September 27, 2009

5 YEARS OF HAUNTED DIMENSIONS!

Haunted Dimensions turned 5 years old over the weekend!
As always, I want to thank you for your continued interest and support.
Although my original intent was purely to share my stuff, this site has helped open many doors for me professionally, and has rewarded me spiritually with the knowledge that so many of you have taken great joy and pride in completing my projects, or have been inspired by those who have!

Thank you!
~Ray~

September 21, 2009

Ghost in the Machine

As many of you now know, this year's Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights theme
is "Ripped from the Silver Screen".
Beginning this Friday, September 25th, Universal Studios will become the realm of the most famous and infamous creatures of Hollywood Horror.
In the process of designing this year's event and web site, we researched the history of horror moves, from the classics to the contemporary, and in our search for the truth behind the movie legends we came across an archive of information about a lost movie theater from the days of Carl Laemmle.
The Universal Palace Theater.
This history of the Universal Palace Theater became an obsession, and the more we researched the theater, the more fascinating and macabre facts came to light. Ultimately, it was decided that a scale model of the theater should be constructed in order to better understand this mysterious structure. Since I have a fair amount of model building experience, I was tasked with recreating the Universal Palace Theater in 1 inch scale, which means this model is over 6 feet wide and 7 feet deep! With the help of many other ar tists and technical specialists, the Universal Palace Theater now exists!
Once the model was completed, it was filmed and photographed extensively, and the photos were combined using an amazing piece of free software called "Photosynth". Photosynth was able to rebuild our model in 3D, by matching landmarks and patterns in each photo to organize them into an interactive 3D experience! I've been given special permission to share this fascinating glimpse of movie history to you, here on Haunted Dimensions!
You will be required to download the free "Silverlight" player, in order to see and explore the Universal Palace Theater. Keep in mind that this is a very new application, and people with older machines or lower bandwidth may have difficulty running the software.
Please step into the Universal Palace Theater!

September 20, 2009

A Spot of Tea in the Garden

Konstantinos, a 15 years old in Greece, has been featured here and in The Builder's Gallery several times over the years. He is and avid model builder and always does an amazing job!
This time I want to show his latest creation, designed by himself.
Konstantinos added the garden Tea House, from the Phantom Manor grounds!

Konstantinos writes, "I really like the manor's gazebo, but I couldn't find it anywhere, something that forced me to build one. I used the roof of the New Orleans Square Haunted Mansion cupola and the door of the Phantom Manor and kinda mixed them. The result was rewarding!! I also like my models to have extra dimensions, so when you open the door you see a photo of the Grand Staircase (I couldn't find a photo of the foyer). Finally I illuminated my manor by using old Christmas lights. I hope you like it as much as I do!"

Take a look at the beautiful scene!




September 16, 2009

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Universal Orlando revealed a few more details about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter coming to Islands of Adventure in Spring 2010.

More paper models? I think so!

September 3, 2009

Introducing, "The Usher"!

Even though certifiably dead and buried, the usher reportedly returns and can be seen prowling the aisles, lobby and catwalks of the Universal Palace Theater...coincidentally whenever subsequent tragedies have struck.