The 2019 WDWMagical Mystical Tour!

[Miru]

I tried doing my own maps for Pretoria Disneyland, but I never got around to posting them, and they don’t look any good anyway. I do like when they add maps of their projects, and the Ghastly Manor and Tower of Terror designs were quite memorable.

 

[Pi on my Cake]

I tried doing my own maps for Pretoria Disneyland, but I never got around to posting them, and they don’t look any good anyway. I do like when they add maps of their projects, and the Ghastly Manor and Tower of Terror designs were quite memorable.

I'd love to see the WIP maps! Even if they're a bit rough, that's an important first step!

I went from this being the best I could do (this was my third draft)...

To this...

...In just 2 years here! Start with what you can, and then over time it gets better! Plus, we're always our own harshest critic, so I'm sure its better than you think!

 

[Pi on my Cake]

I tried doing my own maps for Pretoria Disneyland, but I never got around to posting them, and they don’t look any good anyway. I do like when they add maps of their projects, and the Ghastly Manor and Tower of Terror designs were quite memorable.

I would also say that in my experience, any art (especially maps) do a LOT to add to a project even if they don't look the best or even are just crappy, rushed pencil sketches near some class notes. It adds context and a nice personal touch. Especially in a competition.

It's really easy for people, like myself, with some experience to think "If I don't have time to do it up to my usual standard, I shouldn't do it at all!" But I've been marked down before for that mindset and have had a couple projects that I look back on and realize would've been a lot better with even just a really simple map. The Storybrooke Inn project I did in OLS 2 stands out as one where a very simple map would've helped a lot, but I didn't have time to do a really good map so I just didn't do any and I regret that.

Bottom line: bad art is better than no art. Whether its the first step in growing or just all you have time for, art helps!

I'll post more about my personal favorite art and stuff from 2019 in a bit, but I wanted to get this out there.

 

[Orange Cat]

I think I’m quite suited for this having mainly custom avatars & probably my most important & famous thread is a art thread so, for the first question I won’t answer its just so hard to choose, but for the second question if you stick to what you know yeah it will improve for example all my avatars are puffles & in my mind they keep improving though you should also try new tools, new programs, new forms, new effects, etc, cause when you try something new you never know what you may find.

 

[Pi on my Cake]

Alright, here's some of mt favorite art pieces from 2019! I'm gonna start with one or two of mine, then go into some of my favorites from others!

One of my big focuses during Sorcerer's Apprentice Season 5 was to try something new each round. I didn't actually wind up doing something new every round, but I did try my hand at some digital art! Most art I do is done in PowerPoint through manipulating shapes. Sorta like South Park, though I was doing it for like 2 years before I started watching South Park, so that's mostly a coincidence haha. But I wanted to try some more traditional digital art and see what I could do. This was my first large scale attempt at using an actual art program! A Pixar Pier inspired addition the Animation Point shopping District in Tokyo. We may have lost due to our teams very scatteted focus, but there was some amazing parts to that project and I'm really happy with how this turned out! Plus, it represents me pushing myself to try new things!

This one wasn't just me, it was a joint effort by Roy's Bois for the finale of SA5. Flip books made with fliphtml5.com were a BIG trend in 2019. Mostly used for Mickey Monitors and other magazines. The team had the idea to use it to make a really whithered old guidebook to the land for our presentation which I really loved because of how different that felt to the more common uses of flip books! I made the covers and then made templates for different kinds of ripped, torn, or burnt page types. Plus different things like scorch marks and scratches that could be added to pages. Then we all put the book together. It was really fun to do something really different with it! Plus, It was an interesting challenge to make some simple formats that could easily be adapted by anyone to help make like 50+ unique pages. Because it's not about just finding what looks best, but finding what details can be added so it doesn't feel repetitive while still not being too complicated or tome consuming to use.

This drawing was done by @Tux (I believe) for a restaurant round during the One Little Spark Season 2. It was our drawing of the mascot for the Ruby Tankard Tavern. A cursed pirate/lounge singer who appeared as a singing, piano playing puppet. A lot of our project was centered around his show (to the point where the restaurant itself was a little underwritten). This drawing expressed so much emotion and personality! It's exactly what you want from a character sketch and really helped to elevate the project! You can write paragraphs and paragraphs describing a character, but a good picture really can say a 1000 words!

