dgbg100106
Missing the Tag Fiary
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2008
I wish, I could hear it all too, it sounds like a beautiful experience.
Destination D: 75 Years of Disney Animation, a Diamond Level Experience! - Completed!
- Thread starter franandaj
- Start date
PrincessInOz
Thanks for my avatar, Mary Jo!
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2010
I knew that you were going to say that! You said the same thing about the Dick Van Dyke Concert!
I'm Ms Consistency! But seriously.....you get so see and hear all these great people....and much as I love your updates of it, I am so green with envy because you also have the audio memory as well. Good for you.
franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
I'm Ms Consistency! But seriously.....you get so see and hear all these great people....and much as I love your updates of it, I am so green with envy because you also have the audio memory as well. Good for you.
I wish you all got to come with me and see and hear all these great concerts and stuff! I'm starting to get really excited about the Expo coming up this August. Being Sorcerers and all, we won't have to suffer through all the blasted waiting we did the last time!
franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
I bet most of you thought that I had abandoned this TR, but I am determined to finish it! This installment was a long time in writing because there was so much information and no pictures. I had taken notes on my Windows phone, but failed to send it to myself before service was disconnected. I had to retype all my notes before I could edit them into proper prose for a TR.
The next morning we were up bright and early. The Diamond package offered bussed transport to and from the Disneyland Resort, but Fran is much more comfortable in her own vehicle under her own control. We drove to Burbank, following the busses with the rest of the group most of the time. As we drove up the freeway, we saw this from the freeway. Usually we just drive by, but today we were actually going there!
However we had to go to a different location and we parked in the lot that we were designated. Two other folks had driven separately as well. We met the DH of Laura (who coordinates most of the D23 events) on the plaza. I took some pictures as we made our way to the Animation building.
They had pastries and coffee being served outside the front of the building, although we had stopped at McDonald's in Anaheim on our way up. They were adamant about us not taking any pictures during our tine in the Animation building. I overheard Laura, the gal in charge, telling one of the guides that they were free to confiscate any cameras or cell phones if they saw us take them out. They did take a group picture outside the building before we went in to start our tour.
They divided us into five groups so that we could more easily see the various areas. The entire group gathered in The Coffee Clutch. This is an area where a barista serves all sorts of beverages to the employees. It was a nice open space where folks could come and congregate, blow off steam and just relax.
Our group went to an area where they had just finished up work on Wreck It Ralph. We were actually in the Sorcerers Hat of the Animation building. When the building was built it was originally Roy Disneys office. Evidently he was a heavy smoker so they built an extensive exhaust system into the room to suck the air up and out of the building so he didnt disturb or irritate his coworkers. He quit within a year of the buildings completion.
So back to our tour, the gal who talked to us in this hat/office that was converted into workspace was in background creation. Her job focused on the color palettes and styles they used for each of the various worlds in the arcade. Visual rendering is the name of the process. Hero's Duty used dark colors and vividly real animation. The land with the most elaborate planning was Sugar Rush. The buildings were designed with a definite "old world" quality. The design team actually took a trip to a small village in Spain to study architecture for the style of buildings in this land. She showed us pictures of the actual buildings behind the design of some of the scenes. The colors of this land were pinks and pastels. They also searched worldwide for candies to use for the characters, landscapes and other features. They used candy from all over the world.
They also differentiated the various worlds in the arcade games with shapes. Ralph's 16 bit world is based on squares, while Hero's Duty makes use of triangles. Grand central is made up of mostly rectangles with curved tops. Sugar Rush had mostly circular features.
Disney does all it can to really put the imagineers in the frame of mind of the picture that they are working on. In the area where they were working on Wreck it Ralph they had a facade of an old school Taco Bell with video games in it to simulate the arcade in the movie. They had a bunch of 80's games like Centipede and Asteroids. There were probably about eight video games in there, including Wreck It Ralph.
