Hi there! If you don’t know me, I’m Noah (or AquaGump), one of the Team Members here on PNT and the main project lead of our EPCOT Center 1989 Project. I’ve been working on this project for a little longer than 6 years now (which is terrifying), and we’re super excited to finally open to y’all at the end of the week.
EPCOT is such a beautiful park, both in real life and as hosted on the PNT Cubed server, and I’d like to take a couple minutes today to take a closer look at some of the foliage and planters around the park that make it (in my biased opinion) one of the best-looking projects in all of Minecraft (and quite possibly in the entire world…)
Every single tree, bush, planter bed, or hedge was built by hand, with no templates. It’s something that I’m quite proud of and that I think you’ll notice quite often when you walk around the park. We made sure to put a lot of care and dedication into everything, making sure that every tree is the right height as it would be in 1989, and even that the right trees would be blooming at the right time of season our map is set in (in case you’re wondering, that date is October 1989, the opening month of the Wonders of Life pavilion!).
We’ll start off at the park entrance. In the morning sunlight of Spaceship Earth, we have one of the more interesting foliage details illuminated by the first rays of the day. These young crepe myrtles use armor stand detailing to enhance their shape, size, and texture, allowing us to get more accurate and detailed plants than using blocks alone. Because of this, even though the plants only have one or two physical blocks placed, we can flesh them out more and make them look “airier”, just like crepe myrtles in real life!
The park entrance is such a cool environment that we really wanted to make sure we nailed it right, judging by how it’s the first thing you would see as you walk into EPCOT Center. First impressions are key, y’know?
As we get deeper into the park, we have another interesting flowerbed. Immediately behind Spaceship Earth’s post-show, Earth Station, we have a small flower bed with the EPCOT logo behind it. By combining models and planters, we’re able to get this super cool and accurate effect, where it looks as though real hedges were cut and trimmed into the shape of the flower-petal logo of EPCOT Center. I was super satisfied with the way this turned out in-game, and frankly it’s one of my favorite spots in the park (especially with the added details in the surroundings… which I won’t spoil).
It turns out that the folks at Walt Disney World really wanted to give their smoking visitors some picturesque surroundings when they came to visit the park. One of my favorite areas in Future World East is what I call the “smoker pit”, immediately to the left of Horizons. This shady sunken area is home to some of my favorite trees in the park, even though they were completed quite a while ago now (I think, if I’m not wrong, close to 2 years at this point).
We made sure that when building these trees to use a combination of wood textures, like jungle wood and oak wood, to match the peeling bark of the trees in this area. Additionally, (and this is a detail you’ll notice quite often around EPCOT,) we like to vary the leaf texture to add a little bit more depth to our trees. That’s why you’ll notice that we use acacia, oak, and birch leaves in these trees.
The mini forest that is the Wonders of Life entrance is another one of my favorite areas of the park. Every single tree, bush, and shrub was double-checked for correct placement. We also use a cool technique where we place what we would normally consider ground cover, like grasses, ferns, and even moss, and place it in the trees, to give a more wild and untamed effect. It really helps us accurately capture the longleaf pine trees planted in this area, as well.
Along the banks of the Odyssey lagoon is the Satellite Lawn (I’m sure you can tell why it is named as such…) Here, we have a wide variety of tree types and heights that juuuust allow the Future World East pavilions to break over the treetops. It’s a really cool angle and one that I’m super glad we were able to emulate in Minecraft!
Bamboo isn’t something you see too often in the parks nowadays, due to its incredibly fast propagation rate (once it’s planted, it’s incredibly hard to maintain because of how fast it grows and spreads). Back in the 80s and 90s, however, WDW Landscaping used it all over. You can find an example of this on the bridge to World Showcase, right behind the Fountain of Nations. We use a lot of neat details like sugarcane, jungle fence, and of course, bamboo, to get us the right effect of that incredibly dense bamboo patches.
Here’s a photo of an Elephant walking near these planters in real life, around 1983, for the circus that was hosted in the early days of EPCOT Center. Legal just let anything slide back then, I guess.
Another one of my favorite areas in the park is the Journey into Imagination gardens. These tall, trimmed topiaries are incredibly whimsical and just draw you in and perfectly accompany the Jumping Fountains (which, yes, will be able to be explored and played with when you visit on August 31.) We used a lot of the new Azalea plants in this area, as they fit the area perfectly and allow us to do a bunch of cool things with our topiary designs. And look at Figment!
Now that we’re in Future World West, something that I personally think is cool is the difference in foliage between the two halves of the park. On East, you notice that there’s a lot more manicured, green spaces. There’s a large amount of shortly trimmed lawns. On West (the more nature-themed side of the park,) you get a lot more untamed landscaping. Everything looks brighter, more colorful, and even more curvy. Don’t believe me? Look at where you’re walking – even the pathways are curvier and fluid on West! It’s just another cool detail that the Imagineers used when designing EPCOT back in the late 70s and early 80s.
The Living Seas quickly is becoming one of my favorite pavilions in the park (yes, I know, sue me.) I’m a sucker for its clean lines and gentle slopes, as well as its planter designs and trees intended to mimic that you’d find in coastal ecosystems. Moments like these are where I wish Minecraft wasn’t so limited in its choices when it comes to plants, but I think that we definitely did the best job we could in mimicking this environment from real life.
As we end our little walkaround, we will loop back around to the World Showcase lagoon. The most recently completed area of the park, the area surrounding the Port of Entry shops is the perfect place to chill out – and, of course, admire some of that cool foliage. Whereas Future World has distinct types of plants used on each side, World Showcase chooses to blend the two sides and use trees and plants representative of the countries exhibited in the park.
Well, that’s about it. I really hope you enjoyed this little walkaround of our park, and I can’t wait for you all to get to see it all at the end of this week. Keep an eye out for more blog posts of this type throughout the week leading up to our opening! Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you on August 31!
(Oh yeah – make sure to check out the Parking Lot too!).