Jarrett
Most Obnoxious Member 2016
Often in this day and age of CGI, a park is able to produce a rendering of what their new coaster will look like, other rides and all, so you can see a POV before a real one. But with the ability of a computer to build whatever landscape the operator wants, some of these renderings can be either inaccurate, poorly made, or decent but then get **** by the marketing people in charge of presenting it. Which ones do you consider best and worst?
There are many kinds of these videos parks can put out, but let's just focus on two; POVs and introductions (as in, showing a rendering often paired with video effects and music to capture the feel of the ride as a whole) Post away!
Worst (I notice that many of my favorites are in here for some reason)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy6ZLtpA7XM[/youtube]
I'm not sure if this is because I'm a goon, a Kings Island fanboy or just a nit-picky person in general, but coming from a huge fan of this coaster, this rendering is pretty inaccurate. First off, the ride here is shown going through undeveloped woods. In real life, there are trenches beneath the inversions on the uphill half of the ride and the ride flies over a grassy field littered with gravestones that feels like the Celtic countryside. And at night, there are really awesome lighting effects that bring the coaster to life and make the experience positively nightmarish. This video shows fog that is never there, no lights, the same paved Action Zone circle instead of the canopy structure in the Celtic rings they added, and the track color is way off. My biggest beef with this one is the trees, though. I know this coaster inside and out, I've ridden it 93 times, I love it, but this rendering doesn't do the final product justice.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmECN5Qr1mE[/youtube]
This is my number one steel (unless I decide it's Millennium Force that day, I change my mind about these two so much
) and for a ride rendering, it's really artistic and overall, it is an awesome video. However, it doesn't convey how the experience turned out at all. First off, there are the infamous trenches with rockwork in the video that turned out to be concrete in real life (albeit much of it was either themed or weathered nicely in the long run). Second and most importantly, the speed physics in this video are an absolute joke. Go watch an actual POV of this ride and come back and you'll see that the speed through some of these elements is way off. If you want to make it more accurate at home, though, it is possible to rattle your device around while watching it when it goes between inversions. :wink:
And who could forget this gem...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwe2uWdd-Y[/youtube]
I literally passionately hated this thing the second I saw it. Yolo? This reeks of marketing guys in suits somewhere in an office trying to think of what millennials are into and then trying to be that cool 40-year old man with the skateboard and the hat turned around and just making fools of themselves. The glowy wordart font they use on the text is really loud and in-your-face (as someone who knows a bit about graphic design, textures and glow effects like that are a definite no-no), the music is cheesy, and the effects that ended up in the tunnel aren't in the rendering. Unfortunately, however, this rendering does convey the atmosphere of the ride perfectly; loud, tacky, and in-your face. Quite a shame Six Flags decided to give this ride this vibe considering how it's actually a decent coaster and it's in my top 20.
Best (wanted to end the post on a high note)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua5926Qz7Jk[/youtube]
I'd go out on a limb and say this is my favorite one of these ever done. Just at the beginning it points out the Carolinas with a hexagon on earth and then it shows the Charlotte skyline (something you can see from various park rides like Intimidator and really adds a nice touch enhancing the park's local flare) through the compound eyes of a hornet, really setting the stage to see this giga materialize itself over the park. The use of the honeycomb print throughout the video, the awesome and totally appropriate music, and just the general feel of the video overall makes me stoked to ride this in July. I actually woke up to watch this announcement streamed live after working a night of shift work and sleeping for only three hours to see what this could have been. It was totally worth it!
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2GDj2F40IM[/youtube]
Yet another Cedar Fair B&M, I discussed previously how offensively inaccurate this is in the POV (which was awful at its job) but this video, serving the function to introduce the ride and its overall feel, did it perfectly! The mysterious graveyard at the start, the Banshee scream and Son of Beast collapsing, and the coaster shooting out of the ground and swooping and diving around the layout quickly captures the aggressive, nightmarish vibe of one of my favorite B&Ms perfectly.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeAuBQhiZXo[/youtube]
Rides with great renderings come in all sizes! This rendering is super accurate, conveys the storyline of the ride very well without giving away any surprises better left unseen, and it's just really fun! It's promoting a fun, not-so-thrilling family coaster and whoever made this rendering captured that perfectly.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqtbR5MlQVg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug5BVooKy2E[/youtube]
Yet another announcement video that made me goon out massively, Holiday World really delivered with Thunderbird's renderings! The intro video starts off greatly by condensing everything that happened over 66 Days into twenty seconds, and then visually picking up where the story we read left off (this probably has a lot more impact if you followed it religiously like me). It then shows the Thunderbird flying over Thanksgiving and through the forest leaving a trail of orange B&M track (at Holiday World, this is AWESOME) behind it. It then climaxes with a bolt of lightning hitting the station as the train is launched out and into the ride's layout, soaring over Holiday World. I also like that it includes the clanging sound the train makes as it slides through the sensors on dispatch because I love that noise in real life.
