So Many Towers!
Trader Sam | August 23, 2009
If I ever see another tower again, it’ll be too soon! The Disneyland® Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle paper model is finished . . . sans any final corrections and the illustrated instructions. There are so many towers on this sucker. There are also many windows, so it’ll be a challenge for any of you to light it internally.
On Monday, I will submit the photos to the Disney Interactive Media Group for approval. I will also be inquiring (yet again) about the Sleeping Beauty Castle Holiday Pop-Up Card, which I submitted almost a year ago.
In the meantime, I am looking forward to a short break before I begin work on the model’s illustrated text instructions. With Halloween sneaking up, I think I’ll use the time to create more props for my real-world trick-or-treating decorations.
Hello
Do we have news?
Thank you
Soon
kevin
No news yet. I am currently involved with combining a family vacation with a funeral. Watch my tweets for any up-to-the-minute news.
hello, I’m from Belgium and my family and I would like to have the castle of Sleeping Beauty in our lounge, because since last year, we had the opportunity to go dinsneyland Paris and since it is 3 times that we go over a year, and since we are crazy about disney and I look on the internet and found your site offers paper models, things related to Disney, THERE is possible to having the castle disneyland paris?
The instructions still need to be created, and the model needs to be approved by Disney.
how about the dragon
are u still going 2 make the well
Sorry. No well.
That is by far the best model you’ ve ever created!!!!
Although it’s perfect I have a question that might sound silly; Does the drawbridge actually works as it does in the other Sleeping Beaty Castle or is it just a bridge? (As in Disneyland Paris the drawbridge is not functual)
The drawbridge does move.
Hey Trader Sam,
i was wondering if you got any word from the Sleeping Beauty Castle from Paris yet… Or is the approval not taken flight yet.
Greeting’s Robert
I believe there’s been an email snaffu. I’m inquiring about this right now.
Well, it’s more like I get so gung-ho hyperactive when I work on something that I let it consume me till I get copmpletely burned out on the subject. Then all it takes is the glint of a notion in a different field to send me off on a new tangent. Usually leaving the first project incomplete until the mood strikes me again.
Wow, what a post, Becky! Sometimes you just need to vent. I know I do. Thanks for sharing all that. I suggest you save your files as TIFFS. That way they won’t degrade everytime you save them, like jpegs.
Also, if you have photoshop THROW AWAY PHOTO DELUXE. it’s buggy and will make you crazy. Photoshop is awesome.
Can’t wait to see what you’re doing.
I can’t speak for Sam, but as I mentioned earlier I’ve been consumed with my Snow White Castle project lately. In deciding on this undertaking, I’ve been endeavoring to learn some techniques I need to know to move on to stage 2 of Cindy’s pad. You have to remember I’m about 10 light-years behind Trader Sam in my paper model design knowledge.
I just recently created my first successful texture from scratch which translated well to a 3d model. I also learned how to create complex cone shapes that translate well to the physical realm, and I finally upgraded some of my software. However, my main tool, Adobe Photo Deluxe 2.0 keeps crashing and I’ve had to redo a lot of materials that are very time consuming. I’ve reinstalled the software a dozen times and had to close it out by override more times than I care to count. It just barely works at the best of times for what I need it to do.
I had to learn how to bypass critical functions of Pepakura Designer, which, for those who don’t know, is the software that unfolds 3d models into printable 2d versions. I have to print b&w outlines and scan them back into Photoshop using my flatbed so I can add all the artwork. Everything has to be scanned at precisely the same size every time so the pieces fit the way they were designed. If I save the artwork as a jpeg, it gets pixellated and grainy and I have to redo it, which is why I save everything as bitmaps, which of course, uses more memory and leads to extra crashes.
On top of all this, and this is something I don’t mention publicly very often (because I’m not looking for pity), I have my crazy seizure disorder to contend with. Imagine having someone smack you upside the head every couple of seconds while you’re trying to work, play, eat, sleep or breathe and you might be as amazed as I am that I manage to get anything done at all.
The bottom line: I’ve been doing these projects to keep myself from going crazy while I sit in this house day after day and wonder if my doctors will ever get a clue. I have nothing but time and a hyperactive imagination to work with. Which leads me into many fields that I can act upon at the strike of a whim.
