AVATAR Concept Art released

[GoofGoof]

Do you all remember the concept art for the New Fantasyland? Do you think the final product came close to looking as it did in the concept art?

Other than mine Train replacing Pixie Hollow the art was pretty much what they built wasn't it? Maybe I missed some of the older concept art or something.

 

[NoChesterHester]

Do you all remember the concept art for the New Fantasyland? Do you think the final product came close to looking as it did in the concept art?

For FLE I think the final product looks better than the concept art. That is mostly because I despise the style of Disney's concept art.

For the record, I do not believe the Avatar concept artwork was done by WDI. That looks like a Lightstorm product to me.

 

[Beholder]

For FLE I think the final product looks better than the concept art. That is mostly because I despise the style of Disney's concept art.

For the record, I do not believe the Avatar concept artwork was done by WDI. That looks like a Lightstorm product to me.

You bring up something I've been thinking about lately, and that's the "style" of art used in Disney's concept and promotional stuff. I really do not like it at all. I prefer the older type of art that seemed to imply adventure, story, and in the case of EPCOT, a future of promise and unlimited possibilities. Like the art of John Berkey, it conveyed adult ideas with a fantastic look at science and tomorrow. I know this is really off topic, but your post prompted me to comment on the art. Disney's art is just a bit too juvenile and pandering here lately.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

I hate it when they insert photographs of people in a piece of art instead of painting or drawing them in.

 

[muteki]

I hate it when they insert photographs of people in a piece of art instead of painting or drawing them in.

This irks me so much as well. Clipart people were all over the Disney Springs concepts.

 

[lazyboy97o]

For FLE I think the final product looks better than the concept art. That is mostly because I despise the style of Disney's concept art.

For the record, I do not believe the Avatar concept artwork was done by WDI. That looks like a Lightstorm product to me.

I thought somebody already found the artist names and they are not Imagineers except for the nighttime entertainment piece.

I hate it when they insert photographs of people in a piece of art instead of painting or drawing them in.

In architectural renderings, I hate when they fade out the people. I know the idea is to show the design, but the design is supposed to be inhabited by people.

 

[NoChesterHester]

I thought somebody already found the artist names and they are not Imagineers except for the nighttime entertainment piece.

Not surprising. The nighttime entertainment piece is the worst of the lot. Let me rephrase - FIND A NEW SOURCE FOR ARTISTIC RENDERINGS WDI.

In architectural renderings, I hate when they fade out the people. I know the idea is to show the design, but the design is supposed to be inhabited by people.

I guess I understand the sentiment, but architectural renderings are usually used to describe the architecture. The people can be distracting in that case. The majority of complaints on architectural renderings come from the entourage choices (people, trees, and especially car choices). Similar to Disney's concept renderings - people instantly complain about the "angular kids." Probably better to remove people as the focus of the rendering.

 

[NoChesterHester]

I hate it when they insert photographs of people in a piece of art instead of painting or drawing them in.

Depends on the software used. The Avatar stuff the people are obviously scale figures as part of the modeling post production. Not clipart. Most 3d softwares are like this now. The people are actually inserted as part of the model to achieve the proper scale. The foliage and lighting effects are usually sweetened up in post production.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Not surprising. The nighttime entertainment piece is the worst of the lot. Let me rephrase - FIND A NEW SOURCE FOR ARTISTIC RENDERINGS Walt Disney Imagineering.

Especially since they already have people creating higher quality work.

 

[Sped2424]

Any word whether it be from insider's or official on the actual rides? The boat ride I assume will be like the pirates ride system just going through the beautiful scenes and landscape of pandora. But what I am worried about is the "e" ticket, if they do a hybrid of hd screens and actual props and rooms I will be impressed. But just making a soaring attraction with some new effects and technology does not excite me in the slightest.

 

[BeastlyKingdomme]

Any word whether it be from insider's or official on the actual rides? The boat ride I assume will be like the pirates ride system just going through the beautiful scenes and landscape of pandora. But what I am worried about is the "e" ticket, if they do a hybrid of hd screens and actual props and rooms I will be impressed. But just making a soaring attraction with some new effects and technology does not excite me in the slightest.

