Week Two/Three: Planet Building

Because of the hurricane class cancellation, we have moved the presentation from last week to this week.  Unfortunately, this will mean we will only have one class on Fantastic Beasts and the preparation time for the first project will be shortened. This week we will have our first guest presenter, Howard Hochhalter, Manager of the Bishop Planetarium in Bradenton. Howard will attempt to present a crash course in basics of planet formation and astrophysics. This week and next week we will be preparing an assignment in vizualizing an exoplanet (a planet outside of our solar system).

I redone the reading for the second week and have added several new ones under week two.  Your assignment before coming to class on Sept. 10 is to read one of the books on planet building I have under Week Two resources.  Read this book as a resource before coming to class.

During the next class we will explain in more detail the Planet Visualization Project. Here are some of the details in advance, but the assignment for next week is to read the background book.

This Planet Vizualization project will extend over the next three weeks. This coming week we will prepare specifications for the planet we intend to build. Next week we will look at the basics of how to build an ecosystem on the planet you have designed. These designs will be output in two images: one to form a skin to wrap on the wire frame model of an existing exoplanet; the second, a panorama representing the 360 degree view from the site of our "landing." All outputs will be as png images. 

When you have finished the two images you are to write a description of your planet, its name and something about life on the planet. Post this description on your blog.  Record the description into a .wav file of one minute or less. 

Here are some of the basic instructions:

Planet textures wrap around a 3D wireframe sphere. The sphere/planet can be placed in orbit around one of the stars with known exoplanets that we have mapped into our system. We’ll just replace the texture of an exoplanet. This will allow students some control over the characteristics of their planet/solar system (type of star, planet’s distance from star, etc.)

The panorama (the “long skinny” format) will be displayed when we “land” on the planet. If the graphic is transparent above the land features (in other words, if the sky is left transparent) then stars, the planet’s sun, and other features will be visible exactly as they would appear from the surface of the planet. For example, if this is a planet around a star other than our sun, our sun would be visible in that planet’s nighttime sky as a star. Use a transparent canvas when you set up your image.

The first image should be at a resolution (image size) of 8192 x 4096. This image we are calling the planetary texture. Then, you should make a "long skinny" panorama, in an 8:1 (width to height) ratio. The center of the panorama will be at the front of the dome and what we are directly looking at, the rest of the image will wrap to either side. I recommend the "long and skinny" 8:1 image as probably producing the best result. A possible pixel set up might be 4096 pixels in height and 32,768 pixels in width. This file size might be out of hand is you go with a color depth over 8bit, but you may a deeper color depth might be ok. All images png file although that is recommended for all the files. The examples are jpgs. If you make a png, leave the sky of the panorama transparent so that the night sky or daytime of the location of the planet can be visible over the panorama.


After you have completed your images, put them in google docs box and email an invitation to Howard at the planetarium so they can pull the files from the box and mount them in the system. Don't try to email them. FYI the planetarium projects in 4k resolution, so file sizes will be big for best results.

Read about Five Earthlike planets nearby.

Writing Assignment:  If you haven't done so yet, post the map of your part of Oz on your blog. Add a brief travelogue description of your area of Oz including some of the important sites and some of the characters that live there.  One character should be imported from one of the canonical books by L. Frank Baum but the other characters should be of your own invention.  Where do your characters live and what do the live in.  Mention any other significant structures or natural points of interest. 

Week One: Mapping Imagined Worlds

First Offical Map of Oz from Tik Tok in Oz

The first class will begin with a look at constructing worlds as the container of characters and story. We will engage in some mapmaking as an introduction to basic Worldbuilding Theory and discuss several examples of the relationship between transmedia storytelling and worldbuilding. 

Worldbuilding principle of the week: "All maps are projections."

Assignment Before Coming to Class: Read one of the Books of Oz from the original canon. You will find resources for this on the Course Resource Page.  You have to use your Ringling username and password to access this page. 

Using any of the maps of Oz as a general container, such as the one reproduced above, select a specific area and create the map of a small village that exists in the area you have chosen. Use the Oz book you have read as a source to add characters to the map as well as potential locations but most of the characters you use or details you build should be created by you, not taken from Baum's work. Try to keep your locations and characters in harmony with Baum's world although it is possible to creatively depart in a number of directions, which is often the case when contemporary writers tell stories in the Ozverse.  

After you have created your map which should include some characters and where they live and other buildings and landscape features for your small area of use, write an entry for an Oz travelogue of your small village that describes the village and some of its most prominent inhabitants. Include some details of the most significant buildings and describe some of the domiciles of the important townfolk. Use at least one character from the canon to help populate the village but make sure it contains some orginal characters that you invent. Don't use a specific place already described in the books, do some building out of the canonical Oz World. 

