Walt Disney Imagineering has offered a behind-the-scenes look at how virtual reality is being used to plan “Welcome to Monstropolis,” the Monsters, Inc.-themed project coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios next year.
In a social media video, Francesca, a Media & Art Pipeline Developer for Walt Disney Imagineering, explained that teams use pre-visualization before heading into the field to build an attraction. Show set designers, show mechanical engineers, ride mechanical teams, and show programmers bring their work into Unreal, a game engine Imagineering uses for those digital previews.
Imagineering says the process allows an attraction to be viewed in its entirety for the first time, bringing lighting, animation, timing, media, and figures together in one place. Teams can review sightlines from different heights, then use augmented and virtual reality to step into the setting, see it from a guest viewpoint, and make adjustments before construction is complete.
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Concept art for the Monstropolis show depicts Mike, Sulley, and other characters from Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University performing before a theater audience, with musical accompaniment and flying door portals. Disney has also said Randy Newman is creating an original song for the attraction, a first for Disney Parks.