What I heard awhile ago is that the E ticket attraction will be a Soarin' type attraction. However, the seats are attached to the floor and would only tilt as the theater itself would move. Don't know if it would make the attraction truly feel different than Soarin', or if this rumor has already been smashed anyways.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

It was that Pandora's Box ride system mentioned on this site that was supposedly going to have a mixture of physical sets and video screens. Current information from insiders would indicate we're probably not getting anything like that. The trusted insiders on this site have recently been referring to the current ride as "Soarin 2.0" or "Soarin over Pandora". I believe Martin said in a topic just a few days ago that he'd be shocked if the ride is going to use the Pandora's Box ride system.

I don't care what Disney considers an E Ticket these days, not at all impressed if they're going to make the headliner attraction some sort of Soarin clone or similar. Even if there aren't any thrills or drops in it, if the finished boat ride can produce an experience at least closely comparable to what the concept art portrays and that level of quality is consistent throughout the entire ride (which will hopefully entail elaborate physical sets and animatronics), i'd consider it closer to being an E Ticket than a Soarin type simulator.

Not that I'm expecting them to do so of course, the odds are probably incredibly slim that this expansion is going to come out looking anything like what the art portrays once they've value engineered the crap out of it.

Yes, I think so. Bodes well for Avatar!

It depends on what you're looking at really. Mermaid's facade i'd say ended up looking better than it did in the concept art. It's a bit smaller looking than the art portrays, but the incredible detail makes up for it. They did an excellent job on the outside of that one IMO. The circus area looks mostly comparable to the concept art, though no one expected anything amazing out of that anyways. I will give special credit to finally including fountains on the Dumbo spinners (and a lovely LED package as well), but a negative for the ugly unthemed green queue building backing the Speedway. While the area around Beast's Castle is quite pretty and somewhat comparable to the art, the castle itself is rather lacking in detail, it looks fake and very small (if they were attempting a forced perspective to make it seem larger, they did a poor job at it). Disappointing they didn't go through with adding a superior roof to the Teacups like the art showed too (the one there now is hideous).

The headliner ride isn't done yet (Mine Train), but there's already clear and obvious indications that it has been scaled back substantially from its concept art form (between the several pieces of art for it, there's also huge discrepancies in the thematic details and size of the attraction). The length of the track is one element that has clearly gotten a reduction compared to the concept art. Besides the intricate ways the art shows the train continually weaving in and out the mountain several times (from numerous different entrances) that won't even be close to that in the final version, Lee has posted several track layouts to show how the track was shortened substantially over the course of its design phase.

We'll see whether they cut any thematic elements from the ride as well, again @Lee may know some more current info about what will make it and what won't from the art. Looking a little more closely at the original concept art for the entire land for instance, it's indicated that there is supposed to be glowing gems scattered around the facade in multiple place, particularly around all entrances to the mine that the train weaves in and out of. I suspect these patches of gems would glow and sparkle with internal LED light sources given how they're portrayed with a colorful glow in the art that illuminates the surrounding environment. It remains to be seen whether that ends up being incorporated in some form. They still very well could considering they're only just beginning to make substantial progress on the rockwork. It would truly be a damn shame if they don't make it. It makes complete thematic sense and it would be a small and inexpensive but lovely touch in making the ride shimmer and sparkle. Regardless of the core quality of the ride itself, it would give it a beautiful and striking facade (particularly at night).

Several pieces of art have also shown log bridges incorporated in the exterior in cool ways. The original overview art of the land showed the track traveling underneath a fallen tree while figures of the seven dwarfs march overhead on top of it (recreating the classic iconic "high ho" scene from the film). Another closeup piece of art had the trains themselves actually traveling along the top of a log bridge. There were some discussions a few months ago in one of the topics about the ride that both of these thematic elements involving log bridges may end up not making it into the final plan.

 

[Sped2424]

What I heard awhile ago is that the E ticket attraction will be a Soarin' type attraction. However, the seats are attached to the floor and would only tilt as the theater itself would move. Don't know if it would make the attraction truly feel different than Soarin', or if this rumor has already been smashed anyways.

that to me sounds like star tours, not soarin. So Im not sure about that one! the whole point of soarin is being in the air. Which honestly if they wanna cheap this thing out they can make another star tours type ride where we enter one of those flying vehicles. Gosh I hope not

 

[lazyboy97o]

Any word whether it be from insider's or official on the actual rides? The boat ride I assume will be like the pirates ride system just going through the beautiful scenes and landscape of pandora. But what I am worried about is the "e" ticket, if they do a hybrid of hd screens and actual props and rooms I will be impressed. But just making a soaring attraction with some new effects and technology does not excite me in the slightest.

