Inspiration, harder and harder to find.

I'm sinking deeper and deeper into a hole with my designing. I can't find inspiration and have it be original still, for some reason. In my mind, all of the good designs of many track styles have been taken. I recently dropped my B&M Hyper for this reason. I want my rides to have atmospheric appeal, if you know what that means. Say, like, when I would ride Terminus (my B&M hyper), and then ride "Flying Burrito" by Canadmos or "The Red Dragon" by bob_3, I would think to myself, "This really does suck." And it's not because the track sucks or anything technical or adrenaline related, but the originality and how the layout feels. I can't seem to mentally create a good, original yet classic layout like I want. And, it's not just my B&M Hyper. I have recently started on other tracks and have dumped them for this very issue.

Have any of you been through this low, or are going through it now? If you have been through it, how did you pull yourself out of it? And what are some tips on making an atmospheric layout?

I've been in that stage for awhile, which is why I haven't uploaded a ride for nearly 18 months now. What I'm cureently doing is just making like 3 rides at once and see which one I like the best, and I've decided to just finish it. Of the ones I haven't finished I have am out-and0back woodie with barrel-roll after the brakes, and a twister@ gruna lund inspired woodie. And right now I've combined a bat-wing and a cobra roll to make a 3 inversion element. Maybe like me you just need to do something obsenly unique and just go with it. I hoped I helped

It's just an artist's thing. We all go through that period in any creative work where we feel like what we're making isn't any good.

IMO, making a good roller coaster is very much like writing a novel. It has rising and falling tension, fast and slow parts, surprises, and has to keep you captivated the entire time to truly be good.

I heard someone say about story-telling in general that there really isn't anything original left to do in the plot department. Every single style of story has already been told before, and when we boil down to it, when we go to the movies we're just basically watching the same basic story over and over again. So why do we still go? Because every single movie is still unique, telling its story in a different way with a different feel and a different character to it. And there are certain things that we never get tired of seeing.

Coaster-building is very much the same. In general, we have reached a point where just about everything has been done before. But that doesn't mean that there's nothing left to do. When I build, for example, I usually start with the inspiration from a real coaster, and think "wouldn't it be cool if this part was a little faster, or if this idea was taken to its logical conclusion?" Or I see someone else do something on a coaster of theirs, and come up with my own unique take on it. And that is where I get a lot of my ideas from. It's not being "original," per se, but it's still something that makes me constantly have ideas to build upon.

And if you need a little pep talk, here's a little something that Neil Gaiman wrote to the participants in National Novel-Writing Month about that period where you just feel like everything you make is crap and you just want to give up: http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/1065561

[Coasterkidmwm]

Don't build to make other people happy.

I've been stuck in this kind of rut for a long time. Looking back, I haven't really had an outstanding coaster, and it got me down. In fact, I almost sold my copy of No Limits because I was just so "out of it".

Just recently, I have gotten back into building and will actually be starting a Hard Hat thread soon. My idea was to start combining the styles of different companies and trying to make it flow.

For example, my new coaster (name pending) is a 180ft woodie inspired by GG, GCI, CCI, and even a little bit of Intamin. Just think of a couple companies you like and mix their styles together.

Sometimes, when i get so low on inspiration, I build something completely preposterous in newton, then delete and cry in the corner of my room.

I have felt like doing that before, Trevor. Lol, it can be pretty freakin frustrating.

Lol, im kidding. just ask someone, say your low on inspiration. I also just look at pics of the coaster type im designing.

Yeah... then I end up with a carbon copy of the picture. Haha, looking at something better than what I'm building doesn't help any.

[hyyyper]

Looks like you guys aren't the only ones.

The last ride on the exchange is from 6 days ago.

Thats why I was trying to finish my ride to put it up so atleast theres something this week.

[jayman]

my inspiration disappeared when mediocre albeit technically good and quasi realistic tracks started to flood the site..

It could be because I'm so damn lazy. Haha

A great track is so difficult to come by these days... We have all of our great designers putting out awesome coasters every once in a while, but between those periods, we don't have much to look at.

As for the writer's block, I say hit the random button on rcdb a bunch of times. Maybe that'll find some inspiration. Or you could take a break from designing for a little bit.

Originally posted by jayman

my inspiration disappeared when mediocre albeit technically good and quasi realistic tracks started to flood the site..

I agree. For me, the fun of it in the old days was that we were building coasters that were something completely new, something that we wished would be built in real life, thinking outside the box. While now almost all of the highest-rated tracks are pretty much just exactly what an already-existing company would build.

Inspiration can come from anywhere...... ANYWHERE. Sometimes I stare at a tangled computer cord and get an idea for an element. One time I was inspired for a ride theme when I saw a small halloween decoration. A lot of times, I just build from nowhere, letting whatever coaster I last enjoyed in real life subconsiously give inspiration. My best example was how I built "Forest Flyer" after riding the Cornball Express. Just keep in mind and keep an eye out for ideas.

[gouldy]

Originally posted by jayman

my inspiration disappeared when mediocre albeit technically good and quasi realistic tracks started to flood the site..