I don't really have a lot to say about this concept art for our facade for Storyteller Mountain from One Little Spark 2. I just like it. I believe it was by @kmbmw777 but I apologize if I'm wrong there. It is a simple picture, but its exactly what it needs to be. It's really easy to get caught up in needing to add as much detail and things as possible so that each drawing takes an entire week. But this is just perfect. It perfectly represents the idea we were going for, it is free of visual clutter, and its really pleasing to look at! Simple, but great!

Another art piece from our controversial Animation Point shopping District. This is one of like 3 or 4 drawings by @PerGronStudio for their aquarium project that was a part of the Pixar Pier inspired section. Not only are they all great, they demonstrate a level of very serious thought, detail, and realism. PerGron has a real knack for knowing how to make project feel real, especially for animal themed ones. And they took that realism and passion and applied it to art that really made it feel like a real place! I look at the drawings and feel like I can even tell what texture the walls are lol

And, of course, there was some amazing art pieces by @D Hindley over the last year. But giving him an art shout out almost feels like cheating lol I've never seen someone who can pump out incredibly high quality art bursting with personality at such a quick pace! And Sorcerer's Apprentice Season 5 was a real showcase for his talent!​

 

[Pi on my Cake]

Last art post today!

These are two castle drawing I did in PowerPoint almost exactly one year apart. The first was one of the very first drawings I ever did that way. The second used a full year's worth of experience to make something I'm still really happy with! And I've only gotten better since then because I've kept practicing and kept growing.

 

[tcool123]

In terms of art I agree with @Pi on my Cake as even a bad drawing could help sell an idea. Over time you may increase in your school, or you may not what's important is that you have fun. This year I remastered a drawing I created two years ago using paint.net.

As you can see there has been a progression between the two images, or at least I hope there was. Also this year I decided to start working on an ambitious nighttime project, which is nowhere complete but has been a great tool in learning how to photoshop better.

Here I've got a recreated Chinese Theater, but at night which I used for the basis of "projections".

Here's a snippet of the "projections", nothing mind blowing, but way better than what I used to be capable of.

Lastly to round art is some maps I've made this year

Both of which start from a screenshot from Google Earth, and from there I start filling outlines, paths, greenery, etc. all on MS Paint. Nothing too hard to use, and great for entry level map making imo.

 

[Outbound]

THREE GREAT MAPMAKING TUTORIALS
1. @Pi on my Cake 's on Google Slides (Easy Difficulty)


Click on the image above!

2. @Outbound 's on Paint3D (Medium Difficulty)


Click on the image above!

3.@MCParradox 's on Photoshop (Hard Difficulty)


Click on the image above!​

 

[Outbound]

Before the day ends, one thing piece of advice I'd always have is to keep experimenting. If you can think of it, try it!

So let's say you finish a prompt a day or two early. What do you do? I'd say first reread, but after that, see if you can try some art. And this doesn't have to be your typical "drawing art", it could be as simple as downloading and editing a template. A lot of the examples below derive from my Monkey King dark ride. In that prompt, I finished two days early and went perhaps a bit overboard on arts.

Here are some ideas of what you can do:

• Make a trailer for your project. I happen to have Premiere with Photoshop which is awesome, but something as simple as iMovie will do the trick. Compile a series of images and play some appropriate music, then end it with a simple text title card.
• Format a menu. If you have written out your entire menu on text, I would suggest going to Canva, and after making a free account, searching "menu". This will bring up a ton of beautiful, free menu templates. Edit the text to fit your menu, and trust me, it will look a hundred times nicer! Then use your trusty snipping tool.
• Code a queue game in Scratch. Why mention a queue game on lines when you can make one? NGL this took a couple of hours to make, but it was worth it! Scratch is a simple online coding language designed for beginners (mainly children). Your game will be clunky, but will actually work!
• Design a model in 3D. If you have this idea in your head, but can't easily explain it on a 2D drawing or in words, this may be for you. Go to Tinkercad, a free online model software that is super easy to use. '

Overall, these are some easy to learn, out of the box ideas that can really push your project ahead!

