DinoReplicas - dinosaur bone models and more

[tarnyloo73]

Starting UV mapping by separating the model into colour islands. These are used to define boundary edge selections for UV seams.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Almost there with the rig, membrane controllers working but not perfect. That's OK though, hopefully this will give enough pose range, don't intend tinkering with this stage too long.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Made a sketch to use as a sculpting overlay, couldn't resist adding a few labels and annotations. Not sure about the air-sacs behind the arm (in yellow), they are known (or believed to be likely) from later larger pterosaurs so I've added them more as indicator than intent. I doubt they would be visible externally so they won't influence the sculpting.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Made a UV map for Dimorphodon model, not the best use of space but it'll do for my purposes. This step is unnecessary for a 3D print but useful for texturing if I decide to make some renders.

 

[animator]

UV's are just about my least favorite part of the process. Those look pretty clean.

After seeing how great those prints of your model turned out, I ordered a Elegoo Mars printer. I've never tried 3D printing before.

 

[tarnyloo73]

UV's are just about my least favorite part of the process. Those look pretty clean.

Thanks

After seeing how great those prints of your model turned out, I ordered a Elegoo Mars printer. I've never tried 3D printing before.

Have fun making cool stuff.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Back on this after a long break. Had a look at the model last night and made (yet more!) adjusts to the base-mesh. This gif is just to try out a couple of poses. Going to try to get this detailed quickly and turned into a 3D print.

 

[Riceball]

I think that the walking pose would be a good one, you don't see that in toys/models that often, if at all.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

That's so cool. Agree on the walking pose.

 

[tarnyloo73]

I think that the walking pose would be a good one, you don't see that in toys/models that often, if at all.

That's so cool. Agree on the walking pose.

Thanks, the plan is to do a walking and (at least one) flying version. Some think that Dimorphodon was also well adapted for tree-climbing so I might also try one in a vertical posture to hang on the side of my printer .

Found a little time today to run up some pose concepts.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Spent a couple of hours this morning with detailing (mainly carving out pycnofibers). It's mostly done but needs a bit of muscle definition here and there. In reality the fibres were more fluffy than bristly but this will be a small scale solid model so fine details need a bit of exaggeration.

 

[Riceball]

Looks good, I really like the way it looks in the walking pose. As I mentioned before, it's not very often you see pterosaurs in the walking pose outside of 2D art.

One thing though, I think that the nostril might a bit too low and forward. Looking at other pics of dimo they seem to place the nostril further up and back. But I guess that there's a certain amount of artist's interpretation to that since I don't believe that the exact placement of the nostril is evident in the skull structure.

 

[tarnyloo73]

One thing though, I think that the nostril might a bit too low and forward. Looking at other pics of dimo they seem to place the nostril further up and back. But I guess that there's a certain amount of artist's interpretation to that since I don't believe that the exact placement of the nostril is evident in the skull structure.

Yeah it's a tricky one, as with many pterosaurs, Dimorphodon merged its nasal and antorbital openings into a large nasoantorbital fenestra so there's a pretty big area in which the nostril could be situated. I've gone with the fairly current view (Witmer 2001) which suggests that nostril position in most archosaurs and diapsids (which includes pterosaurs) is quite low and forward in the opening, there's also a good modern paleoart example here.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Hmmm, well here's an unexpected development. Some just published research shows that the more primitive long-tailed pterosaurs had hands which pointed forward and also the 5th hind-limb toe was in contact with the ground. This contradicts the (until now) current view of these animals and means my Dimorphodon model is now erroneous and out of date. Grrrr!

I haven't read the paper as it's not open access but Mark Witton discusses the main points on Twitter.

In theory I could change the underlying polygon model to match the new data but I'd still have to lose a load of sculpting work. It's annoying but on the other hand, the paleo-nerd part of me is facinated by these new insights.

So taking all this into account I'm going to back out of doing the the walking or standing pose, apologies to anyone who wanted to see this version. Not all is completely lost, I think a flying version of the model is still generally OK so I'll finish detailing and produce this pose only. I'm determined not to entirely scrap the project.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Going to produce a 3D print of the Dimorphodon in this flying pose. As I mentioned in the previous post I'm no longer doing a walking version now that science has overtaken the model as I made it. Should get the sculpting done this weekend. Saturday afternoon is quiet time. No idea yet how well this is going to work as a 3D print or what it will cost to order from Shapeways. Just going to go ahead with it and see what happens.

 

[tarnyloo73]

Added some details last couple of evenings. Going to leave it at this and fix up a 3d print version.

Under & upper side views. Lightly indicated actinofibrils on outer wing and pycnofibers on arms, torso & legs.

 

[Riceball]

That looks really good. It also addresses one of the things that was kind of bothering me was that there wasn't the usual delineation between where the pycnofibres start and end on the head. But now that you've textured it out I can see that it's there. Very nice!

It's a pity that you can't put it in a walking pose. Do you think that you'll eventually revisit making a walking pose?

One last thing, since you'll be offering this in the classic flying pose, do you think you could consider modelling and offering a clear stand for it? I was thinking of something along the lines of the stands used for the Eaglemoss Star Trek ships. Basically a couple of arms that bracket on the wings and meet up at a central post and then some kind of base. .

 

[tarnyloo73]

That looks really good. It also addresses one of the things that was kind of bothering me was that there wasn't the usual delineation between where the pycnofibres start and end on the head. But now that you've textured it out I can see that it's there. Very nice!

Thanks, really glad you like it.

It's a pity that you can't put it in a walking pose. Do you think that you'll eventually revisit making a walking pose?

I know, a walking pterosaur would've been fun. The new study creates some fresh puzzlers about pterosaur anatomy, especially the hind-limb so I'd want to wait for some scientific resolution. Age is laying waste to my attention span so it's probably better to just move on to some new stuff.

One last thing, since you'll be offering this in the classic flying pose, do you think you could consider modelling and offering a clear stand for it? I was thinking of something along the lines of the stands used for the Eaglemoss Star Trek ships. Basically a couple of arms that bracket on the wings and meet up at a central post and then some kind of base.

That's a good idea, maybe a little expensive at Shapeways prices but probably worth it for anyone who doesn't want to make their own stand. I'll look into putting one up as a separate item, I think they still have a translucent material but I'd make available as a cheaper opaque version too. Have you got a link for the type of stand you're reffering to?

I've applied the slightly curving flying pose to the sculpted model and I'm well into the process of converting for 3D print. Having a few issues getting the 3D mesh compliant but I'll overcome them. Some finer details get lost in the transition but it's a fair trade-off for small scale models. Hopefully I'll get a print ordered this week, currently I'm thinking 1/4th, 1/6th and 1/10th scale. I might prepare a graphic to show the sizes.

 

[Riceball]

I like the new pose, much better than the typical head pointed straight ahead.

 

[tarnyloo73]

The Dimorphodon project has been on hold a while (house decorating) so I'm probably not going to have a painted model for a while. In the meantime I've been thinking about what kind of paint scheme I could give it so I started messing about with these colour and pattern concepts. I'm thinking wing bars with an anti-glare area around the eye like you see in falcons.

This is the first colour idea, it's quite hawk/kite influenced.

This is just a first pass but I think it's OK, I might even go with it. Could be worth trying something with green or grey as a base. I've been looking at photos of flying lizards and they're quite mottled, don't know if I want to get too complex with the detail.