3D-printed prop canoe arriving soon at Jungle Cruise

[Disney Irish]

Yeah I guess there is no use comparing to the old ways- procuring authentic antiques or using authentic materials like they did with some of the lamp posts on Main Street or making the iron work in NOS. I don’t care what they do. I just don’t want to notice. And unfortunately in some instances we re noticing. The fiberglass Home Depot HM store is the worst offender but even some of the props in the HM outdoor queue like of come across as Home Depot-y to me.

If I was to guess, the reason this article was put out (besides the obvious plug for the vendor) was to show off that Disney is looking at ways to give the same authentic feel while still leaning into new technology. My guess is they took the complaints about the Leota store to heart and are trying to respond to it. Its all a PR game these days.

 

[mickEblu]

If I was to guess, the reason this article was put out (besides the obvious plug for the vendor) was to show off that Disney is looking at ways to give the same authentic feel while still leaning into new technology. My guess is they took the complaints about the Leota store to heart and are trying to respond to it. Its all a PR game these days.

Id prefer they just knock down that store and start over. It’s embarrassing.

 

[MrPromey]

Except this wouldn't be making things in volume. This would be for one-off props or parts, and at most a few of the same piece are made for the different iterations of an attraction. They aren't using this for mass production of items for guests to buy for example, though I do know a few people who do just that and make 1000s for sale on Amazon.

But as I said this is just another tools in the WDI toolbox.

Thank you - I read the article.

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was just saying that there are situations it's not well suited for either in time or cost but that it's really no different than many other processes used already that are less artisan in nature.

A "purist" really has no place talking about anything Disney does since half the props used in many attractions are carved foam and not "real" recreations to begin with.

 

[Disney Irish]

Id prefer they just knock down that store and start over. It’s embarrassing.

Well we know that won't happen, as that would be admitting failure and they aren't going to do that outright. No, it'll be a few years down the line where an "issue" is discovered and they need to tear it down and build something else.

 

[Disney Irish]

Thank you - I read the article.

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was just saying that there are situations it's not well suited for either in time or cost but that it's really no different than many other processes used already that are less artisan in nature.

A "purist" really has no place talking about anything Disney does since half the props used in many attractions are carved foam and not "real" recreations to begin with.

Hasn't stopped many purist around here with their complaints lol.

 

[MrPromey]

Sounds like you probably know more about this than I do. My thought process was that you’d be at disadvantage starting with a 3D printed mold as the base and have to need someone very talented to doctor it up and bring it up to par. For example the wrought iron work in NOS. Can you achieve that level of quality/ authenticity with this method? Would they even use this for something like that?

If you were 3D printing to make a mold, you could absolutely go WAY more detailed than necessary for something like that. 3D printing is more commonly used for rapid prototying or one-off projects but there are lots of people out there who use it for creating the positive for a traditionally made mold that could then be used to create things either in bulk or with the intention of making out of sturdier materials like high melting temp metals.

Just to give you an idea, the two most common methods at the consumer level are FDM and Resin - both of these you can achieve the quality in this video with off-the-shelf hardware that'll set you back less than $500.



Larger sized machines with accuracy cost more and there are other methods that work with powders and lasers that are considerably more expensive but also even more detailed, too. These would be machines designed and priced more for industrial use which a company like the one in the article is more likely to be using.

... but you can get pretty remarkable results with a little effort from a table in your garage, too these days.

When you use this as a base to build off of, you can do even more if you really want to - glob on some clay to a section, blend and carve it by hand if you really need hand detail, for instance. It's still a lot easier than starting the whole project that way but the detail of a decent resin printer and even the better FDM printers can be appropriate for making fine collectable miniatures so that shouldn't be necessary in most cases unless you are working with shapes that are challenging for some forms of 3D printing where gravity or pull forces come into play but even then, breaking the object into parts for assembly, similar to how the classic Hummel figurines are made would still be an option.

EDIT - actually, his resin prints aren't all that detailed. You can go much finer than what he shows. For example:

and if you want to see what a talented artists can do with this tech and some post-processing work, check this guy out:



and this short just poped up in my youtube feed. It's a short so it's well, short to watch:



Obviously, that level of detail would look perfectly fine at a distance. For people concerned about seeing 3D printed objects up close, I'm curious how close most people here would think you'd have to get before a lack of detail would become a problem keeping in mind that something like this as a prop would go on to be hand painted, just as something done using a more traditional method would be.

 

[MrPromey]

Hasn't stopped many purist around here with their complaints lol.

I think this was an article targeting a particular audience and it got shared here where there are a lot of people of a more "general audience" sense who frankly, don't know what they're talking about.

