Designing a theme park ride — Interview with a concept artist

As part of a series of articles and a podcast about theme parks, I had the chance to interview concept artist Victor Lahlou, who worked on two dark rides projects currently in development. We talked about his day-to-day job and the process of creating a brand new ride.
This interview has been translated from French.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your mission?

I am Victor Lahlou. I’m 27 and I live in Montreal, Canada. In my free time, I like tinkering with stuffs, building furniture, painting Warhammer figurines and drawing people in pubs.

For 5 years now, I’m a concept artist for the video game industry. I draw visual “concepts” of characters, objects and sets, following a project’s artistic direction. Roughly speaking, I draw the preparatory drawings you find in artbooks.

You recently work on the development of several rides. How did you start working for this industry ? What was your role exactly ?

It all started very blandly: I’d just arrive in Montreal and was looking for a job. I was lucky enough to find something really quick at Meduzarts. The studio is behind promo images for Skyrim, TESO, Injustice or Wolfenstein, the game cover of the last Spiderman PS4 or CG trailers for Rainbow Six Siege and Mortal Kombat X. When the studio director talked to me about a project “like Mad Max but with a lot of colors”, I wrongly thought he was speaking about a CG trailer for Rage 2, which was then in production. After a first freelance mission which consisted in designing a Mad Max inspired vehicle, I joined the studio and learned the project was actually a Dark Ride named “Road Rage”. My job was no different than usual: I worked with another concept artist to define the artistic direction for the ride using lots of sketches and artworks.

Can you walk us through the creation process of a new ride ?

I need to specify something : Meduzarts was commissioned thanks to its CG expertise, not its rides expertise. We focused on the software part of the ride and the videos projected on screens throughout the ride. We receive a technical briefing from the client with some very rough concepts, it gives us a direction, a map of the ride with timing indications, screens sizes, etc. The creation process is very close from what is usually done for CG short movies. The storyboard is replaced with a 3D simulation of the ride so we can match our shots as close as possible from the ride’s movements. To come even closer to the real thing, we stream this simulation on a VR headset like Oculus, and then we have fun moving the tester office chair around and making the poor tester sick. After that, according to the client demands, the concept artist imagine the visual identity. When a concept is approved, we send it in 3D, it is then rigged, animated, lit… There are a lot of back and forth, we make adjustments when necessary, we laugh, we cry, and it takes us at least 6 months.

Can you pitch the two rides you worked on? Are you a fan of thoses franchises? How did it influence your work?

The first ride is named Road Rage. It is based on a world inspired by Mad Max Fury Road. I can’t discuss the details, but it will be a dark ride featuring our videos and a stuntshow, with a soundtrack composed by Benoît Jutras who works for Le Cirque du Soleil. As a concept artist, I always remember the movies with strong visuals, even if they have “dumb” scripts. And oh my God, Fury Road was a revelation! All the designs, colors, the visual universe speak for themselves. What I really like about this movie is its visuals and its timeless relevance. Peter Pound worked on the first artworks back in the 90’s, and a lot of them have been used as is in the movie.

The second ride, Shatterdome Strike, is officially based on a blockbuster: Pacific Rim. Without revealing too much, I can say there will be big robots and Kaijus I designed with the help of other artists. I’m not such a big fan of this franchise. I really liked the first movie but the second one not so much. I don’t hate it, unlike a lot of people, but it’s a “meh” for me, a few things are still worth saving. We obviously based our work on the movies, especially on the visual aspects to design both rides. However, we had to follow some artistic choices due to some specific reasons. Some of those choices might seem to go against the original movies, but in the context of the rides, they make sense.

Is there any unexpected challenges you faced during this project?

We had some challenges due to the location of the rides, which is Bali, Indonesia. I can’t discuss the details, but in Road Rage, the stuntmen will have outfits we designed. We had to make sure the outfits were actually wearable, and it was the only real constraint we had. I can’t wait to see them in real life but I apologize in advance to the costume designer who will have to create them. With Pacific Rim, I spent a lot of time designing… the inside of a Kaiju’s jaws. An official artwork has been recently released where you can see the Kaiju’s head through which guests will walk.

One thing I can add, my clients are Indian, so I had to adapt my artworks to the local culture. In Europe and in the USA, the trend is about realism with desaturated colors, but in Bali it’s all about very colorful visuals.

Do you want to ride your attractions? How do you think guests will react to it?

I’m biased but seeing my concepts becoming real through a ride at the other side of the world is a very unique feeling, it’s crazy! The promise of these attractions is very exciting: a dark ride with live actors and another with big robots fighting Kaijus, it’s a yes! I had to quit the project after my work for the pre-production. Former coworkers still update me about the project and from what I hear, it’s gonna be awesome and impressive rides!

Are you a fan of theme parks? Does working on these projects have changed your point of view on parks?

I’ve always had a very special relationship with theme parks, because I’ve always lived in countries where there is no parks. First time I went to one, I still vividly remember, it was a surprise from my parents when we came back to France from Africa to visit my family during summer holidays. We were supposed to go see my granny, but my brother and I noticed it was not the usual road. We arrived at a hotel with Mickeys everywhere. We were actually at Disneyland Paris the year the Walt Disney Studios opened, and it was an unforgettable weekend. I dreamed of going back to Disney all year long as I was in Burkina Faso or Mozambique. I grew up and I regret we don’t have the same innocence as when we were a child, but theme parks are the last places where I have the feeling of becoming this kid again, surely because I rarely go there. However, I have weird mixed feelings about the new point of view this experience has given me. I have discovered a new way of expressing myself thanks to Road Rage and Pacific Rim. And it’s a new playground I’ll explore with pleasure. It was very tangible, practical, you can touch what you design, and I really like this feeling. But on the other hand, I don’t know if I want to break the magic. My relationship with video games has changed as a player, there are only a few games that can make me forget my professional lens. I wish to keep my relationship with theme parks and still be able to marvel at details without analyzing them!

You can find the French version of this interview here, and listen to the Actioner podcast episode about action movies and theme parks here.