 

[Outbound]

DAY FIVE: CHALLENGER APPROACHING!
Today is the last day of the WDWMagical Mystical Tour! It's been amazing seeing the activity this thread has gotten. A huge thanks to everyone participating.

Competitions are lightening in a bottle. You take all these great members of the forum and throw them together with a limited prompt and unlimited scale. Then you task them to create the best thing possible. It's reached a point some of these projects might be too much. *Cough cough 84 pages* but on the whole, competitions are my favorite times here.

What was your favorite competition - wait no everyone will have the same answer - competition prompt this year? Should Sorcerer's Apprentice or One Little Spark get additional seasons next year - any ideas for future improvements? And last, for any of you who have served as the judge of competition, what is some advice for someone wanting to host one of these crazy things?



​

 

[Outbound]

Alright, I've been waiting five days to compliment these guys...

@AceAstro
@D Hindley
@kmbmw777
​

The more I look at Sorcerer's Apprentice 5 the more I realize how insane it is. Exactly how much did it take to accomplish something so vast within a set timeframe? I know you've said it involved lots of planning, and writing up beforehand, but how much of the SA5 was finished when you posted the hype thread? Started the season? How did the three of you decide on a winner so quickly? Basically I'm really curious about how this all went down behind the scenes.

 

[Pi on my Cake]

An interesting thing with competitions is finding a good balance between more traditional prompts and more unique prompts. Newer players tend to prefer traditional prompts since they haven't done many of them yet and veterans still love a chance to make a nee Fantasyland Dark Ride or Tomorrowland redo every now and again. On the other hand, more unique prompts help push newer players outside their comfort zone and give veterans who have done like 20 Fronteirland expansion projects over the years something new and exciting.

So, a good competition has a good balance between classic prompts and crazy prompts! Though, I personally find myself gravitating to the more crazy ones. Like this prompt from Sorcerers Apprentice Season 5!

STANZA VI – TURBO BREAKS THE INTERNET

So far this season, and in seasons past, our players have created some wonderfully creative concepts. Now it’s time to show them off! Now it’s time to break the internet! Yes, the time has come for the traditional Sorcerer’s Apprentice ad campaign challenge.

Your task is to create a viral marketing campaign for an earlier Sorcerer’s Apprentice project.

• This is a quick 48-hour challenge. Think fast!
• There is a 20-sentence maximum limit for your project.
• Pick your team’s favorite Sorcerer’s Apprentice project. It doesn’t have to have won, but use your viral campaign to convince us that it should have.
• The project doesn’t have to be from Season 5. Here is a list of all former Sorcerer’s Apprentice projects should you wish to go old-school.

Project Managers
Warriors - @TwilightZone
Princes - @FireMountain

Individual Reviewers
Warriors - WowFactor, EricsBiscuit, El_Tomato, 21stamps, Magic Feather, mickeyfan5534, Fox&Hound, michmousefan
Princes - Magicart87, GlacierGlacier, jt04, Figments Friend, PaisleyMF, mimitchi33, CreateDisney, Zootopia Dude

This Project is due Sunday, February 24th, at 11:59PM EST

Time Zones
Pacific Standard Time - 8:59 PM
Eastern Standard Time - 11:59 PM
Barbados Party Time - 12:59 AM
Greenwich Mean Time - 3:59 AM
Central European Time - 4:59 AM

One final note: As the winning project manager on Team Heroes, @James G. has earned the Immunity Idol for Stanza VI. If Team Warriors loses, he/she cannot be nominated to the Cursed Courtroom.

One of the things that makes the Sorcerer's Apprentice competition so unique is the SAU (Sorcerers Apprentice Universe). The whole game takes place in an alternate reality, and each round's winning project gets added as a permanent feature to the SAU! So, it's not uncommon to have projects along the lines of "finish this park from a previous season" or stuff like that. This prompt took that concept a step further by not just being built off of previous seasons but by also being a prompt that would've been unique and crazy without the SAU added in. A viral marketting campaign for a SAU project! How cool of an idea is that! It builds on the history of the game and has a really fun project! I remember my team did a whole 2013 WDWMagic forums period piece about it and, while we did lose, it was a ton of fun haha

On June 6th, 2013, Disney posted an enigmatic teaser for a mysterious thing on Twitter knowing that with heir fan base this was more than enough to get everyone talking

Naturally, the internet began to theorize immediately generating a large amount of buzz.

