The Science of Forced Perspective at Disney Parks

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A comprehensive guide to forced perspective techniques at the Disney theme parks.
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Video Credits:
Magic Kingdom 2020 Tour in 4K
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Disney's Animal Kingdom FULL Walking Tour in 4K
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A Nearly EMPTY Disney's Animal Kingdom
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EPCOT Full Tour in 5K
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Disney's Hollywood Studios LONG Walking Tour in 4K
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Relaxing Afternoon Walk At Magic Kingdom in 4K
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Main Street Walking Tour at Disneyland 4k
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Beauty and the Beast Tokyo Disneyland
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New 'Beauty and the Beast' Fantasyland Expansion Walk-Through
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Castle Construction Update丨Castle of Magical Dreams丨Hong Kong Disneyland
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New Fantasyland Relaxing Stroll | Magic Kingdom | Walt Disney World
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Disneyland - Castle Hub Area - Relaxing Stroll
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Relaxing Stroll & Tour - Cars Land at Disney's California Adventure
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FIRST LOOK: Sleeping Beauty Castle with New Color Scheme
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Tower of Terror Twilight Zone ride - Disney's Hollywood Studios Low Light POV
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Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - Haunted Elevator Drop Attraction
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Low Light Peter Pan's Flight Ride Magic Kingdom Walt Disney World POV
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Ornament Valley California Adventure
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Radiator Springs Racers Off-Ride Footage
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A New Look For The Castle Disneyland
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Disney World Vlog Day 13 Part 2!
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Disneyland Paris 25th Vlog 1!
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Rope Drop Disneyland With A View At The Hub
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Expedition Everest Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
• Expedition Everest: Le...
A Walk Down Main Street USA Disneyland
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Disneyland Main Street & The Disneyland Railroad
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Pre-Opening Walk Down Main Street Disneyland
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Aerial View Down Main Street USA
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Tokyo DisneySea 2! Buffet & A Sad Fantasmic Story...
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Pandora - The World of Avatar Walk Through in the Rain
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Pandora - The World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom
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Photo Credits:
Tokyo Disney Beauty and the Beast Castle
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Sleeping Beauty Castle
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Cars Land, Disney California Adventure
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Forced Perspective Gallery
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The Parthenon
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The American Adventure Pavilion
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Serra Estrela Aerial Perspective
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Expedition Everest
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Disneyland Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle
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Tokyo Disney Cinderella Castle
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Magic Kingdom Cinderella Castle
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Enchanted Storybook Castle
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#Disney #ForcedPerspective #ArtofEngineering

[@ArtofEngineering]

Another thing that I didn’t get to in this video is the concept of apparent brightness when dealing with artificial light sources. Photons of light tend to disperse over a greater area as they move away from a light source, and apparent brightness is therefore inversely proportional to distance squared (i.e. If you have two identical lamps and you place one twice as far away as the other, then the closer one will appear 4 times brighter). This is extremely important when lighting forced perspective sets in photography and film, but it can also play a role at theme parks. For example, if a castle is supposed to appear twice as large and twice as far away, then the illuminated windows should only have 25% of their normal brightness. You can find this technique being used on the miniature Beast’s castle at night, as well as for the city lights in Peter Pan’s Flight!

[@jhey5639]

This information is so amazing, I just did a screen shot 😎🥸🤫

[@ADLUHE9]

Metric!

[@suckersklub82]

This is incorrect. Well, it's true to some degree, but you're drawing the wrong conclusions. Do I get darker when I walk away from you? Most certainly not. In your example with the lamps, they will still appear equally bright, but the closer one will occupy an apparently larger area in your field of vision. Also, you mixed up focal length and focal distance in the part about human vision. Our eyes cannot change focal LENGTH (that would literally be zooming), they just change focal DISTANCE. Focal length determines magnification, and is fixed in our eyes.

[@ArtofEngineering]

@@suckersklub82 When you're dealing with a light source (something luminous), it will appear brighter the closer it is. This is called the inverse square law of light. If you have 2 identical lamps at different distances, then the closer one will actually have a higher apparent brightness. When a person walks away from you, their brightness does not appear to change because they are being illuminated by the sun, and the change in the length of the light path from the sun to your eye is negligible since the sun is so far away. In contrast, if you shine a flashlight at a person in the dark and they walk away from you, then they will gradually appear dimmer according to the inverse square law. Regarding human vision, the contraction and relaxation of the ciliary muscles actually does change the focal length of the lens. The position of the lens remains the same relative to the retina, however the thickness of the lens changes to adjust its focal length. This is fundamentally different from a camera, which has rigid lenses that are moved closer or farther from the sensor to achieve focus.

[@suckersklub82]

@@ArtofEngineering i know what the inverse square law is, this is literally my job. But as is said, you‘re drawing the wrong conclusion from the wording of that law. A self-illuminated body does not get dimmer with distance (atmospheric effects aside).

[@MrHavoc313]

so your saying my brain can perform high levels of trig by just looking at it but when it comes to a test i dont know wtf is going lol

[@tylerschuh3420]

ikr

[@paradise_valley]

Instinct.

[@Falcon9Block5]

This!! 😂

[@SlowedSonics]

this is so much more relatable because of the improper grammar and forgotten “on” at the end 😂

[@CurtisDensmore1]

He is saying that, but it's not really true.

[@GrimwoodHollow]

Hey thank you for these kind words! I was the lead sculptor/designer of the Cars Land rockwork at Imagineering, I spent almost 4 years on this project, it was crazy! I spent a ton of time really working out the forced perspective and levels of detail, so it means so much to me to hear your appreciation of this! Thanks again, cheers!😄👍

[@MrModel--CAPTURED-ON-FILM]

I just now watched this vid, as it popped up in "Home" on my KZbin. If you worked on this at Disney, congrats! I used to work for The Muppets when Henson was still alive, up in NY. These are great experiences to carry with us for all of our lives.

