Island Queen Color Animation

[Thrill_Biscuit 17014]

This is the stylized "video" version of the Island Queen (I've already shared still pictures of this); It is based on stories my dad told me throughout the years about how grand it was, especially at night. I created this in PowerPoint, tracing the contours from several existing pictures and drawings of the ship, then blending in several, independent animations (you can run up to 256 at a time, if I'm not mistaken), and then saving it as a .wmv (which you can do in PPT).

 

Take a virtual trip back in time, to Cincinnati of the 1940's. Please enjoy!

 

 

I drew over 300 individual shapes digitally, adjusting gradients and shadows to create the illusion of nighttime lighting. Once everything was in place, I added people (and a lot of silhouettes), trees, stars, and an inverted, stretched cloudscape to add "mist" to the river.

 

The audio is my Yamaha portable, which allows for composing multiple tracks of different "instruments," mixed in Audacity with stock sound effects, an electronic, text-to-speech generator, and many other sound effects.  I asked my dad if I could share this (his Christmas gift from last year) and he heartily agreed; knowing that there is so precious little imagery of this magnificent, historical vessel, since its accidental destruction in 1947.

 

[The Interpreter 81836]

A labor of love.

Your talent never ceases to amaze me.

Your Dad's reaction?

[Thrill_Biscuit 17014]

A labor of love.

Your talent never ceases to amaze me.

Your Dad's reaction?

 

Thank you, Terpy.

 

Tears of joy. In his youth, when he first beheld the ship, my dad reacted to the Island Queen much in the same way I first reacted to the Kings Island Eiffel Tower up close, at night, lit up with such beauty and splendor, to the point that it became the landmark of my hometown on levels that go way deeper than I can say.  The tower has been there throughout my life, though; but the Island Queen exploded when dad was only 9. (He left the landing to board the bus back to Mason with my grandfather, turned around and fell in love with the sparkling grandeur of the thousands of lights and tall, majestic stature that the ship boasted.) A few weeks later, he grabbed the bundle of newspapers that he helped deliver on his bicycle, and was instantly saddened by the headline and cover photo. The Island Queen was gone.

 

This video is part of a reconciling, the details of which I won't go into, but it mirrors the Prodigal Son story in a lot of ways, and the sheer gladness and peace through which this effort was brought together cannot be described effectively enough.  Tears. Of joy.

 

He watches this every night on his 26" monitor, with what he says is a soul-cleansing power - decades of any kind of harshness faded away, and he now has something he thought he'd never see again, to watch again and again to his heart's content.

[The Interpreter 81836]

Thank you so very much for sharing with us.

I'm sure Coney Island would also like to see this and will.

[jcgoble3 24692]

Incredible. Even though I know almost nothing about the Island Queen, I got chills watching that.

 

The only thing I could nitpick about is a small historical inaccuracy: the American flags atop her appear to be the current 50-star flag, but back in 1947, there would have been only 48 stars, as Alaska and Hawaii did not become states until 1959. Otherwise, I love this.

[TombRaiderFTW 8793]

Aw, I love this! I never knew anything about Cincinnati's and Coney Island's history with steamboats until I picked up Cincinnati's Coney Island by Charles Jacques this year. I thought it was one of the coolest things about Coney's history. It is so neat to see it recreated. And recreated well, too!

 

Thank you for sharing both the video and your story, Thrill_Biscuit. You're very talented! We're very lucky to have you around these parts.

[Thrill_Biscuit 17014]

Thank you all! Sincerely, you are all the best!

[CoastersRZ 4096]

That is really amazing!  Thanks for sharing.  Very impressive!

 

Usually on July 3rd for Balloon Glow one of the B&B riverboats will still make the trek up to Coney bringing passengers to the park.  Many parks were trolley parks (Kennywood among them) in the early 20th century.  Coney was not a trolley park but a steamboat park.  

[Thrill_Biscuit 17014]

 Thank you for that info! I think I'll reach out to B&B and/or CI see if they're doing it again this year, and plan to take my dad on such a trip. Oh, wow... I'll keep y'all posted!

 

Thanks, CoastersRZ!

[The Interpreter 81836]

Camden Park was a trolley park (actually a street car park).

[Thrill_Biscuit 17014]

When we lived in Michigan for a few years, there was a Canadian amusement park called Bob-Lo Island, which was serviced by boats (I don't remember if they were actually 'steam boats,' but they sailed between Detroit and Ontario). I only vaguely remember the park (I was only like, six or seven); but I do remember the commercials. I was biased towards, and held all other amusement parks up against Kings Island. If it didn't have a tower, it wasn't a real amusement park to me  . I think Bob-Lo is no more as of 1994?

[The Interpreter 81836]

It closed the end of September, 1993.

[The Interpreter 81836]

Here are some interesting videos:

http://banana1015.com/what-happened-to-boblo-island-amusement-park-near-detroit-videos/

[westcoaster 1623]

So awesome.

[CoastersRZ 4096]

And for those wanting some history on the Island Queen, you can check out this page on Coney Island Central:  http://www.coneyislandcentral.com/steam_history.php

[Magenta Lizard 15224]

You are creating masterpieces with a box of crayons. I'd be very interested to see what you'd do with some actual animation software like Lightwave or Maya

[Tanna 3715]

That's an incredible artwork.

[pilotank 83]

Isn't it sad and ironic that the final trip of the Island Queen was to Pittsburg:(

Fantastic job and thanks for bringing it back to life.

pioltank