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Industry Event- IAAPA Attractions Expo

A few weeks ago, I attended the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo in Orlando, Florida. This event is basically a massive convention, trade show, and networking event all in one for the theme park and attractions industry. Everyone from the CEOs of massive roller coaster companies to owners of small arcades attend this event, and even people like me of course.

There are so many incredible technologies on display here, such as the latest and greatest in VR, full ride simulators, and even a British robot that you could hold a full conversation with. I was particularly excited to visit and talk with companies who have done work with Disney, such as Birket Engineering, Aerophile S.A.S, Dynamic Dark Rides, and Doppelmayr Garaventa Group.

There was also an awesome AR/Projection mapping experience which was found in the form of an interactive sandbox. The projector was overhead pointed down onto the sandbox and you were invited to dig and create piles and alter the landscape of the sand, and that caused the projected landscape to change in real time. I considered the possibility of implementing something using technology like this into my project, but realized that my current goals are already extremely high, so this may be a bit too much at this point.

Another very exciting part of the expo was the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) mixer which I was able to attend thanks to my employment with SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment through Sesame Place. I was able to talk to and network with people from Universal Creative, Nickelodeon Universe, and even Walt Disney Imagineering. I discussed my thesis project with some of these people and received very positive feedback and some good advice. The positive feedback from these individuals that I aspire to work with one day made me even more excited to continue to work on my project and to make it as perfect as I possibly can. It was suggested that for stability and consistency of my projection alignment on such a small scale, I use short throw projectors attached to braces that hold them in place, and build a housing for them to keep them from being eyesores. This suggestion absolutely changed the way that I have been thinking about my project, because before now, the projector has always been an outside source, removed from the project, but if I build around it, my final product will be more consistent, more aesthetically pleasing, and more “magical” as they would say at Disney.

Final Concept

Résumé: The Ride

My idea is to create an exciting and innovative way to display my résumé using projection mapping to project animations, photos, and videos onto a model that also incorporates other special effects and moving parts to tell my professional and educational story. I am inspired by this project and the potential it has because I feel as though this is something I can truly pour myself into over the course of the next 7 months, and I also feel that I can continue to build upon it and improve it until the day of the show. I get very invested in things that I enjoy, and simply thinking about this project has me very excited. Although this project will be a great deal of fun for me, I feel that it can also help my future significantly, being that I will be presenting my passion for working in theme parks in an innovative way and shows that I want to continue down this path.

Although it is clear why I am extremely excited by this project, I feel that others will enjoy it too, because who doesn’t love theme parks? My project will be exciting to watch and aesthetically pleasing. With music, narration, moving parts, practical effects, and projection mapping, the presentation will be a little bit over the top, but I feel that that is the best way to go with something like this. As far as my research has shown me at this point, nobody has done something exactly like this just yet. With projections mapped onto a tabletop model with moving parts and different effects, my project will likely be the first of its kind and will let the viewer feel as though they are visiting a miniature theme park.

I plan on using the makerspace to fabricate a model that would be suitable for my project. The model will be created using wood, metal, and plastic, with motors, lights, and a few other systems that will be used to create effects during the “show”. The model will likely be a combination of a few things, such as a castle, a mountain, a roller coaster, or others. I will likely need at least two projectors for my project, depending on the design of the model. If time permits, I would ideally add a few small pyrotechnic and water effects into the show to highlight different parts of my career. By the end of this semester, I hope to have a solid plan for the model, with construction possibly beginning, and I would like to have a full draft of my “show” written up with a rough cut of the video/audio being put together. If I can achieve these things, I feel that I will be on the right track to completing this project, and I will know where I need to focus more of my time, being that I will be attempting to begin several parts of this project. I also will begin to study projection mapping and start to play around with it so I will be comfortable with the software I choose.

Research Plan

History and Current State of the Field

Projection mapping began in 1969 in Disneyland on the Haunted Mansion. 5 busts sing the ride’s theme song with their faces projected onto them, which was quite a revolutionary idea at the time and can still be appreciated today. Disney also has the earliest patent for projection mapping entitled “Apparatus and method for projection upon a three-dimensional object”. The next instance of projection mapping came around in 1980 with an immersive film installation created Michael Naimark. In 1994 GE took a step into the world of projection mapping when they patented “A system and method for precisely superimposing images of computer models in three-dimensional space to a corresponding physical object in physical space.” In the late 1990s projection mapping began to take off when it was pursued in academia. “Spatial Augmented Reality” began thanks to the work by Ramesh Raskar, Greg Welch, Henry Fuchs, and Deepak Bandyopadhyay at UNC. It all started with a paper titled “The Office of the Future”. They imagined a world in which projections could cover any surface and the use of small monitors would become obsolete. The late 1990s also gave us the I/O (Input/Output) Bulb which was basically a projector combined with a camera thanks to John Underkoffler. In the early 2000s, research began on moveable “smart” projectors and projection mapping began to develop in even more exciting ways. Today, theme parks, theaters, and museums have all begun to incorporate projection mapping as we know it in amazingly innovative ways, and it seems as though this trend will not be stopping anytime soon.

Initial Concepts

Projection Mapped Résumé

For my first project idea, I’m considering taking my résumé and displaying it in a way that I hope is new and original (I haven’t thoroughly searched for other people who have attempted this). This idea excites me the most so of course I have many directions I want to take with it, one of which being a static approach, in which I build a model using the makerspace of something like a castle with a roller coaster and other small elements from places I have worked and places I aspire to work. The “show” would consist of a narration with images and video projection mapped onto the model to tell my professional and educational history. Some examples of which would be a whale jumping across the model, projected fire (and possibly real) covering/shooting out of the model, and an ode to Sesame Place where the whole model could possibly appear to be an image from a coloring book.

YouTube Channel

A friend of mine who a different thesis section suggested that we work together on a project that we had intended to begin to make over the summer. We would create YouTube videos of comedic sketches and include special effects both digital and practical to make our videos stand out from a standard comedy style channel. I’m not sure that this idea is elaborate enough for an entire thesis but I believe it could be built upon and improved with small things.

Christmas Lights

One of my passions is a hobby that eats up most of my free time is designing, programming, and building my yearly Christmas light display. Although this could help with my career being that lights are often incorporated throughout theme parks, I would more so be doing this just because I know how much fun I would have doing it. I would incorporate more elaborate elements in the display, such as animatronics and RGB curtain lighting. I would also hope to include projection mapping in the display. It sounds like a lot, I know, but that’s kind of my style when it comes to Christmas light displays (You can ask the police about 2013, they’ll remember). I feel that a display of lights, animatronics, projection mapped video and graphics, and a whole bunch of other fun stuff, all choreographed to music, would be a lot of fun to work on and to watch.