[@ArtofEngineering]

Thanks for sharing! I commend your hard work and dedication to the project, it certainly paid off! I think everyone agrees that it's one of the best looking lands at Disney, which is definitely something to be proud of!

[@websterbrandcoaching9724]

I’ve taken photos there, it’s brilliant.

[@EuiHwanP]

The best land in all of Disney!

[@niedas3426]

I didn't really understand and appreciate what forced perspective truly meant until the clip from the Cars Land showed up. Just Bravo on that masterpiece.

[@matthewfair9195]

It's not Disney but I find Hogwarts at Universal to be an incredible use of forced perspective

[@roseclouds5838]

the folks that designed that place should’ve been hired immediately by disney. They really put them to shame. from concept to illusion that place is incredible disney should’ve just looked for advice from Walt’s coworkers who knew how to deal with a narcissist instead of letting that I.P go

[@connorowens6941]

Exactly what I though of

[@f3n1xplat3ad0]

@@roseclouds5838 it's easy to say so, when the Wizarding World of HP was opened in 2010. That is decades younger that some Disney's parks and lands. Also it had the advantage of knowing about most tricks in the book about force perspective. I'm a avid HP fan. I love both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade in UO.

[@roseclouds5838]

@@f3n1xplat3ad0 It feels like they can’t even recreate that atmosphere since though so have resorted to just using their reputation and IPs from media that just does hit the samw

[@pan-semitistcommunist4181]

@@roseclouds5838 you're totally right about that kind of atmospere never really being replicated anywhere else, look at Star Wars Galaxy's edge, Galaxy's Edge is great with it's super dedicated cast members and lots of lore references and all that but it's barely a patch on the complete immersion of TWWOHP. Gotta love that Endorian Tip-Yip tho.

[@ScottAtwood]

I have to agree that the rock work in Cars Land is the finest example of forced perspective of any theme park in the world. Truly amazing!

[@Isaacreeper]

As someone whose been around that scenery a lot in real life, I almost lost my mind at how amazing that shit looked at Disneyland. The ride itself was alright, but my god that scenery.

[@ffhhcffghkhffgj2388]

@@Isaacreeper fr idk how they do it so good. Same with the Star Wars land background. When u see the rocks from the outside of the park they really don’t look that big

[@GrimwoodHollow]

Hey thank you so much for these kind words! I was the lead sculptor/designer of the Cars Land rockwork at Imagineering, I spent almost 4 years on this project, it was crazy! I spent a ton of time really working out the forced perspective and levels of detail, so it means so much to me to hear your appreciation of this! Thanks again, cheers!😄👍

[@LegendBegins]

@@GrimwoodHollow I agree, the result in Cars Land is mindblowing. Fantastic work. I'm curious if you have any insight into the lifecycle of that kind of project. What was it like to be a part of, from the planning phase to implementation?

[@GrimwoodHollow]

@@LegendBegins Thanks so much LegendBegins! Well it was probably one of the most rewarding projects I’ve been part of at WDI! I was involved from very early on sculpting many different concept models, then eventually sculpting our final massive rock work model which was on display at D23 years ago! We then scanned this model to create a digital model and I again I was the lead sculptor doing all of the digital integration and re-sculpting, and eventually worked with our vendors and construction team to develop and art direct the cages that were being created from our digital model. It was a very long but amazing journey, the final product was truly breathtaking! One of my proudest moments was standing in the middle of Cars Land and just looking around at this amazing environment that I helped bring to life! Thanks again! Cheers😄👍

[@wstarkweather]

My first experience with pandora was on a very foggy day. Walking through the entrance into the land those floating mountains looked massive, and the small floating one at the top looked like it was thousands of feet up. And the waterfall at the top of the fop show building looked 50 miles away. It was a great first experience for sure.

[@kimw12394]

sounds like disney needs to get a massive fog machine

[@breck1637]

@@samharris8737 A cloudy day may have made your experience worse because you roughly know how high up the clouds are. Since the structures aren’t anywhere near cloud-level it’s immediately obvious they aren’t very large. On the other hand, fog is amorphous and obscures detail, which makes judging distances more difficult. This is a good thing when trying to trick your brain’s depth perception.

[@wesleyaitken8756]

It pales in comparison to the actual inspiration, the Chinese mountain range is breathtaking, the mountains really look like the scenes from the movie due to the clouds obscuring everything below the top 1/3 of the mountains

[@ThatPig8]

@@breck1637 this ruined the Everest illusion ever since seeing going to Juneau AK and seeing the clouds compared to mountains

[@Teag_Brohman15]

imagine if a REALLY big bird landed on The Beast's Castle... like an eagle or a heron or something like that the illusion would be completely ruined

[@SharksandDinos]

Birdzilla

[@SharksandDinos]

For real though, someone should have a Condor up there.

[@prakkerschlang7823]

Sleeping beauty has a beast?

[@prakkerschlang7823]

@Shaun McKee thought he was meaning in real life

[@cherrybomb1095]

@@prakkerschlang7823 not sleeping beauty (aurora), just beauty (belle) from beauty and the beast

[@LogicallyBlonde]

Say what you will about Beast's Castle, but I used to work at BOG and people asked how they were supposed to get up there on a daily basis

[@hornylorney8150]

Thanks for telling me I can say what I will

[@brapperdan]

When I went to Disney as a kid I wanted to go explore the castle. I thought it was a real castle. I remember being so bummed out when we got close and you just walk through it and you can tell it’s fake and small

[@irisfilmproductions]

There is a walk thru where u can "explore" the castle and go thru the story of Sleeping beauty

[@brapperdan]

IrisFilmProductions idk if there was in the early 90s when I went

[@42istheanswer23]

@@brapperdan when I went back in the '80s, there was nothing but scaffolding and plywood up top. I was in college at the time but still was so disappointed to finally walk under that Arch and look up and see... what looked like a stage set. I wish I would have gotten pictures!

