Haunted Dimensions News

February 5, 2010
"Wizard's Peak"
It is official. I have begun the long process of designing a new paper model kit.
This one will be based on the Hogwarts castle, currently under construction at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure, for "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter".
I am using online fan photos as reference, and I studied the 3D model of Hogwarts which was part of their amazing "augmented-reality" promotion.
As usual, I am beginning the process by building a simple model in a 3D application (Lightwave).
It will be a challenge to design. Half of the model will be the cliffs and gully on which the castle sits. I need to make this cliff base interesting, but relatively easy to build, relying on printed textures for most of the effect.

I do not know how big the model will, since it will be limited by the size of letter paper, but I am hoping for about 12 inches.
I will be designing this in my spare time, so I do not know how long the project will take. My mansions took 6 months, and this model will be no less complicated.

So stay tuned, or become a member of my FaceBook page for updates!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ray-Keim-Haunted-Dimensions

Here is my first rough blocking of the model, created in Lightwave.

January 15, 2010
Haunted Dimensions in the 21st Century
You may have noticed that I am trying my first experiment with Flash on the front page.
I have dabbled with Flash for years but never had the time or the incentive to really sit down and try to learn it, but I became frustrated with the limited amount of animation I could achieve on the old front page using HTML and animated gifs!
Please take a look and let me know if you experience any problems. If it is a success I will convert the other 2 front page mansions some time soon, and make them a little more interactive and fun.

January 13, 2010
My Next Paper Model Kit?

Here is a recent photo of the construction of Hogwarts Castle at Universal's Islands of Adventure.
It is beautiful already!
I've been studying it for a few weeks and I think I will make an attempt at recreating it as a paper model kit.
While the castle is amazingly detailed and complicated, I am more worried about how to create the cliff faces.
At this point I am making no promises of ever completing this project, but stay tuned and I will keep you updated on the progress.
As usual, I will base my designs on photo references. This photo and many others can be seen at
ORLANDO THEME PARK NEWS

For those of you who sent photos of their wonderful gingerbread creations during the holiday break, I will be posting them soon.

December 14, 2009
A Phantasmagoric Christmas
Melissa writes,
"Thought I would share the final product of our gingerbread house using your Haunted Dimension Pattern, Thanks for posting the pattern for people to enjoy. It took my daughter and I about a week and a half to complete"
Melissa, I love the addition of the gazebo, pond and fire pit!

An Award Winner!
Socorro Meredith is the Baking Supervisor for the kitchens of Utah Valley Regional Hospital. She has become know for her wonderful baked creations which get displayed in the hospital cafeteria and which she then donates! Two of her recent houses were modifications of my Phantom Manor cookie house pattern.
Socorro writes,
"I am from Mexico but I moved to Provo Utah 8 years ago.
The Chirismas house was for the Gingerbread House Festival 2009 in Lehi Utah. I won two awards, the Foundation Choice and PTA UTAH choice!"

Socorro, you are a gift! Thank you!

Two From My Home State!
Jenn and Kira, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, each created a cookie manor.
Jenn writes,
"My friend and I were looking for a gingerbread template and stumbled across the haunted manor. It looked perfect, so we decided to try it. We never made a gingerbread house before, let alone one this large and involved. It took us a solid 22 hours to complete. We had a good time making them, and the fabulous mess of my whole house :-). It was a great project and I am thankful you posted the template and recipes for everyone to try.
You have some amazing houses on here. Endless inspiration for us novices."

Thank you, Jenn! You and Kira did beautiful work!

November 11, 2009
Everybody Wants One!

Astrid writes, "Hello Ray,
My name is Astrid. I am a nurse from Holland, and a big Phantom manor fan. I have built a Phantom Manor model, but I made it completely out of wood. It took me 1 year and 6 months. It is not really finished yet. I still have to complete the chimneys. Most days, when I was off from work, I worked on the house for 8 or 12 hours a day. It took me so much time, and a lot of my social life, haha!
Somedays when everything went wrong I thought I was never able to finish it.
I have faced a lot of big problems, but my husband always had a simple solution. He also made a solar (panel) on the roof, so at night when it gets dark the lights in the house go on.
I want to thank you for making it possible to have my own Phantom Manor at home."
--------------------
Astrid, this is certainly one of the most spectacular modifications of one of my paper models I have seen! I have considered making "solid" versions of my mansion ever since I first designed them, but I dont have the tools or the space.
You have set a new level of excellence in Haunted Dimensions!

November 8, 2009
From Birmingham, UK
Georgina writes "I live in Birmingham in the UK. I have always loved creating edible artworks and when I saw your Haunted Cookie Mansion I had to try something similar. I wanted to thank you for posting the template, it was a great starting point for my creation. I made this for my nephew, Daniel, who is 9 years old. I just gave it to him today and he loves it, especially the way the light changes colour inside. We are going to put it in the window of the house so all the trick or treaters can enjoy it too."

I love the modifications you made to your house! The pumpkin patch and cemetery are very cute and the coffins are awesome! You are a wonderful Aunt!

From Mill Creek, WA
Crystal writes "Thought I'd send you some photos of my house, I brought it to a Disney fan Halloween function and it was a hit! Thank you for allowing us to use the templates. :) "

I am glad everyone was impressed! It's beautiful!