My biggest thing with this one is the Indiana countryside view you can see periodically throughout the ride. They had to have put that there knowing that Thunderbird's hill has a gorgeous view and they wanted to capture that. My only dislikes are a few inaccuracies, mainly with the station (lacking the windows, mezzanine, and supplies in the preshow room, the station is made of wood and not river rock in real life, ect.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEB2FeZXq0E[/youtube]
While I haven't ridden this one, I have to admit, I really like the approach Six Flags took with this one showing the coaster off not as some terrifyingly awesome force to be reckoned with, but as a machine working beautifully. I'm an engineer that geeks out over watching certain machines in action and I love everything Steampunk (in which mechanical things being beautiful is a common theme), so I really liked this one. It highlights all of the ride's best features and moments, but my only issue is that it didn't show the rest of the layout, such as the twisty pre-lift bit.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmbNSPl_i4o[/youtube]
Another Six Flags RMC, this ride already looked absolutely sweet but this video just makes it seem even better. The graphics are well-done, the shots they've selected are amazing, and I knew this coaster would end up on my bucket list the second I saw this.
I'll end this thread shamelessly Cedar Point fanboying again with one of my favorite videos to ever come out of the industry.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8CaGvNurx4[/youtube]
This rendering obviously isn't that accurate as it's from the late nineties but for what they had, it's pretty good. I love how it set up the idea behind Millennium Force even though it really doesn't have that much of a theme and has the ride's amazing theme song playing the whole time. It's cheesy, it's nostalgic, and it's awesome. My friend Jenny (the biggest Millennium Force nut you'll ever meet) actually owns a VHS tape of this promo. It's one of the greatest promotional videos the industry's ever put out (it was actually my favorite until I saw the Fury teaser video) and I think it was also one of the first.
So yeah, post away!
There are many kinds of these videos parks can put out, but let's just focus on two; POVs and introductions (as in, showing a rendering often paired with video effects and music to capture the feel of the ride as a whole) Post away!
Worst (I notice that many of my favorites are in here for some reason)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy6ZLtpA7XM[/youtube]
I'm not sure if this is because I'm a goon, a Kings Island fanboy or just a nit-picky person in general, but coming from a huge fan of this coaster, this rendering is pretty inaccurate. First off, the ride here is shown going through undeveloped woods. In real life, there are trenches beneath the inversions on the uphill half of the ride and the ride flies over a grassy field littered with gravestones that feels like the Celtic countryside. And at night, there are really awesome lighting effects that bring the coaster to life and make the experience positively nightmarish. This video shows fog that is never there, no lights, the same paved Action Zone circle instead of the canopy structure in the Celtic rings they added, and the track color is way off. My biggest beef with this one is the trees, though. I know this coaster inside and out, I've ridden it 93 times, I love it, but this rendering doesn't do the final product justice.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmECN5Qr1mE[/youtube]
This is my number one steel (unless I decide it's Millennium Force that day, I change my mind about these two so much
) and for a ride rendering, it's really artistic and overall, it is an awesome video. However, it doesn't convey how the experience turned out at all. First off, there are the infamous trenches with rockwork in the video that turned out to be concrete in real life (albeit much of it was either themed or weathered nicely in the long run). Second and most importantly, the speed physics in this video are an absolute joke. Go watch an actual POV of this ride and come back and you'll see that the speed through some of these elements is way off. If you want to make it more accurate at home, though, it is possible to rattle your device around while watching it when it goes between inversions. :wink: And who could forget this gem...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwe2uWdd-Y[/youtube]
I literally passionately hated this thing the second I saw it. Yolo? This reeks of marketing guys in suits somewhere in an office trying to think of what millennials are into and then trying to be that cool 40-year old man with the skateboard and the hat turned around and just making fools of themselves. The glowy wordart font they use on the text is really loud and in-your-face (as someone who knows a bit about graphic design, textures and glow effects like that are a definite no-no), the music is cheesy, and the effects that ended up in the tunnel aren't in the rendering. Unfortunately, however, this rendering does convey the atmosphere of the ride perfectly; loud, tacky, and in-your face. Quite a shame Six Flags decided to give this ride this vibe considering how it's actually a decent coaster and it's in my top 20.