[@bluesira]

@@irisfilmproductions That was only in the Tokyo castle, I believe!

[@Xiaotian88]

@@bluesira Don't know about Tokyo, but you can definitely go on a guided tour into the castle in Shanghai. There are several rooms that tell the story of sleeping beauty and you can even sit in a little courtyard at the top of the building in the end.

[@Spessforce]

The Guardians of the Galaxy drop ride in California uses a cool physical parallax illusion as the car moves up and down relative to the screen, and the screen's camera perspective also shifts up and down as the car moves to make a good illusion of depth as if you were looking through a door into a cavernous space.

[@ArtofEngineering]

Yes, that's a perfect example! Thanks for mentioning that one, I completely forgot about it!

[@spinachgreens7179]

I’ve never realized how small the castles were, as someone who has never been to one of these parks.

[@adamdavanna6229]

That was the biggest disappointment on my first trip to Disney. I come from a country which has massive castles everywhere. I walked through Cinderella’s castle in Magic Kingdom and was immediately disappointed. Is that it?

[@scottshinbaum1772]

No structure in a Walt Disney World theme park is over 200 feet tall, because by Florida law, it would be required to have a flashing red light at the top for aircraft avoidance. The closest is Expedition Everest and the Tower of Terror, both at 199 feet. Cinderella Castle is actually 189 feet.

[@irok1]

@@scottshinbaum1772 Making structures 199ft is such a Florida thing to do

[@peacefulrobin4369]

@@irok1 I didnt even know that they had the buildings exactly 199ft and I live 20 min away from disney 😂

[@ShirleyLestrade]

Yeah unless you live somewhere where castles are common which I can’t imagine are very many places the size definitely looks about what you’d expect for a castle, the castle at Disney Florida definitely looked big to me but I live in the US which of course is too young a country for castles to me of any use so I’m one of those people he mentioned where the forced perspective worked wonders

[@davidanthony8992]

I just realized that the reason why I need glasses is that my eyes failed math.

[@Hi-vf9wx]

It doesn't really works the same

[@VinnyMartello]

Haha nice

[@Narfignugan]

i have a lazy eye, and wear glasses, but these perspective tricks didn't really work on me. so are my eyes actually... really good at math?

[@r.pizzamonkey7379]

I must say, I've only ever been to Disneyland California and California Adventure but honestly I just love the little touches they include everywhere. One of my favorite that I never noticed until the last time I went a few years ago, was the brickwork at the Train Station on Main Street. The bricks actually get smaller the higher you go. I don't know if thy had to have custom bricks made just to satisfy the illusion, but hats off to you disney. The attention to detail is insane.

[@unoriented_x4957]

smh Those aren't real bricks.

[@paradise_valley]

They must just be custom made tiles

[@danopticon]

This is literally the first time I’d even _realized_ those floating Pandora structures were meant to be faraway mountains!

[@cyberstasis158]

no seriously, i went just two days ago and through this video it really made me realize. bright sunny days in Florida ruin the immersion COMPLETELY

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

That tiny Be Our Guest castle is nothing compared to the beautiful one they built for the Beast ride in Tokyo

[@JavaCake]

Ok Kim.

[@princesscadance197]

@@JavaCake, ok boomer

[@realestateunplugged6129]

Be our Guest is a a restaurant at Magic Kingdom, the New Fantasyland expansion contained two non Beauty and the Beast attractions, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Under the Sea.

[@milkyboba.2466]

@@samharris8737 PPFT-

[@stvdagger8074]

Kim your secret is out - The Ryugyong Hotel is only 22 metres tall, you just use forced perspective to make it look 330 metres high.

[@orlandoinsiders5132]

I love the Galaxy’s Edge forced prospective. They did an amazing job on making the spires by putting them on top of the ride buildings to make them look far away.

[@ArtofEngineering]

That entire land looks incredible - I can't wait to see it for myself one day!

[@paytonchung]

Some of the rock spires, which sit atop skeletal steel supports, are visible in the Google satellite view or from the Osceola/World interchange.

[@kingdonut6675]

If assassins creed has taught me anything it’s that those castles are checkpoints and there is definitely a hay stack near by

[@fredrickmcvalentine7162]

You neglected to mention my favorite forced perspective trick used in Pandora...the waterfalls in the border mountains. There is a set of three waterfalls, establishing three depth layers. In the "farthest" one, Disney actually swapped the water for a convincing wheel made to look like a waterfall. This allows them to slow the water, making its 10 foot descent take as long as a 50 foot drop, solidifying the illusion...until a seagul shows up looking like a pterodactyl!

[@BritishMetric144]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKO0pJRti55niac

[@rolfathan]

The first time I saw carsland I knew I had seen the best forced perspective ever made by humans. I knew the space they were working with, I knew exactly where the structure stops. Yet to this day, I look at it during the day, and it just looks absolutely massive. I kinda wish they had done something similar with Galaxy's Edge, where you didn't have access to a large enough portion of it that they could have pulled off the same trick. That isn't to say that galaxy's edge doesn't also have some absolutely amazing forced perspective. Just that carsland still did it, by far, the best.

[@jennycraigadventures3314]

I agree about the floating mountains. Would they have appeared more “real” if they’d been built higher and far away above the mountain range?

[@Spessforce]

I think the biggest problem is that there is no mental indication that they are "far away floating mountains" and not "big floating rocks". So your brain doesn't buy into the illusion that they are mountains and just sees them as large floating boulders above you. The backdrop decorations that are supposed to be far away floating mountains work better because of their physical distance and placement behind facades, but the "mountains" you walk around and explore don't have that benefit. It still works to an extent but I do not know how to improve it.

