad news

Hi all! Don't panic at the title...the project's not being abandoned or anything. Actually, I may as well get that part out of the way first - apparently, the free "Pro" account I've been enjoying on Flickr will no longer be valid once February hits. Now, I'll probably decide to fork over the money for another year of having a Pro account, but just in case something weird happens, I wanted y'all to have a heads-up, since it will affect what you can see. If I don't upgrade, you'll notice the following changes:

• Only 3 sets will be visible
  
• Only the 200 most recent images will be visible on my photostream
  
• The "original" sizes won't be visible - only up to the "large" versions
  

Mind you, these won't be completely deleted from Flickr's servers or anything. They just won't be accessible until I upgrade. Anyway, just wanted to let you know. If there are any renders you particularly like, it wouldn't hurt to save 'em to your hard drives before February arrives, just in case. =P

But enough of that! I have two new renders for those of you who haven't checked my Flickr photostream in the last few days.

This is the southeast corner of the It's a Small World show building, where a large red riser for the sprinkler can be seen. For a long time, I basically just had a red, vertical pipe that curved at the top to meet the building, without any real detail, and this bugged me, because I could catch a glimpse of further detail briefly from the railroad and in aerial photos such as this one. But I had never seen or taken a photo that provided the visual detail I needed to get it right, and I didn't want to waste my time inventing details that weren't there. So I took two high-res photos of the pipe with my telephoto lens when I was on the railroad almost two weeks ago - you can see them here and here. Those were crucial to me mimicking all the valves and junctions and so forth, and I think I've done a pretty good job. If you see anything wrong, let me know!

Then there's this shot, which depicts one of the areas I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours in when I was there on that same day. The rehearsal hall is in the center, with music and dance studios inside. I added that riser, which has similar (but not identical) details to the one on IASW, so I basically made a copy of it and modified it appropriately. What you don't see yet is the swirly design engraved into the walls of that building, but I'm working on creating that texture, including a large hidden Mickey that wraps around the left (northwest) corner. In front of the rehearsal hall is a parking lot where buses often park and musical groups warm up; note the drain a quarter of the way from the left, which seemed to have fallen fireworks shells in it when I was there. Then there's the show building for Mickey's House off to the right, with new details such as a bricklike texture that I was unaware of until I saw the building in person. Anyway, since I gathered a considerable amount of information about these sorts of areas while I was there, don't be surprised if you see more updates here in the near future.

EDIT: Apparently, the links to the two MiceChat threads in the box to the right weren't working, so I've fixed those. Just so ya know. =)