Which I mean, is fine. This is a Disney fan site - not a 3D printing reddit sub. Though you'll find a lot of confused people over there, too.

 

[mickEblu]

If you were 3D printing to make a mold, you could absolutely go WAY more detailed than necessary for something like that. 3D printing is more commonly used for rapid prototying or one-off projects but there are lots of people out there who use it for creating the positive for a traditionally made mold that could then be used to create things either in bulk or with the intention of making out of sturdier materials like high melting temp metals.

Just to give you an idea, the two most common methods at the consumer level are FDM and Resin - both of these you can achieve the quality in this video with off-the-shelf hardware that'll set you back less than $500.



Larger sized machines with accuracy cost more and there are other methods that work with powders and lasers that are considerably more expensive but also even more detailed, too. These would be machines designed and priced more for industrial use which a company like the one in the article is more likely to be using.

... but you can get pretty remarkable results with a little effort from a table in your garage, too these days.

So some of these people on eBay and instagram making a mint off selling Disney signage and props you re telling me you don’t have to be all that talented and it’s not ultra time consuming? How much do these printers cost? But then again you’re one cease n desist letter away from having to close shop.

 

[Disneyland/DCA]

Not even comparable.

I wasn't comparing. I was asking if anyone remembers?

 

[Disney Irish]

I think this was an article targeting a particular audience and it got shared here where there are a lot of people of a more "general audience" sense who frankly, don't know what they're talking about.

Which I mean, is fine. This is a Disney fan site - not a 3D printing reddit sub. Though you'll find a lot of confused people over there, too.

As is the case with a lot of technology I have an interest in stuff like this especially when its Disney related (as I assume you do too), so I appreciate it when its posted here if even many don't understand it.

 

[MrPromey]

So some of these people on eBay and instagram making a mint off selling Disney signage and props you re telling me you don’t have to be all that talented and it’s not ultra time consuming? How much do these printers cost? But then again you’re one cease n desist letter away from having to close shop.

More or less, yes if you're just taking someone else's design.

If you're designing your own in CAD or general 3D design software, that's a talent and skill of it's own but to get a sense of what people design and give away for others to use (usually for non-commercial use, only*) for completely free, check out Makerworld:

https://makerworld.com/

About $250 will get you the entry level to fairly hassle-free printing at small sizes.

Funny you mention the cease and desist. One person who made fan art of a park design and posted it for non-commercial use had his design ripped off by Disney to be used as a product they actually sold as a souvenir themselves:

Disney allegedly stole artwork, sold it in its park, and tried to cover it up

The Happiest Place on Earth?

mashable.com

*But yeah, Etsy is a cesspool of copyright infringement by opportunists who expect to never get caught, in general. Most are not only selling likenesses in volume (or trying to) they don't have the rights to but are also using 3D models of those likenesses not licensed for commercial use that they didn't design, either.

 

[SuddenStorm]

Yeah I guess there is no use comparing to the old ways- procuring authentic antiques or using authentic materials like they did with some of the lamp posts on Main Street or making the iron work in NOS. I don’t care what they do. I just don’t want to notice. And unfortunately in some instances we re noticing. The fiberglass Home Depot HM store is the worst offender but even some of the props in the HM outdoor queue like of come across as Home Depot-y to me.

Wasn't most of the ironwork in NOS swapped for fiberglass at some point? I could be wrong. But even then, the fiberglass looks great.

I think the bigger issue is that current WDI just can't stand alongside their predecessors. I mean, this is the crop working on the park now-



Of course anything these people do is going to stand out in a negative way when placed directly alongside the work of Davis, Coates, etc.

So much of the new Mansion queue comes across as 'fun idea someone had that they put in without thinking about how it fits in with everything else'.

 

[mickEblu]

Wasn't most of the ironwork in NOS swapped for fiberglass at some point? I could be wrong. But even then, the fiberglass looks great.

I think the bigger issue is that current WDI just can't stand alongside their predecessors. I mean, this is the crop working on the park now-



Of course anything these people do is going to stand out in a negative way when placed directly alongside the work of Davis, Coates, etc.

So much of the new Mansion queue comes across as 'fun idea someone had that they put in without thinking about how it fits in with everything else'.

I’m not sure tbh. I wasn’t aware it was swapped out.

Right, most of them don’t seem to have the talent their predecessors did. But also maybe because of how big the company has gotten they also don’t have the freedom and atmosphere either? So I was wondering if they have the talent to make a 3d printed boat look truly authentic. But apparently that’s no more difficult and maybe even easier than other options.