[@jacobremillard]

@@Spessforce yeah, we have no reference for the size, we have never seen a floating mountain, so we just assume they’re big rocks.

[@eliaspeter7689]

@@jacobremillard Honestly, I don't mind if they look only big rocks instead of mountains, they look spectecular.

[@Jabroniville]

Kind of, probably. They're so clearly connected to the ground by the "vines" and you can tell they're only a little bit above you, so they just look like floating rocks instead of mountains.

[@dudetheman3]

@@eliaspeter7689 I agree, even just a big floating rocks, it looks stunning. I remember just standing and looking around Pandora-land for quite a while. The whole ambience of that area really draws you in.

[@lydiamvaughan]

I feel like the beast castle does the opposite of what they wanted, it literally looks 5 feet tall

[@babypeach3321]

this reminds me of when my family went to disney when i was 8 and my mom saw the castle as was like "thats it? it looked so much bigger in pictures." she was definitely disappointed lmao

[@BonaparteBardithion]

My sister had the same reaction when she saw Mt. Rushmore. It is big as far as sculptors go (about 60 feet tall), but it takes up a much smaller portion of the mountain than photos indicate. They're all taken from down below and cropped close up, so the monument looks much larger than it is.

[@nunyabiznez6381]

I first learned about Disney's use of forced perspective in their parks when I visited Disney World's Magic Kingdom 40 years ago. The way I noticed was the birds would fly up and that gave me a very realistic perception of dimensions. The buildings on Main St., Cinderella's castle and the haunted mansion all used extensive forced perspective but I also noticed it later in some of the structures at EPCOT. When my mother wanted to sell her house, I used a little forced perspective to make the place feel bigger. The property was at the base of the slope of a small hill. I planted smaller plants with smaller lighter colored leaves in the back and larger plants with darker larger leaves that had more detail in the front. It took a few months for them to grow to the perfect sizes and shapes. Her property was about 9/10 of an acre but when people came at open house they were absolutely certain the property had to be way over an acre in size. Other things I did was I added several half scale fake bird houses mounted 12 feet up slightly tapered poles. They looked 20 feet up. This added the sense that the property was bigger by installing them near the back of the property. It also helped that there were pine trees closer to the house and junipers closer to the back and the junipers have far smaller leaves/needles. But the most extreme thing I did was the driveway. The driveway went from the street to about 60 feet beyond the back of the house. Originally it was a gravel driveway. It was about 20 feet wide at the street. We paved it with concrete but I tapered it so it was only 10 feet wide at the back. Then I cut lines into the concrete when it was wet to mimic bricks. At the street the bricks were standard 8" x 4" but at the back end of the driveway they were 4" x 2." I even gradually diminished the thickness of the scores between bricks going back. We ended up having to replace the siding of the house. From foundation to soffit was 10 feet. Since originally there were shakes as siding we decided to do that again only we saved money by making the shakes by hand from rough lumber using the same techniques used 200 years ago. But I made each course going up a little smaller so the first row of shakes was 12" and the last row at the top was only about 7". I also slightly tapered the shutters being slightly narrower at the top then painting grey shadows into the white frame of the windows making them seem slightly tapered. Finally we made the course of shakes much thicker at the bottom than at the top which made the bottom of the house a couple of inches wider than the top. so from the outside the house appeared to be almost two feet taller than it really was. Inside the house we tried to do this to a certain extent though it was far more difficult. One thing I did was use a finely detailed but narrow crown molding. The ceilings were really 8 feet but I was able to fool the real estate agent into thinking they were closer to 9 feet until she got out her tape measure. As an alternative to wallpaper I used stencils on the painted walls. But I made the pattern near the top with slightly smaller elements and the bottom somewhat larger ones but otherwise identical shapes. The colors at the top were slightly muted compared to the color at eye level. We added a layer of plaster (the house was all wet wall) that went thicker as it went up and I redid the trim around windows and doors so the tops were slightly narrower than the bottoms and I painted in shadows like I did out side to give the illusion of narrower windows at the top. We used similar techniques through out the house gaining between 6" and 12" in perceived height of the ceilings. Creative use of lights also helped. Using smaller more finely detailed ceiling light fixtures helped. Using slightly smaller than typical furniture helped. We staged the master bedroom with a full size instead of queen size bed. We found an old dresser that was slightly smaller than average with smaller drawers and small night stands. We filled the master closet with clothing sized for 10 year old girls and 13 year old boys including shoes. The appraisal for the house before renovations was $95,000 After renovations was $135,000 (25 years ago) Asking price was $129,950. Mom sold it for $147.500. The agent said it was due to the way we renovated the house and our excellent staging. The person who bought it was certain the house was bigger than the other one he was considering that was 400 sf larger and was priced at $150,000 According to our real estate agent, that profession has been trying to use forced perspective in staging homes for decades. I have seen a number of examples of this technique used in modern residential neighborhood for years now, especially here in Florida. many houses have tapered walls, fake second stories with half height "windows" and even tiny fake balconies to give the illusion of size and grandeur. There is a house down the street from me that uses the same technique in it's landscaping with big palm trees in the front, medium ones half way back and small ones at the real of the property. The neighborhood public pool from one side looks like a big 100 foot square but in reality one side is 100 feet, the back side is 50 feet and the other two sides taper in so the actual pool is 100 feet by 60 feet and trapezoid shaped. You of course notice as you watch people walk to the back of the pool.