Within 24 hours of the initial tweet, #BigThing was trending on Twitter with everyone discussing theories and possibilities. Even noted Disney "news" source, Jim Hill Media, got in on the fun.

Memes were made, people went crazy, excitement was building.

Finally, July 10th, 2013 came and everyone waited with baited breath as Disney unveiled... the "Your Disney Dream Vacation" marketing campaign.


The hype was all for a glorified line of commercials, but Disney park fans and the internet as a whole took it in stride.

In One Little Spark 2 there were a lot of prompts that did a great job of being both traditional and very unique! This prompt is a great example of that...

Our third- and final for Act One- stop is at EPCOT. Welcome to the World Showcase! ¡Bienvenido al Escaparate mundial! Velkommen til verdensutstillingen! Huānyíng lái dào shìjiè biǎoyǎn! Willkommen zur Weltausstellung! Benvenuto allo spettacolo mondiale! Sekai shō e yōkoso! Marhabaan bikum fi almaerid alealamii! Bienvenue à l'exposition mondiale! Dilly dilly chap chap! Maple syrup.

This week you’ll be adding to that list. Everyone knows about future world showcase pavilions. Rumor has it a lot of countries could one day join the ranks in the World Showcase. But we aren’t focusing on them today.

This round, individual contestants will create pavilions for countries that have not yet been rumored.
- This scene will be a One for All: Individual-Based Project. There will be this one prompt that all players will have to submit their own individual projects. Team brainstorming threads will still be sent out for this round and players are encouraged to help each other and brainstorm and talk about the project with their team!
- Imagine you are all part of a bigger expansion for the resort. Don’t use space your teammates are using!
- To find if your country of choice has been rumored, simply search “____ world showcase rumors”. If nothing comes up, you are good to go! Tip, lesser-known countries get fewer rumors.
- As long as it is a “country”, realism is out the window! Go out of your comfort zone and show us the most obscure country imaginable! Maybe you'll teach the judges some world culture.
- You do not have to participate in this challenge, but it will not help your team earn points.

View attachment 392593
Expansion plots. Don't build on your teammate's pavilion!

In most individual rounds, the winner would receive a Golden Ticket to the Finale. However, for our first individual round, this will not be the case. This is a practice round. Future solo rounds will give this reward to first prize.

This challenge is due in seven days. Wednesday, July 31st at 12:00 AM WDW Time, or Tuesday, July 30th at 9:00 PM Disneyland Time.

Best of luck to both teams!

Adding a country to the World Showcase is one of the classic projects in armchair imagineering. Almost to the point of being overdone. BUT this one had a very important twist. No using countries that have been rumored. The whole point was to only use countries that haven't been done. Turning a really common prompt into something unique! Plus, the addition of encouraging people to make maps helped push people to try new things! I had wanted to do a 1/50 scale model of Monacco as a spiritual successor to the train garden (and because it seemed like a fun goofy thing to do), but life got away from me during that round.

 

[Tux]

DAY FIVE: CHALLENGER APPROACHING!
Today is the last day of the WDWMagical Mystical Tour! It's been amazing seeing the activity this thread has gotten. A huge thanks to everyone participating.

Competitions are lightening in a bottle. You take all these great members of the forum and throw them together with a limited prompt and unlimited scale. Then you task them to create the best thing possible. It's reached a point some of these projects might be too much. *Cough cough 84 pages* but on the whole, competitions are my favorite times here.

What was your favorite competition - wait no everyone will have the same answer - competition prompt this year? Should Sorcerer's Apprentice or One Little Spark get additional seasons next year - any ideas for future improvements? And last, for any of you who have served as the judge of competition, what is some advice for someone wanting to host one of these crazy things?