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

I'm not up to date on 3D printing tech but wouldn't a prop made from melted filament not be an ideal prop to put in the Florida sun? Even if it holds up short term, have they tested long term UV exposure? I mean even fiberglass buckles, cracks and dry rots with age, I just wonder if this is better. What makes it better? Is this news blurb just to say they can or is there some fundamental reason why they're opting for this vs current methods or human craftsmanship.

 

[Disney Irish]

I'm not up to date on 3D printing tech but wouldn't a prop made from melted filament not be an ideal prop to put in the Florida sun? Even if it holds up short term, have they tested long term UV exposure? I mean even fiberglass buckles, cracks and dry rots with age, I just wonder if this is better. What makes it better? Is this news blurb just to say they can or is there some fundamental reason why they're opting for this vs current methods or human craftsmanship.

Industrial 3D printing (which this is likely using) is a whole lot different than the consumer 3D printing that you're probably used to. They can use all types of materials for 3D printing in industrial grade systems from concrete to metal, as @MrPromey was saying. So yes it'll hold up UV exposure, the same as if those materials were used to make something by other methods.

 

[MrPromey]

I'm not up to date on 3D printing tech but wouldn't a prop made from melted filament not be an ideal prop to put in the Florida sun? Even if it holds up short term, have they tested long term UV exposure? I mean even fiberglass buckles, cracks and dry rots with age, I just wonder if this is better. What makes it better? Is this news blurb just to say they can or is there some fundamental reason why they're opting for this vs current methods or human craftsmanship.

Every construction/manufacturing technique has pros and cons compared to others. Same with materials.

That's all this is - just a different manufacturing technique. The article explains the advantages of this pretty clearly so if you haven't read the whole thing, I'd suggest it.

What would you consider "human craftsmanship"? Making a real canoe out of real wood by hand using traditional techniques to leave out in the FL weather? What would you expect to happen to that being left out after a decade or more?

 

[DLR92]

I’m a little curious to see the final product. But I would rather see WDI commission someone to build a real boat.

 

[MrPromey]

I’m a little curious to see the final product. But I would rather see WDI commission someone to build a real boat.

I wish the artifacts in the temple scenes were made from real gold, too but Disney works off the Hollywood model of if it's cheaper, faster, safer and/or more durable to imitate, that's what they generally do, everywhere - similar to how the boat in the Venetian scene of Spaceship Earth is not a "real" boat.

If it needs to float, it'll be water sealed and in that sense, will actually be a real boat. If it's on the shoreline somewhere and your wish is for it to be made from real wood that the Florida sun will bleach and the climate will rot, I can understand why they'd go a different direction.

For what it's worth, I always thought the existing ones looked like they were made out of painted cement with zero appearance of natural texture, a glossyness in the sun and what looks like an odd thickness though I'm sure those were/are probably fiberglass just like the "wood" used on the railings of The Swiss Family Treehouse:

An older pick of the same canoes before the referb:

 

[mickEblu]

Maybe it would pass somewhere on the second story of NOS.

This brings up an interesting thought though. Would it get a pass because it’s surrounded by other props and features with authentic and/ or great craftsmanship. Or would it getting a pass because of its own inherent quality and how far it is from the viewer? In other words, would it be getting a pass because we’re grading on a curve with it being helped by all of the great stuff in its vicinity that came before it? What happens when the old stuff of great quality/ craftsmanship gets outnumbered by the newer stuff of lesser quality? Is it still Disneyland? Will future generations look at the place the same way? Will it happen so slowly that it will all feel natural and go unnoticed?

 

[lazyboy97o]

I'm not up to date on 3D printing tech but wouldn't a prop made from melted filament not be an ideal prop to put in the Florida sun? Even if it holds up short term, have they tested long term UV exposure? I mean even fiberglass buckles, cracks and dry rots with age, I just wonder if this is better. What makes it better? Is this news blurb just to say they can or is there some fundamental reason why they're opting for this vs current methods or human craftsmanship.

This wouldn’t be a plastic with a low melting point. There’s lots of plastic outside in Florida. The big canopy at TRON is even plastic.

This brings up an interesting thought though. Would it get a pass because it’s surrounded by other props and features with authentic and/ or great craftsmanship. Or would it getting a pass because of its own inherent quality and how far it is from the viewer? In other words, would it be getting a pass because we’re grading on a curve with it being helped by all of the great stuff in its vicinity that came before it? What happens when the old stuff of great quality/ craftsmanship gets outnumbered by the newer stuff of lesser quality? Is it still Disneyland? Will future generations look at the place the same way? Will it happen so slowly that it will all feel natural and go unnoticed?

Objects intended to be viewed from further away being designed differently is a very old design strategy. A generic category of manufacturing process is not inherently a definition of quality.