Our group went to Character Rigging next. This was a computer studio where I imagine that they did training classes. There was one desk at the front of the room on a raised platform, about six feet. There were several clusters of desks and each desk had a computer and dual monitors. There were enough stations that just about everyone in our group of about 20 could try it out. They had loaded up software on each computer and Ralph was on the screen. The software was fairly easy to work and they gave us a quick overview. Essentially you could take a portion of the character's body like the hand or the shoulder, or maybe a leg and move it slightly. Then you would save that movement to a frame. You could move it a bit again and save it to the next frame. I created a little 12 frame movement thing where he was sort of breakdancing.
They took us to the drawing studio next. Ever since the days of Walt's Studio on Hyperion, drawing classes were offered to the animators to help them build their craft. That is still true today, but they are not limited to imagineers or animators. Anyone including accounting, mailroom clerks, security guards whoever is welcome to participate in the classes.
Our next stop was voice over. For those of you who have seen the movie they did the scene where Ralph meets Vanelope. They are climbing in the Peppermint trees and she is repeating everything he says in a mocking tone. The tech explained to us that John C Reilly and Sarah Silverman recorded many of their lines together. Normally each actor records their lines separately, but this method made for a more spontaneous and animated dialogue for both characters. Three or four different pairs from our group had the opportunity to try at recording. I didn't volunteer. It was definitely a lot harder than it seems!
We headed to "story" next. We were seated around a large table which filled the entire room. There was just enough extra room to walk around the table provided no one was sitting in the chair you wished to pass behind. All around the room were storyboard sketches from. WiR. There were some large pieces of paper (the kind with Post-it paste on the back) on the dry erase boards that lined most of the walls. They talked about the essential elements of a good story. Characters you care for, believability, engaging story, etc. This is sort of the same stuff that they told us in some of the sessions over the weekend.
Our job was to add to the story our D23 group was creating. So far the prior groups had started the story with a boy and his dog, a roller derby girl had stolen his teddy bear. There was something special about the bear, but no one knew just what. Also the roller derby girl had special powers or was from outer space.
The boy pursued the girl on his bicycle, his dog felt neglected but he followed along as well. They followed the roller derby girl to an active volcano, which she began to climb. Somewhere around this time we begin to suspect that the Roller Derby Girl had powers of time travel and that the teddy bear might have lifetime passes to all the Disney parks.
At this point our group came in to add to the story. We added this portion:
As the roller derby girl was coming down the volcano, the boy was riding his bicycle up. The dog had somehow got ahead of the boy and was chasing the girl down the volcano. The dog was wearing heat resistant lava boots to protect his feet. Precisely at the moment where the two were about to pass each other, activated her time travel abilities. However at that exact moment, the dog bit onto her skirt and the boy grabbed onto the dog so all of them went back in time three years to the Macy's Christmas sale where the boy learned that the roller derby girl was actually his mother.
At this point in the story we had to give up and leave it to the next group who was waiting in the hall. There were still two more groups left to add to the story. The next area we went to was a screening room where we saw the process of one of the animators and how a scene less than 10 seconds long was animated and the amazing amount of work that went into that. If you remember the scene in the movie when Vanelope steals Ralph's medal, she takes it, spit shines it and then hops and runs off. To actually create this scene, the first thing our animator did was film herself doing the actions that Vanelope did. She showed us her video of herself. This helped her to figure out the way that vanelope would move and she could make her movements more lifelike and real.
Once she actually had the movements down then they were able to create the scene. Using the real life actions of the movie she was able to make the computer animation look real and have something to compare it to. When they were designing this scene they also worked in the little "glitch" in Vanelope's character that defined her eventually. Our animator pointed out that this was still very raw animation. Once the character movement was correct and approved, it would be sent on to another animator to do the hair and other stylized items. This particular animator did only 10 seconds of the character in one scene. I asked if this was the reason that in the credits for the movies you see 30-40 names under each character and she confirmed that with all the different scenes in a movie it could easily involve that many people to create that role for the movie.
