My 'Walking with Dinosaurs'-style Utahraptor costume

[Keith D]

I have thoroughly enjoyed putting crazy amounts of time and effort into Halloween costumes in the past and I'm getting pumped up for Halloween 2013. I know I won't have time to get this one done by this year so I'm allowing myself time to do it right.

I've opened this thread for anyone who is interested in seeing my progress and for anyone who may be able to benefit from what I learn along the way. (There's a lot I wouldn't know if it weren't for reading through similar forums)

I'm going to make a large (~18ft) wearable raptor costume as darned close as I can make it to the ones from Walking with Dinosaurs by the extremely inspiring company, Creature Technology.

I'll do my best to keep this thread updated as often as possible.

This is a link to the video that I first saw that made me want to do this:
Realistic dinosaur outfits - YouTube

 

[Keith D]

The beginnings of my 1:10 scale model for reference.

I also did some prototyping for the spine/tail/neck. I want the neck to be able to move side to side and up (I don't want too much downward flexibility).
I'm still deciding if I will be making a controllable tail or not. It's simple enough I suppose, it's just a matter of how much I want to have to control.

Once I get my videos uploaded to YouTube I'll link to them and you can see this very basic version doing its thing.

 

[Keith D]

This is the spine prototype in action. The plastic tube that I used as the center piece had a curve in it already so that affected the movement. (Which may turn out to be a good thing).
Utahraptor Spine/Tail/Neck Protoype - YouTube
Now I have to find a way to make it support the weight of the head.

 

[Riceball]

Cool project, not something you see very often. I'd recommend looking for any video you can find of the Dinosaur Encounter at the LA County Museum of Natural History. It's meant as a kids show but the dino suits they have, esp. the baby T-Rex, is top notch as is the performance of the actor inside the suit. The actor not only did a good job with the walk but the suit seemed to have speakers inside as well because you could hear some low rumbling noises coming from the suit.

Once you get the suit done, even before, I'd recommend practicing your walk and movements. No matter how good your suit is if you don't get the walk/movements down you won't be able to sell that you're supposed to be anything but a guy in a dino suit. I'd study the Jurassic Park movies to see how the Raptors in the movies moved as well as watching birds. I think you'd want to make the neck flex so that when you walk it sort of bobs back and forth a bit. I'd also try to figure out a way of making the sickle claw toe twitch like you see in the movie, that combined with a good walk/movement act will really help sell the costume and probably freak people out some too.

 

[Keith D]

Thanks Riceball, yeah I've been trying to watch as many Youtube vids as possible, getting screenshots for reference, etc. I think I've sem some of the Dinosaur Encounter ones, the ones from the ERTH company. That's the look I'm going for.

And yes! Thanks for the tip, I absolutely agree I'm going to have to get a good feel for using my controls and making it look natural. I think one way to keep it feeling natural is to make the functions mimic mine as closely as possible, like this guy who made an animatronic alien mask. Opening his mouth opens the alien's mouth. Makes it all very slick. Spine Video - YouTube

As for the snapping claw, I also made this little prototype that I originally intended for the neck, but now that you mention it I could use a similar design for the claw:Utahraptor Claw/Spine Prototype - YouTube

 

[firebapx]

loving this build i have subscribed and will be watching closely

 

[Keith D]

Scale Model before paint

This is my scale model as of today. I'll be adding a coat of paint (just a single colour). It'll be very nice to have this to be able to get a better idea of the muscle structure and proportions. I'm not too sure who to personally thank for the drawing, but Free 3D Models: Raptor - Free 3D Model Dinosaur is where I got it. My 3d modelling abilities are fairly limited, but I've started drawing the skeleton, etc myself. (pics soon)

 

[Keith D]

3D model

The beginnings of my 3D drawing. I'm going to work a bit more on the skeleton tonight. I'm sure I'll make changes when I'm building it but this will be nice to have to get to know what sizes I'm working with and stuff.

 

[Powerhouse70]

Looking VERY nice! Dont forget the feathers though New fossil evidence suggests that many dinosaurs had feathers instead of scales.There's even mounting proof that T-Rex had protofeathers.

