City of Tomorrow

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Does anyone have any information - plans, sketches, photos, techniques - on how they constructed the City of Tomorrow that used to be at the core of World of Motion? I know that it took up the whole two floors of the building, but that is it.
 

Tom

Beta Return
Originally posted by cloudboy
Does anyone have any information - plans, sketches, photos, techniques - on how they constructed the City of Tomorrow that used to be at the core of World of Motion? I know that it took up the whole two floors of the building, but that is it.

Are you talking about the model of Walt's vision of EPCOT? I'm not quite sure what was ever in the center of World of Motion.....
 

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
No. On the World of Motion ride, after you went through the speedrooms, you ended up at the center of the building. and the cars turned to face into the center of a circle. There was this city of the future construction - it wasn't so much and actualy model, as a gian visual effect. there were a bunch of moving lights to represent moving vehicles, these things that would travel up and down - it was pretty good sized. The buildings as such were pretty indefinite - I think they used some kind of mesh with lights shown on it.

Most people don't even remember it, I thiought it was one of the most fantastic effects they had made, but maybe I am delerious or something. Problem was being mostly a lighting effect pictures and videos don't really show much of it.
 

Tom

Beta Return
Originally posted by cloudboy
No. On the World of Motion ride, after you went through the speedrooms, you ended up at the center of the building. and the cars turned to face into the center of a circle. There was this city of the future construction - it wasn't so much and actualy model, as a gian visual effect. there were a bunch of moving lights to represent moving vehicles, these things that would travel up and down - it was pretty good sized. The buildings as such were pretty indefinite - I think they used some kind of mesh with lights shown on it.

Most people don't even remember it, I thiought it was one of the most fantastic effects they had made, but maybe I am delerious or something. Problem was being mostly a lighting effect pictures and videos don't really show much of it.

Could you tell, was the city laid out in like a giant wheel-shape? With the roads like spokes going out from the center of the city. if so, perhaps that was a virtual representation of Walt's idea of EPCOT, the City of Tomorrow. I vaguely remember it, as it has been YEARS since I was on WOM.
 

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
No - it was definitely much more vertical than that. It really didn't have a base, which was the neat thing about it. It really seemd to me, but again I didn't study it enough, that it was like these maybee foot wide mesh/screen things, just hanging there. The there were all sorts of black-light effect, I believe that some of it was something like a string or wire that ran continuously around a loop to look like moving vehicles, and they also had some that would run up and down vertically like they were helicopters. It was actually much more a lighting effect than a solid model.

I have been searching for pictures or plans of this for years! Some one must have something on it, or at least remember it... I must have been dreaming the whole thing!
 

goofyguy

Member
cloudboy,

I have vague memories of the city in World of Motion as well, and it was definately not the model of Epcot that's currently seen in the TTA. I'm not sure I remember it well enough to provide an accurate description, however.

What I seem to remember (which could very well be wrong) is that the city's buildings looked to be made out of crystal. It was probably some kind of molded plastic, but you get the idea. And like you said, there were little moving lights all over to give the impression of a world on the move.
 

goofyguy

Member
Doing a quick search, I found the following:

The ride is capped of by a glipse of the future. Vehcles descend around the CenterCore, a depiction of the city of tomorrow, which uses the full height (60ft) of the building. The city is created with fiber optics, liquid-neon, projectors, and advanced lighting technologies.


The info is from this site: http://vistaway.freeservers.com/theride.htm

The site also has what looks like a drawing of the city, however it's not very clear.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Wish I`d seen this thread sooner! I`ve just has a look at my WOM home video.

The model was two stories high (in the middle of the building I believe). The omnimover track circled it as it dropped a level. It was mainly lots of fairy lights with the towers lit by LOTS of UV lighting. The apparent vehicles flying along the tracks in tubes were illuminated tubes full of fluid, where air bubbles were squeezed along to simulate movement (Horizons used the same effect)

By all accounts it was a BIG model. Love to see a worklight picture of it!
 

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Could you? :sohappy:

I have downloaded a couple of movies of the ride, and in every one of them that whole sequence - from the last speedroom to the the end (you barely make out the pod car things) is always completely black.

From another book I found, it mentioned that the buildings were made of wire mesh. I never even thought about bubbles!

Thank you!
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
The buildings do appear to be wire mesh - white or a light colour (so the UV picks em out)

I will find some grabs from my video (its was SVHS so hopefully there is a bit more detail) and will post them tomorrow - so not to incur the wrath of my girlfriend....

I will put a post here when they are up.
 

aim

New Member
Originally posted by marni1971
The buildings do appear to be wire mesh - white or a light colour (so the UV picks em out)

I will find some grabs from my video (its was SVHS so hopefully there is a bit more detail) and will post them tomorrow - so not to incur the wrath of my girlfriend....

I will put a post here when they are up.

:sohappy: Thanks!!
 

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yeah, it was mostly a lighting effect, so it was pretty hard to get any pictures at all. Your's were as clear as any others I have seen.

Thanks again!
 

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I don't know - they helped me a little. I am surprised by how many people don't seem to even remember it.

Fairy lights - you must be from England!
 

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So this is getting way off topic, but...

How easy and how expensive is it to get to Paris from England. I have heard some people talk about it like it was a regular commute, and others who say it is cheaper to fly to Florida than to get to Paris!
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Oops missed that post!!

Depends how you go - you can get to florida really cheap, if you want to be packed in a charter jet like sardines for 9 hours then land at Sandford.

Same as Paris - you can drive from the UK on the Channel Tunnel link, or take the Eurostar (high speed train) direct to DLP. Or fly - again, that depends when and who with. My girlfriend and I flew Manchester to Paris, got a coach to DLP, stayed at the Newport Bay for 4 nights, had 5 day passes, breakfast included, for under £1000 in peak season... about $1600 then (July 02)
 

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