THEME PARK 101 - Quarantine Edition - Designing a Dark Ride

This is a little project I have been working on while diligently sticking to "stay-at-home" orders. The intent was to build a fictional dark ride for the purpose of writing a series of Blog articles documenting the process but then I thought it might be just as easy to vlog the process. Here is where the project currently is, have a look and please comment below, I would love to hear your feedback.
Music by Cullen Vance, follow him on Spotify at:
open.spotify.com/artist/7z4fA...
Software used so far:
SketchUp
Enscape (SketchUp extension)
Photoshop
Procreate on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil
After Effects
Premiere Pro

[@dougyeager6812]

Having worked for Disney Attractions for 9 years, I can honestly say that I found this enjoyable

[@quitchesters]

I can't say that this type of design work is something that I've considered before, but I'm so glad to have come across this video. Absolutely lost my mind at your physical model, it's so cool. Thank you for the video and for detailing your thought process throughout the whole thing, it's given me a lot to think about!

[@VideoGamePhilosopherShorts]

Imagine if Disney or another park built like ten tracks like this and then switched out or replaced the rides on a rotating basis! So that different artists could always be switching them around!?

[@jacquesca]

I think it would also be nice to have a pumpkin spice smell, maybe near the pies!

[@DJCarsonCreative]

El Sanchez OH you know it will!! ;)

[@KnottsBear-yTalesPreserved]

So like the Boysenberry smell in Knott's Bear-y Tales. Great idea! Scents are the best element in a Dark Ride.

[@DigitalJediMaster]

So, yeah. I'm going to give this a shot.

[@darkridearts]

This and the Alice in Wonderland videos have really given me a lot of inspiration and motivation. I’m extremely excited to try bringing my designs to 3D like this. Thank you for documenting all the steps and sharing this with us.

[@i_am_bored2400]

Really cool design, very inspired by your work 😊

[@Karalora]

I think the "vintage Halloween" theme really works in favor of a simplified portable dark ride because early dark rides came from the same era and have much the same aesthetic. I've seen vintage Halloween toys that were basically jointed cardstock puppets of pumpkin-headed people and similar, and that would be dead easy to translate into a simple animatronic figure made of relatively flat parts.

[@marksmith4512]

AMAZING!

[@Rudeboxx88]

Amazing! 😍😍😍 congrats

[@Zapinc9]

What a wealth of information! Thank you

[@jacquesca]

Everything about this is great! Thanks Don!

[@joyflowers6693]

This is definitely one of the most amazing and incredible videos I have ever watched. To see you move from vision to reality (digitally and on paper) is phenomenal. Now I'm going to see if I can find your latest version.

[@yourroyalkyness5348]

Thank you for the amazing showcase! My friend and I are developing an attraction this summer and this has given us a great insight into the design process used by talented professionals like you.

[@taina313]

this is amazing

[@spando621]

I love following your blog. Amazing design work! and so generous with your process. Thank you! I totally want to see this in VR!

[@MMJohn247]

Outstanding

[@WestonHouseOfficial]

This videos is awesome I love it

[@ComedyJakob]

I absolutely love your artwork. These characters embody the spirit of Halloween so very well. They're very Autumn without being overtly scary. I think this would do a wonderful job of giving kids a fun Halloween experience. Thanks for showing us.

[@florianplack2973]

This is definitely one of my favourite videos on KZbin so far! It’s fascinating seeing the work process of such an attraction. Thank you so much for sharing!

[@Redemtor62]

It's so great to see all the considerations of the practicalities that goes into building something like this. - And how to overcome it. It’s not “just” making something that looks nice! :)

[@DJCarsonCreative]

Søren Bech Jensen - Thanks Søren! So nice to hear from you! This all goes back to the promise we saw in those early Marathon 3D levels we were building on our Macs!

[@Redemtor62]

@@DJCarsonCreative Yes :)

[@audofit]

Wow, this was so informative! I'm learning how to design theme parks right now. Thanks for explaining!

[@lucassteadman]

This is awesome! thanks so much for sharing.

[@spencerkioki9684]

honestly, the best video on youtube. thank you so much for teaching and inspiring us. just amazing ❤️

[@krishellehardson-hurley8043]

This is truly amazing! I aspire to do this work and will be using this as inspiration to start working on my own models! Thank you for showing your process to help me get started!

[@rachelutzig1959]

Thank you so much for putting in the time and effort to show all your steps. It's invaluable to someone who is trying to learn about ride design. Your art is absolutely charming and the process of seeing the ride come together is like all the fun of riding it, times 10! :D

[@kevinbarbee5144]

Lovely, charming, heartwarming. Great tour through your design process - very inspirational!

[@corinneantonelli586]

Love this Don!

