Creativity techniques from the Imagineering division
By COLIN STEWART
The Orange County Register
Storyboarding, 3D models, matrix management, computer imagery, virtual-reality headsets, and a Blue Sky Studio.
Each of those plays a role in developing new rides and new features for Disneyland and other Disney theme parks, according to two executives in the Walt Disney Co.'s 1,000-employee Imagineering division, which creates attractions for all the Disney parks.
At Imagineering's base in Glendale, whether the process begins with a spark of inspiration from an individual or with a corporate decision, it soon goes to what Imagineering calls a "storyboarding" session – a type of brainstorming session that originated with movie-makers' technique of planning scenes by making a series of sketches.
After the storyboarding meeting, people who are most interested in the project tend to join the project team. That's possible because the Imagineering division has a "matrix management" organizational structure, says Bruce Vaughn, vice president for research and development.
Employees work for a department, such as R&D, Creative Development or Show/Ride Engineering, but often are assigned to a multi-disciplinary project team and spend most of their time there.
When Imagineers aren't on a current project, they will often work at the Blue Sky Studio. It's an open area, decorated with models of past projects, that's designed for dreaming up possibilities for future work. At any one time, about 50 people are involved in blue-sky projects.
It creates "an arsenal of things to choose from, a cauldron of ideas," says Eric Jacobson, Imagineering's senior vice president for creative development.
Imagineers need to be able to contribute ideas without worrying about whether they'll be implemented, Vaughn says.
"For 100 things we think up, maybe we'll build one of them," he says." Some people find it frustrating. '
"We never throw anything away. It might come in handy for another project, or if we hit a roadblock on this one," Jacobson says.
"We save everything," says Vaughn. "We have drawers of stuff – some that was even done in Walt Disney's day."
The Imagineering division turned to its Blue Sky Studio for ideas about how to create a Finding Nemo attraction.
"We thought the movie 'Nemo' was great, but we didn't know what to do with it," Jacobson says.
For the Nemo ride the studio Jacobson explains that the studio had several ideas, "a simulator, a 3D movie, a drive-through and an underwater ride."
The R&D department develops new technologies even without knowing how they'll be used. One such technology will go into the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage ride, scheduled to open in June at Disneyland, Jacobson says. That software creates a 3D effect that places computer-generated characters between foreground and background.
That's important in meeting park visitors' raised expectations. The Nemo ride will replace the former Submarine Voyage, which was closed in the late 1990s, part because it wasn't aging well.
As Imagineers make more specific plans for a ride, they create more storyboards and a variety of models to look for problems and potential improvements.
At this point, the storyboards help Disney avoid problems by allowing people from many different fields to see what's planned, Jacobson says. "After the building is built, we're stuck with it. We can't add a room."
At a Disney park, unlike a movie, "we're stimulating all the senses," Vaughn says. "A movie just has video and audio."
If the attraction is a 3D movie, the storyboards will have foam-core extensions to show how the imagery "intrudes into the audience's space," Vaughn says.
Ride planners also create computer images depicting a new attraction, and sometimes look at what's planned through virtual-reality headsets.
In preparing the Soarin' Over California ride for Disney's California Adventure park, Imagineers used a virtual-reality technique to check how many seats could be built without creating ones with obstructed views, Vaughn says.
Imagineers still make models by hand for each scene in a new ride, typically at a scale of one inch to one foot, with a six-foot rider represented by a six-inch figure.
The models are used to look for anachronisms, and for places where a nearby building needs to be screened from sight by planting trees, Vaughn says.
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