Okay, I know... I'm a couple of days late. It's just that, if you've been reading my columns for a while, you should know that I'm a very busy person, and, well... this past week was just extra busy for me, and I fell a bit behind. So, for that I apologize, but hope that you enjoy this continuing series. I will return to my regular publishing schedule this week.

Now... Last week, I said we could bring out the heavy machinery and earth movers, but I was actually a little bit ahead of myself. I forgot about all the hard work of some of very creative people during the production stage – the talented artists and model makers.

That's right, folks. Every attraction and/or theme park that is designed by WDI is first completely conceptualized in the form of artist renderings and scale models before actual construction ever begins.

Fresh out of the research and development stage, a project is then given to a group of artists who work closely with the design team to put into pictures the ideas and concepts that have been created for the project.

This is the first time that the design team really gets a good look at what the project will look like. The artists in this stage are really responsible for creating the overall look of the project. Sometimes, it is eerie just how much a finished project resembles the concept art. That’s how important this stage is!

From the concept art, model makers are then brought in to create a complete scale model of the project. Using the artist renderings and sketches, the various scenes of an attraction or the various sections of an entire theme parks are put together so that they resemble the artwork.

The purpose of the model is to see just how all of the various elements of the project interact with each other, and allows designers to see what flaws their design may have before the project is actually constructed.

To demonstrate, I'll use Epcot as an example. First, take a look at the picture below.

This is a picture of an actual artist rendering of Epcot (although, back then, it was known as EPCOT Center). While the concept of Epcot went through many, many revisions during its development stage, this rendering shows the final concept that was decided upon.

The park is made up of two distinct areas, "Future World" pictured in the foreground, and "World Showcase" pictured in the background. You can clearly see the seven original pavilions in "Future World," including Spaceship Earth in the center, Universe of Energy just to the left, and continuing around clockwise, Horizons, World of Motion, Journey Into Imagination, The Land, and finally, The Living Seas just to the right of Spaceship Earth.

In this picture, you can see how a scale model was created. Pay attention to how closely the model represents the concept art in the previous picture. This model would have been created right after the concept art was finished in the late 1970's.

Finally, you can see in this picture the actual park as it was constructed. Comparing this to the model and concept artwork above, most likely the only difference you’ll be able to notice is that of the Wonders of Life pavilion located between the former Horizons pavilion and the Universe of Energy.

As a sidebar, when EPCOT Center opened in 1982, the Wonders of Life pavilion and the Living Seas pavilion did not exist. However, we can see from the concept art and model that the Living Seas pavilion had been planned from the beginning.

So, now that we have our concept art to work from, and we’ve got our scale model completed, we can make any necessary changes to the design before it enters the construction stage. Once the plans are finalized, it’s time to clear the ground, and get started!

Next week, we'll really bring out the heavy machinery and earth movers as we begin to build our attraction in the real world – really! Until then, I'll see ya real soon!