Floats: Epcot!

Now that the costumes are done, time to resume working on the floats.

Florida Project → Magic Kingdom → Epcot

The rough:

The back.

Epcot is my favorite park, hands down. Everybody says, "I didn't appreciate Epcot until I was older." Well, yeah, that does ring true for me too, but I can't lie an say that I didn't enjoy the park when I was little! Wonders of Life was my favorite pavilion, mainly for the awesome 'power' milkshakes.
And these babies.

They see me rollin'...I'm really happy I worked in MK because I could always hop on the monorail after work and head to Epcot! Grab some Yakitori House, a yummy fried ice-cream (oh god i can still taste them), and, if this was the evening, I'd be walking around a totally-cleared World Showcase while everybody else was watching the fireworks. Interesting experience, actually!


...Oh right, the float....ahem. Well, I knew right away that the character that would be sitting atop our beloved Spaceship Earth was going to be DreamFinder and Figment. While I think I was too young to have met Dreamfinder, I certainly remember Figment. Had a stuffed animal of him, if I'm not mistaken! When Disney veterans are asked, "Who is the most notable character for Epcot?", I'm certain all of them would say this duo.

Keeping with the transportation theme going along the bottoms of the floats, the monorail was the obvious choice. I chose to go with the Teal one, in remembrance of the tragedy that occurred in July '09, a month exactly after I returned home. My friends and I had the privilege to sit in the front-car a few months prior- now nobody but the pilot can do that, ever since the accident.

I may go back and add Nemo or some fish in general to the Living Seas' splash. Needs something there....

The back of the float features the Fountain of Nations, which is something I always stop to watch. Especially when it plays the theme from Rescuers Down Under! It's also such a gorgeous sight to see at night. I didn't see any point in representing World Showcase on the back, since it already goes around the entire float.

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Floats: 3/6

Creative Costuming: Future World/Innoventions!

Ah, the last Epcot set!!!!



Roughs....yes they're done on a paper towel.


This set was a bit tricky...I had a couple ideas for the girl, basing her design around the Electric Umbrella (the centerpiece to Future World, I mean). One involved her holding an umbrella, another had a complex sleeve system that was heavily inspired by Erte's artwork. But that was too annoying to draw and if it were translated to a real costume, it probably wouldn't flow all that nicely. So I went with this peacock-inspired concept, with some Erte hints still in the headpiece.

As usual, the guy's design is snores-ville in comparison to the girl's. Le sigh. I gave him a visor so he could have *something* on his head instead of some dorky hat.

The colors were tricky to place. I went back and forth numerous times with the colors on both costumes so they would compliment each other.

Well, that does it for Epcot's costumes. I will probably take a loooong break from starting the designs for MGM (will discuss this one in a later post...) and Animal Kingdom costumes and instead will resume work on the float designs. I need to draw some architecture...sick of drawing people in boring poses, haha.

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Costume Count: 16/32

Creative Costuming: World Showcase!

Quickly winding down on the Epcot sets; one more to go! Told you folks I'd get this set knocked out this month!



Concept sketch


Ah, World Showcase...I absolutely love walking around it, especially when I have nowhere I need to rush to.

The idea behind these costumes was steampunk, inspired by the globe float during IllumiNations. Pleather would be the main fabric for the vests.
I know the color scheme is a little on the dull side, but I consider WS to be the most mature part of the park. So a more "business" scheme felt right, as opposed to bright colors.

(Psst, count the buttons on the vests!)

Really don't have much to say about these, to be honest!

Expect the last set in a couple days~

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Costume Count: 14/32

Creative Costuming: Imagination!

Put on those sunglasses, kiddies. Because these costumes are BRIGHT. On purpose, of course!



The bland, uninteresting concept sketches...


The idea behind these costumes was the thought of Imagination Institute scientists receiving "one little spark" and letting their creativity and imagination shine out! It's hard to illustrate it, but on the guy's pants and the girl's skirt, a 'brainstorm' is occurring. The clouds would be 3dimensional (think like cotton balls) and colored lights would be underneath them, doing some LED stuff. Reflective fabric would be used for the lightning bolts, and the yellow under the labcoats and collars is supposed to be fringed fabric (think static-electricity effect). The lightbulb ornaments on their heads would have that weird static-electricity ball in them (like the orb Mickey uses in Spectromagic).

The color palette was easy to figure out (took everything from the sign out front the pavilion). I assumed that most people associate the color purple with Imagination! because of Figment and Dreamfinder [okay, his suit is blue, but there's some purple to it!]. Least that's what I went with immediately!

I didn't place it into the designs, but I'd want to have the Imagination Institute logo on the backs of the jackets.
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Costume Count: 12/32

Creative Costuming: The Land/ The Seas

Kicking off the Epcot series...


[texture sources 1 , 2 ]

The roughs.


Now for this set, I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone by having a duo representing both the Land and Seas, as opposed to worrying about two separate sets for the pavilions.

The Seas's costume is probably my favorite costume that I've designed so far! Elegant, yet fun, and still manages to capture the look of the pavilion.
This is the only pavilion I have vivid memories of, pre-Nemofication. The Hydrolators you took to go down to "sea-level", the Seacabs that went thru the aquarium (which was horrifying for a child who already had a bit of a water phobia...)....

Expect the rest of the Epcot sets to be posted before the end of August, as the ladies are pretty much all sketched out, and it's just the gents that need to be designed. Considering I can't design men's costuming so well, those should be easy, haha.

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Costume Count: 10/32