[@johnw1954]

holy shit

[@64___]

Amazing

[@sequoiasprout1293]

idk man that feels a little scummy

[@358kasey]

This was really interesting

[@BonaparteBardithion]

@@sequoiasprout1293 Less so if the seller is upfront with the actual sizes to the buyer. Making a small space feel larger can be a feature, like putting mirrors in a narrow hall. Though the smaller furniture and kids clothes are definitely deceptively staged, but not surprising in that market.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Man I love DisneySea. The Chaddest of the Disney parks. I mean just look at that epic volcano

[@MasterCivilEngineering]

Yeah

[@cancelled148]

Of course you do. 😻

[@Jabroniville]

It's super rad in person.

[@roseclouds5838]

I really want to go there in the summer

[@jocylinbinkier4607]

I hope covid calms down enough i can take a trip their while i'm in Korea for the next year or so since Disney Tokyo is only a 2hr flight from there

[@DisneyParksMusic.]

A good example of motion parallax is the dioramas on the Disneyland Railroad. For example in the Grand Canyon as your moving 8 ft/per second the canyon seems to be realistic in size and depth because your eyes don’t have enough time to take in the view at your own pace. Also the animals have to be placed at a certain height or location to not break the illusion of forced perspective! Awesome video I was really impressed and amazed how great of a forced perspective master you and Disney are!!! ❤️

[@joewatts6016]

Main Street is probably my favorite. Not just the building height but its length. Walking into the park towards the castle forced perspective is used to make it look longer than it is but if you walk down the bypass street round the back its not that long in reality.

[@Ka2Fiti]

Regardless of the knowledge of the forced perspective, I have failed to take a moment to be conscious of it because of the overwhelming experience of entering the park and anticipating the day. It’s a perfect situation to fool most visitors. I’m an architectural drafter so if I were less dazzled by circumstance to take a moment it would be obvious from the vertical spacing of the windows on Main Street -that doesn’t work with floor trusses. The upper windows would be below eye level from within the building in that case. I don’t mind being tricked, though. It’s lovely to suspend disbelief and surrender to the brilliant immersion provided by the imagineers. I really enjoy your videos. Thank you so much for the effort you’ve put into them!

[@technosworld2]

Agreed with your examples, especially with Beast's castle. A few years ago, I believe it was on WDWMagic's forum, someone photoshopped the rockwork and castle a bit differently and it seemed to work a lot better...again just in the photo. I hope maybe someday they'll revisit it and somehow improve it

[@ethank4820]

From far away it looks like an actual castle thigh which is pretty cool, but close up it looks kinda dumb

[@kingposeidon4535]

As often as I've visited Animal Kingdom, it never occurred to me that those were forests on the floating mountains. I've just always assumed that they were smaller mountains with more mossy vegetation. Even when in the outside portion of the Flight of Passage queue, you can see small bat-like creatures on the backside of the mountains, providing further context into how their size is supposed to be perceived. I don't think the intention was to create giant, far away mountains, but rather a smaller cluster that has been pulled down the valley.

[@stevestolarczyk8972]

The main point to be taken from all this would seem to be that Disney sits on a throne of lies.... 🤣

[@bob_smite]

Does forced perspective effectiveness change based off of someone's height? Or is it negligible? I would think shorter people and children would have a harder time finding flaws. I wonder if the Imagineers considered that in their design

[@ketsuekikumori9145]

I think it's at least considered if not negligible. Everybody is so different that you can't really design for edge cases without messing with everyone else in the average bell curve. But this is FORCED perspective we're talking about. So the thing that is considered most and designed around is where that perspective is. Many of the rides that uses it work really well because you are forced to view it in specific ways. So those are the most controllable. Doesn't mean it can't be broken by craning your neck in just the right way or filming it at an oblique angle that ruins the illusion. Where it gets ruined the most are parks in general especially where they didn't consider how they wanted the public to interact, move, or view it in the intended way. At the same time, they have to work in the constraints of the park, with and against it. Many of the trees and other physical obstructions are there to not only guide your sightline but also block/hide certain aspects of each illusion. Some buildings don't just look smaller to sell the illusion, but are actually physically smaller because there is no need to build or are restricted in some manner. Technology Connections has a video that showcases how the Haunted Mansion is actually constructed. Some of it actually takes place underground and part of the reason is that there is a railway in the way. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGLJmK14epd5nM0

[@hedgehog3180]

I would imagine that amusement parks in general would probably mainly design around children.

[@Isaacreeper]

@@hedgehog3180 See, I think they would design based on the average human height. Even when it came to children, since the parent could just lift them up to around their eye level anyway. Even still, I think its negligible since its more about the distance from the viewer rather than the height.

[@mikecustoms]

kids are dumb so to them everything would look massive anyway

[@connorhinson5942]

I can never see the floating islands the way the imagineers wanted people too, they just don’t look convincing to me. It still looks crazy cool though.

[@AbandonedMines11]

Great, educational video! Loved it. I always find the subject of forced perspective to be interesting. This is probably the first time I’ve ever had this subject explained in a manner that was clear and understandable. Isn’t forced perspective used in the Haunted Mansion ballroom scene in the Disneyland mansion? The staircase that appears on the back wall is supposed to look further away than it really is, I think. I remember reading about this somewhere in the past. But I don’t think it’s a very good example of forced perspective. What do you think?You’ve got a great voice for narration.

[@ArtofEngineering]

Thanks so much! I'm not too familiar with that example, but I just took a look at some photos and it does seem like the staircase might be slightly smaller than normal. It would make sense to do that in order to help make the room feel bigger. It's a trick that Disney likes to use wherever they can!

[@aff77141]

Highly agreed!

[@MarceloTrindade1]

The engineering behind the scenes at Disney Parks is always a great subject for new videos! The one with the "secrets" of The Tower Of Terror attraction is also spectacular! Congratulations!

