DinoReplicas - dinosaur bone models and more

[tarnyloo73]

I ordered a test 3D print from Shapeways but it's not due for 3 weeks. In the meantime I thought I'd bang out a little promo video made with 3D renders.

I've been wanting an excuse to try out the Blender 2.8 beta and mess about with the new Eevee renderer so I downloaded the latest build last night. Eevee just crashes on my 12yr old PC and the 3D viewport lags so much it's unusable. It's a bit better on my laptop (still old) and Eevee sorta works though only partially.

After some tests I think I can tease out some very basic Eevee animations on the laptop, nothing photo-realistic but hopefully adequate. I'm not even going to bother with the Cycles renderer 'cause I haven't got the computing power.

Anyway scratched up a quick storyboard, had to fight with the cheap gel pen to get it to work . The in-frame arrows are loose indications of the camera moves. It doesn't fully convey what's in my head but having a rough plan helps me keep consistent an on track.

Found some background music for this on youtube, it's a bit Terminator-ish but it should fit.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Changed the composition of the shots a bit to try to create a bit more flow. Been trying to get my head around Blender 2.8 beta, my ancient hardware doesn't play well with the Eevee renderer. Gonna try to get some animations out this weekend, maybe being a bit optimistic.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Simple camera arcs over 4 scenes. About 15 seconds each, this frame preview is from scene 1
Don't know how (or if) a video would turn out. Still trying to get satisfactory results from the Blender Eevee renderer.

Shot 2 sweeps upward toward the spikes.

Not passing up the opportunity to brag about the jaw feature

More blatant immodesty for shot 4 caption

 

[tarnyloo73]

After much whining and whirring from my ancient laptop the video frames are finally done. Making some final adjusts to the video before I put it on youtube. I'm no Spielberg but this'll do for now. Going to use this (cropped) video grab as the preview thumbnail.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Vid now on Youtube

 

[tarnyloo73]

The Styrac 3D print arrived and it's as expected, gonna give it a metallic finish with dark shading in the recesses. Made a couple of minor adjusts to the 3D mesh before I put it on sale later today.

Made a couple of still renders for the Shapeways page, they'll do until I get some photos sorted. These are done with Blender's Cycles renderer rather than the much quicker Eevee which I used for the video.

Going for an illustrative look with these renders to show off the form and details, always liked a bit of dramatic lighting with warm/cool contrasts. Photorealism in digital 3D doesn't appeal to me that much. Anyway, I'll get some real photos of the model at some point.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Styracosaurus skull now available to buy on Shapeways

Based on the holotype specimen CMN 344, this 3D printed model has articulating jaw and is available in 4 scales- 1:10, 1:12, 1:16 and 1:20. I've wanted to make one of these for ages, there's some spectacular new ceratopsians popping up lately but for me it's one of the most visually impressive skulls around (and dinosaurs are a pretty visual bunch). As usual I spent far too long on this project. Encouragement from various corners of the internet has kept me motivated though.

Shapeways link - Styracosaurus skull by Dinosaur Replicas

 

[tarnyloo73]

Physical (and digital) model projects collected in one place at my Artstation portfolio

 

[tarnyloo73]

Now in 8 sizes! Following a request I've made some larger scale versions of the Styracosaurus skull.

1:4 (large) - length 1ft 7in
1:5 (medium) - length 1ft 3in
1:6 (small) - length 1ft 1in
1:8 - added to existing small scale product - length 9.9in

I've had to cut the model into 4 parts and removed the jaw articulation (I'm not ordering these sizes myself so I couldn't test the mechanics). With Shapeways base price + my (fairly modest) markup, the cost for these is a little crazy, too rich for my wallet anyway.

Large scale Styracosaurus skulls on Shapeways

Small scale Styracosaurus skulls on Shapeways

 

[Riceball]

Awesome work, I only just stumbled on this thread but I really liked what I saw. As a big dinosaur buff myself I really appreciate the attention to detail that you went into on these models. If you could find a way to get these printed in bulk you should try and make deals with various natural history museums to sell some of your models in their gift shops, I'd bet they'd be pretty popular.

Eventually, I'm going to have order one of your T. rex skulls, The rex, along with Tyrannosaurs in general, are some of my favorite dinosaurs I currently have a nice feathered T. rex toy/model, and a flat 2D skull that I made myself in college, a 3D printed skull would be a great addition to my collection.

So, what's next? How about either pterosaur or a mosasaur? Something non-dinosaur, or for a dinosaur, how about a spinosaurid or maybe an abelisaurid, both animals with very different skull shapes from either allosaurs or tyrannosaurs.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Awesome work, I only just stumbled on this thread but I really liked what I saw. As a big dinosaur buff myself I really appreciate the attention to detail that you went into on these models.

Cheers and glad you like them. It's always great to hear from fellow dinosaur fans (we're probably not as rare these days ).

If you could find a way to get these printed in bulk you should try and make deals with various natural history museums to sell some of your models in their gift shops, I'd bet they'd be pretty popular.

I've sold a fair few on Shapeways but nothing spectacular, Shapeways SLS printing can be pretty expensive but I try to keep costs down as much as I can. I typically add 20-35% markup on top of the base price which I think is fair for the work I put in. It would be good to find a way to mass produce but business is not my forte, I prefer to focus on modelling and sculpting.

The rex, along with Tyrannosaurs in general, are some of my favorite dinosaurs I currently have a nice feathered T. rex toy/model, and a flat 2D skull that I made myself in college

Right with you on that one. As a wee lad I saw the rex mount (gone since late 70s) at the NHM London and I've been an unashamed Tyrannosaur fanboy ever since.