After that we headed to our final gathering for the morning. There was a theater in the Animation building. On the chairs were some tote bags waiting for us with a mug and a framed picture that we took that morning. We also got a Wreck-It-Ralph poster and a book on Paperman.
We got to hear the entire story that our group wrote. Remember we left off that the boy had gone back in time to the Macys Christmas sale where he learned that she was actually his mother. Well it turns out that his mother had stolen the bear because she worked at Macys during their Christmas Sale and evidently had sold the bear that was supposed to go to the boy by mistake. The bear that was supposed to go to the boy had lifetime passes to all the Disney parks sewn inside. While the boy was chasing his mother back in time and all this was going on, the father was out purchasing replacement lifetime passes for the family, so no one had anything to worry about after all and they all lived happily ever after.
Following this presentation, we went back out and loaded onto the busses. Fran and her scooter headed back through the route we originally took to get there, along with our guide from the morning. Me and the other folks who drove themselves found seats on the bus and traveled back with the rest of the group. We went to the esplanade where Fran and I started our day at the studio where they had set up a buffet style lunch for us.
The next morning we were up bright and early. The Diamond package offered bussed transport to and from the Disneyland Resort, but Fran is much more comfortable in her own vehicle under her own control. We drove to Burbank, following the busses with the rest of the group most of the time. As we drove up the freeway, we saw this from the freeway. Usually we just drive by, but today we were actually going there!
However we had to go to a different location and we parked in the lot that we were designated. Two other folks had driven separately as well. We met the DH of Laura (who coordinates most of the D23 events) on the plaza. I took some pictures as we made our way to the Animation building.
They had pastries and coffee being served outside the front of the building, although we had stopped at McDonald's in Anaheim on our way up. They were adamant about us not taking any pictures during our tine in the Animation building. I overheard Laura, the gal in charge, telling one of the guides that they were free to confiscate any cameras or cell phones if they saw us take them out. They did take a group picture outside the building before we went in to start our tour.
They divided us into five groups so that we could more easily see the various areas. The entire group gathered in The Coffee Clutch. This is an area where a barista serves all sorts of beverages to the employees. It was a nice open space where folks could come and congregate, blow off steam and just relax.
Our group went to an area where they had just finished up work on Wreck It Ralph. We were actually in the Sorcerers Hat of the Animation building. When the building was built it was originally Roy Disneys office. Evidently he was a heavy smoker so they built an extensive exhaust system into the room to suck the air up and out of the building so he didnt disturb or irritate his coworkers. He quit within a year of the buildings completion.
So back to our tour, the gal who talked to us in this hat/office that was converted into workspace was in background creation. Her job focused on the color palettes and styles they used for each of the various worlds in the arcade. Visual rendering is the name of the process. Hero's Duty used dark colors and vividly real animation. The land with the most elaborate planning was Sugar Rush. The buildings were designed with a definite "old world" quality. The design team actually took a trip to a small village in Spain to study architecture for the style of buildings in this land. She showed us pictures of the actual buildings behind the design of some of the scenes. The colors of this land were pinks and pastels. They also searched worldwide for candies to use for the characters, landscapes and other features. They used candy from all over the world.
They also differentiated the various worlds in the arcade games with shapes. Ralph's 16 bit world is based on squares, while Hero's Duty makes use of triangles. Grand central is made up of mostly rectangles with curved tops. Sugar Rush had mostly circular features.
Disney does all it can to really put the imagineers in the frame of mind of the picture that they are working on. In the area where they were working on Wreck it Ralph they had a facade of an old school Taco Bell with video games in it to simulate the arcade in the movie. They had a bunch of 80's games like Centipede and Asteroids. There were probably about eight video games in there, including Wreck It Ralph.
