AVATAR land construction progress

misterID

misterID

Well-Known Member
WDWLover#1 said:
I heard the avatar project is about 8 months behind schedule
Click to expand...
If that's the case and they open seven years after the announcement it will hopefully push some major changes inside WDI.

Really, its beyond ridiculous. They aren't even doing the launch coaster and they still can't keep it on track. Its like they're building an entirely new park. No one is the least bit embarrassed about this? No concern from the bod?
 
WDWLover#1

WDWLover#1

Well-Known Member
misterID said:
If that's the case and they open seven years after the announcement it will hopefully push some major changes inside WDI.

Really, its beyond ridiculous. They aren't even doing the launch coaster and they still can't keep it on track. Its like they're building an entirely new park. No one is the least bit embarrassed about this? No concern from the bod?
Click to expand...
What I would also add to consider and remember is that avatar was announced as soon as they got the deal. Usually with theme park projects stuff gets announced two years out and seem a lot quicker because of this(diagon alley, FOF parade, kong) when in reality these projects have been in the works for years and final plans put in place before anything gets announced or becomes official. With avatar nothing had been planned or blue skyed. We had to sit through the whole development process of 7+ years, hearing of how the budget changed and stuff getting removed (the coaster). Add on top of that the challenges that come with floating mountains and it's no wonder they're still building. Realistically they should've announced avatar at this years d23 where interest then would've been sustained till opening and the wait would've been less ridiculous. But again because they announced it stupidly early without planning anything it seems as if it's taken ages. We've just had to sit through the whole development process.
 
articos

articos

Well-Known Member
twebber55 said:
on the damouse video at the 11 second mark you can see what looks like steel framing for the boat ride
Click to expand...
The steel you see in there is the emergency stairs and utilities section of the main show building. There is another building behind that.
TyTrap said:
It's annoying how Disney has these new animatronics that have projected faces so they save money. I hope we don't get that for avatar land. I know they are using that type of animatronic for the Frozen ride.
Click to expand...
Those figures aren't actually less expensive, so it's not a bid to save money. They're a creative decision.
 
PhotoDave219

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
DarthFiscus75 said:
Theme Park Tourist

2. Pandora: The World of Avatar is behind schedule…again


Image © Disney



Though work is well underway on the Avatar project at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, rumors have surfaced that this project (which was announced in 2011) has been hit by even more delays, and is both behind schedule and over budget. While sources disagree with exactly how much this project is behind schedule, it looks like it may be late 2017 or early 2018 before this area finally opens.

Yet another delay is certainly bad news for this project, which has already seen its fair share of false starts and stops. Still, a few months isn’t too long of a delay, and we’d expect that Disney will adjust its opening window timetables accordingly if these delays are indeed significant.



Image © Disney



Confidence level: 60% The lack of official updates regarding this project make it hard to have tons of confidence in this rumor, but then again, the absence of concrete information could be a result of these purported delays as well.
Click to expand...

Theme Park Tourist is just a bunch of Click-bait crap

What you find on this site is far, far, far more accurate.
 
T

twebber55

Well-Known Member
articos said:
The steel you see in there is the emergency stairs and utilities section of the main show building. There is another building behind that.

Those figures aren't actually less expensive, so it's not a bid to save money. They're a creative decision.
Click to expand...
no I was looking past that steel...the more gray steel, I guess?
 
MerlinTheGoat

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
TyTrap said:
It's annoying how Disney has these new animatronics that have projected faces so they save money. I hope we don't get that for avatar land. I know they are using that type of animatronic for the Frozen ride.
Click to expand...
articos said:
Those figures aren't actually less expensive, so it's not a bid to save money. They're a creative decision.
Click to expand...
I have mixed feelings about projected faces. Most look off IMHO. Some look ok or even good/great when done right with proper lighting and physically sculpted facial features underneath, but it seems that present day imagineering has a hard time getting the effects right. Buzz Lightyear is an example that doesn't look very good, seemingly because the lighting in the room isn't very good and it's also missing underlying facial features to give proper 3-dimensional depth to the projection.