[@filmdetective]

Being Parisian, I’ve of often been to DisneyLand Paris. And what’s striking is that the castle appears as a towering structure over the whole park, but when you really come up to it (and I mean, only within 100feet) you realize it’s actually about 150feet tall which is in actuality, minuscule, for the visual impact it has from anywhere in the park

[@gameplayxtreme3389]

Paris' Big Thunder Mountain has some amazing forced perspective. Every tree is really small (and usually actually a type of bush), but everything looks big, even when you see a train going around it. It's only when the ride is evacuated and you see humans standing up when the effect is ruined.

[@stevethepocket]

It probably helps that the train itself is smaller than we think of trains as being (although probably just about right for a mine train).

[@sydney5225]

The Peter Pan ride is one of my favorite examples of forced perspective in the parks, I’m glad it got a little shoutout! I feel like the slow ride and storytelling over nighttime London is very immersive! But I also just love Peter Pan so I’m biased lol

[@puppy7505]

DCA's Car's Land takes the cake. It is so easy to get completely caught up that you are in a whole new world when in that land. The "reveal" coming thru the arch from the Pacific Warf entrance is mind blowing.

[@joshuapowers4623]

Whenever I come across videos like this I'm unable to stop myself from wondering how people like flat earthers respond to stuff like this.

[@Insertnamesz]

I've heard of angular forced perspective over and over before due to it's application in films, but your points about the colour gradients changing with height and the disney-specific slowly shrinking tiered floors were really cool! Good video.

[@huhneat1076]

10:14 In the line for Space Mountain last time I went, there were screens with stars on them that move backwards slightly as you move forwards, simulating parallax.

[@cancelled148]

Me: Watches this video. My brain: Ima head out.

[@lostindixie]

Having lived in Europe, I have seen a number of real castles and villages. Visiting Disney World, the structures were noticeably "off;" now I know why. For my Disney fanatic daughter-in-law, however, that is the charm. It is like a miniature Dickens Village.

[@darshies10]

I wish you touched up on this but my favorite forced perspective example is the fake waterfalls in Pandora. On the facade wall, from a certain angle u can see really far, slow moving waterfalls which look incredible but they are really just carved wheels spinning. I believe there’s a zoomed in video on KZbin

[@Jabroniville]

Yeah, that's a fun thing- I never noticed they were fake while I was at Pandora. I didn't quite buy their forced perspective there, though, because it was so constrained instead of a sprawling vista like it was supposed to be. I could physically tell those mountains were very close to me.

[@JessieEchidna]

I can 100% imagine motion parallax being used in a ride like the haunted mansion, because guests pass through rooms at a fixed speed from a fixed perspective, the rest of the room can be made to match fractions of that speed based on their intended perceived distance, with the farthest props moving at nearly the same rate as the riders and the closest props not moving at all. I think it isn't used because in an enclosed space like that, you'd end up having to move walls and floors as well to really sell that illusion, and it wouldn't be able to reset fast enough for the next riders to come through...

[@craezee]

I love Cars Land. the rocks look so good and makes the experience more immersive.

[@kyle18269]

You know when you have a question, but you can’t figure out how to ask the question? This video answered my questions I’ve had about Disney and how they make their parks so immersive. Awesome video dude.

[@jackdispennett744]

Disney®: "Look how tall I can build this princess castle!!!" Catholics building a basilica in honor of the Virgin Mary: "Hold my beer...."

[@dylandowling8133]

Can we hear more about Ariel's perspective? She seemed to get cut off at 9:07!

[@ryateo1]

There is something so genuine about how well they trick your perspective. I enjoy it so much.

[@ZenKimchi]

The Eiffel Tower at EPCOT's France pavilion. That was the first example I noticed as a child and got me looking for more examples.

[@AtariTheAnimator]

Yea if you look on google earth it’s actually placed on top of one of the showrooms

[@ebx100]

What an incredible video. The information is presented in a way that is useful to a layman as well as a physicist or engineer. I love to play with perspective by changing the focal length of the lens on my camera. After watching this video I now have more tools in my arsenal. Thanks so much!

[@figgeldorpe1053]

When render distance is replaced by accurately simulated Rayleigh scattering, a new era of video games shall be born.

[@theblah12]

You know that's already a thing right? Many modern engines like UE4 already use Rayleigh scattering for their sky and cloud systems. UE4's new Sky Atmosphere system even simulates the curvature of the earth.

[@sammylane21]

Perception and Parallax Scrolling. Two of the best uses of and funest Practical Math.

[@eyeballgrocery]

This is so cool, I only knew about the way size was manipulated--the other methods are super interesting. One instance you didn't mention is the Snow White & 7 dwarves statues at the grotto by Sleeping Beauty's Castle in CA. The story i heard was that a European company sent Walt stone figures of the characters, but they made Snow White the same height as the dwarves, which would obviously look incorrect. Still, they wanted to use the statues in the park, so the Imagineers placed her higher so she wouldn't look so small. I find that to be an interesting moment of problem-solving using forced perspective.

[@durden215]

Those statues were based on a decorative soap set. The person who made them hadn't seen the film, so the soap set was the only reference they had. Which is why they were all made the same size. But yes, the forced perspective really does help in that case.

[@raphaelfk_]

I absolutely love the Cinderella’s castle use of it, and also Cars land is fenomenal in my opinion

[@monsterguyx6322]

This was my first viewing of your content, and I was very impressed with this video. Informative and clearly articulated.

[@realfsla]

This channel is so underrated

[@beast123465]

I saw Pandora back in 2019 for the first time and it BLEW my mind away. Idk how people don’t see the forces perspective. That floating rock looks HUGE. Got my picture in front of it from a couple of different spots and it always looks crazy big. So cool to see.

