If you think Spiderman really took off at the movies, consider the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman.

It’s a ride at Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure theme park in Florida that combines a car and a 3-D simulator and gives riders a sense of adventure far beyond driving.

There’s the fun of being spun around and splashed with water when a villain explodes and feeling the motion of flying and falling after being shot with an “anti-gravity” ray.

It’s a visceral thrill all right, but Gary Goddard, the attraction’s designer, hopes it doesn’t stop there.

“It’s about emotional connection. Goddard said. “You can back into the technology you need, and it can become invisible. You don’t want people to say ‘Oh, look at that technology.’ ”

The Spiderman ride at the Orlando park is just one of many that Gary Goddard Entertainment has created utilizing sophisticated technology and digital innovations. The company has created some of the nation’s most spectacular attractions.

Others includes Star Trek: The Experience for Paramount Parks and Hilton Las Vegas, the Terminator 2:3D ride at Universal Studios Los Angeles and a recently completed “4-D” show at the $250 million Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.

Goddard’s firm doesn’t actually build the rides and shows; it creates and maps out the concepts, then puts together a team of engineers, contractors and specialists to turn them into reality.

“His work has been remarkable because he was early to work with the digital technology and make it seamless,” said Gene Jeffers, director of TEA, a Burbank-based trade group for the themed entertainment industry. “The technology is always changing so fast, you have to try to think ahead. It really is about using the technology to create a compelling emotional experience for the guest that will bring them back again.”

Sea change


One of Goddard’s most recent works is the Georgia Aquarium’s Deepo’s Undersea 3D Wondershow, which offers viewers a high dimensional, 3-D film of underwater creatures combined with a live stage actor, chairs that move and effects such as jellyfish that brush by visitors’ heads.

The exhibit, which opened in late 2005, has been such a hit that the museum recommends visitors buy the tickets in advance since they often sell out.

“It’s been very well received, been enormously popular with our guests, and a lot of people have come back and seen it multiple times,” said aquarium spokesman Dave Santucci. “It’s a totally different immersive experience.”

The business arrangement surrounding the show is also unusual for the theme park world: Goddard co-owns the production and shares the revenue with the aquarium. The idea was to forego upfront profits for long-term returns.

“We want to own the creative elements and we forgo a higher percentage of our fees in return for co-ownership,” Goddard said. “Once a project pays for itself, we will make a much higher percentage than we would have from our fees.”

Goddard entered stagecraft after graduating from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia in 1974. He began in theater and directed dinner shows before he went on to work for the Walt Disney Co.’s Imagineering team, which focused on theme park design.

Goddard later struck out on his own with partner Tony Christopher and founded Landmark Entertainment Group, a theme park design firm. Following that, in 2002, he founded his current firm by himself. The company undertakes six to 10 projects a year and pulls in $8 million to $10 million in annual revenue. But since he contracts with outside firms on his projects, the staff numbers just 12.

“There’s a Yiddish saying that goes something like, ‘we don’t have the money so we have to think’,” Goddard said. “We don’t get to have $250 million for a single attraction. Outside of Disney and Universal, nobody has budgets like that. The outside world has to do things for $10 million, or $16 million if we’re really lucky.”

Still, the theme park design business is good these days, and not just for Goddard. The tourism and leisure travel industries have rebounded from the sharp drop-off that followed the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

“Everyone in the industry is busy. It’s a big contrast to 2001 and 2002, which really felt dire,” said Kelly Ryner, vice president of new business development at Burbank-based Thinkwell Design & Production, a similarly sized competitor.

Grammy score


Meanwhile, Goddard’s company is readying itself for its latest big project: an attraction at the Grammy Museum that will be part of Anschutz Entertainment Group’s $2.2-billion L.A. Live development downtown, near the Convention Center.

The museum will cover 28,000 square feet and house a permanent display dedicated to a variety of music genres and the science of recorded music, as well as interactive presentations featuring Grammy winners.

The plan is to attract about 1 million tourists a year to the museum, and Goddard is planning one of his “4-D” presentations involving digital animation, which can evolve through the years, for the museum.

“The Grammy awards renew themselves every year. If you build this thing and can’t update it as it changes each year, then it becomes obsolete,” Goddard said.

He is still working on the design for the exhibit, with L.A. Live’s opening scheduled for 2010.

“We go through a lot of bad ideas, because the first dozen ideas, of course, are what everyone thinks of. We have to do better. You have to be willing to stand up and say ‘None of you know what the bleep what you are talking about except me.’ ”

Gary Goddard Entertainment

Year Founded:

2002

Core Business:

Designing and producing theme park and leisure attractions

Employees in 2005:

12

Employees in 2006:

13

Goal:

To establish an emotional connection with visitors

Driving Force:

The continuing evolution of digital technology