Here is a link to several accepted maps along with backgrounds on them 

http://oz.wikia.com/wiki/Maps_of_Oz

At the top of the page are navigation buttons and search bar to access the knowledge base of the Oz wiki which includes information on the books and on the canon as well as a wide diversity of Oziana of all types and media.

Please bring your laptop or tablet to class with a copy of your map and description files on it.  In class we will create a blog on which you will post your work for this semester and we will post your map and travelogue entry then.

Check the course resource page in the Course Links box for this week's reading to help you complete this assignment. Look under the resources for week 2.  

Summary of Course Information:

The purpose of this course is to provide you with an introduction to some of the basic concepts from the liberal arts that are used to create believable narrative worlds. Projects in the course are designed to help you apply the concepts you learn.

Attendance Policy is the Ringling Institutional Policy.

There will be three projects for this course.  The first project involves the creation of an exo-planet in the "goldilocks" zone of a distant star. The planet will have its own planetary ecosystem and carbon-based biota.  Suitable in some way for human habitation. This project will take place over the first third of the course. Each student will be required to create a planet skin (in photoshop or other software program) together with a 360 degree panorama of the planet's surface showing some of its physical features and biota. You will complete this project by creating a title slide for your planet and an audio .wav file of 1 minute or less that will introduce your planet and its features.  We will visit the Bishop Planetarium where the images you have created will be modeled and viewed in the dome theater.  These images will be accompanied by a brief description of your planet's physical and biota characteristics in an entry you construct for the Encyclopedia Galactica.

In the second third of the course, the entry you have created for your planet, together with reduced size image files for your planetskin and panorama will form the starting point for a more detailed entry in the Encyclopedia Galactica, a Twine2 hypertext environment that you will help construct and which details a utopian culture/society that inhabits your planet. The work for this section of the course will be modeled in Twine2, an open source program. 

The third segment of the course will focus on the conceptual planning of a theme park experience.  This project will conclude with a presentation to the group of your concept for the park.

In addition to the completion of the three projects you are welcome to maintain a process blog on which you will post process documents each week, work completed in class, as well as any comments you want to make about the ongoing work of the semester.

The mid-term grade will be based on your work for the planetarium and a review of the process blog.  The three grades for the course will be posted on the course gradebook on Canvas. The final grade will be based on a portfolio review of the three projects and the process blog during a personal conference with the student.

Week Fifteen: Final Reviews

This week we are meeting individually to review your work and establish grades for the semester.  You should already have an appointment.  I look forward to talking with you about your semester in my class. If you have work I need to still see bring your laptop or tablet so you can show it to me. 

Week Fourteen: Final Project Presentations

Concept Art for Ghibli Theme Park Scheduled for 2020

This week we are having our final theme park presentations.  Each team will have 10 minutes and there will follow 5 minutes of questions and responses.   We will be joined for our final review by Dr. Chelsea Bruner designer and design historian who will be teaching classes related to the new Entertainment Design major starting next year.  I look forward to seeing your ideas for the Wakanda theme park. 

Remember to make sure you have an appointment for your final portfolio review during next week's final class time. 

Week Thirteen: Project Work Day

This week we will have a chance to work on your theme park proposals in your groups.  We will start the class with the required assessment, begin the appointment process for the final portfolio reviews and then break out into project groups.  Please bring your laptop or tablet as we will be writing in class this week.

Dreamflight Efteling Park Ride Along

Dreamflight Recreated as a Virtual Coaster Ride On Ride Video

Good Onride of Pirates of the Caribbean Shanghai 

Small World Holiday Version Disneyland

Small World Holiday Disneyland Nighttime

Week Twelve: The Theme Park as Narrative

This week's visiting speaker will be Dr. Carissa Baker from Seminole State College who is a scholar of theme parks and especially theme park narrative.  Besides her presentation, Dr. Baker will respond to some of the initial proposals for our theme park projects.  The emphasis in this week's session will be on building the storytelling aspects of  your particular project.

Because of the very uneven quality of the initial proposals I have decided not to hold the hurricane evacuation rehearsal next week.  The class will meet as usual and we will have another group work sessions on the theme park projects in preparation for final presentations. 

Fata Morgana Dark Ride Eftling Theme Park

The Flying Dutchman Eftling Theme Park

Week 11:Design Process for a Theme Park World

"Disney Imagineer Gary Landrum continually pointed out that the number one product that Disney sells is emotion. The parks don’t just contain stories; they are — in and of themselves — self-contained stories heavily influenced with both design and architecture to guide guests through their own personal hero’s journey. Every archway, every tower, every sightline and every color choice has been carefully selected not just to tell each individual story, but also to help tell your story as you walk through the park.

