Main Street 1920's concept early draft and construction panoramic pictures

I thought that yesterday's article would have been my last D&M article but I had last evening a great surprise in my mail box with a mail from Eddie Sotto, show-producer of Main Street U.S.A at Disneyland Paris.

In the Disneyland Paris that never was Part 2 and 3 articles Eddie explained wonderfully what would have been Main street U.S.A 1920's first concept. Eddie found back the early draft of this 1920's version who describes in details what Eddie envisioned, back in 1987. It's a fascinating document as we discover what could have been Main Street shops, restaurants and attractions if this 1920's version has been chosen. In addition, Eddie also found great and never-seen-before panoramic pictures of DLP Main Street U.S.A's construction and the rare artwork above showing the EL Station, Main Street Station for the elevated tramway that never was. Here is the kind email from Eddie Sotto:

Alain,

I was going through a box of old papers and ran across this 1987 memo and some photos. You have written so much about the Disneyland Paris that never was, I thought you'd enjoy sharing this early draft of what the 1920's Main Street could have been! there were many more drafts after this for sure, but it's fun to see what was being talked.

Here are some images from the summer before we opened from one of those kodak single use panoramic cameras. You'll notice the elevator cab for Walt's Restaurant was being threaded (brown box on it's side) through the doorway , stained glass and all, long before the doors went in to seal the space. The white surfaces you see are the ornamental pieces and primed moldings, some made of MDF, a pressed board material that although inexpensive, expands in the rain and bursts apart. So a year later much of that was to be replaced.

Eddie Sotto

Let's begin by the Main Street 1920's "script". Click on each image to see the three pages in larger scale.







Let's have a look now to these never-seen-before panoramic shots of Main Street's construction. Eddie shot the pictures in summer 1991, approximately 9 months before opening day. The first panoramics shows Town Square, the castle in the background is still under construction.







Next panoramic seems to have been shot from what is now the Walt's Restaurant, the Disneyland Hotel is in the background.



The two next panoramics are extremely rare pictures showing the arrival of the Walt's Restaurant elevator. It is so big that they had to wait to put it in place before they put the doors of the restaurant.





The last panoramic is vertical and is a rare view of the castle under construction!



I would like to thanks again Eddie Sotto for these great documents, i'm sure you were as fascinated as i was to discover them.

Tomorrow will be Disney and more "Grand Finale", and i have a last and great surprise for you, so make sure to come on D&M tomorrow!


Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

Artwork and Main Street draft: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc

Panoramic pictures: copyright Eddie Sotto

How to create your own " Disney Planets " !

Let's begin the week with something great! In this article you will learn how to create "Disney Planets" from any panoramic pictures you may have shot during your last visit at your favorite Disney theme park! And not only it's fun but also VERY easy to do!

You will find below the full tutorial but basically all what you need is: 1) a panoramic shot - whether it's a "one shot" panoramic done with the panoramic feature of your digital camera or a panoramic created through Photoshop with several shots put together - and 2) any Photoshop version - and you don't need the latest CS5 version, the first Photoshop CS will work perfectly. Before i show you some examples keep in mind that each of them were done in less than five minutes - and i mean really not more than five minutes including the time to launch the Photoshop program!

There we go. For each "planet" you'll see first the panoramic shot i've used to create them. The first "planet" above was done from this official DLP panoramic picture.



But this next one below was created from my own panoramic picture shot at DLP Fantasyland.





This next one was created from this Town Square panoramic shot...





...and this one from a panoramic of the Disney Village entrance.





Of course you can try with panoramic pictures from any Disney theme park and the next pictures were not shot by me but by Bernie webmaster of the excellent disney.rocket9.net web site where you will find great panoramic shots as well as many desktop pictures. The first one below was done from a panoramic of Disneyland Central Plaza.





Always from Bernie's pictures here is two "planets" created from two Toon Town panoramic shots.









But you can also have great results with night panoramics, as you can see with this night picture of Disneyland's Main Street...





...or this official night shot of Paradise Pier.





As i'm sure you must be curious to know how works the "transformation" here is the tutorial and if it's not enough clear go on this link HERE where this tutorial is coming from:

1) Choose a panoramic picture, any one but if possible one which have on the top part of the image only "sky" - with no trees or decor "touching" the top of the image. Once you've found one, it's going to be very easy.

2) Open the picture with Photoshop (any Photoshop version from the first "CS") and resize the image to a square width size (for example: from 2000 x 650 to 2000 x 2000). To do this, go in the top menu to the "Image" menu then to "Image size".

3) Your original panoramic shot is now a square. Now, always in the "Image" menu, rotate the picture: choose "Rotate 180 degrees".

4) Step 4 is "Polaring": use the polar coordinates filter. Go to the "Filter" menu, then choose "Distort" then "Polar Coordinates", and select "Rectangular to polar".

If you're french: allez au menu "filtre" puis choisir "déformation" puis "coordonnées polaires".