[@Submersed24]

I've always noticed that disney parks really shine above others in how immersive they feel. Nothing ruins a theme park more than seeing a highway or parking lot

[@JamesGOfficial]

Idk why this was on my recommendation page but I watched this whole thing and learned a lot. Oddly thank you

[@tmlmusic8146]

You’ve explained these concepts really well thanks to your diagrams,and the real life connection we all have to disney really drives the point home. Excellent video which was both education and entertaining!

[@YusufGinnah]

Brilliant video. Lots of work put into it and perfect explanations for all the examples. Thank you... Instant sub. 😎👍🏼

[@TrateMusic]

I was really surprised by the way they achieved the look in Cars land. I knew what I was looking for to break the illusion before we went, but try as i might the illusion stayed fast. Super well done

[@MollyTheLag]

7:30 many shooting ranges actually slope the walls/boundaries to add extra shooting lanes while keeping a relatively open field of fire for the shooters.

[@tiedyedowl8367]

I actually understood what you were talking about. I’ve always been terrible at science and math so that’s huge for me. This was great, really interesting, well described. Thank you!

[@Nova3674]

Wonderful and in depth video as are all your others. As a designer in the industry, these are all important techniques (along with others) used consistently to play with guest's mind. I tend to play with the scale of textures of surfaces as well when playing with forced perspective. Beast's castle at Tokyo Disneyland surprisingly didn't do this on its fortress walls at its base. It plays with the vanishing lines of the wall's edges, but it doesn't scale the stone pattern texture down as the wall's edges skew faster towards the forced vanishing point. I also appreciate you pointing out the issues with Expedition Everest and Pandora. Everest is a good example of what happens when you're asking a guest to believe that the mountain they are looking at is the tallest in the world, which can cause the brain to work harder to verify the truth of the statement. Additionally, the truss bridge of the lift hill with its massive vehicles, rising into the snow capped peaks of the mountain really breaks the illusion, unlike its Matterhorn counterpart which leaves the coaster to the lower half of the mountain generally away from the snowy areas and iconic shape of its peak. Also, not sure if you ever noticed, but my favorite instance of forced perspective (more so from a creative stand point), is the fake waterfalls of Pandora on the show building where the rock arches are. If you look closely, there are rotating wheels with a texture that gives the appearance of moving water when spinning, to create the illusion of thin waterfalls, falling over large distances. The slow rotation of the wheel makes the fake waterfall appear to be very far away by making it look like the water is falling across a larger distance since its taking longer for it to cover said distance. Its a VERY subtle effect worth noting for its use of movement to play with perspective ;)

[@Nova3674]

You can find a video of the Pandora Waterfall perspective gag here kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnTSm5uLZriFarc

[@ArtofEngineering]

Thanks for providing some of your own insight into the subject! I really like your way of explaining the problem with pushing the scale too far on Expedition Everest. I discovered the waterfall trick in Pandora about a year or two ago, but I completely missed it the first time I visited in person. Most people probably won't notice it unless they know it's there, but it is still really effective in completing the illusion of the distant landscape. I think that's what makes it such a great example.

[@chrisd2646]

I've only just discovered your channel, but think your videos are really excellent - I hope you will be uploading some more in the near future!

[@NikaHarper]

In California Adventure park, if you walk all the way through Hollywood Land next to the Hyperion, there is a forced perspective alleyway in full view, you can kinda jump around in it. I love it being so blatant as a nod to 'movie magic,' it sits at an important corner of the street traffic, directly accessible, and my FAVORITE part is there's a blue painted "sky" which rarely ever matches sky it meets with. We're being let in on the trick, thanks Imagineers!

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

11:50 - Damn. Cars Land is amazing. Sadly, the last time I went to Disney was literally the weekend before they opened Cars Land, so I haven't gotten to see it in person. But even though I *KNEW* it was "all nearby", in your video, it was absolutely convincing until the moment the waterfall appears and my brain had a paradox shock "that can't be right, that waterfall looks small and close."

[@zacsstevens]

I personally had a “wow” moment when walking into cars land for the first time. Fantastic!

[@BaronBoar]

I agree so much about cars land at DCA. That radiator springs ride area really does give a good sense of depth. I loved it.

[@eduardonotrispe9091]

Great Video! Had no idea of how much the forced perspective could impact our perception! It was an amazing lesson also! Thanks a lot!

[@DavidMcCoul]

Great video! Love how you brought up convergence, accommodation, parallax, and scattering.

[@s4turn444]

that’s why everything seems a little bit off at disney

[@MrModel--CAPTURED-ON-FILM]

Thanks for tagging my posts to your vid. I sincerely hope you do more of these, they are soooo well done.

[@baym73]

Fantastic video! I find that the Pandora illusion is easily broken when you see the backside of it when you drive to the entrance of the park.

[@4KWDW]

Phenomenal video man! Extremely detailed and so well done. I learned so much from this! Thanks for letting me be a part of it😃

[@terryanngallagher3605]

Great video, now that I'm 68! I first saw the Disneyland castle in 1956, when it was very new. I was too, at age four! I thought the castle was incredible, magical & massive. I was ten when I first walked under it and realized with great disappointment that the tunnel was super short, revealing the castle's actual size , with no "surrounding wall" or in-between yard. I went through a few times to confirm. Then I got really mad! I felt tricked, fooled--& forced the thoughts out of my mind to preserve the magic I have felt there all my life. Interesting video, for sure! Thanks!

[@awookieandagerman]

Big props for including Borromini’s forced perspective at the Palazzo Spada.

[@ageandtreachery]

In total agreement about Carsland.... was completely blown away with the believability of the forced perspective of the mountains...truly well done

[@ErikMoad]

When I visited Pandora I was really impressed by the floating mountains. Seeing them in videos does them absolutely no justice to seeing them in real life.