Kind of hard to think of them as fearsome when they were just gigantic chickens after all

 

[Keith D]

Re: Feathers

Looking VERY nice! Dont forget the feathers though New fossil evidence suggests that many dinosaurs had feathers instead of scales.There's even mounting proof that T-Rex had protofeathers.

Kind of hard to think of them as fearsome when they were just gigantic chickens after all

Hahah yeah, so much for the 'Terrible Lizard'. I've been debating with myself whether or not to acknowledge that evidence or not lol. I kind of want to do scales for the 'cool' factor.. but if I'm doing all this work to make it look realistic I suppose I should make it accurate in that way too.

That might actually be a solution to my 'seeing out of the costume' problem. Maybe I can see out better through a patch of feathers than a latexy skin.

 

[Powerhouse70]

Re: Feathers

Hahah yeah, so much for the 'Terrible Lizard'. I've been debating with myself whether or not to acknowledge that evidence or not lol. I kind of want to do scales for the 'cool' factor.. but if I'm doing all this work to make it look realistic I suppose I should make it accurate in that way too.

That might actually be a solution to my 'seeing out of the costume' problem. Maybe I can see out better through a patch of feathers than a latexy skin.

From what Ive been able to gather reading a couple of articles the protofeathers are like the down on a baby eagle.Either way you do it Im sure it will look great!

 

[Keith D]

Framework drawing 1.0

This is what I did tonight. I think I'll make most of this out of carbon fiber.

 

[IMIM2]

Sorry to jump ahead of the process:
1. how are you going to do feet?
2. how will you see? Have a handler?

This is absolutely marvelous!!!

 

[StarksWarehouse]

man this is awesome! id love to do a project like this! although the suits are amazing, i would love to find a way to hide the human legs into the dinosaur suit just to add a little more realism

 

[Keith D]

Sorry to jump ahead of the process:
1. how are you going to do feet?
2. how will you see? Have a handler?

It's all good! I'm kinda all over the place too with my thinking. It's good to think ahead.

Feet: I don't have all the details worked out yet and tbh I haven't given the feet a whole lot of thought. I suppose I will make the structure out of carbon fiber (just a simple skeleton with hinges in the right spots) and bulk it up with polystyrene. What I use for skin (currently undetermined) decides what I do next. If I need it to be a little stiff I can coat the polystyrene in epoxy to harden it up.

Also, I am most likely going to be compensating for [most of] the weight of the costume in the legs. I'll be using pneumatic cylinders (not sure if that's the right name) at the joints.

Muscles: For other parts of the body that will need bulking up I think I might use a method that they use on the puppets in the live version of 'How to Train Your Dragon'. They need muscular bulk that moves naturally with the skeleton. They used nylon (essentially pantyhose) filled with polystyrene beads (much like a beanie baby) and stretched it from one point to another. (I can post a pic if anyone wants)

Seeing/Handler: Yes, I think I will definitely have a handler. A friend of mine has often been eager to join me for my costumed escapades and I'll most likely be asking her to join me. I think a lot of training is going to be involved.
I haven't figured out what I'm going to use for the skin. I know it's [one of] the most crucial parts to making it lok just right. Nylon (like pantyhose) gives the possibility of one way viewing but doesn't have the right texture. Foam Latex would allow me to get the exact texture and movement I'm looking for but will be expensive and not see through. I may go for a combination of the two somehow. It seems impossible but it's obviously been done. If I did go with the latex (or silicone or whatever) I'd probably have to go through a process like this:Making the Slasher - YouTube which will get a little pricey.

If anyone has any suggestions for 'skin' that will give me a good texture, is see-thru from one side and won't break the bank, PLEASE let me know! Thanks!

man this is awesome! id love to do a project like this! although the suits are amazing, i would love to find a way to hide the human legs into the dinosaur suit just to add a little more realism

That would be ideal (and possible if I chose a different brand of dinosaur like a T-Rex. Unfortunately, the velociraptor's legs bend the wrong way. One brief and dangerous thought that I did have was to utilize those metal, springy running stilts. They bend forward and give a shape that is close to correct. I'm just not sure I want to be carry an 18ft dino on my shoulders while walking on stilts.

