How-to Armchair Imagineer

[moonrqys]

Greetings all!
I’ve been slowly working my way through the beginning stages of creating a blue-sky build out of my own Disney resort. While fun, it can be tedious as well. I’ve often found that when I attempt to start a project like this before, I get burnt out. However, when I turn and seek support, I’ll come out with a product I’m proud of!
Additionally, even in true-life imagineering, they don’t work alone! Often times the best ideas can come as a result of sharing experiences, thoughts, and practices with one another.
My hope in making this thread was to garner a collection of advice, support, and tips on how to more effectively develop these ideas. I recognize that many of you have participated in these contests and games, and I’m quite new to this field. I’d love to hear any words of wisdom you have to offer. Hopefully there are others out there as well who can glance upon this thread and find the inspiration and guidance they need as well.
Thank you!

 

[moonrqys]

For context of what I’ve worked through so far, I’ve examined the parks I’d like to use as a “framework,” the attractions, restaurants, and shops within those parks, looked across the internet for inspiration from others’ build-outs, and came up with a solid handful of my own ideas. I have lists for each individual land, filled with rides, retail, and dining.
At the moment, I’m struggling as of now in figuring out how to physically lay them out, how to put together the mess of ideas I have in my head and on paper, into a cohesive plan.

 

[moonrqys]

Additionally, I did look through the Imagineering Community Plaza thread (which is awesome!). I felt it was more tool-oriented rather than inspirational or generally focused. Definitely found some great stuff in there.
Just wanted to throw that out there, as I’m sure someone will probably recommend checking it out.

 

[Outbound]

For laying out the park, Google MyMaps is a fantastic tool for measuring the real-life parks in area. You can get an understanding of how large lands are relative to each other, and how big the showbuildings are for each ride. Then, if you are imagining your park/project in a real life space you can try to replicate the square footage of, say, POTC, to see how it would fit into your project.

Beyond tools, for park design usually there's the "weanies", things that dominate the sightline and help you orient yourself around. For the castle parks of course that's the castle, but then it branches off, each land has a central path that usually branches into others that loop back around. There's rarely dead ends, as you can imagine that would result in a lot of traffic.

There's a great blog post by Park Lore that gets into park layouts you might find interesting -

Park Paths: The Histories and Personalities of Disney & Universal Theme Parks As Seen from a New Perspective - Park Lore

“Here you leave today and enter the worlds of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” Since 1955, those words have welcomed guests into Disneyland, and their spirit pervades Disney theme parks across the globe. Filled with artistry, history, and memories, each of them is, in some ways, alive, with...

parklore.com

 

[moonrqys]

For laying out the park, Google MyMaps is a fantastic tool for measuring the real-life parks in area. You can get an understanding of how large lands are relative to each other, and how big the showbuildings are for each ride. Then, if you are imagining your park/project in a real life space you can try to replicate the square footage of, say, POTC, to see how it would fit into your project.

Beyond tools, for park design usually there's the "weanies", things that dominate the sightline and help you orient yourself around. For the castle parks of course that's the castle, but then it branches off, each land has a central path that usually branches into others that loop back around. There's rarely dead ends, as you can imagine that would result in a lot of traffic.

There's a great blog post by Park Lore that gets into park layouts you might find interesting -

Park Paths: The Histories and Personalities of Disney & Universal Theme Parks As Seen from a New Perspective - Park Lore

“Here you leave today and enter the worlds of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” Since 1955, those words have welcomed guests into Disneyland, and their spirit pervades Disney theme parks across the globe. Filled with artistry, history, and memories, each of them is, in some ways, alive, with...

parklore.com

My Maps looks like an incredible tool, 100% will be using that. Thank you! That will make life so much easier .

Weenies are such an awesome thing! Honestly kinda forgot about them in this process. Great thing to keep in mind.

And I had no idea this article existed! I’ve recently gotten hooked on Park Lore, they make some absolutely phenomenal content and articles. It’s weirdly beautiful to see the layout of park paths, and the story and feel they bring to the whole park itself. Thank you for sharing, it means a lot!

 

[Lizzy May Bee]

I’d recommend just sketching a map without worrying about the logistics too too much, and then adjusting it to make a little more sense and look, like, good later. I find that a good creative process can be starting by just making something first and then slowly tweaking and editing it step by step until it becomes something good. Though that's just my two cents, of course.