More work on Pirates entrance

Well, I am just plowing forward with Pirates! Here's the texturing work I've been doing. The tile and brick textures are derived from photos I took in the park. There's also more and more detail appearing - as you can see, the walls in front now extend down to ground level. There's still a LOT to do, though. And I must confess, the whole thing is made somewhat more difficult and frustrating by the fact that my blueprint-ish source material is not wholly accurate. I constantly have to make adjustments to get it to more closely resemble the real thing. I think it's pretty dang close so far, though.

Pirates of the Caribbean entrance

That's right, folks, I've been working on the facade of Pirates! Now, Jeff Skinner is already doing a fantastic job of Pirates and NOS in general over at bendintheriver.net - I cannot recommend that site highly enough. For that reason, Pirates always seemed a little redundant to me, and I avoided doing things he'd already done. But I have an inexplicable urge to work on Pirates right now, so I'm taking advantage of it. I've got more resources on the area than ever before, so why not?

Here's the first render. As you can see, I'm working my way from the top down. Why? Not really sure. Just felt right. Unfortunately, the plan I'm working off of seems to be ever so slightly inaccurate, so I'm having to pay very close attention to telephoto shots I recently took from the Mark Twain. Those are providing me with the details that either aren't in the plan at all or just aren't quite right.



This second render shows the model as it exists as I'm posting this. I've added walls to the ends of the roof, new dormer windows, the railing around the widow's walk, and so forth. Naturally, there's still texturing to be done, but as far as modeling goes, the elements you see here are basically finished. Next I'll be working on the large, central dormer and the elements below it that connect the roof to the walls below. Wish me luck!

Indiana Jones queue progress

So, my inspiration seems to be back for the time being...we'll see how long it continues! =P In the mean time, here are two new renders. The first is the product of my curiosity - as I've been developing the various stairwells that connect the Indy queue/exit to Pirates and other areas, I've started wondering what those stairs would look like by themselves. Luckily, Blender makes it fairly easy to do this, so...well, here it is!



If you click the thumbnail for the larger version, you can then click Back to the Flickr photo page to see a version with "notes" that describe what's what, as usual.

The next render just showcases some of the work I've been doing on the Indy queue from kind of a fun perspective. If you climbed to the top of the queue entrance temple and magically cut down all the trees, what you'd see ought to look a lot like this.



New developments include holes in the roof and related theming, light fixtures on the catwalk in the background (hard to see), more camo netting on the side of Pirates, and modifications to the NOS-themed structure on the right that contains Indy's obelisk chamber. I've also worked a bit on the interior of the exit path, but you can't really see that in this render.

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. =)