Here’s a new wallpaper based on the old Disneyland C-ticket. It’s not an exact replica since it had to be adjusted for widescreen and fullscreen. Others are on the way, so keep an eye out for the whole A-E series. These are great if you have rotating wallpapers (ie. Windows Vista, Windows 7, third-party software).

The non-profit organization Thank You Walt Disney, Inc. is in the midst of saving and restoring Walt’s Laugh-O-Gram studio, originally scheduled for demolition. Thankfully, the Kansas City building was saved.

We will restore Walt’s studio to its original 1922 condition, telling his inspiring story. We will build an animation lab for future generations to study the art of animation; construct a small theater for films and lectures; and tell the story of the life and work of the world’s greatest filmmaker and theme park designer.

Lon Davis, Director of Marketing, recently contacted me about donating something for one of the upcoming biannual fund-raising events. Since a lot of my work is digital, I offered to do an original painting to put up for auction. “A Private Evening with Mickey and Donald” (May) is too soon for what I have planned, but the “Haunted Mansion Costume Ball” (October) would give me ample time . . . and it’s right up my alley. We’ll see if the idea floats.

With the last site re-design (version 20) lasting only three months, let’s take a look at some initial sketches. They introduced a few design ideas that created unforeseen formatting problems. Read More

I tweeted this a while ago, but I thought I’d mention it here in more depth. Castle Peak and Thunder Railroad is a G-scale railroad layout containing several iconic Disneyland attractions. It was built by architect David Sheegog and he occasionally holds open house tours so you can see it in person.

The whole thing is like a Disney maniac’s dream playground/backyard. There are several photos on the website, so go check it out and drool!

Congratulations to Will and Ashley, married January 22, 2011!

I’ve heard of people wanting to use paper models as centerpieces at their wedding, but I’ve never seen it actually done. To get a video is just simply awesome! Look closely, and you’ll see models from other designers, too. The reception took place in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel.

Between herself, her husband, parents, sister-in-law, and bridesmaids, they assembled a total of 22 paper models. The hotel staff “went totally crazy over the models,” according to Ashley, and the two Disneyland marquees were given to the event planner as a gift.

Best wishes to you both!

Here’s a new wallpaper based on the old Disneyland B-ticket. It’s not an exact replica since it had to be adjusted for widescreen and fullscreen. Others are on the way, so keep an eye out for the whole A-E series. These are great if you have rotating wallpapers (ie. Windows Vista, Windows 7, third-party software).

Continuing my discoveries of wonderful Disney websites, I thought I’d share the main resource that I used for designing the Disneyland ticket wallpapers.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets is a blog dedicated to . . . you guessed it . . . the history of vintage Disneyland tickets. It’s actually much more than that, because it includes a lot of other vintage paper items from Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom, Knott’s Berry Farm, and more! There’s so much stuff here, and in high resolution. The Magic Kingdom tickets are especially gorgeous (do I smell new wallpapers?).

Well, it’s time for another short Fan Board update. It seems that folks are getting into the crafting spirit all of a sudden.

Here’s a new wallpaper based on the old Disneyland A-ticket. It’s not an exact replica since it had to be adjusted for widescreen and fullscreen. Others are on the way, so keep an eye out for the whole A-E series. These are great if you have rotating wallpapers (ie. Windows Vista, Windows 7, third-party software).

The wallpaper preview images will also be changing to a wider format (see above sample) to better show off the graphics.

It seems that every time I take photos of the parks I have high expectations that the photos will look stunning the moment I see them on a large screen. Inevitably I find myself disappointed at just how booooring the pics turn out. “Golly… these look outright crummy!”, I shout.

I’m no professional photographer and I always expect to need a bit of post-production magic to make the shots look half-decent. But lately I’ve realized something else. The kinds of park photos I can’t stop staring at all come from olden-ages when unassuming tourists used actual film and entirely non-digital cameras. No really, they did. Add to that a few decades of fading hues and we get beautiful and interesting imagery. Since I don’t have one of those cameras and I don’t know if stores actually sell film anymore, I’m left with digital pictures and Photoshop.

via Blog – Imagineering Disney.

It seems like I keep finding all of these wonderful websites!

Here’s one article that intrigued me. It’s a video of how to make your photos look old and vintage. It’s kinda funny, because I spend a lot of my time trying to make old photos look new. Here are my results with one of my own Disneyland photos.

There are many more great posts at Imagineering Disney.