[@susanowen1709]

What a great video! You've done a wonderful job keeping it both educational and interesting. I knew Disney used varying scales on their buildings on Main Street & the princess castles, but the tricks of color and detailing were entirely new to me. You left off my favorite one - the figurines at Snow White's Grotto in Disneyland. It's hard to believe that they're all the same height; Snow looks so much taller than the Dwarfs! (PS - thank you for leaving the paid promo until the end. It's so jarring when they're in the middle of a video & I'm guaranteed to skip them when they are. At the end, though, I have no problem letting the ad run since the story is finished.)

[@theflutefreak]

On the subject of Cars land, there's one size reference Disney can't control - seagulls often land on the rock formations and show you just how small the rocks actually are!

[@Boiler98]

My 5-yo son is blind in one eye. I came here just to enjoy a video around forced perspective, but got a fantastic lesson in how he actually perceives and copes in his environment! A great video!

[@verdantmischief7092]

The thing I love about Disney parks is that they really are meticulously crafted to be enjoyable to just walk around in

[@brandonpiazza6210]

I’ve always thought Beast’s Castle looked embarrassing! I’d almost rather see them eliminate it! Are there any plans to fix this atrocious mistake!??? Great video! Will definitely subscribe! Keep up with the Disney Park content! Cheers friend!

[@NichaelCramer]

A friend, who works in “Human Factors” psychology, took his kids to Disney World, and he was really impressed at how the rides used a similar sort of “perception engineering” to “enhance” the rider’s experience. A couple things he mentioned: - Much of your sense of motion comes from things you see passing by in your peripheral vision. Many of the rides that, for example, passed through a tunnel, would have lights along the side so they were primarily visible in your perceptual vision. The lights could then be flashed in sequence, the net result was that your “perceived speed” was much higher than you were actually moving. - The seats, into which the riders were strapped, would subtly tilt back/forward at appropriate times. This would tend to fool the balance mechanism in the inner ear so that your perception was that you were on a much steeper slope than you actually were.

[@MattMcIrvin]

Space Mountain is quite slow as roller coasters go--its maximum speed is 27 mph, but it seems much faster. The near-total darkness in the show building makes it hard to tell how fast you're going, but one way they sell the illusion is just to blow fans at the riders at various points, to make it feel as if you've got a breeze from traveling at great speed. And the "energy tunnel" leading up to the lift hill, which is one of the slowest parts of the ride, is filled with those flashing sequence lights to create an exciting effect that probably increases the perceived speed as well.

[@churchofmarcus]

Great introduction to your channel. I shall be check out some more of your videos. This was great!

[@195511SM]

Last spring, I saw a video on some helicopter pilot's channel. The guy did a flyover of the L.A. area.......during the pandemic shutdown. He obtained special permission to conduct a slow & relatively low pass over Disneyland. The place looked remarkably small & compact from above. I wish I could remember the name the dude's channel.

[@deeznuts23yearsago]

I was in Disney from the 11th of may to this morning and the buildings I saw in there truly tricked my mind I thought I would never be tricked by it as it seemed simple but being there in person just worked and made me feel like it was real

[@CiderDivider]

I'm going to keep it honest today... your descriptions of math and science were so brutally simplified that it made me aware of too much.

[@MrModel--CAPTURED-ON-FILM]

This presentation was truly enjoyable. It was while I was an architecture student when I learned how Le Corbu (Le Corbusier), when he was a cubist painter as a young man, went to Athens Greece, and stayed up at the Acropolis, I believe for weeks - even sleeping there at night, to study it. To study its 'perspective' and form. I would learn that it was that experience which would have him change his career when approaching mid-life to become an architect. Not just any architect, but "Le Corbu". If you decide to make more videos - and I think this one is wonderful, something that can even be used to teach children - perhaps you might want to travel to foreign lands, to study 'how the ancients' did this so very long ago, and why.

[@josejimenez896]

THIS is what is magic to me. Others love feeling the magic and being 'fooled'(I wouldn't say in a negative context though. We all escape in some way) Learning how that magic is made, how that magic works, that's what excites me.

[@quickclipsbyjmj]

This is my favourite technique used by Disney. Used most effectively on Main Street - looking long from the town square and shorter from Central Plaza. I learned that fact in 1990

[@AlextheHistorian]

This was fantastic! Great job!

[@PorchPotatoMike]

Hi, Alex!

[@AlextheHistorian]

@@PorchPotatoMike howdy!

[@beanmansam2630]

I’ve learned more in watching this guy for an hour than 11 years of school

[@relax9309]

Very informative video. Had to sub, I ended up binge-watching a bunch of your videos. lol

[@nickmagz941]

I haven't gone through too many comments, but none that I saw addressed how Disney's target audience is children; many of these illusions are even more effective for a less developed brain which is on top of a body that is shorter in stature. Children not only lack full development of areas of the brain associated with cognitive functioning, but they also have taken in much less data to be integrated to improve their perspective of distance (which is manipulated by these illusions). In other words, since kids are younger (have been living a smaller amount of time) they have had less experience with visual stimuli that help them accurately judge distance of objects. Instead of continuing a semi-manic rant about the neurocognitive development of children, I will just say that these illusions are that much stronger for children, who in the end, are the target audience. Brilliant work on the part of the 'imagineers'.

[@MattMcIrvin]

I think one of the reasons the Main Street buildings at Disneyland are scaled as small as they are is to make them more inviting for kids to see, not too overwhelming. Of course the one at Magic Kingdom is built on a much visually larger scale.

[@skylarg5233]

in terms of the forced perspective with pandora, i knew it was supposed to look different ig. i’ve also seen avatar so i was familiar with the world, but i gotta admit, when i was in pandora i had NO clue that the floating mountains were supposed to be mountains. i honestly just saw it and was like “oh floating stuff, that’s cool”. it didn’t look like any type of mountains from the movie to me at all, but now that you mentioned it i see what they meant