EPCOT Features Disney’s First Projection-Mapped Topiary
In case you missed it, EPCOT’s 2024 Flower & Garden Festival is in full swing — and there are three NEW topiaries to check out this year!
We’ve shown you all the new topiaries already — Wish‘s Asha, Valentino, and Star; Coco‘s Dante and Miguel; and Groot — but now we have some behind-the-scenes info straight from Disney!
Lighting and Textures
The new Wish topiaries featuring Asha, Valentino, and Star are located near the entrance of EPCOT. Disney shared that Cast Members actually hand-wove Asha’s braids!
“For Asha, it was very important to the team that her hair had the texture and moved like braided hair,” said Brittany Smith, Production Designer for Senior Specialty Design with Walt Disney Imagineering. “The new focus on hair texture stemmed from the team continuing to find new ways to tell stories and create the ‘illusion of life’ much like we do with Audio-Animatronics figures.”
At night, Star also lights up! Josh Harrison, Senior Illusion Integrator with Walt Disney Imagineering, said, “We have been evolving the process of adding lighting effects to the topiaries, consistently pushing ourselves to enhance them even more.”
Groot and Music
Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy is another new topiary, located new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT. Disney shared that the topiary design came from the I Am Groot episode “Groot Takes a Bath,” now on Disney+.
For this topiary, Disney integrated 3D models, which aids in cultivating special effects and lighting. To ensure that Groot’s design was precise, Disney also utilized traditional sculpting materials and paint.
Steven Montalvo, Industrial Designer with Disney Live Entertainment, said, “The focus on maintaining the integrity of the character, while continuing to streamline the design and construction process, has motivated us to improvise and evolve on how the EPCOT International Flower & Garden topiary team creates and builds these incredible pieces of living art each year.”
And perhaps best of all, Groot plays music! In our experience, you can hear songs featured in the Guardians of the Galaxy films approximately every 20 minutes or so. This is the first time music has been incorporated into an EPCOT topiary!
We heard “I Want You Back” by the The Jackson 5 playing 🎶 #epcot #groot #flowerandgarden pic.twitter.com/qC92WzDen0
— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) February 26, 2024
First-Ever Projection-Mapped Topiary
And finally, we’re heading to Mexico to check out the new Miguel and Dante topiaries! Both characters come from Disney and Pixar’s Coco, with Miguel wearing his mariachi apparel, and Dante in his alebrije form.
During the day, they look like regular topiaries, but night brings Dante to light with special projection effects!
Steven Montalvo said, “With the bright and vibrant colors we see from this realm in ‘Coco,’ it seemed like an obvious choice when Josh and Brittany proposed the idea of using projection mapping technology to enhance Dante’s look during the evening hours.”
Brittany added, “Once we decided to create Dante, I immediately began testing glowing materials, like solar-charged paint, and various effects to portray his ethereal glow. During the day, Dante looks like the rest of the topiary family. As the sun begins to set, guests should start to see hints of the solar-charged paint beginning to glow.
“At night, Dante’s glow will shine even brighter through the use of projection-mapping technology. Pushing contrast between day and night allows us to incorporate more lifelike elements into these characters, providing guests with an unexpected element of surprise in the evening.”
“The collaboration between the teams has made it possible to push the envelope of creativity that allows us to produce these new innovative topiaries and help give that little added magical touch that we are known for,” Josh said.
@disneyparks Replying to @ohhmyandy Our Disney Imagineers really gave us that behind the scenes look 🤩🌳 #Disney #DisneyParks #DisneyWorld #EPCOT #FlowerAndGarden #Dante #Topiary #Coco #Imagineering #Plants ♬ original sound – Disney Parks
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