World of Wonders - Phantom Manor

In this blog post, we take an in-depth look at the intricate journey of creating a customised Phantom Manor on our server. Explore with us as we unravel the innovative techniques and processes that allowed us to complete this project. Step behind the scenes to witness how the fusion of Disney's allure and Minecraft's limited possibilities resulted in a digital masterpiece.

Sketch & Build

After the beta back in 2020, we decided to change up some things in Frontierland. Goldport Mesa Express got rebuilt from the ground up, the saloon and stores got a new facade and interior, so obviously Phantom Manor was a logical next step. At first, only the garden was rebuilt, but later the house and ride itself were also completely reimagined. With the release of Minecraft 1.19, we were also immediately allowed to work with the newest techniques and blocks.

The Phantom Manor has multiple elements from existing rides. For example, the first part of the ride, until the cave scene, is almost identical to Disneyland Paris’ Phantom Manor. After that point it contains a mix of Paris’ Phantom Manor and the Haunted Mansion of Disneyland Anaheim. The graveyard scene for example is an element from Haunted Mansion, while the mirror is a nearly identical element of Paris’ Phantom Manor.

Fun Fact

The graveyard scene was originally planned to remain unchanged from our first Phantom Manor version. After this wouldn’t fit we decided to give the graveyard a new look either way. The layout stayed the same, but has been mirrored to match the new track.

Models & Textures

A ride with a length of 10 minutes needs something interesting to look at. While the buildings partially fulfil this need, the models add another dimension to the ride. A total of 378 elements are made. Some are models like in the image below, others are arms, heads, bodies and legs for the 68 animatronics, which also are programmed by hand.

To create the effect of the stretching room, many models were needed. With 45 display entities and 26 different models, we were able to make you feel small while you are going down. Or is the ceiling going up?

Development

To connect the models, the buildings, the music and the lights, some programming is needed. With the creation of the ride Xander created some technical improvements to recreate some effects even better.

The first effect is being able to fade the models. The first time you notice this in the ride is in the hallway just before the stretching rooms. The changing colours of the wallpapers is a perfect usage of this effect. Other simpler usages, like the disappearing of the women in the paintings in the stretching room and the appearing and disappearing of the bride later in the ride, are other examples of this effect.

The other new effect, which blew life into the house of the Phantom, are the animatronics. Usually we made animatronics using armorstands, one for the clothing and head, another one for the custom arms, these two overlapped and would look like one animatronic. The new method uses one armorstand (since 1.20 a display entity), for each part of the body. Movements like a ghost popping off its head were new possibilities, and it makes the animatronics look so much better!