The same is true of the current HM bride, her face is also very flat looking. I assume it suffers the same lack of underlying protruding features on the head as Buzz. Even the other ancient projections of Leota and the marble busts are infinitely better looking, and it seems to be because the imagineers took the time to give them protruding facial details such as noses and other physical features that faces have to give them 3D depth. The projections look natural and very well done as a result, realistic and accurate from every angle, perfect examples of facial projection effects done right. Even the Mine Train figure faces (which do look decent) somehow still aren't as effective as these 1960's effects...

But in the end, I think physical facial animation with moving animatronic parts trump even well done projections. There was an article last year about Avatar Land's animatronics. Even James Cameron himself commented on the matter in a very specific way-

"The animatronics for the Na'vi characters are gonna be fantastic. For example, their early animatronics would use 12 axis of motion and I think the most they've ever done was 32 axis recently," he recalled. "I think they're up to 64 just in the face of the Na'vi characters. So it's gonna be remarkable. [Disney] really see it as a major, major attraction."

So he basically not only confirmed that there were going to be Na'vi AA's (supposedly the most impressive Disney has ever built according to his words), but that the faces for the AA's specifically would be using actual physical movement (unless he's mistaken then they're not projections).

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/james-cameron-outlines-avatar-as-disney-world-attraction.884995/
 
englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
MerlinTheGoat said:
I have mixed feelings about projected faces. Most look off IMHO. Some look ok or even good/great when done right with proper lighting and physically sculpted facial features underneath, but it seems that present day imagineering has a hard time getting the effects right. Buzz Lightyear is an example that doesn't look very good, seemingly because the lighting in the room isn't very good and it's also missing underlying facial features to give proper 3-dimensional depth to the projection.

The same is true of the current HM bride, her face is also very flat looking. I assume it suffers the same lack of underlying protruding features on the head as Buzz. Even the other ancient projections of Leota and the marble busts are infinitely better looking, and it seems to be because the imagineers took the time to give them protruding facial details such as noses and other physical features that faces have to give them 3D depth. The projections look natural and very well done as a result, realistic and accurate from every angle, perfect examples of facial projection effects done right. Even the Mine Train figure faces (which do look decent) somehow still aren't as effective as these 1960's effects...

But in the end, I think physical facial animation with moving animatronic parts trump even well done projections. There was an article last year about Avatar Land's animatronics. Even James Cameron himself commented on the matter in a very specific way-

"The animatronics for the Na'vi characters are gonna be fantastic. For example, their early animatronics would use 12 axis of motion and I think the most they've ever done was 32 axis recently," he recalled. "I think they're up to 64 just in the face of the Na'vi characters. So it's gonna be remarkable. [Disney] really see it as a major, major attraction."

So he basically not only confirmed that there were going to be Na'vi AA's (supposedly the most impressive Disney has ever built according to his words), but that the faces for the AA's specifically would be using actual physical movement (unless he's mistaken then they're not projections).

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/james-cameron-outlines-avatar-as-disney-world-attraction.884995/
Click to expand...
I think the issue with projected faces is that in today's world where, for a few hundred dollars, one can purchase a projector and point it at a round ball and create a similar effect at home with very little effort, the effect looks fake and uninspired. You KNOW how they did it, even if you aren't a theme park enthusiast. Compare that to the far simpler Haunted Mansion effects that, to this day, still baffle people...sometimes the highest "tech" solution isn't the best.

That said, I can't comment on them personally yet as I haven't seen them in production...but they look pretty bad on video (which reveals more than the human eye sees).
 
Mawg

Mawg

Well-Known Member
MerlinTheGoat said:
I have mixed feelings about projected faces. Most look off IMHO. Some look ok or even good/great when done right with proper lighting and physically sculpted facial features underneath, but it seems that present day imagineering has a hard time getting the effects right. Buzz Lightyear is an example that doesn't look very good, seemingly because the lighting in the room isn't very good and it's also missing underlying facial features to give proper 3-dimensional depth to the projection.

