Concept Art + Theme Park Design

http://fengzhudesign.blogspot.sg/

Veteran concept artist and Founding Director of the FZD School of Design, Feng Zhu, recently posted some student work focusing on theme park design.

I would encourage everyone to view the collection over at Feng's FZD Blog as well as the student work posted from other class projects.

One of the many benefits of an art and design learning environment is the access to the work other students are doing. While attending RCAD, I never missed a chance to visit the glass cases just outside the Illustration Department classrooms where student project work was displayed throughout each semester. Not only does the exercise of viewing student work help you refine your critical eye and glean ideas about process and media, but you also typically get to see many varied interpretations of the same basic idea behind all of the designs.

Spend some time looking at student work today. From anywhere. It will be worth it!

-DLA

The meaning of 'attraction'

Dark ride attractions have a long history and a wide existence. From the county fair haunted house to Pirates of the Caribbean, they somehow fascinate us at almost any age.

One dark ride in particular had a truly profound impact on its audience. Even now, almost 15 years after its retirement, there is no shortage of tribute websites and other online media dedicated to preserving the experience that was Horizons.

Readers can easily find plenty of material on the history and operation of Horizons. I wouldn't even attempt to do it justice in a few paragraphs of a blog article. Aside from that, sadly, I was never able to experience the attraction for myself. My first visit to Epcot was in 2005 and Mission: SPACE had already occupied that footprint for about five years by then.

However, I do want to point out one example of just how meaningful this attraction was and is to some of those who did experience it first-hand.

At Horizons Resurrected, designer Chris Wallace has shouldered the massive undertaking of recreating the attraction in interactive 3D. Though still in-progress, the latest simulation is worth the time and effort of downloading the free Unity browser plug-in and exploring what Chris has modeled so far (complete with in-ride audio!).

Knowing from personal experience just how much time must be invested in a 3D modeling and rendering project such as this, there is no way it would even be attempted unless there was a tremendous love for the subject matter.

This is the kind of creativity and drive a well-themed attraction can inspire in anyone who truly appreciates how it tells its story. To some it is "just a ride." But to others, it's the better part of a childhood, an anchor to which countless memories are tied, or better yet an experience that reaches into your soul and moves you to create something else on your own.

Think about that the next time you're at a theme park, or museum, or art gallery. Take a moment and really look at everything around you and try to understand your own unique experience of it.

You may be surprised at the level of meaning it has for you.

-DLA

Get some perspective...

Any good sketch or drawing, particularly visualization of space, relies on the artist having a solid understanding of perspective.

Working with 3D applications like Sketchup or 3DS Max eliminates the need to manually walk through the steps of setting up accurate perspective every time, but this should never be an excuse for any 3D artist to lack the fundamental skills of basic and even some advanced perspective.

I highly recommend the three-volume series Fundamentals of Perspective by Gary Meyer, available from The Gnomon Workshop.

  

In this series, Gary Meyer walks you through the step-by-step process of creating accurate one, two, and three-point perspective. All of these approaches are crucial to creating concept art, as well as other types of illustration.

Professionally mastered tutorial videos tend to be a little pricey, especially for young artists, but if you're serious about learning to draw or (like me) improving the skills you already have, these are worth the investment.

Another good resource is the book Vanishing Point: Perspective for Comics From the Ground Up by Jason Cheeseman-Meyer. Although geared toward comic art, this book covers more advanced four and five-point curvilinear perspective. It is available from Amazon in both print and digital editions.

And no, I don't get kickbacks from either Amazon or The Gnomon Workshop for promoting these two resources. They're both just great places to start if you need a tighter grasp of perspective.

-DLA

Welcome to the Blue Grid Studio Blog!

The Blue Grid Studio Blog is an extension of bluegridstudio.com. Though historically my blogging efforts have been spotty at best, here I hope to develop a readership by not only posting the occasional interesting project or exercise, but also through becoming a resource for items relevant to the areas of design on which I am using BGS to focus: concept design and development, visualization, and themed design.

Blue Grid Studio is the next incarnation of my old freelance practice which started before I was even out of art school many years ago. Back then, I took on a wide variety of projects just to get the work and build a professional portfolio. That approach resulted in my work falling into more than half a dozen different categories, in some of which I had no real formal training or practical experience, making me a proverbial Jack of All Trades and Master of None.

I am still by no means a master of anything, but I have worked professionally in concept design and visualization for several years and maintain the passion that guided me back to college to re-tool for a more creative and enjoyable career.

I have been around the block a few times now, but I still love to design and discover new things in existing design. That is what I am looking to share here.

So, on behalf of Blue Grid Studio, I invite you to check in periodically and see what's going on in this particular world of design.

-DLA