​

Hello, Tux here! I finally got the memo on the last day. I have to say my favorite competition prompt this year was Prompt 1 of OLS 2, The Lost Land. I loved what everyone had come up with idea wise, and it was just a lot of fun just to mess around with ideas before plugging what we thought worked and meshed well with the area in the land. I especially had fun writing up most of the ride descriptions, and just seeing what fit in while in the context of the ride, theme, backstory, and environment. Expanding on the zoological aspects of the land was interesting because while some of it was based primarily on South American wildlife, a lot of it is also based on birds that aren't necessarily native to the area, along with reptilians.

I don't know how to feel about a sixth Sorcerer's Apprentice. Yes, I do see what Evilgidgit meant about it being possible and plausible since all the villains have been defeated/sealed up in one area which is how you get, best case scenario, all the villains are back and are now savvy enough against us, and worst case scenario, we get a giant cluster**** of evil, and don't get me wrong, Sorcerer's Apprentice 5 was awesome to be a judge on and I bet it was 10x as cool more to have worked on it. The reason I don't want to see it is because I feel as if every has already been tied off appropriately. If you were to leave the ending alone, it would still be a solid ending. Even if the villains were to be revived in the storyline, Outbound already made them their own park, so unless it were to involve prank wars Villain Vs Imagineer addition, I don't see them exactly coming after us in vengeance unless it was to be because we locked them away. Sorcerer's Apprentice Season Six would have to kind of fill in about the villains breaking loose from the Disney™ Vault™, but it can't rely entirely on that plot alone which could make the plot convoluted and confusing. That being said, just because a sequel requires more material, a small retcon, etc doesn't automatically make it bad. Look at Portal 2, which required a retcon to happen. It's the highest rated game on Steam. Otherwise, I don't see any problems with the competition itself. Whether or not Doug, Kevin, and Ace want to continue on, pass it on, or stop is purely up to them and their choice.

As for a third One Little Spark, I'm okay with another one happening. Unlike Sorcerer's Apprentice, it doesn't tie off all of it's ends with, well it's ending, leaving room for a sequel story wise. I had a blast working on it and wouldn't mind to see it happen again. I'm curious to the direction the story will take though with the last season ending with Imagineer Sroo and probably also Sam in Club 33 with the Dreamcatcher Machine, and if any of the events in the next season will be based on a potential sixth Sorcerer's Apprentice, or perhaps if it will go with it's own story that connects with the other events in the expanded universe. Heck, what about S.E.A and their whole investigation on where it is. Will they still be chasing after us? Will they team up with us? Dreamfinder is back and alive after the events of Sorcerer's Apprentice Season Five, so what does he think about our shenanigans? He was our ally in Sorcerer's Apprentice Season Four, so how does he feel about his car essentially being stolen two times in a row by his friends/students?

As for improvements, I don't think any of the competitions 'need' any improvements to function, but, to see them grow and go beyond and become their own story/universe or create something entirely new in regards of ambition and innovation is amazing. If this is the best the series of competitions will be, if it will continue to follow the pattern of what they've created, or try to go even bigger than that isn't something I can't decide for either competition because it's not my choice to make and I'm ultimately just a judge or a contestant and not making the big decisions.

From what I'm getting from what you're saying from what you're saying, you want to make the next big competition of the year. While I have never hosted a competition myself, I do think I can give you a couple pieces of advice on how to do this.

Make sure you have all of your prompts settled out before you officially post the competition, so, you aren't stuck in the trap of having to a replacement prompt in which can screw up the flow of the rest of the competition.

If you're doing a comic based story for the competition like Sorcerer's Apprentice did, you could probably manage to complete all of the art for the competition before it starts, except for the comics that specifically address a person leaving or winning the competition, since the contestants who leave could potentially vary based on who it is, so if you are going to make a comic of that, make sure it fits into the story naturally and doesn't screw up the continuity of everything else. Don't do the winner/final contestant/semifinal contestant pieces until you know who's in that group. Once you're in the round before the semifinals, the round before the finals, and in the finals, do the art for those users since there's usually a big enough of a time gap to get the artwork done.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is to plan ahead for what you can for what you're doing and be organized above all else. Make sure you host it during a time period where you can be a 100% confident you won't be particularly busy. Even if something happens spontaneously, you can always take a small break for the moment, though make sure to remind everyone to regather via PM, since sometimes people can forget over long periods of time. Also, make sure it doesn't take place during a time where they won't be able to keep up with what's happening in the competition so people don't have to quit amass.