Individual attractions can be replaced and refreshed to keep up-to-date with today’s guests, but many of the decisions in how the park is formed remain untouched through the generations."

Link to PDF of today's Class Presentation on Theme Park Basics

This week we are going to explore worldbuilding within the design process for themed entertainment by undertaking a concept design for a Theme Park World based on Wakanda, in Marvel Comics Black Panther. 

Wakanda
The background for this week's class is to watch the Black Panther movie  and to read some of the recent Black Panther comics, check the resource page.  In Class we will review the parameters of the project and begin work on individual concepts.

Request For Proposals
Worldbuilding Imagineering Project "Wakanda"

Deadline for Initial Proposals is midnight Nov. 18. Your project must be posted by then to be considered for conceptual development.  If your project is not accepted for development, you have to work on someone else's project. Team projects are allowed.

Project Description:  We are seeking proposals for a 15 acre theme park with a total budget of $1.5 Billion U.S. dollars to provide an immersive entertainment experience for up to 15 million guests per year. The theme is "The World of Wakanda" and should reference the Marvel Studios franchise of Black Panther.  The park should embody an original story taking place in the Black Panther World of Wakanda. There should be at least 2 signature rides, one of which should be budgeted at roughly 500 million dollars. A description of other signature shows, merchandise, catering, and support services should be included. The park should be designed with inclement weather options and sufficiently complex to provide new experiences for repeat visits. All elements in the park should be themed to the park story.

Project Submission:  An initial synopsis of the project of no less than 300 words but no more than 750 words must be submitted by the deadline to be considered. The synopsis should include a preliminary description of salient signature details. A rough map may be included in the initial proposal and any images or reference.

Successful initial proposals will be developed over a two week period.  A phone call conference with each team/individual will be held on Nov. 27. 

Final proposals will be presented to the class as a whole, with possible outside reviewers present on Dec. 4. Final Proposal should include a conceptual map of the proposed park. 

Imagineering Project Schedule 

Nov. 13.  Introduction to Theme Park Concepts. Brainstorming charrette. PDF of introductory presentation. Team Formation. RFP Proposal.
Nov. 20.  Visiting Respondent, Dr. Carissa Baker, scholar of theme park narrative.  Initial RFP Proposals must be posted on your blog by this date so they can be read by Dr. Baker. Only projects selected during this review can go forward to conceptual phase.
Nov. 27.  Scheduled phone calls for extensive project reports for those projects in conceptual phase. Assessment. Final presentations scheduled.
Dec. 4. Conceptual projects are presented in class and reviewed. 

Dec. 11.  Final Class.  Individual Portfolio Reviews

Twine 2 Projects are past due.  Please check your planet link on the Encyclopedia Galactica and make sure it is your final version.  If it isn't, resend it to me please and I will update your link.


Projection Mapping of Sydney Opera House 2012

Omote Real Time Face Projection Mapping

You tube Video of Shanghai Pirates of the Caribbean

You tube video of Tron Coaster

Disney Avatar Flight of Passage

Ratatouille Ride at Paris Disneyland

Pooh's Hunny Hunt Tokyo Disneyland

Enchanted Tales with Belle

Week Ten

This week we will have our final session building our twine2 planets.  Our guest presenter will be Dr. Doug Chismar head of the liberal arts program and a philosopher whose specialty is ethics and empathy. We will consider the values that we have created in our worlds, what values have come into our constructions through our assumptions and what values we want to be reflected in the societies we have built. 

Completion of Twine2 Project--Next week, Nov. 6, there will be no class because of Faculty Professional Day.  Final Twine 2 Projects are due Friday,  Nov. 9; please send me your updated and complete files by then.  Include a 100 x 100 pixel planet skin if you want to replace the generic one on the Encyclopedia page. 

Next Class we will begin the final project, a conceptual plan for a theme park world rooted in the representation of Wakanda in the transmedia franchise Black Panther.  

Week Seven: Report from the Xenologist

This week I will be taking the class through a series of additions to our Twine2 story environments.  We will be using some of the basic approaches to anthropology in formulating a report for your planet from a xenologist, a scientist who studies extraterrestrial life. I have put a reasonably short reading on the course resource page that introduces many of the primary concepts of cultural anthropology. It is recommended that you read it before coming to class so that it will help you to understand the concepts we will talk about. You will also find a copy of this week's presentation and Rick Dakan's guide to basic Twine2 on the course resource page as well. Next week we will continue to develop our hypertext planets when Dr. Iva Petkova comes to talk about Sociology and the creation of societies.