That's it, you've created a Disney Planet!

As i've told you the best is to have a panoramic with sky only all along the top of the image. If you don't you may have some strange effects at the end but sometime it can be "artistically" interesting. Examples with these three shots below. In this case it don't looks anymore like planets but the result is still fun. The first one is from a DLP Frontierland's shooting gallery panoramic.





This next one was done from a panoramic of Alice's Curious Labyrinth...





...and this last one from a panoramic of Main Street Liberty Arcade.





If you want to try by yourself and don't have any panoramic shot you can use some of mine previously posted HERE. Also, you can send to me - at: lawrence55@wanadoo.fr - the "planets" you will create and in the future i will do a special article with the creations of my D&M readers!

Pictures: copyright Alain Littaye, Rocket9, or Disney - All my thanks to Bernie of the disney.rocket9.net web site for his great Disneyland panoramic pictures.

Main Street 1920's concept early draft and construction panoramic pictures

I thought that yesterday's article would have been my last D&M article but I had last evening a great surprise in my mail box with a mail from Eddie Sotto, show-producer of Main Street U.S.A at Disneyland Paris.

In the Disneyland Paris that never was Part 2 and 3 articles Eddie explained wonderfully what would have been Main street U.S.A 1920's first concept. Eddie found back the early draft of this 1920's version who describes in details what Eddie envisioned, back in 1987. It's a fascinating document as we discover what could have been Main Street shops, restaurants and attractions if this 1920's version has been chosen. In addition, Eddie also found great and never-seen-before panoramic pictures of DLP Main Street U.S.A's construction and the rare artwork above showing the EL Station, Main Street Station for the elevated tramway that never was. Here is the kind email from Eddie Sotto:

Alain,

I was going through a box of old papers and ran across this 1987 memo and some photos. You have written so much about the Disneyland Paris that never was, I thought you'd enjoy sharing this early draft of what the 1920's Main Street could have been! there were many more drafts after this for sure, but it's fun to see what was being talked.

Here are some images from the summer before we opened from one of those kodak single use panoramic cameras. You'll notice the elevator cab for Walt's Restaurant was being threaded (brown box on it's side) through the doorway , stained glass and all, long before the doors went in to seal the space. The white surfaces you see are the ornamental pieces and primed moldings, some made of MDF, a pressed board material that although inexpensive, expands in the rain and bursts apart. So a year later much of that was to be replaced.

Eddie Sotto

Let's begin by the Main Street 1920's "script". Click on each image to see the three pages in larger scale.







Let's have a look now to these never-seen-before panoramic shots of Main Street's construction. Eddie shot the pictures in summer 1991, approximately 9 months before opening day. The first panoramics shows Town Square, the castle in the background is still under construction.







Next panoramic seems to have been shot from what is now the Walt's Restaurant, the Disneyland Hotel is in the background.



The two next panoramics are extremely rare pictures showing the arrival of the Walt's Restaurant elevator. It is so big that they had to wait to put it in place before they put the doors of the restaurant.





The last panoramic is vertical and is a rare view of the castle under construction!



I would like to thanks again Eddie Sotto for these great documents, i'm sure you were as fascinated as i was to discover them.

Tomorrow will be Disney and more "Grand Finale", and i have a last and great surprise for you, so make sure to come on D&M tomorrow!


Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

Artwork and Main Street draft: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc

Panoramic pictures: copyright Eddie Sotto

Disneyland Paris Panoramic Pictures

Here is something i wanted to do before i stop posting new articles, early next week. What better way to show Disneyland Paris to those of you who have never been in this beautiful park than panoramic pictures? The pictures below, that i've shot yesterday afternoon, show only DLP Magic Kingdom but it will give you the feeling that you're inside the park. Of course, click on each picture to see them in big size. Feel free to download the pictures but don't post them on other web sites, thanks.

These pictures were shoot in less than three hours with a Sony DSC-HX1 camera. Its panoramic mode is just fantastic, you just simply press the shutter button and "sweep" the camera horizontally or vertically and the camera assembles the shots into a single frame which can cover up to 224 degrees field of view. Amazing. Sometime, when somebody is walking while you shoot the panoramic he may be cut in half on the final pic but it seem that they've resolved the problem on the new Sony DSC-HX5V released in March. As these cameras also film in high-definition and cost only around $400 (370 euros) it's a perfect toy to shoot great pictures in the parks.

Fantasia Gardens, Disneyland Hotel and Park Entrance





Main Street U.S.A and Liberty Arcade









Frontierland







The Rustler Roundup Shootin' Gallery





A fun effect of the panoramic sweep mode on a picture showing the arrival of Big Thunder Mountain train.










Adventureland









Fantasyland







Discoveryland










At the exit of the park, the Disney Village, the night entertainment area.




Thanks to leave a comment or discuss this article on D&M english forum on Mice Chat

All pictures: copyright Alain Littaye - Disney and more