![]() ![]() The company that manufactured the screens and the player software was able to provide us a sample panel that eventually ended up as the Australia screen. We actually spent quite a lot of time testing images for their readability. In reality, the resolution of these 364×160 pixel files turned out to be acceptable. The barge and globe sit at the center of the World Showcase Lagoon (EPCOT) and audience viewing distances range from 500 to 700 feet away. This idea was quickly dropped because such an increase is actually a square factor that would not only affect the screens, but the weight on the barge, time to hand-wire the LED matrices and last, but not least, the budget. Our world map aligns to the upper left corner of the display card and these pixels correspond to their companion LEDs on the globe.Įarly on we had lobbied for a doubling of the resolution of the screens to a density of at least 720 pixels wide. Of course, just like a real map, much of this is blank in the location of the oceans. The video itself appears as a flat map of the earth that fits into a file size of only 364×160 pixels. These are electronically linked to pixels on the graphics display card of the computer playing back the files. The five continental masses amount to about 15,000 LED clusters. You’d expect that screens on a 29-foot tall globe would be of extremely high resolution, but in fact, the opposite is true. As one of the leads, I headed up a remarkable team of artists, animators, directors and editors who contributed to the success of Reflections of Earth. In the year that we developed the video content for the earth globe, I served as one CIII’s project managers, as well as the lead editor/compositor. Even if you’ve never visited EPCOT, you’ve probably heard pieces of this score under ABC network special event promos and bumpers.Ĭentury III at Universal Studios Florida won the bid to produce the video portion of Reflections. Greenaway is closely associated with Hans Zimmer and mixed the final score at Zimmer’s Media Ventures facility. It features a symphony consisting of London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic players recorded at Abbey Road Studios. The score itself is an outstanding piece of work composed by Gavin Greenaway. Reflection of Earth was driven by show director Don Dorsey, an independent creative consultant who handled every aspect of the show’s design, including music, video and fireworks. This story is told visually in a combination stock footage, original footage and some animation. ![]() The show loosely takes the audience on a journey that start with the big bang and symbolically progresses through the formation of earth, water and land, then to the creation of plants and animals and finally to the introduction of humans and their impact through transportation, architecture, creativity and communication. Unlike other Disney shows, Reflections didn’t consist of a cast of Disney characters, but instead was designed as a celebration of humankind. Much of the show plays out as video on these screens in harmony with the music and fireworks. A series of LED video screens in the shape of five continental masses (North and South America, Eurasia, Africa and Australia) are mounted onto the skeletal struts of the globe. The globe is mounted on a floating barge. IllumiNations 2000: Reflections of Earth closes out each night at EPCOT in a celebration of fire, fireworks, lasers, fountains and a 29-foot tall globe that opens like flower petals – all tied together with an outstanding music score. Themed attractions are often out of the ordinary and this was no exception. This marked the culmination of nearly a yearlong effort on the part of the video team and a total of several years for the show designers. Due to logistical reasons Reflections of Earth was actually fired up in October, 1999. IllumiNations 2000: Reflections of Earth was designed to usher in the new millennium and was to be activated a on New Year’s Eve, 1999. Many theme park attractions are refreshed or changed periodically and I suspect that, the economy notwithstanding, it will be time to revamp this popular show, as well. In 2009, the nighttime lagoon show at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT theme park enters what may well be its last year in this current version. One of the coolest projects I’ve ever worked on is about to enter its tenth year.
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