Best (wanted to end the post on a high note)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua5926Qz7Jk[/youtube]
I'd go out on a limb and say this is my favorite one of these ever done. Just at the beginning it points out the Carolinas with a hexagon on earth and then it shows the Charlotte skyline (something you can see from various park rides like Intimidator and really adds a nice touch enhancing the park's local flare) through the compound eyes of a hornet, really setting the stage to see this giga materialize itself over the park. The use of the honeycomb print throughout the video, the awesome and totally appropriate music, and just the general feel of the video overall makes me stoked to ride this in July. I actually woke up to watch this announcement streamed live after working a night of shift work and sleeping for only three hours to see what this could have been. It was totally worth it!
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2GDj2F40IM[/youtube]
Yet another Cedar Fair B&M, I discussed previously how offensively inaccurate this is in the POV (which was awful at its job) but this video, serving the function to introduce the ride and its overall feel, did it perfectly! The mysterious graveyard at the start, the Banshee scream and Son of Beast collapsing, and the coaster shooting out of the ground and swooping and diving around the layout quickly captures the aggressive, nightmarish vibe of one of my favorite B&Ms perfectly.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeAuBQhiZXo[/youtube]
Rides with great renderings come in all sizes! This rendering is super accurate, conveys the storyline of the ride very well without giving away any surprises better left unseen, and it's just really fun! It's promoting a fun, not-so-thrilling family coaster and whoever made this rendering captured that perfectly.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqtbR5MlQVg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug5BVooKy2E[/youtube]
Yet another announcement video that made me goon out massively, Holiday World really delivered with Thunderbird's renderings! The intro video starts off greatly by condensing everything that happened over 66 Days into twenty seconds, and then visually picking up where the story we read left off (this probably has a lot more impact if you followed it religiously like me). It then shows the Thunderbird flying over Thanksgiving and through the forest leaving a trail of orange B&M track (at Holiday World, this is AWESOME) behind it. It then climaxes with a bolt of lightning hitting the station as the train is launched out and into the ride's layout, soaring over Holiday World. I also like that it includes the clanging sound the train makes as it slides through the sensors on dispatch because I love that noise in real life.
My biggest thing with this one is the Indiana countryside view you can see periodically throughout the ride. They had to have put that there knowing that Thunderbird's hill has a gorgeous view and they wanted to capture that. My only dislikes are a few inaccuracies, mainly with the station (lacking the windows, mezzanine, and supplies in the preshow room, the station is made of wood and not river rock in real life, ect.)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEB2FeZXq0E[/youtube]
While I haven't ridden this one, I have to admit, I really like the approach Six Flags took with this one showing the coaster off not as some terrifyingly awesome force to be reckoned with, but as a machine working beautifully. I'm an engineer that geeks out over watching certain machines in action and I love everything Steampunk (in which mechanical things being beautiful is a common theme), so I really liked this one. It highlights all of the ride's best features and moments, but my only issue is that it didn't show the rest of the layout, such as the twisty pre-lift bit.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmbNSPl_i4o[/youtube]
Another Six Flags RMC, this ride already looked absolutely sweet but this video just makes it seem even better. The graphics are well-done, the shots they've selected are amazing, and I knew this coaster would end up on my bucket list the second I saw this.
I'll end this thread shamelessly Cedar Point fanboying again with one of my favorite videos to ever come out of the industry.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8CaGvNurx4[/youtube]
This rendering obviously isn't that accurate as it's from the late nineties but for what they had, it's pretty good. I love how it set up the idea behind Millennium Force even though it really doesn't have that much of a theme and has the ride's amazing theme song playing the whole time. It's cheesy, it's nostalgic, and it's awesome. My friend Jenny (the biggest Millennium Force nut you'll ever meet) actually owns a VHS tape of this promo. It's one of the greatest promotional videos the industry's ever put out (it was actually my favorite until I saw the Fury teaser video) and I think it was also one of the first.
So yeah, post away!