Our group went to Character Rigging next. This was a computer studio where I imagine that they did training classes. There was one desk at the front of the room on a raised platform, about six feet. There were several clusters of desks and each desk had a computer and dual monitors. There were enough stations that just about everyone in our group of about 20 could try it out. They had loaded up software on each computer and Ralph was on the screen. The software was fairly easy to work and they gave us a quick overview. Essentially you could take a portion of the character's body like the hand or the shoulder, or maybe a leg and move it slightly. Then you would save that movement to a frame. You could move it a bit again and save it to the next frame. I created a little 12 frame movement thing where he was sort of breakdancing.
They took us to the drawing studio next. Ever since the days of Walt's Studio on Hyperion, drawing classes were offered to the animators to help them build their craft. That is still true today, but they are not limited to imagineers or animators. Anyone including accounting, mailroom clerks, security guards whoever is welcome to participate in the classes.
Our next stop was voice over. For those of you who have seen the movie they did the scene where Ralph meets Vanelope. They are climbing in the Peppermint trees and she is repeating everything he says in a mocking tone. The tech explained to us that John C Reilly and Sarah Silverman recorded many of their lines together. Normally each actor records their lines separately, but this method made for a more spontaneous and animated dialogue for both characters. Three or four different pairs from our group had the opportunity to try at recording. I didn't volunteer. It was definitely a lot harder than it seems!
We headed to "story" next. We were seated around a large table which filled the entire room. There was just enough extra room to walk around the table provided no one was sitting in the chair you wished to pass behind. All around the room were storyboard sketches from. WiR. There were some large pieces of paper (the kind with Post-it paste on the back) on the dry erase boards that lined most of the walls. They talked about the essential elements of a good story. Characters you care for, believability, engaging story, etc. This is sort of the same stuff that they told us in some of the sessions over the weekend.
Our job was to add to the story our D23 group was creating. So far the prior groups had started the story with a boy and his dog, a roller derby girl had stolen his teddy bear. There was something special about the bear, but no one knew just what. Also the roller derby girl had special powers or was from outer space.
The boy pursued the girl on his bicycle, his dog felt neglected but he followed along as well. They followed the roller derby girl to an active volcano, which she began to climb. Somewhere around this time we begin to suspect that the Roller Derby Girl had powers of time travel and that the teddy bear might have lifetime passes to all the Disney parks.
At this point our group came in to add to the story. We added this portion:
As the roller derby girl was coming down the volcano, the boy was riding his bicycle up. The dog had somehow got ahead of the boy and was chasing the girl down the volcano. The dog was wearing heat resistant lava boots to protect his feet. Precisely at the moment where the two were about to pass each other, activated her time travel abilities. However at that exact moment, the dog bit onto her skirt and the boy grabbed onto the dog so all of them went back in time three years to the Macy's Christmas sale where the boy learned that the roller derby girl was actually his mother.
At this point in the story we had to give up and leave it to the next group who was waiting in the hall. There were still two more groups left to add to the story. The next area we went to was a screening room where we saw the process of one of the animators and how a scene less than 10 seconds long was animated and the amazing amount of work that went into that. If you remember the scene in the movie when Vanelope steals Ralph's medal, she takes it, spit shines it and then hops and runs off. To actually create this scene, the first thing our animator did was film herself doing the actions that Vanelope did. She showed us her video of herself. This helped her to figure out the way that vanelope would move and she could make her movements more lifelike and real.
Once she actually had the movements down then they were able to create the scene. Using the real life actions of the movie she was able to make the computer animation look real and have something to compare it to. When they were designing this scene they also worked in the little "glitch" in Vanelope's character that defined her eventually. Our animator pointed out that this was still very raw animation. Once the character movement was correct and approved, it would be sent on to another animator to do the hair and other stylized items. This particular animator did only 10 seconds of the character in one scene. I asked if this was the reason that in the credits for the movies you see 30-40 names under each character and she confirmed that with all the different scenes in a movie it could easily involve that many people to create that role for the movie.
After that we headed to our final gathering for the morning. There was a theater in the Animation building. On the chairs were some tote bags waiting for us with a mug and a framed picture that we took that morning. We also got a Wreck-It-Ralph poster and a book on Paperman.