I have created a page to link all the hypertext projects together.  This page is at 

https://webspace.ringling.edu/~dsteilin/Encyclopedia/Encyclopedia%20Home.html

and you can see a couple of the projects I have received linked there.  Please export (publish) your hypertext project to your laptop using the export feature in twine2 and then send me the resulting html file.  This can be sent ordinary email.  In addition to the hypertext file, please send me a 100 x 100 pixel image of your planet to go on the Encyclopedia page. If you want you can also include in your email a description of your planet of about 30 words in length.  If you don't send a description, I will write one based on the information in your hypertext survey. I have to receive projects from everyone by Friday evening, October 12, to be considered in time for mid-term grades.

Week Four: Fantastic Creatures and How to Fake Them

Expanding on last week, environmental scientist Tim Rumage returns with a presentation about the diversity of adaptations there are in the natural world.  Tim will talk about a variety of ways that life has to adapt to different environments.  He'll talk more about creating creatures through recombination and more about the relationships between environment, body and behavior. 

Assignment for Today: After you have completed the visualizations, please write a couple of paragraphs of a scenario that describes the basics of your world and its general characteristics. Post it to on your blog and be prepared to read part of it during your visualization or make a .wav file to go with your planet as in the Extra Credit assignment below.  Here is what I have written for my planet:


Kewpie By-the-Little-Rip

At what might be the very edge of the universe (unless it’s not) is The Little Rip. In The Little Rip a portion of the known universe may have expanded as much as it probably can. Just how this expansion remains localized is not, in the least, understood, in part because whenever it is probed it registers as a single point. What is clear is that molecules of special conditions spin out from this near-to-possibly-beyond infinite cataclysm. Intention seems particularly massive and slow at the event horizon of Little Rip, and just beyond this horizon the space/time sea pulses with storms of uncertain probabilities, billows of dark intentions, and malstroms of anti-time.

It's just the sort of place to catch the attention of any multi-galactic set of species that happened to inhabit the roughly nearuniverse to The Little Rip. Which it has.

The region surrounding the rip is called The Ancients Archipelago, a set of islands of the standard universe washed by waves of Dark Fluid. There are a substantial number of probable worlds in The Archipelago, but strikingly, all the worlds fit into just three categories: usual Baryonic Worlds, worlds that might be made up of Dark Matter, and a set of worlds that all seem to be Chaplygin gas giants. These worlds are distributed in no reasonable order or stable relationship but float with the tides of reality emerging from the rip.

At the presumed time of the Encyclopedia Galactica it is hypothesized that the arrangement of worlds along The Archipelago is intentional and is meant to house the three general types of entities inhabiting our corner of the matterverse. We think we may have been at war with one of those other types of entities for millenia, unless we weren’t.

At the constantly rearranging center of the Baryonic worlds, was Archipelago Prime, (called “Kewpie”) a planet along whose axis balanced on a continuum of probabilities: at the equator possibilities were fixed, mechanics were predictable, cause and effect were certain; at the poles, forces could only be harnessed by will and attention until any rules at the polar extreme into quarksands of infinite possibility, frozen desserts of dark intentions through which only wizards could roam.

Due Today:  You should have completed by class today your two planet images. One, the planet skin and two, the panorama with lifeforms.  Include your name in the name of the files so that we can keep track of them. These two images should be placed in a folder in google docs.  Then send Howard Hochhalter, the Planetarium Manager an invitation to access this folder in your google docs.  When you email your invitation to him, make sure it says Worldbuilding in the subject line so he can tell it is our class. Send it again with Worldbuilding in the subject line if you have already sent it to him. This is how your work will get to the planetarium.  His email address is

HHochhalter@southfloridamuseum.org

By today you should also have completed your planet description which should include a description of the physical features of your planet and some of its signature lifeforms. Post this on your blog along with low/res versions of your planet skin and panorama. 

Xtra Credit:  Want to go for the A?  Get Xtra credit for taking your planet description and make a .wav file of you (or someone else) reading your description.  Put the .wav file in your Google docs folder along with your planetarium images.  This is an experiment this year but we hope to be able to play your .wav files as an introduction to your planet as we show them.  There is a ninety (90) second limit on the .wav file.  This can be done using your laptop or tablet.  You can look at Youtube for a tutorial.