Did you see the photos of my rex models in this RPF thread?

So, what's next? How about either pterosaur or a mosasaur? Something non-dinosaur, or for a dinosaur, how about a spinosaurid or maybe an abelisaurid, both animals with very different skull shapes from either allosaurs or tyrannosaurs.

Completely agree about exploring different skull shapes for variety. I like the idea of doing a pterosaur or mosasaur, such different aesthetics, ultimately depends on getting good reference. I'll probably take a break from prehistoric things for now, I hope to return at some point though.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Started messing about with a Dimorphodon in Blender. Maybe try to get a 3D printed model out of this, it's still at an early stage so I'll have to see how it develops.

After a bit of fiddling I've swapped the placeholder claws with more refined (and more correct) forward facing digits I-III. More tweaks coming.

 

[Riceball]

That looks pretty good so far, certainly an interesting choice and one that doesn't get much attention either. When it comes to pterosaurs, the Pterodactyl usually gets the most attention followed by Quetzalcoatlus. Btw, having seen a Quetzalcoatlus mount in person, I'd be absolutely terrified to see a live one in person. There's something absolutely terrifying about a bird like creature with bat wings that's as tall as a giraffe.

 

[tarnyloo73]

That looks pretty good so far, certainly an interesting choice and one that doesn't get much attention either. When it comes to pterosaurs, the Pterodactyl usually gets the most attention followed by Quetzalcoatlus. Btw, having seen a Quetzalcoatlus mount in person, I'd be absolutely terrified to see a live one in person. There's something absolutely terrifying about a bird like creature with bat wings that's as tall as a giraffe.

Thanks, Quetzalcoatlus was an awesome animal, I'm sure it deserves the attention, I'd be terrified too but I'd still love to see a live one . I'm somewhat envious you've been up close to a skeletal mount. Based on specimen count and preservation quality Rhamphorhynchus would probably have been a better choice. Like me Dimorphodon is British but that's not the reason I chose it, I think it's proportions are appealing and that big bullet-shaped head has a goofy charm.

I finally got around to taking some pics of the Styracosaurus skull. Not the usual fancy photo-shoot these were done on my daughter's iPhone, I cleaned up the background a bit for clarity. Trying a steel 'look' with this one, silver over dark grey acrylic.

 

[Riceball]

Great work, as always. I'm adding this one to my list of skulls to get once I have some spare cash. The Styracosaurus has always been one of my favorite dinosaurs, along with the T. rex and is my favorite ceratopsids, I like it better than the more popular Triceratops.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Great work, as always. I'm adding this one to my list of skulls to get once I have some spare cash. The Styracosaurus has always been one of my favorite dinosaurs, along with the T. rex and is my favorite ceratopsids, I like it better than the more popular Triceratops.

Thanks, for me it's a hard choice choosing between the two but Styracosaurus is just so damn glorious with that crown of spikes so I guess I'll have to agree!

Been away from this for a while, managed to make some progress today.
Unified the mesh, wing membrane now has a thickness (which I'm sure is going to cause me issues later). Anatomically Pterosaurs are pretty weird, not sure I can get this working well, Trying to set up a mesh structure with regard to posing. Probably attempt something simpler next project.

 

[Riceball]

While it would take a fairly radical reworking of your model, you could change it from being in flight to on the ground walking. Would that make things any easier?

 

[tarnyloo73]

While it would take a fairly radical reworking of your model, you could change it from being in flight to on the ground walking. Would that make things any easier?

That's a reasonable tactic that I considered at an earlier stage and haven't completely rejected. It would definitely help with the awkward walking gait of pterosaurs. There's a few reasons I've gone with a neutral flight posture, mainly that I think it'll be easier to hit more poses. I'm building this with the hope to make 3D printable at some point, due to the thin wing membrane I think the hardest bit will be controlling surface intersections at the trailing edge as the joints are positioned and that will be tricky regardless of the chosen default pose. I'm going to try along this route for now and I'll know more when I add some controllers, I'm not averse to scrapping and re-starting if I have to , there's always the option of building more than one model.

 

[tarnyloo73]

The black grid (slightly under the model) represents 1m with 10cm divisions showing an animal with a length slightly under 1m and with a 1.3m wingspan (with wing straightened), cranium length is 20cm. Made a few tweaks to the flight membrane shape. The current thinking is that Dimorphodon was maybe a part-time flyer with short, broad wings, kind of like a pheasant or a grouse.

The once popular 'Puffinodon' concept is falling out of favour for various reasons (see Mark Witton's blog). Rather than being a fish eater, it's now thought that Dimorphodon was better adapted for hunting small terrestrial game such as lizards and insects.

Started adding some deformers for head, spine and limbs (one side). For the front limb I've put in the shoulder, upper and lower arm, wrist/hand and the 4 phalanges of the wing finger (digit IV), still need to add some bones for the grasping fingers (digits I-III) and the hindlimb toes.

It's Saturday afternoon and I've got the house to myself for a few hours so I think I'll beetle away on this and see how far I can progress with it.

 

[tarnyloo73]

By special arrangement, Youtube dinosaur modeller Kayakasaurus featured my 3D printed Styracosaurus skull model as one of the tests for his Elegoo Mars 3D Printer. For such an inexpensive resin printer I think the prints came out pretty well, the video clearly shows the Styracosaurus teeth are individually resolved.