EDIT: Also, about judging. Make sure everyone who's a judge gives public feedback. Not only does it help the contestants understand what you want from them, and what they shouldn't do, it also makes choosing the victor or choosing who's in 1st place and what not easier since now everyone on the judging team understands what they liked the most and what they didn't like, making their jobs easier and giving potential insight on themselves as well.

 

[Disney Dad 3000]

I'll be back later today with a more detailed list of advice. But one artwork I want to shout out is @Disney Dad 3000 's art of Barnacle Junction:

Really captures the essence of the area. Art's all about helping break through that wall of text, but this basically renders the text obselete: just from this piece, we can gather it's a small play area with a realistic yet still pleasent theme, that intentionally looks like its falling apart. The name comes from the barnacles growing everywhere. You can even catch the general "vibe" of what this area would probably feel like if you were really there.

I also really like his Wonderland art for Dark Kingdom, which similarly, sets the tone and overall feel of this smaller indoor land:

Thanks for the shoutout! Yes, I am still alive. Won't derail this thread (I'll save that for Disneyland Seoul which was just getting started) with all that's gone on the last 5 months but planning to be back on here regular soon. Hope you guys are all doing well.

Those were both 2 super fun large scale projects to work on, both with you if I recall (where your mapmaking really started taking off and was on point). Hardest thing about artwork for me is just getting started. I find if I don't just dive in and go for it, it won't happen. As many ended up saying, all the varying art mediums used on this forum really make those projects stand out. Grand or small, doesn't matter, it all adds some flair, clarity and a peek into Imagineer's mind.

 

[Sam Magic]

DAY FOUR: THE ART OF IMAGINEERING
Today is all about the fantastic pieces of artwork this year! This includes traditional art, but also includes videos, songs, even original modes of presentation! This doesn't have to be the "nicest" art either - there's also something to be said for getting something done efficiently if art's not your thing, so you can move to whatever else might be your strength. Efficiency and quality is something you'll want to always balance.

What's your favorite artwork or media of 2019? What tips do you have regarding makin' art?

View attachment 432828​

I'm late again lol. But I'll post some of my favorite art pieces I made this year; mostly all of them are map/logo design:

1. Babylon Berlin:

​

2. WDW Alternate History Maps (some spoilers, lol):

Personal Project, Dixie Landings Resort:

​

 

[Outbound]

FINALE: LOOKING TO TOMORROW
Once again, thank you to everyone who has participated in the WDWMagical Tour!

Now, we look onwards. Next year will bring lots of new opportunities. We should think about all the stuff we've learned here and try to apply it to our future projects. If you have a personal project idea, try at it!

But I would also like to challenge you more directly next year. The Sorcerer's Apprentice will be returning next year for its sixth and (for a couple of years) final season. I challenge you to participate; if not as a contestant a guest judge, if not as a guest judge a viewer. If the last seasons have anything to show, the projects created here will be among the finest of 2020's Armchair Imagineering.

CLICK HERE TO EMBARK!

But whatever your passion, be it a competition as above or a personal project, writing or art, or realistic vs blue sky, I hope you enjoyed this year's WDWMagical. This has been @Outbound , signing off.

 

[Sam Magic]

Hyped for the new year guys!

 

[Flippin'Flounder]

Congrats Flippin' !! Why does it feel like yesterday you were just going to high school

Thanks! And yeah time flies. I saw you said you've been in med school, so congrats to you too! (just a bit late.. )

 

[spacemt354]

Thanks! And yeah time flies. I saw you said you've been in med school, so congrats to you too! (just a bit late.. )

It's all good - Thank you!

 

[Voxel]

I'd love to see the WIP maps! Even if they're a bit rough, that's an important first step!

I went from this being the best I could do (this was my third draft)...
View attachment 432915

To this...
View attachment 432916

...In just 2 years here! Start with what you can, and then over time it gets better! Plus, we're always our own harshest critic, so I'm sure its better than you think!

Mapping is always fun because we each have our own approaches. I originally started doing my maps in Google Sketchup, but I believe towards them end I moved over to power point.