We got to hear the entire story that our group wrote. Remember we left off that the boy had gone back in time to the Macys Christmas sale where he learned that she was actually his mother. Well it turns out that his mother had stolen the bear because she worked at Macys during their Christmas Sale and evidently had sold the bear that was supposed to go to the boy by mistake. The bear that was supposed to go to the boy had lifetime passes to all the Disney parks sewn inside. While the boy was chasing his mother back in time and all this was going on, the father was out purchasing replacement lifetime passes for the family, so no one had anything to worry about after all and they all lived happily ever after.
Following this presentation, we went back out and loaded onto the busses. Fran and her scooter headed back through the route we originally took to get there, along with our guide from the morning. Me and the other folks who drove themselves found seats on the bus and traveled back with the rest of the group. We went to the esplanade where Fran and I started our day at the studio where they had set up a buffet style lunch for us.
franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
Yeah, tell me about it. I remember when I worked in the office at Alfred. They had a pretty nice coffee area in the new office that we moved into. We had a small refrigerator there so that those of use who liked half and half or real cream could put our stuff in the fridge below the coffee station. Real food was supposed to go into the fridge in the lunch room, but it was nice to have a mini fridge upstairs.
I would have loved a place like the coffee clutch, but we didn't make enough to justify, I"m guessing the city of Sac doesn't either!
ACDSNY
Let the countdown begin!
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2005
Nope! I usually stop at Starbuck's for hot chocolate or iced tea instead.
PrincessInOz
Thanks for my avatar, Mary Jo!
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2010
Loving this update. That's a great picture of the group.
I don't need a coffee clutch.....I just need an IV drip.
I don't need a coffee clutch.....I just need an IV drip.
rentayenta
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
I thought I posted about the Alan Menken update but guess I didn't. 
Like the others have said, I wish I could hear it in person. What a fantastic experience. I'm positive I would have teared up. Live music always makes me emotional in a good way. Plays too. Love them.
Burbank looks very cool, from what we can see. I love the Dwarves being used as columns in the architecture. Very cool. That's a big group of people.
Like the others have said, I wish I could hear it in person. What a fantastic experience.
I'm positive I would have teared up. Live music always makes me emotional in a good way. Plays too. Love them. Burbank looks very cool, from what we can see.
I love the Dwarves being used as columns in the architecture. Very cool. That's a big group of people.
franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
I like my Grande Coffee with cream in the Winter and my Venti Iced Coffee with milk and three pumps in the summer.
I would just need it to stop after noon, otherwise I would never get to sleep!
Is it a tour of the Studios or just the Archives?
I thought I posted about the Alan Menken update but guess I didn't.
Like the others have said, I wish I could hear it in person. What a fantastic experience.
Burbank looks very cool, from what we can see.
I think the "Diamond Level" was like 100-150 people, for what we paid and the fact that it sold out in mere minutes is incredible, but for the up front seating and the tour we got on this last day, it was totally worth it! Any time D23 offers these "overpriced options", we're taking it, so cool!
franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
When we met back up at the lunch spot, it was very hot and there was a huge long line for the lunch service. I took pictures of the statues and plaques that were all around the area while we were in line.
This was the menu for the day.
The buffet line
This was our table, the orange one...
My lunch which consisted of salad, chicken, beef, asparagus, I cant tell whats in the back, but I wasnt too keen on the idea of GF pasta, or multigrain pilaf. They wouldnt let us eat any berries with our lunch, we had to come back and have those for dessert!
Dessert
It was hotter than Hades out there! But I was determined to get a few good pictures. OK, well maybe one.
They divided us up into smaller groups than in the morning. I was in the Orange group. Turns out this photo was printed in the D23 Magazine last Fall.
Our groups destination was here.
So cool to work here and pass by this stuff every day.
They have their own Starbucks in here!
Our destination:
But not closed to us!
This was the menu for the day.
The buffet line
This was our table, the orange one...
