Main content
Storytelling
Course: Storytelling > Unit 1
Lesson 3: Lesson 2: Designing attractions- Introduction to attraction design
- Story within attractions
- Exercise 1: Thrill and story
- Dark Rides
- Exercise 2: High concept
- Blue sky
- Exercise 3: Blue sky
- Storyboards
- Exercise 4: Storyboards
- Pitching ideas
- Exercise 5: Pitching
- Ride systems
- Exercise 6: Choose your ride system
- Attraction layout
- Exercise 7: Paper layout
- Ride capacity
- Exercise 8: Ride simulator
- Scale models
- Exercise 9: Scale model
© 2023 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Scale models
How we think about physical models. Copyright The Walt Disney Company.
Want to join the conversation?
- can it take to 20 second(2 votes)
- Why would they use the models like in the video.(0 votes)
- right its so weird(1 vote)
- Since my ride spend a portion of the time underground, how would I build a model for that? I can't think of any cheap transparent materials that are good for making scale models.(0 votes)
- You might want to just do like a virtual reality model.(3 votes)
- -*- zodiac fox freak -*-
yeah but its a plastic modle(1 vote) - OMG the models are so beautiful! :3 ✨(1 vote)
- Human McHumanface, I will be on the next exercise to leave a message. Respond soon!(1 vote)
- Hello Human McHumanface! It is I, Otherhuman McOtherhumanface. We are Tot Ally N. Othumans (That's Tow-allie-enn-o-thoo-may). Happy yadhtrib to Glebby Glab II! It is his yadhtrib today.(1 vote)
- Rock and stone!(1 vote)
Video transcript
Many Imagineers from different
disciplines come together to design an attraction. So we often create models when
we're working on a ride. Once a model is built, its used to analyze aspects of
the ride long before we pour any cement. Models allow everyone to get a visual
and tactile sense of how a ride will look when built at a full scale. Some of the models are physical and some are digital. Digital models are a great way
to simulate the dynamic notions of a ride experience. They allow us to make
quick changes on the fly without having to worry about construction concerns just yet. It's important to keep in mind that the goal of model building isn't to
make something beautiful and absolutely perfect. Instead, models are meant to communicate your creative vision, as well as the spatial layout of the attraction. Modeling is a key component to our
design process because it's cheaper to modify a model built out of foam, than it
is to change steel and concrete in the real world. It also allows us to make
decisions much earlier in the design process than we otherwise would be able
to. Because you can see it in physical space and get a better understanding for
what this attraction is going to be and how it's gonna look from different
angles. It's sort of the the way that everybody can stand around the table and
look at the same thing, at the same time. We have an idea in your head, it's only
in your head nobody else can see it. You may be able to sketch something out, but
even sketching it out only gives you sort of one view in one perspective of
one part of it. When you actually build a model, that brings something into three
dimensions. It'll let you get down into it, and look really low, and sort of walk
around what's behind that thing. You can tell those things when you're looking at
a physical model. Different disciplines would come down, meet together,
negotiate on where things would sit. They come out and say, "Oh, I understand what
you're doing now." Sometimes you may need to literally lay on the floor and put your
head your eye the same level that a person would be, if they were in your
model, because I'd really need to look at it from from that point of view. Other
times you may lift a model up and put it up on a table and get right down, so
you're looking at the level of the model. To get, to get into the model. As you can
see what the the guests are gonna see. Is it coming around a corner? When's the
first person making it around that corner, What can they see? Can they see the other
boat? Can they see the sets? And maybe you need to make an adjustment to make that
work. So we build both physical and digital models, and digital models, they
work hand in hand because digital models can
a type of information that we may not be able to get from physical models. We're
looking at more real world information now, we're using real scale, we're using
real buildings, so what we get from a digital model is the ability to in
virtual reality actually ride the attraction through a headset so that
we're actually getting the attraction experience before it's built. We build lots of different types of
models that Imagineering. And they all serve a different purpose. You may do a
quick and dirty model, where it's just a massing study and it's just made of
white blocks and that's it. You just sorta want to see how big is this
relative to something next to it? And sort of, how much space is a take up? Well, we're literally just taking cardboard and paper and we're putting something
together so that we can understand spatially what the early concept or idea
is. And then we will go to more sophisticated models as the design
develops even more where we'll go in and we'll sculpt foam. And we'll go in and make
something that's a little bit more sturdy and hardy and more detailed. So this is, this is one of the early models of the Radiator Springs Racers track. And
we were laying out a lot of the outdoor track section of how the vehicles would
would move through the outdoor rock work and environment, as they went on the
racing sequence. This gave us a great representation for what we were gonna
have to build eventually as far as track and road systems to support the the
racing sequence. You may go all the way to what we call a show model, which is a
highly detailed, perfectly painted beautiful, you know, full-color designed
of a model. That literally will look exactly like the full thing will look
like when you're finished. That serves a different purpose. That may be used by
the team to do a color study, or a lighting study, or understand the context
of something real if there's something nearby, and everything in between.
We do lots of different sizes, lots of different scales. A scale model, so if you
have a 1 to 50, let's say, that means that one inch on in the model scale means 50
inches in real life. So we try and make something rough, and small first and we
refine it, iterate it, scale it up until we have something that's that's
relatively big scale and highly detailed. So much so that it can actually be taken
to the site, where we're building the attraction and used as a physical
reference for what rock work and scenic elements should look like in the real
world. It's important to remember that a model
is a tool, it's not, you're not making a model to show off your model making
skills. You're making a model because it helps, design, influence your design and
and problem-solve parts of your design. So when you're
making a model, it's a, it's a thing that changes constantly. Because as you're
making it you realize something doesn't work and then you change the model. Build a lot of models. Don't be afraid, don't be married to an idea, be willing to trash
that model and start over when you need to. You sort of have to play to your
strengths. Some people may be really good at constructing the physical walls
they make it out of paper, they make it out of cardboard, there's different
materials you can use. Others love to paint on it and do the detailed work. Don't spend too much time on one particular area of your model. I would
say it's best practice to roughen ideas work really quick, and then start to go
in and refine those ideas. The easiest is to start by placing the entire thing on
the ground as a nice big outline and then building up your scenes. And don't
worry about building it from beginning to end. Start with the parts that's easiest
first, so that you can get comfortable building a model, but the goal will be to
get all the parts finished before you start your filming. It really makes your attraction design come to life if you can build a model
and take maybe your phone and go through it and see what exactly that's going to
look like. Just the drawing on the paper is fine and seeing in the computer is
fine, but when it's really dimensional, and you actually see that video, that's
real. In the next exercise, you'll have a chance to build a scale model of your attraction. I'd suggest that you start pretty rough, and once you have the
entire model first put together. Go back and gradually add detail to it. When
you're done with creating your model, use a small camera, such as the camera on a
cell phone, and run it along the vehicle track to create a video preview of your
ride that you can share with others. We hope that you've enjoyed learning about
how we design our attractions. Keep it up!