The Lost Voyage of Amazonia: Concept Proposal
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Concept Proposal A Senior Project presented to The Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies Advisory Board California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo On June 9, 2011 In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirement for degree in Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies By: Eric Davis Ryan Inouye Abstract Every year, Walt Disney Imagineering, the creators of the Disney theme parks, holds a competition called ImagiNations, where college students around the world design attractions to fit into the Disney theme park brand. To be successful in this competition, participants must be able to seamlessly mesh creative and technical elements. As students in the Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies (LAES) program, we felt that ImagiNations was a perfect way to showcase our talents in a major that combines both engineering and the arts. We then set about to create "The Lost Voyage of Amazonia," a fast-paced, hair-raising river adventure through the Amazon jungle. From our research on South American folklore, we created a deep, complex story that complemented our innovative ride system. We looked at new technologies not presently seen at any theme park attraction such as hypersonic sound. Keywords: Walt Disney Imagineering, ImagiNations, theme park attraction design ii Acknowledgements Thank you to Walt Disney Imagineering for considering our concept proposal for ImagiNations. Thank you to Douglas Smith for assistance in creating the queuing simulation model. Thank you to Dr. Michael Haungs for your input and suggestions in our initial concept. Thank you to Sterling Rose for visually brining our concept to life. Thank you to Dr. David Gillette for your knowledge and guidance in helping us see the project to fruition. iii Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................iii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 1 Background ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Walt Disney Imagineering ....................................................................................................................... 1 ImagiNations ........................................................................................................................................... 1 The Story: The Lost Voyage of Amazonia .................................................................................................... 2 Research Behind the Story .......................................................................................................................... 3 Story Research ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Disney Theme Park Research .................................................................................................................. 6 How it Works .............................................................................................................................................. 7 Queue ..................................................................................................................................................... 7 Preshow ................................................................................................................................................ 10 Ride ....................................................................................................................................................... 11 Real World Limitations .............................................................................................................................. 13 Capacity ................................................................................................................................................ 13 Guest Restrictions ................................................................................................................................. 16 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 17 What We learned ...................................................................................................................................... 18 Eric Davis ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Ryan Inouye .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Appendix A: Project Charter ....................................................................................................................... A Appendix B: Statement of Work ................................................................................................................. B Appendix C: Spring Progress Report ........................................................................................................... E Appendix D: The Lost Voyage of Amazonia: Treatment ............................................................................. F Appendix E: Character Back Stories ............................................................................................................. I Appendix F: Queue Layouts ......................................................................................................................... J Appendix G: Queuing Simulation Statistics .................................................................................................. L Appendix H: Ride Capacity Spread Sheet ................................................................................................... M iv Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ N v List of Figures Figure 1: Archibald Wellington ................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 2: Itapallu ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 3: Courtyard Concept Art ................................................................................................................. 7 Figure 4: Laboratory Concept Art ................................................................................................................ 9 Figure 5: Greenhouse Concept Art .............................................................................................................. 9 Figure 6: Ghost of Archibald Concept Art ................................................................................................. 10 Figure 7: Ride Vehicle Concept Art ........................................................................................................... 12 Figure 8:Queue System Logical Model ...................................................................................................... 14 Figure 9: Queue System Simulation .......................................................................................................... 14 Figure 10: Queue System Simulation Running .......................................................................................... 15 List of Tables Table 1:Ride System Decision Matrix ........................................................................................................ 11 vi Introduction Every year, Walt Disney Imagineering hosts a collegiate design competition called ImagiNations. For this competition, teams design some aspect of a Disney theme park; for example, an attraction, parade, or restaurant. The authors of this report decided to compete in this competition as fulfillment of the senior project requirement for graduation. To be successful in this competition, participants must be able to combine artistic and technical elements seamlessly to make their design worthwhile, which we believe, Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies (LAES) has prepared us for. Using what we learned from education and experience, we designed an attraction concept for a Disney theme park that has a deep, engaging story and is technologically revolutionary. Background Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) is the arm of the Walt Disney Company that dreams, designs, and creates just about every aspect of the Disney "theme parks, resorts, cruise ships, and other entertainment venues" (The Imagineers) around the world. Imagineering, the word itself, is a combination of the words imagination and engineering, which are the two fields WDI embodies. As Walt Disney said, "We call it Imagineering - the blending of creative imagination with technical know-how." (Kurtti). ImagiNations