When John McDonald saw his first Disney movie, he immediately became immersed in the company’s philosophy of “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Ever since that moment, McDonald became passionate about two things: Disney and computer animation.
“From a young age, I knew I wanted to get involved in Imagineering,” said the Massapequa native, who had always been imaginative and creative.
McDonald attended Massapequa High School for half a day and spent the other half at Nassau BOCES’ LIHSA program in computer animation.
“Art was really prevalent in my life and it has always been my hobby,” said the 20-year-old, now a junior computer animation major at Ringling College of Art & Design in Florida. “I like to focus on artistic sculpture and 3D work, and computer animation allowed me to combine the best of both worlds.”
McDonald—whose favorite movies include The Little Mermaid, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen—recently had the opportunity to take his skills to Disney for the Imaginations Design Competition, a program designed and sponsored by Walt Disney Imagineering to encourage students to consider careers in creative and technical fields including digital arts, engineering and architecture.
“It was surreal being amongst the executives I’ve admired for so long and been inspired by their work,” he said. “Words can’t describe it.”
McDonald, along with his fellow Ringling peers Elizabeth Fox, Diana Han and Josh Newton, was one of six teams that made it through to the finals. The team went through a process to first be considered for submitting a project. Once they moved on to the next phase, the project was approved and then scored. McDonald and his team were then contacted by Disney to learn they were semifinalists, before moving on to another round of judging. They were notified that they were finalists as a team via Skype.
“My teammates were amazing,” said McDonald of his friends, who were each from different programs in the university. “Elizabeth is an interior design major and Josh and Diana are illustration, so it was a great group dynamic. We shared a common goal and were all very passionate.”
(Photo courtesy of Disney)
The teams were given the challenge of taking what Disney does best—from its world class theme parks, resorts, cruise ships and other entertainment venues that are globally highly popular with families—and apply it to transportation within a major city. McDonald’s team’s design, which ended up winning them first place in the competition, was called “The New Orleans Double Rail.”
“We had the goal of solving the issue of both commuter and tourist. We decided on an elevated rail system that had a train on top for commuters and then a suspended train below for tourists,” said McDonald of the design. “The commuter train traveled faster, was more efficient and had all the amenities of Wi-Fi, electrical outlets, everything a commuter would want. The bottom train had an interactive experience that showed the evolution of the city of New Orleans and gave a lesson on history.”
The design was inspired by a glass bottom boat. McDonald and his came up with the idea to suspend the rail over the city and have a projection technique that would overlay the path of New Orleans—showing modern-day cars and at the same time horse-drawn carriages and architecture from the past.
“It was all about what New Orleans was and how it came to be,” said McDonald, who thought the prompt was quite challenging as it could be approached in many different ways.
While every team member contributed their own ideas and a substantial amount of research, McDonald’s role was as the lead on guest experience and stories. He constructed a model from illustrations and went from there. While there are no plans to actually build the “New Orleans Double Rail” in the city, McDonald and his team think that it would do well there.
“We started the whole project in September and had to submit a power point in November for the preliminary round, focusing on what New Orleans meant and what they like to showcase there,” he said. “Over winter break in December, Disney told us we were finalists and we continued working on it until the end of January.”
The final six teams were given an all-inclusive and paid trip to the Disney Imagineering headquarters in Glendale, CA, from Jan. 26-30 where they presented their designs to a panel of experts, including current Imagineers. One of McDonald’s favorite parts of the competition was being given a backstage tour of Disneyland.
“It was great having the opportunity to meet the other teams and see what they worked on and how they interpreted the prompt,” said McDonald. “It was an eye-opening experience meeting the Imagineers and learning about what they contributed to the parks, to Disney and how they made the guests experience more magical. I made so many great connections.”
When the winners of the competition were announced at an awards luncheon, McDonald and his team were speechless to hear that their design had won first place.
“There were so many great entries it was shocking that we won. We all got trophies, a cash prize and interviews for an internship at Disney,” said McDonald. “My school was proud of us; they were a great support system.”
So what’s next for this possible future Imagineer? If it were up to McDonald, he would be honored to intern with Disney and further work with the company in the future.
“This experience definitely opened up a lot of doors for me,” he said. “It was such a pleasure working with Disney; they are such an inspiring, creative and organized company. To have the opportunity to be a part of that would be amazing.”