Bingo.

[jayman]

Originally posted by cjd

Originally posted by jayman

my inspiration disappeared when mediocre albeit technically good and quasi realistic tracks started to flood the site..

I agree. For me, the fun of it in the old days was that we were building coasters that were something completely new, something that we wished would be built in real life, thinking outside the box. While now almost all of the highest-rated tracks are pretty much just exactly what an already-existing company would build.

you nailed it.. back when there was a " no limits" exchange and not a " within a set of manufacturers pre existing limits" exchange..

That is actually a good idea, build something new. Kick cookiecutter rides out the door and start making unique rides that arent even neccicarily from any certain manufacturer. Then no one would be in this situation.

"Kick cookiecutter rides out the door", said A.S.C. Right on!
For example, what makes The Beast at Kings Island so appealing? It's the environment it was built in. The real honest to goodness under-ground cement tunnels. Take that same track and put it on a treeless, flat stretch of land and you'd have the most boring coaster in the world. This is not to say that the environment is the most important thing. It's just one of those many things that can make a roller coaster good. A good track design is also just as important. A track with a lot of unexpected twists and turns. For example, the Shooting Star at Cincinnati's Coney Island was just a simple out and back roller coaster but when it came back and went through the lift hill and made that 90 degree turn and all you saw was an entrance to a tunnel, then it plunged down to the ground and made a 360 degree, high banked, high speed turn then into the station, that really knocked your socks off. That was the most exciting part of the ride.

Here's one thing I'm guilty of. Don't let your turns drag out for miles. Keep your turns and hills on a short, tight radius. That makes the speed and intensity of the ride a lot better. Edit: (Wing-Over's recent OMEGA coaster is a good example of this.) Nothing can get more boring than a turn that keeps going and going and going. Try to remember that, Alfred. And yeah, go to R.C.D.B. or any coaster site and look at some really good REAL coasters and I'll bet you'll get plenty of ideas. Look at some of the "Old" designs. Some of them were pretty good. A lot of times I get bored and can't think of a new ride. But one will come to you in time. Don't give up.

Try to do something that people haven't really done before. Kinda hard to think about, but really, it could be anything. How about a hyper coaster that just dives into a ravine that is way below and it's like a 400-foot drop on a continuous coaster? Or how about a new theme? I think why Schizophrenia was so appealing to people is that it had a different theme going on than most people would think of, some decent scenery action, and a very unique vertical plot.



See how the cobra roll area is really far down (and the top is level with the corks)? It just makes a unique plot and challenge. I had to make an upward curve into a cork, but it was almost impossible because of the G's. In the end, it actually worked, because the intense sling and bite really made the ride have personality and spring into that over-the-lift corkscrew. Also, with the entrance at the cobra-roll, the rest of the ride sits uphill ala haunted house style.

Just the vertical plot alone makes the ride unique.

So just remember, try something different, but it can be anywhere. Ultimately the cookie-cutter rides are the ones that don't try anything different at all in track, theme, plot, or anything.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by jayman

my inspiration disappeared when mediocre albeit technically good and quasi realistic tracks started to flood the site..

That's what the often neglected "fantasy" button is for. When people claim something is something it isn't I will call them out on it.

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Don't build to make other people happy.

For an idiot he says smart things

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm


That's what the often neglected "fantasy" button is for. When people claim something is something it isn't I will call them out on it.

I don't know... is something suddenly not "realistic" just because a company hasn't built it before?

IMO, the "realistic" button is for any coaster that could be built in real life, regardless of whether there would be an actual manufacturer that would build it exactly like that. For example, if someone made a Maverick-style coaster with a past-vertical drop and those insane turns before Intamin had, would the person who designed it have gotten bashed for "Intamin's transitions aren't quick like that, they're more gradual"? Or if someone had made a GG-style coaster with the big, sweeping turns before GG existed, would they have gotten bashed for "what style were you going for? This wasn't a GCI or a CCI style. No company shapes their turns like this." So should these designers have been forced to use the "Fantasy" button just because nobody had done what they did yet?

I say no. If it CAN be built, it should be realistic, even if nobody has done anything like it before. That's how original coasters get built and innovations get made, is when people say "yes, nobody's done this before, but we can do it!"

IMO, "Fantasy" should be restricted to coasters that:
A. Are so unrealistically huge that it would be economically infeasible to build them in real life. (Things like "Project Strata-Force" and "Cataclysm")
B. Are in environments where coasters could never actually be built. (Coasters like "Orbital," Mine Shaft, and Trackwalker's giant mid-mountain coasters.)
C. Intentionally do elements that are physically impossible in real life due to g-forces, rider discomfort, or real-life physics in general.

IMO, the VAST majority of designers (aka all but 5-10) don't pay enough attention to their designs to be able to pull off a believable original design. They're almost always copies of existing manufacturer styles that are done terribly, or influenced by Newton or generic NL design so much that they can't be called original. It takes a lot of work to make a design that has enough original features and details to be something that I would personally believe could come from a real new company. People don't think that deep into designs, and as such there is that steady stream of similar, mediocre designs.