Remember that next week we will meeting at the Bishop Planetarium at the South Florida Museum, which is in downtown Bradenton at 201 10th St. West,  almost to the riverfront on 10th Street. Please be there by 8:50.  We will discuss ride sharing in class and try to arrange a car pool for everyone.  Uber is possible.  There is also a bus that goes by the school and goes to the station in downtown Bradenton. You have to walk a few blocks from the bus station near the Manatee courthouse to the museum.  Allow for extra time if you take the bus.

Week Fourteen: Final Projects Submitted for Review

Concept Art for Avatar Attraction at Walt Disney World

Deadline Tuesday Dec. 5, Final Project Presentations:  This week the final project is due.  Students will be asked to present their project orally in class for about 5 minutes each,  summarizing the central concepts and introducing us to some of the specific elements of the theme park worlds you have created. Your written project synopsis should be approx. 500 words and may include any maps, illustrations or other visuals you may like to help make your ideas clear. It is the written elements of the project that will be emphasized in the project review.  Presentations can be reasonably casual as they might be if offered in the context of a charrette. The written portion of your project must be posted on your blog by Tuesday morning. Students who have requested their final portfolio review for Dec. 5th must also have all their portfolio complete and posted on their blogs by Monday night, Dec. 4.

During class we will fill out the online course evaluations and prepare for the final portfolio reviews. 

Week Thirteen: Final Project Draft

Theme Park for Children's Literature Teddy Bear Annual, 1973

Draft Due for Final Project: The final project is to post a short pitch of approximately 500 words that will propose a theme park world along the lines suggested for the in-class Wonder Woman charette. The world you are proposing can be built around central attraction but should have the following parameters:

§Throughput of at least 2500 visitors an hour through each experience in the attraction. (Expected theme park attendance as a whole, 10 million per year)
§Area to be developed is about 9 acres with a budget of $400 million.
§Must be planned with inclement weather options.
§Design should be multi-threaded to provide different experiences for repeat visits.
§Queue lines should be integrated into the entire entertainment experience.

The theme of your world must be original with you or based on work in public domain. You may add pictures or maps if you wish. Please be as specific and concrete as possible, especially about significant elements. Please remember to be green and environmentally responsible.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Week Twelve: Building Diverse and Inclusive Worlds

World's first fully inclusive Water Park Morgan's Inspiration Island, San Antonio

Writing Assignment to complete before coming to Class: Following the design process we used last week you should write a paragraph that articulates the high concept of the theme park world that will become your final project for this class.  Publish the high concept on your blog before you come to class this week. Make sure your concept is original to you or based on properties in public domain. Be prepared to read your concept aloud in class.

During this week's class session we will be working with Dr. S.J. Sindu, novelist and faculty member from the Creative Writing program, on developing  your concepts in way that reflect diversity and inclusion. Come prepared with your laptop or tablet so that you can write in-class.

Mhysa the finale of Season Three of Game of Thrones

The Deatheaters attack the Quidditch World Cup

You can buy a hooded deatheaters cloak here, just over a $100.

Article on Deatheaters and the KKK

Reminder: No Class November 7

This week, November 7, there is no class.  Originally scheduled for a faculty professional day, the day will be used to make up Friday classes missed during the hurricane evacuation.  If you have Friday classes they will be meeting this Tuesday. I will see you again on Tuesday morning, November 14.

Week Four: Introduction to Planet Building

This week our guest lecturer will be Jeff Rodgers Provost of the South Florida Museum and Director of the Bishop Planetarium.  Jeff will be presenting a brief introduction to basic Astrophysics and will be available for questions. He will also be able to present the parameters for our planet visualization excercise. I will post the details for this coming assignment on the blog by next weeks's class. 

Writing Assignment before coming to class on Sept. 26: Please write your own take on the game design concept presented by table top game designer Ken Hite during our last class session.  You are invited to mix any historical event (large or small) with a "nerd trope," i.e. zombies, vampires, aliens, monsters, etc.  Post a synopsis of this alternate history on your course blog. 

Week Three: Wheres and Whens

This week we will begin with a film clip from Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. In-class we will have several writing excercises involving wheres and whens. And during the second part of the class we will review the worlds built out of the photo sets that were the homework for this week.  Next week we will have our first visiting lecturer when Dr. Doug Chismar comes to disuss issues in Space and Time. 

Writing Assignment: For next week's class we will have our first writing assignment to feature the full sub-creation of an original and/or public domain world. In 350-500 words write a description of a world in which time or space don't operate as they do in our own world. What are the rules of space and time in this new world? How does one exist in this world are humans modified or are all the residents non-human? If there are humans here, how did they get there and what special rules must they obey? If there are more than one states of space or time how do we travel between them? What is the conceptual framework that unites this world?