From Julia
Julia writes "Hi! I found your site and made the house for Halloween! Thanks for the great directions!"

It looks like a photo from Martha Stewart!

October 31, 2009
The "Mini" New Orleans Square Pa per Model Kit!
Just in time to make it within my Halloween deadline, I offer a small Halloween treat!
I quickly designed a small paper model of Disneyland's New Orleans Square Haunted Mansion.

As usual, I recommend using a heavyweight paper, although I used regular paper for the example above.
Consider this a rough concept. I will refine it, and probably make it larger, some time in the future.
I would like to create "minis" of all 3 Disney mansions in the coming year.

Download the PDF HERE
Very Happy, Haunted
Halloween!

October 24, 2009
Return of the Stretching Portrait Cards!
Last Halloween I created a downloadable Stretching Portrait card series, depicting the funny and macabre collection of unfortunate souls from the original Haunted Mansion stretchrooms.
This week I returned home from Florida after completing another successful season creating mysterious and spooky things in the Art & Design Department for Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights.
Unfortunately, this leaves me no time to create things for myself, and you, for "our" Halloween!
So, I decided to bring back the Stretching Portrait Cards, in the hopes that it will be new to those who are new to Haunted Dimensions, and give you enough time to make a few before the big day!

This project is a 2 page PDF, but to make all 4 cards you will need to print the first page four times.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO DOWNLOAD PAGE OF THE STRETCHING PORTRAIT CARDS

October 15, 2009
Beijing Baking!
MaryKay, from Beijing, China writes,
"This is the second year in a row that we have used your haunted manor gingerbread
template. Thank you so much! My nine-year-old daughter always wants to do
something different, and had REALLY wanted to do the blob house on your site. We
were disappointed to learn you didn't have a template for that, but appreciate you
responding to our e-mail. I don't have the skills (or time) to make my own template
for something like that. So we added a tower (the extent of my free-hand
gingerbread skills) to the haunted manor to make it "different."

MaryKay, you and Karen created a BEAUTIFULLY modified Phantom Manor Cookie House!
The addition of the tower and the internal lights look awesome!

October 10, 2009
Halloween Project Time!
It's that time again when the Minions of the Haunted Dimensions build and post their Halloween projects!

First, Linda writes,
"I've been making simple gingerbread houses for years, but your pattern and the wonderful pictures on your web site inspired me to attempt something more complex. Here is my halloween haunted mansion.We live in Escondido, California, where September and October can be triple digit temperatures. You may notice some streaks down the front of the house. I did the baking just a little too early this year, and my yellow candy windows partly melted and ran down the front of the house. I decided the "broken window" effect just made the house spookier."

It's looks fantastic, Linda! One of the great things about a haunted gingerbread house is that most "mistakes" only help enhance the character! I also love the cemetery and hangman's tree!

Next, we have Jan, from Hamburg, Germany who built a great version of "The Skoolhouse"!
I'm not sure what he used as a Putka Pod pumpkin replacement, but I assume it's native to Germany.

Scott sent me a photo of his Halloween diorama, including the Bates House model.

Jill, from Highlands Ranch, Colorado writes,
"used your templates to make my first ever Gingerbread house. I was
impressed how well it turned out the first time! Thanks for all your
hard work you have put into designing these. It will be a hit at my
Halloween Party!"
It sure will, Jill! I would have never guessed that this was your FIRST cookie house! Beautiful!

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 re alm 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 t he 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 artists 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!

July 21, 2009
"Mystic" Attraction Coming to Hong Kong Disneyland!
Hong Kong Disneyland released new concept renderings depicting additions to the newest Disney theme park.
The new "mini-lands" will be called "Grizzly Trail", "Toy Story Land" and "Mystic Point". Each rendering is beautiful and exciting, but since we are in the Haunted Dimensions, Mystic Point is of particular interest to us!
Mystic Point and the other lands are set to be developed in phases over the next 5 years.

"In Mystic Manor, home to an eccentric world traveler and adventurer and his collection of exotic international artifacts, strange things are afoot as an enchanted music box releases its magical powers, thanks to a mischievous monkey.
Key Technology and Creative Elements

Inside Mystic Manor, a trackless ride system enables vehicles to move "freely " about the attraction as the story unfolds. Audio-Animatronic figures and special visual and audio effects help tell the story of mystical phenomena.

Within Mystic Point lies a beautiful garden full of relics and mythological figures, where guests discover a hidden world of illusions and mysteries that trick the eye.

Guests can dine at the Adventurer's Club amid a vast collection of unusual artifacts from around the world or purchase exclusive curiosities and collectibles at the Archive Shop. "

Hey, Hong Kong Disneyland,
this could be an AWESOME paper model for your guests!
Hint, hint! :)
Call me!

June 27, 2009
Halloween Horror Nights 2009 Revealed!
This time of year is always exciting for me. It's when we go live with some our new Universal Orlando Horror Nights themes for the new season, and when some of my web art is released. This year's tagline is "Ripped From the Silver Screen" and is sure to be a frightfully amazing event! http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/orlando/index.html