Thanks to our host, I’ve gotten back into a Disneyana state of mind yet again. And you have to be of the right mindset from the start or the work suffers. Cinderella’s Castle is an imposing piece of architecture, and the model I’m trying to build for myself will have many features I’ll need to figure out to bring it into the physical realm. Most notably, it needs to split in 2 because of it’s sheer size. That means I need a full interior, which is stage 2 of construction. Vaulted arch ceilings, stained glass windows, tile murals and carved marble columns are just a few of the details I’ve been researching for years. I think I now know how to translate those things to a 3d model, which will cut my workload in half, but until I do them I don’t know if it will work or not.
Trader Sam, whether he knows it or not, has given me a ton of invaluable guidance over the years that I’ve been at this. Trying to live up to his standard, the one we all now judge the quality of a Disney PM by, is no small feat let me tell you! And it’s not just his or all of your expectations I’m trying to live up to either, it’s my OWN expectations that have developed from building HIS models. Robert Nava and Ray Keim specifically, have set the bar VERY, VERY high!!! I’m just a 40 year old white lady with no engineering background doing everything the hard way because I want to.
Hey, I’m not trying to vent here. That’s the last thing I want to do. I’m just trying to take a moment to relay some of the realities of my personal situation to tell you all why it takes me a long time to do anything.
I fell in love with Sleeping Beauty’s Castle 30 years ago at the same time I was seeing Cinderella’s Castle for the first time. My design for Snow White Castle is based largely on a fusion of the 2, though favoring Sleeping Beauty’s heavily. It has large wing vestibules with flying buttresses and gothic windows. Walled gardens, high stone river walls and marble stairs leading to the drawbridge. It’s the castle I always dreamed of building 20+ years ago when I had dreams of my own theme park. I can now finally go beyond the interlocking plastic blocks I originally used in 1980-something and create a masterpiece of my own imagination.
I HAD to do it.
It’s 90% complete, and hopefully my re-installation of Photoshop today will let me continue to completion. I like it A LOT, but I can’t imagine why anyone but me would want to build one. If you do, we’ll talk when the time comes.
Which brings up another issue. Let’s say I get motivated now and finish Cindy’s Pad (as I call it) in the next couple of weeks. How are YOU supposed to build one of your own? I have no website to download from, and I can’t in good conscience ask Trader Sam to host it for me. It costs him A LOT to keep this site going as a showcase for his own materials, why should we expect him to host an outside project? It isn’t right. This is HIS place to shine and showcase! Not mine. So I have to learn to do it on my own.
Becky
That . . . was a mouthful. But, it did hit several nails on the head. I’m glad I now know more about what goes on when Becky tries to design a paper model.
I do post download links to some of Becky’s small paper models on the Fan Board, but that’s only temporary. I’m sure there are solutions out there, like file-sharing websites and whatnot. Maybe someone else has some hosting solutions?
Yeah, I was in rare form yesterday! Sorry about that guys!
I did want to mention how greatful I am that you do post downloads of my smaller works from time to time on the fanboard! I consider it an honor and a validation of the work I’ve done to date! But temporary is exactly the way it should be.
I submit these projects because I hope you and everyone else out there will like them. But also because I’m poor so I donate materials in lieu of cash! Even if it’s just the occassional photo! Although you’ve hardly been at a loss for materials of your own creation lately! I don’t know how you do it, I’d get bored WAY too fast to keep up at the kind of rate at which YOUR imagination produces!
I will try to find a more permanent solution to the download issue before the castle is finished. My best estimate at this stage is 250 pages, which would take a week for me to pass out one by one with dial-up email! I’m also going to have to buy Acrobat to convert my jpegs and bmp’s to pdf’s. However the accounting department (mom) isn’t ready with the cash unless I can show a return!
I’ll keep you posted!
Becky
Actually, it was very informative. Long, but informative.
I’d have to say that I’m the opposite of you when it comes to creating all of this stuff. I get bored if I don’t have something to do. I have to at least keep my mind busy. It can take me awhile to fall asleep because my mind is so active. I’m always dreaming up new things.