Let's say we do get the "Soarin' 2.0" seen in the leaked drawings, I think there could be promise in the experience. Those drawings implied something more like Vekoma's Panoramic Flight Simulator that has a far greater range of motion than Soarin', something far closer to Star Tours than the gentle up and down swaying of Soarin'. Another possible advantage of something like the Panoramic Flight Simulator is that you could potentially offer different flight profiles to better accommodate those with different tolerances since every row is loaded and articulated individually. I guess I do not see the benefit in having many physical props in an experience that looks to be about exploring a wide and diverse area.

 

[Sped2424]

Let's say we do get the "Soarin' 2.0" seen in the leaked drawings, I think there could be promise in the experience. Those drawings implied something more like Vekoma's Panoramic Flight Simulator that has a far greater range of motion than Soarin', something far closer to Star Tours than the gentle up and down swaying of Soarin'. Another possible advantage of something like the Panoramic Flight Simulator is that you could potentially offer different flight profiles to better accommodate those with different tolerances since every row is loaded and articulated individually. I guess I do not see the benefit in having many physical props in an experience that looks to be about exploring a wide and diverse area.

I think me and many others on here feel that with psychical props there comes a way better experience, even if it has a panoramic screen many will be very aware, that its just a screen. Physical props and moving through and actual landscape help the experience become much more believable.

 

[GoofGoof]

Let's say we do get the "Soarin' 2.0" seen in the leaked drawings, I think there could be promise in the experience. Those drawings implied something more like Vekoma's Panoramic Flight Simulator that has a far greater range of motion than Soarin', something far closer to Star Tours than the gentle up and down swaying of Soarin'. Another possible advantage of something like the Panoramic Flight Simulator is that you could potentially offer different flight profiles to better accommodate those with different tolerances since every row is loaded and articulated individually. I guess I do not see the benefit in having many physical props in an experience that looks to be about exploring a wide and diverse area.

Props and AAs can easily be worked into the ride queue and the show building itself. I agree that unless the ride moves from one place to another it is difficult to integrate too many physical props.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I think me and many others on here feel that with psychical props there comes a way better experience, even if it has a panoramic screen many will be very aware, that its just a screen. Physical props and moving through and actual landscape help the experience become much more believable.

Props and AAs can easily be worked into the ride queue and the show building itself. I agree that unless the ride moves from one place to another it is difficult to integrate too many physical props.

By their very nature, physical sets require a fixed placement. So while I do not doubt that a physical environment can be more convincing, logistical and financial realities prevent them from being built at the size and scale that would likely be encountered on a tour of vast and different areas.

 

[BeastlyKingdomme]

that to me sounds like star tours, not soarin. So Im not sure about that one! the whole point of soarin is being in the air. Which honestly if they wanna cheap this thing out they can make another star tours type ride where we enter one of those flying vehicles. Gosh I hope not

You would be in the air. The theater moves and that, as I've heard it described, has riders "go over a cliff".

 

[Tridacna]

The simulator ride posted on screamscape a while ago sure looks interresting, even tough i prefer rides with physical sets. Kind of looked like a mixture of turtle trek and Soarin. The only problem i see is , that the concept art shows otsr instead of lapbars. If they would use that alot of Familys wont be able to ride together. On the good side it could indicate that we get a ride with more thrill, which actually could be true since Joe Rhode said in an interview that it would deliver much more thrill than soarin. I am looking forward to visiting Pandora, and especially to the Boat ride.

2017 just seems so far away.

Regarding the pandoras box rumors, i don`t think it will be a Pandoras box. From what i have heard Vekoma is pretty busy on working on a hybrid system between the pandoras Box system and a forbidden journey kuka style system for the hartenhof attraction in Efteling. This system is rumored to be pretty far away from completion, and when complete it should make its debut in Efteling. I would guess disney is looking for a more reliable kind of ride system.

 

[ctxak98]

Yes these are "leaked plans" i was referring to.

BTW your link didnt work.

I thought the leaked plans were rumored now to be false. At least for the Soarin type ride!