My lunch which consisted of salad, chicken, beef, asparagus, I cant tell whats in the back, but I wasnt too keen on the idea of GF pasta, or multigrain pilaf. They wouldnt let us eat any berries with our lunch, we had to come back and have those for dessert!
Dessert
It was hotter than Hades out there! But I was determined to get a few good pictures. OK, well maybe one.
They divided us up into smaller groups than in the morning. I was in the Orange group. Turns out this photo was printed in the D23 Magazine last Fall.
Our groups destination was here.
So cool to work here and pass by this stuff every day.
They have their own Starbucks in here!
Our destination:
But not closed to us!
mvf-m11c
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2009
It is a tour of the Studios and Archives for 2 1/2 hours.
Very nice photos of the statues and plaques while you were in line for lunch. The food looks very appetizing.
I did remember seeing that picture in the D23 Winter 2012 magazine with the Wreck It Ralph on the cover.
Will be looking forward to the next update.
rentayenta
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
PrincessInOz
Thanks for my avatar, Mary Jo!
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2010
Me three.
I love the plaques! Great update and lovely pictures of you.
I love the plaques! Great update and lovely pictures of you.
franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
You will have a great time!
So cool, I want to work there!!!
Me too!
I've heard that it is a pretty cool experience! Send in your applications!
rentayenta
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
The commute would be a little far but don't think I haven't thought about it. One day, we'll be back in So Cal.
franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
That will be great! I will be happy to have you back locally!
franandaj
I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
Dave Smith, Founder of the Walt Disney Archives, now retired, was on hand that day to show us some of the treasures that they have in there.
D23 Members are regularly offered trips to the Archives, so he said that he was hard pressed to find things that we hadnt already seen. Since I had never taken one of the trips to the archives, I was pleased with anything there was to see. He started off explaining about the Archives and how they were started. Nobody really had the forethought to realize that there was value to all of this old stuff, so some of it was very hard to come by. Dave was hired on June 22, 1970 as the first ever archivist, coincidentally on my sisters first birthday!
As he told the story about raiding the old prop warehouses and other such buildings, I snapped away at the items which were on display in the cases. Youll recognize this guy from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Now evidently there was Donald Duck Orange Juice that was introduced by Citrus World in 1940.
Another case contained all these figurines. It was interesting to note the change in the characters over time.
An assortment of Mickey Mouse Timepieces from different eras. Now this wasnt something I learned on the tour, but heard from a man who was an animator and worked with Walt for a period of time. He said that Walt Disney did more for creating jobs in the Great Depression than anyone Roosevelt the WPA or anything. Evidently the Ingersoll Watch company was weeks away from closing their doors, when Walt approached them in 1932 to begin producing a Mickey Mouse watch. Within three months their workforce went from 300 to 3000, and well, the rest is pretty much history. He did the same with many other companies on the verge of bankruptcy, gave them a licensing contract and breathed new life into their business.
And other treasures
This was one of the coolest things that he showed us. This is the document that Walt Disney forged to get himself into the service back in WW1. Evidently you have to be 17 and he was only sixteen, so he changed the 1 in 1901 to a 0, making him a year older. Evidently his father Elias would have nothing to do with this, so his mother signed both hers and Eliass names.
This was a Torch from the 1960 Olympics held in Squaw Valley. Walt Disney was approached by the organizers to provide entertainment, soon they realized they needed tickets, parking and all sorts of stuff. Walt stepped in and transformed the Winter Olympics into what we know today. He started the ice sculpting contests, he made a replica of the Golden Horseshoe for the athletes to relax at. I dont remember the entire scope of things he implemented which are now considered tradition, but he changed the whole scope of things. I guess thats why they gave him this torch.
When Walt did all the filming in South America these were the dossiers that were provided on all the persons traveling to there in the camera crew, directors, etc.
Here is a press pass from opening day at Disneyland.
Another opening day pass
An early ticket book, note the price.
[Continued in Next Post]
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