[@xiaox3410]

This is really awesome, I found it both inspiring and informative! Thank you for sharing it. Please keep posting more about your process!

[@Mimi-cd2bp]

Holy crap this is so amazing to see your thinking and the process to creating it!!!

[@saxman868]

Thank you for sharing. This was a great overview of your process. The results are fantastic!

[@rachelman19]

Big thanks for sharing!! I'm watching it, in the case of my homework. I wash to do a great job after the video. Thank you again.

[@GeorgeStreicherMusic]

This is so cool!!

[@emishiba]

Thank you SO MUCH! This is a brilliant resource, I'll be using it with my TEA University Club!

[@cupajoe99]

Really cool video! I'm a 3D artist and have always been curious in how theme park attractions are designed. This really gives me "Monster Plantation" vibes.

[@Zamarae]

Did you hear about the Storyland Studios ride design contest? Deadline is June 4th 2021

[@ryanbanfield9254]

Thank you Don for sharing this. It is so informative and inspirational to me since I am currently completing my bachelors in Game Art and Development towards becoming a theme park designer.

[@Triforce15Bearer]

Hi Ryan! I hope to study game art too, I'll be transferring soon. As someone near the end of your bachelors, what would you say are some of the real similarities between game art and themed design? I think as VR becomes more and more accessible, we'll see a lot of the ideas used in dark ride design slowly transfer into game/level design as well. :0

[@theronlanghorne6673]

I love everything about this! I would love to put one of my projects in Sketch up like this and walk around it! Did you do the walk thru in both Sketch Up and Enscape? I need to relearn how to do Sketch Up, but I've never heard of Enscape. Is it difficult to learn? I love how modern technology is so accessible in terms of making our ideas come to life in a virtual environment.

[@traincrossing9]

Enscape is very easy to learn, it's basically a render engine that supports multiple design programs. You can use a keyboard, video game controller, or VR to walk/fly through environments easily. In addition to rendering pictures and videos you can also perform sun studies if the design program supports location info.

[@abdullahquadri]

This video is amazing at so many levels. 👏👏. I am an architect and i design entertainment centers. I am surely gonna try something like this in future.

[@sarad3669]

This is so amazing! I have a quick question, what device do you use enscape and the vr on? Is it your computer, iPad, phone, etc.?

[@remlya]

Really enjoyed watching the whole design process. Could have been twice as long and I think it would have been captivating. Love those colors. Too bad Enscape is so expensive for hobby users but there are other options.

[@trsauvola]

Hi Don, We didn't really get to meet while I was at Hettema (I hoping to be back there soon), but thanks so much for posting this video and taking the time to share your knowledge. I'm extremely interested in working on dark rides/ attractions, but haven't had the chance yet, so this is a great way to try stuff out on my own. It will be a nice little sweetener to the portfolio. Thanks again!

[@DJCarsonCreative]

Thank you Teena, sorry we missed meeting when you were at Hettema, do please seek me out next time you are at THG and I am down for a visit!

[@odn4502]

I'd love to work on something like this, In London Hyde park they have a winter wonderland every year I always wished there was an autumn/halloween one as well

[@Dinker27]

23:29--I'm having war flashbacks from rendering toy boats in TrueSpace. 😭

[@johnathanfrench7207]

The Wonderful World Of Oz Theme Park Resorts Needs your Help

[@jesternario]

You are going to find this weird, but I am watching this to give me ideas for the video game Parkitect.

[@DJCarsonCreative]

That is great! These principles work no matter whether the environment is destined to be physical or virtual.

[@josiahbrown9128]

I love the sketchbook! Are you coloring them with markers?

[@DJCarsonCreative]

Yes, often the color is first, just a rough "squash shape" then the black line comes last.

[@charlesstockman6370]

I love this project. How did you render the 360 video for uploading to KZbin? I'm using Enscape in Sketchup, but it only seems to let me render single panoramas. If I export an animation from Enscape it's not 360.

[@DJCarsonCreative]

I brought the model into Unity, applied a 360 camera to the vehicle model and the ran the whole thing on a spline “track”. Pretty easy to do, the output was what you see in the VR KZbin video.

[@charlesstockman6370]

@@DJCarsonCreative Thanks for the reply! I haven't used Unity but will go check it out. My son is crazy for dark rides. We have Oculus Go goggles and he's watched Pumpkin Town dozens of times. Now we are working on his own simple ride in Sketchup.

[@rikvasquez2390]

Hi Don. Thank you for your videos. How do you spell the "old school" camera you mentioned in 16:02 Thank you.

[@DJCarsonCreative]

I don't know the product name, we just called it the "lipstick camera" because it was about the size of a lipstick but with a fat cable that connected to a nearby Video Recorder. The quality was awful but we felt like we were living in the future when we used it back in 1991.

[@TheErniesbox]

Is this real