Originally Posted By ssWEDguy I read about the Expedition Everest train steam effects on the web earlier this week, but finally got to see them for myself today. Whenever the train arrives in the station, and later when it takes off after boarding, it belches out a big cloud of steam, just like a steam train would. It's an awesome effect, and the detail is a signature Disney thing. On top of that, it's engineered simply and well. The steam comes from stationery jets at the side loading platform, from underneath. There are no parts associated with the moving train. On top of that, watch closely as the train is sitting in the station. The engine at the rear of the train has a small smokestack, and it actually pulses puffs of smoke while it's sitting in the station. I have no doubt that that simple but extremely effective special effect is done by pulsing small puffs of steam up from the bottom through a hollow tube. Imagineering has done it again.
Originally Posted By ni_teach Sounds very cool. In all of the reviews that I have seen, they have not talked about this small, but great, touch.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN We'll see how long these little touches last (like the smoke and whistles) before they realize it takes maintenance to keep them going for the long haul...and then they stop them altogether, which is more in tune about how WDW deals with it's attraction: delete if it takes money to fix.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 3 --- kinda like the old How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop commercial -- I was wondering how many posts it would take before the maintenance comment came out....and just like the Tootsie Pop commercial -- as Mr Owl says .......3
Originally Posted By vbdad55 I can face it -- and don't necessarily disagree--- just stating what was on my mind.....
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney "We'll see how long these little touches last (like the smoke and whistles) before they realize it takes maintenance to keep them going for the long haul...and then they stop them altogether, which is more in tune about how WDW deals with it's attraction: delete if it takes money to fix." Yes, indeed. I've heard conflicting reports about whether the REAL snow effect is ever going to work or whether they'll just write it off and you won't get that cold rush on a sweltering Florida day!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo "Real Snow" effect - that sounds amazing? Also, is there any scoop on when the waterfall will be up, or has that been scrapped? I would of thought it'd be running now.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN About that snow effect, they will probably deal with it the same way they dealt with the Great Movie Ride's opening scene... put a see-thru screen in front of it and project pictures (of falling snow) onto it. Any one who remembers the opening Footlight Parade scene with is revolving chorus girls and animated water fountains (now reduced to a stationary set with bubbles) would know where I am coming from.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> We'll see how long these little touches last (like the smoke and whistles) before they realize it takes maintenance to keep them going for the long haul... << You might be right about this -- but many special effects are much more complicated (and expensive) than others. In this case I was intrigued by how effective and engineeringly simple (by comparison) that this one is. Steam & mist effects are simpler than fire or snow. There are no moving parts, no lamps to burn out. It's even outdoors at the loading ramp. What will be interesting will be the hot weather + steam.
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney "Any one who remembers the opening Footlight Parade scene with is revolving chorus girls and animated water fountains (now reduced to a stationary set with bubbles) would know where I am coming from." Yeah ... I remember.
Originally Posted By WDWtechie Hi there i work at WDW as a technician. Im a lighting technician to be more specific. I run the lights for Fantasmic. I am also in charge of the lighting crews for most of the shows in the 4 parks. I had the priviledge of meeting with the lighting and special effects designer for EE on a couple of occasions. The first time was during construction of EE during the final stages. He was 4 hours away from the start of the installion of the special effects and lighting fixtures. He took me on a tour of the site and explained to me what each thing did and where it was going to be on the ride from the plot he had. A crew of men were unpacking all of the effects and lighting, so I got to see what everything looked like before they installed it. I happened to notice 20 F-100 Performence Fog Generators, 10 Rosco Hazemaker 2's, and 10 LeMaitre Peasoup Foggers (Dry-ice machines), and 15 Rosco Model 1700 Fog Machines. I asked what these were for and he said that underneath the station loading platform are 10 LeMaitre Peasoup Foggers 5 on each side with pvc pipe running from them to the bottom edge of the platform that produce low lying-quickly desepating fog that looks like steam released from the train. Then he said each train has an engine at the rear of it that will at random shoot smoke from its smokestack. These will be produced by using Rosco Model 1700 Fog Machines 1 for each of the 3 trains. The rest will be used throughout the ride as nessecery. The F-100 Performence Fog Generators will be used throughout the ride in the dark tunnels to block the view of daylight and any other aspects that are not supposed to be seen. The soon to be lit up mountain will be using 385 Altman Outdoor 750W Outdoor Par64's w/wide lenses. Inside the ride there will be a varity of lighting fixtures that I dont think I need to list because the list is too long. So there is the inside scoop on the lighting and special effects for EE. I did not list the projection system for the Yeti because that was designed by the Audio/Video Designer. Everything that ssWEDguy said was true i just wanted to explain it in a more technical way that shows how the stuff works and what was producing it. Thats all for now.
Originally Posted By danyoung Thanks for the techno-speak. I'd be real interested in any info about that projection system, if you have any more that you can share. Thanks.
Originally Posted By WDWtechie I dont have any information on the snow effects but I can find out for you if you want me too. <put a see-thru screen in front of it and project pictures (of falling snow) onto it> This is coming from a technicians point of view. They are not going to use see-thru screens, which are called scrims made of shark tooth gauze, to project the snow onto. If there is going to be any snow its going to most likely produced the same way the snow for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, with snow machines, and lighting to make the snow noticable.
Originally Posted By WDWtechie When I go to work tommorow I will call the Head Effects Technician, who was hired to work on EE, and ask him what the projection system is comprised of and how it works.
Originally Posted By WDWtechie TDLFAN, these "little touches" will last a long time because, coming from a WDW technician specilized in theater lighting and special effects, the units used to produce these effects require little maintence. All that is needed is every 6 to 9 hours, depending on the fog, haze or dry-ice machine it is, the technicians will have to refill or replace the machines with either fog fluid, haze fluid and dry-ice. Both fog machines have a 1 gallon tank and the haze macihine has a 1/2 gallon tank and the dry-ice machine is able to hlod a 1ft by 1ft 25 pound chunk of Dry-ice. Dependind on how much fog is shot, haze is shot, and dry-ice is released, the technicians will most likely have to change these items maybe once every other day or maybe even 3 times a week. If Disney was that cheap to keep up with these effects then they should not have added them into the design. There are other rideswith the same effects that have been in the parks for years and there still paying for there maintence and upkeep. So I dont think that these effects will disappear anytime soon. Maybe once there model is outdated by a few years then they will disappear and new models will replace them.
Originally Posted By TarzanRocked99-06 WDWtechie you said you helped design and work on Tarzan Rocks...right? if so thank you for a great run
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> he said that underneath the station loading platform are 10 LeMaitre Peasoup Foggers 5 on each side with pvc pipe running from them to the bottom edge of the platform that produce low lying-quickly desepating fog that looks like steam released from the train. << So the big belch of steam that gets put out is in fact not steam, but theatrical fog? This certainly would make sense from both a theatrical effect and safety standpoint. And the fact that the sign in the load area pit says "Danger -- Live steam" is in itself part of the show?
Originally Posted By WDWtechie TarzanRocked99-06 your welcome it was fun for me too. Although i did not help design the show i did work on it. Im helpigndesign the new show going in its place.
