It is often said that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but even highly acclaimed authors will tell you that saying is entirely false because we do in fact choose books based on their outward appearance. The same could also be said for a wide variety of mediums, even theme park attractions.
Although traditional artwork was found throughout Future World, the original Journey into Imagination was, naturally, the home to some of the most whimsical examples of Epcot's portfolio as well as an entirely new technique of interactive art called "POLAGE".
Invented by Austine Wood, this amazingly mesmerizing technique "is created with no pigment of any kind. Just as a prism breaks white light into the pure colors of the spectrum, Austine’s materials — cellulose and polarizing filter — break up light and make up her palette. Without a lightbox or a polarizing viewer, a Polage might look as it does at left — areas of color, but mostly gray, like etched glass."
You can see more of Austine Wood's work on her website.
Or go straight to her YouTube Channel.
While many know of Ms. Wood's massive seemingly shape-shifting color-changing display in the ride itself that existed for 15 years, what has been mostly forgotten is her smaller but no less impressive marquee for the Image Works that was in place for just under 9 years.
That original marquee which you can see in context below tucked in a parallelogram above the entrance to the hands-on exhibit.
The following is the only clear image I've ever found of that elusive signage and has been enhanced from the original to bring out as much detail as possible.
Purple dragons aside, the most impressive aspect of this backlit piece is that every single activity in the "Creative Playground of the Future" is represented in this composition, which we'll be going into in more detail as I recreate this masterpiece.
Aside: Although impressive on its own, this marquee (like all of Austine's Polage Art) was originally intended to animate, but due to its confined space was unable to do so..... Until Now!
After several years of searching, I finally came into possession of Austine's original layout drawing for the marquee seen below.
This was all I needed to vectorize the entire composition beginning with the Light Writer!
The Light Writer was among the first of its kind laser-generated spirograph demostration allowing guests to create an infinite variety of patterns.
Beyond "merely" retracing the image in vector form, this segment (like the lasers of the original) was created using a single path for animation later.
Representatives of "Dreamfinder's School of Drama" these stars were actually harder to recreate due to its requirement of animation. The Gray faces will be used in After Effects as a "Timing Mask" to reveal and later cycle through colors with Whites appearing first on the screen and the Blacks appearing last.
For a demonstration of this, check out the following video where the Timing Mask below was used to create the animation.
Our next activity was my favorite in the Image Works, the "Electronic Philharmonic".
Up Next
We'll cover the creation of the remainder of the design before the process of colorization and animation begins!