The same is true of the current HM bride, her face is also very flat looking. I assume it suffers the same lack of underlying protruding features on the head as Buzz. Even the other ancient projections of Leota and the marble busts are infinitely better looking, and it seems to be because the imagineers took the time to give them protruding facial details such as noses and other physical features that faces have to give them 3D depth. The projections look natural and very well done as a result, realistic and accurate from every angle, perfect examples of facial projection effects done right. Even the Mine Train figure faces (which do look decent) somehow still aren't as effective as these 1960's effects...

But in the end, I think physical facial animation with moving animatronic parts trump even well done projections. There was an article last year about Avatar Land's animatronics. Even James Cameron himself commented on the matter in a very specific way-

"The animatronics for the Na'vi characters are gonna be fantastic. For example, their early animatronics would use 12 axis of motion and I think the most they've ever done was 32 axis recently," he recalled. "I think they're up to 64 just in the face of the Na'vi characters. So it's gonna be remarkable. [Disney] really see it as a major, major attraction."

So he basically not only confirmed that there were going to be Na'vi AA's (supposedly the most impressive Disney has ever built according to his words), but that the faces for the AA's specifically would be using actual physical movement (unless he's mistaken then they're not projections).

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/james-cameron-outlines-avatar-as-disney-world-attraction.884995/
Click to expand...

Agree with you, for me it's a creative decision. Cartoon rides work with projected faces, Radiator Springs, Mine Train, Frozen is OK too. The characters are meant to look like cartoons and projections work well with this. Even in the HM, since you are working with ghosts and need some transparency to your figures, projections work fine. But Avatar was all about realism and projections will look out of place, the correct creative decision in this case should be not to use them (IMHO).
 
ABQ

ABQ

Well-Known Member
RSoxNo1 said:
The rumored names are "N'Avi River Journey" and "Flights of Passage". Neither of these have been confirmed.
Click to expand...
Ugh, don't need Flights of Wonder and Flights of Passage in the same park. I do hope the E Ticket gets a very different name from an already existing attraction.
 
DisneyRoy

DisneyRoy

Well-Known Member
MerlinTheGoat said:
I have mixed feelings about projected faces. Most look off IMHO. Some look ok or even good/great when done right with proper lighting and physically sculpted facial features underneath, but it seems that present day imagineering has a hard time getting the effects right. Buzz Lightyear is an example that doesn't look very good, seemingly because the lighting in the room isn't very good and it's also missing underlying facial features to give proper 3-dimensional depth to the projection.

The same is true of the current HM bride, her face is also very flat looking. I assume it suffers the same lack of underlying protruding features on the head as Buzz. Even the other ancient projections of Leota and the marble busts are infinitely better looking, and it seems to be because the imagineers took the time to give them protruding facial details such as noses and other physical features that faces have to give them 3D depth. The projections look natural and very well done as a result, realistic and accurate from every angle, perfect examples of facial projection effects done right. Even the Mine Train figure faces (which do look decent) somehow still aren't as effective as these 1960's effects...

But in the end, I think physical facial animation with moving animatronic parts trump even well done projections. There was an article last year about Avatar Land's animatronics. Even James Cameron himself commented on the matter in a very specific way-

"The animatronics for the Na'vi characters are gonna be fantastic. For example, their early animatronics would use 12 axis of motion and I think the most they've ever done was 32 axis recently," he recalled. "I think they're up to 64 just in the face of the Na'vi characters. So it's gonna be remarkable. [Disney] really see it as a major, major attraction."

So he basically not only confirmed that there were going to be Na'vi AA's (supposedly the most impressive Disney has ever built according to his words), but that the faces for the AA's specifically would be using actual physical movement (unless he's mistaken then they're not projections).

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/james-cameron-outlines-avatar-as-disney-world-attraction.884995/
Click to expand...

Sounds AWESOME in theory. That is until the little motors start breaking after it's been open for 5 minutes and one Na'vi starts getting the droopy eye or looks like they had a stroke because one whole side of the face is broken. Great theory...now they just need to execute and MAINTAIN them properly.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom