Th13teen Concept Art

[James]

Some interesting pieces of concept art have surfaced on the internet today. It's quite sad to see what could have been.

All concept art was created by Drew Wilson, who has worked on a number of projects for Merlin in the past. His website can be found here: http://www.drewartwork.co.uk/

Dark Forest Entrance

Train Concept

Root Underpass for the Queueline

Queueline, including 'root overhang'

Outdoor section

Station Concept (which is quite close to the real thing surprisingly)

Upper Drop

Lower Drop

 

[James]

Imagine if the queuline ever had those theming elements installed, along with the outdoor section 'near miss' pieces of theming. Alton could have been on to a winner with that, full of immersion and detail. A true Dark Forest. It's a shame these things never come to be built. Would have added so much more.

 

[RyanY]

Thanks for sharing them pictures James.

It's a shame these things didn't come to the actual ride I think that these pieces of theming would have been a great addition. I especially like the idea of the wraiths being chained in the 8th one down, it brings a weeping angel effect to the ride.

 

[TheMan]

Have to agree! The way the track twists around the back, even after a couple of years now - still doesn't provide much in the way of near misses etc. But feels like it was built to miss some theme that didn't ever get built?

None the less, had a the pleasure of taking two people on the ride, whom some how, did not know what the ride did ;D

Those reactions will make me chuckle for quite some time ;D - it was certainly appreciated and praised.

Wouldn't have taken much I don't think to finish this ride off. Bit more in the inside show, some movement etc, and as mentioned, some additional theming in the queue/outdoor section (though, is this planning issues again given the position?).

When you take it that far, why not spend that little bit extra later on to improve it? You just end up with what feel like half finished attractions all over the park. Thorpe are doing this with The Swarm, and makes a big difference - cannot be argued what a phenomenal job they've done on that ride.

Mind you, what will SW7 be like? Will this be the first coaster that gets finished since Oblivion & Nemesis?

 

[Ben]

This makes me incredibly sad, such a stunning concept and great theming that just never transpired, all we got was the worlds longest cattle pen and um, thats it.

 

[Tim]

I've seen these pictures before on Drew Wilson's website. I presume he worked on the project as the sites full of different concept art and not just rides either.

It is indeed a shame The Dark Forest doesn’t look like that. When they first announced that as the Theme I was expecting a queue just like that.
However I will say that nearly everything else has ended up fairly accurate. The Dark Forest Entrance, Train Design, Station and Indoor Section do look just like that. Admittedly it’s not as good as the concept art but then that's very rarely the case. Plus the artwork didn’t even include Rita which is a big part of the problem.

Other than that I do really like the original train design but I'm happy with what we got (plus look behind that picture and you get a good view of the pre-assembled trains). Also what does Arcus mean...

 

[Benzin]

This makes me incredibly sad, such a stunning concept and great theming that just never transpired, all we got was the worlds longest cattle pen and um, thats it.

I think you're confusing Thirteen's queue with Rita's...

 

[James]

Th13teen's cattle pen is pretty bad mind. That and the fact it's set out in one of the oddest ways I've ever seen a cattle pen operate.

 

[Moley]

The area is far too open for half of those concept drawings to be possible in reality.

 

[Martin]

Rita's cattlepen makes Thirteen's look good.

I do wonder how much of an impact planning difficulties had on them dropping the outside theming, although with the ride never getting too deep into the woods anyway, would it have made that much difference? It'd only really change things if you were able to look to the left and not see the station clearly.

 

[Alexsutton]

I don't have much of a problem with Thirteen's queue, it goes through the woods nicely and doesn't switchback too much.

 

[Tom]

These have not surfaced today by any stretch of the imagination. I think that they guy who created them should also be credited and probably not have the bandwidth from his website (http://www.drewartwork.co.uk/) stolen in this manner?

 

[CGM]

As far as the ride experience goes, it looks like most of the theming elements from the concept art have been retained. It's a shame that the same can't be said for the queue line though.

The thing is with concepts like this is that they come from different stages in the ride's development so just because something exists as concept art doesn't mean that the park ever seriously considered building it.

Some are just there to give a general idea of what the ride's about so that everyone working on the project is on the same page. These can be as outlandish as they want as they're more to do with portraying the ride experience, the general theme and establishing a design language.

Others are much more specific and directly relate to the finished product. They probably came much later in the process which is why some concepts look much closer to the real thing.

This, for example I think is pure concept. There's no way Alton would put such huge and detailed theming elements out in the woods where only riders could see them. I don't think many parks would.

 

[James]

These have not surfaced today by any stretch of the imagination. I think that they guy who created them should also be credited and probably not have the bandwidth from his website (http://www.drewartwork.co.uk/) stolen in this manner?

Well, they have been at least widely discovered today. I myself have not come across them before, and looking at the reaction of others these concepts are not something that has been common knowledge for a good while.

Pictures are now being shown via Photobucket and I have added a link to Drew's website in the first post to credit him.

 

[Alastair]

That queue root underpass looks brilliant! Would have been really creepy queuing up underneath that

 

[JB1985]

Seen these a while back - i believe the link / pictures were posted on TT pre TS.

Anyway, excellent art work, the majority of which has been installed. We know cuts in the queue may have taken place given the installed themeing after opening day and that they were working on the queue the night before the ride opened!

Unfortunately its the same with all rides in that AT dont have an unlimited budget like DIsney or Universal and even though they may want to do something they cant always follow through with it. Look at AIR for instance

 

[Tom]

These have not surfaced today by any stretch of the imagination. I think that they guy who created them should also be credited and probably not have the bandwidth from his website (http://www.drewartwork.co.uk/) stolen in this manner?

Well, they have been at least widely discovered today. I myself have not come across them before, and looking at the reaction of others these concepts are not something that has been common knowledge for a good while.

Pictures are now being shown via Photobucket and I have added a link to Drew's website in the first post to credit him.

Forgive me for being a little blunt with that, it's just their recent republication across the internet seems to have stemmed from when I posted an image (along with the guy's name and website) on Facebook on Thursday and a number of pages then preceded to visit his website, steal and repost the pictures without so much as a word about their source.

I get the impression his site has been online for some time and I was trying to find out if he was/does work for Merlin as I thought the concepts were originally by Candy Holland? These seem to be that good they come across almost as an improvement from what the Dark Forest/Thirteen actually is, but with Merlin's track record at implementation and cutting they could just as easily be the originals that were poorly implemented!

 

[JB1985]

looks like the roboarms in the black hole tent / rock blasters theme would have been rather good to!

 

[James]

Forgive me for being a little blunt with that, it's just their recent republication across the internet seems to have stemmed from when I posted an image (along with the guy's name and website) on Facebook on Thursday and a number of pages then preceded to visit his website, steal and repost the pictures without so much as a word about their source.

I get the impression his site has been online for some time and I was trying to find out if he was/does work for Merlin as I thought the concepts were originally by Candy Holland? These seem to be that good they come across almost as an improvement from what the Dark Forest/Thirteen actually is, but with Merlin's track record at implementation and cutting they could just as easily be the originals that were poorly implemented!

It has indeed spread like wildfire over the past few days. Facebook especially has been bombarded with this. The original post in this topic now leads to his website anyway, so no harm done in this topic now.

I came across Drew's site some time ago, could be over a year ago even. I remember seeing the Hex concepts online somewhere linking back to his site. I would assume Candy is the lead woman in getting the concepts from writing on paper to pieces of art work, then Candy and her team get an outside company, or someone like Drew to create the detailed pieces of art work. Although this is a complete guess as I don't know anything about concept designs or how the processes work.

 

[Thomas]

I really like these images. I know we'd all love to see all of it, but some of it such as the gates would have been impractical! One day I'd love to see some creeping vines being grown over the queue line, similar to those seen in The Haunted Hollow!