For PDF creation, try PrimoPDF. It’s free! You can try either the online converter or download the program.
is snow whites castle going to be a model or somthing
Waiting with baited breath! I know you’re a little towerphobic right now, but can we expect a Cinderella Castle from you (or Becky?) sometime in the future?
WOW. Best model you’ve done yet. The one thing that I’ll do when I building it to put a coating of artificial grass down on the grassy part. That the only thing that just doesn’t work as stunningly well as the rest. The textures are amazing on this one.
Some artificial grass would definitely make it pop.
WOW!!!!!! that is a great model, I hope everything goes well with the approval and just want to thank you for those wonderful models you made, you are a truly an Artist!!!!! congratulations!!!
Alex
*sigh* More delays. It turns out that DIMG’s legal department has been in charge of approvals for many months. I just learned about it this morning. Oh well.
With the new email address, I’ve resent the papercraft requests. Let’s hope it’s a speedy process. My main concern is that the person/persons in charge may not be familiar with the existing contract and all of the wonderful approvals I’ve received, especially from the senior artist who has reviewed my work (everything meets or exceeds Disney specs).
Here’s hoping.
Sounds like they want to rake over the copyright and patent files to make sure it’s 100% original artwork before they put their stamp on it. Hopefully they’ll figure out pretty quick that it’s pointless to look since your work is original. But, lawyers can be slow at times, we’ll keep sending good thoughts in your direction!
Becky
Once again, Only the highest of quality. it is stunning!
Nice work on this model! I’m just back from my trip from Disneyland Paris (Mickey’s Magical Party) she is a eexact copy of the real thing!
Goodluck with the approval process.
Greetings
Robert (Netherlands)
This is very beautiful, congratulations! So many details!
i have a challenge for you, how about creating the right part of the castle? I think it would be most beautiful.
And congratulations again!
???
Presuming you mean the side opposite the green hill, he did design it. Check his flickr stream – http://www.flickr.com/photos/cannibal_stew/3564230930/in/set-72157594222643617/
No, there is another opposite side of the green hill. Check this on the real castle- http://i42.servimg.com/u/f42/12/62/11/96/1_29210.jpg
http://www.lagrandeepoque.com/LGE/images/stories/LGE/arts_et_cultures/magic_kingdom.jpg
All fingers crossed that you will be able to release it very soon. It’s an absolutely stunning model. Congratulations!
All I can say is 1 word well more like 2 words, WOW and Awesome!!!!
I hope it won’t take too long for the approval.You make great models and Thank you so much for all your hard work and the pleasure you give all of us with these great models.
Thank you.
Ana.
Woohoo! She’s a real beauty! Congratulations, excellent work!
So, what’s involved in the approval process?
Becky
A simple email is typically all it takes. In the past, the process has been quick, taking only a day or two. But, with the new person that handles everything, it kinda feels like I’m being quietly brushed aside. Then again, it could all be a big misunderstanding. I have other contacts that I can poke and prod, but only as a last resort. Cross your fingers, and keep an open mind.
Is there any way we can help petition the DIMG to help you out?
The DIMG website does have a contact link, but I don’t think any communication is needed just yet. I sent the files for approval yesterday afternoon (8/24), so let’s see what happens.
I don’t want to encourage or discourage anyone from contacting DIMG. I certainly don’t want it to look like I’m purposely bombarding them with your emails to get what I want. No . . . if you contact DIMG, it’s of your own accord. I DO ask that if anyone decides to contact them, please be kind and civil. The folks there have been nothing but kind and generous.
Also note that if DIMG doesn’t give the green light (hasn’t happened yet), I have to abide by that decision.
This castle is awesome!. Great job!, I cant wait to start building it. You have a lot of patience doing this in order to catch every detail. Im impressed you finished this castle because to me is puzzling (but I like that from it). In addition, thanks to you now I know where the stairs of the main tower ends xD. I hope you could post a photo of the front of the castle (like if you are standing in the main street in front of the castle, and then take the photo)
Sorry for bad english (I tried a lot to keep it understandable)
P.D.
Good luck in the approval form Disney Media Interactive Group (also for the Pop-Up Card, it would be a nice gift for someone)