 

[the_batdemon]

You haven't mentioned if you've seen any of the behind the scenes videos. If not you should. They sold a video with the touring show that has great info. I think you can find it online. The explain their method for the skins, stretching and painting fabric to get a "crackle" texture. For vision, I seem to remember they used nylon mesh in the folds, that was disguised with the paint job.

Side note on spring stilts, they give you a work out and require, IMO, a lot of stamina. I found myself constantly shifting my weight to stay balanced when I tried some on, which gave a great kinetic workout.

 

[Westies14]

Very glad to see someone working on one of these! I was doing extensive searches on dinosaur suits like this one before coming back to the RPF to see if anything similar had been going on here lately. I'll be following this with great interest and hopefully learning from some of your mistakes and successes!

Here are a few thoughts:

Though it may not be quite as comfortable, you might consider using a crouching pose for man-in-suit! This is what I'll be doing with my build, and what was done with the Stan Winston and Walking with Dinosaurs puppets! There are some huge payoffs in the performance and accuracy of the dinosaur:

Without crouching, the scale of the dinosaur is thrown way off - take a look at your rendering with the man inside and imagine its height in real life! Each of those forearms looks to be 7' or 8' feet long, extended. At that scale, it wouldn't seem much like a raptor, and the suit would weigh a ton. There's also a much higher cost of materials to make about twice the dinosaur, and the added weight will keep you from being able to perform much.

Then there's the performance itself... Aligning your joints and parts with the dinosaur as much as possible is very important for the translation of your movements. The more you scale things up, the more minimized each movement will be. This is especially important for your legs. As you've seen with the WWD suits, the human legs extend inside the raptor legs. However, at their scale, the hips are aligned, the knees are aligned, and the feet (of course) are aligned. As a result, when the actor raises his right foot, the raptor raises his a proportionate amount. The hinged puppet leg bends accordingly. The actor adds some bounce to his walk, the puppet legs translate this too, and the dinosaur has a more proportionate bob up and down. Take a look at the enlarged scale you've rendered above, and imagine that actor taking a step with his foot anchored to the puppet/suit's foot. The dinosaur, lifting and sliding his foot by the same amount, will barely have moved his leg up or forward to match the step. His performance will be much more static, and a forward walk might look more like a delicate waddle.

I'm making a quick sketch to show you what I'm trying to describe. Keep up the great work - I love the enthusiasm and I can't wait to see where your project goes!

- Douglas

 

[lilsizzle345]

First time I saw a video of the Baby T-rex on youtube I wanted the costume so bad! I'll be keeping an eye on your post! Good luck!

 

[Westies14]

Here's what I'm thinking of - dino in green, human in red, mechanical/structural possibilities in blue!

 

[Keith D]

Very glad to see someone working on one of these! I was doing extensive searches on dinosaur suits like this one before coming back to the RPF to see if anything similar had been going on here lately. I'll be following this with great interest and hopefully learning from some of your mistakes and successes!

Here are a few thoughts:

Though it may not be quite as comfortable, you might consider using a crouching pose for man-in-suit! This is what I'll be doing with my build, and what was done with the Stan Winston and Walking with Dinosaurs puppets! There are some huge payoffs in the performance and accuracy of the dinosaur:

Without crouching, the scale of the dinosaur is thrown way off - take a look at your rendering with the man inside and imagine its height in real life! Each of those forearms looks to be 7' or 8' feet long, extended. At that scale, it wouldn't seem much like a raptor, and the suit would weigh a ton. There's also a much higher cost of materials to make about twice the dinosaur, and the added weight will keep you from being able to perform much.

Then there's the performance itself... Aligning your joints and parts with the dinosaur as much as possible is very important for the translation of your movements. The more you scale things up, the more minimized each movement will be. This is especially important for your legs. As you've seen with the WWD suits, the human legs extend inside the raptor legs. However, at their scale, the hips are aligned, the knees are aligned, and the feet (of course) are aligned. As a result, when the actor raises his right foot, the raptor raises his a proportionate amount. The hinged puppet leg bends accordingly. The actor adds some bounce to his walk, the puppet legs translate this too, and the dinosaur has a more proportionate bob up and down. Take a look at the enlarged scale you've rendered above, and imagine that actor taking a step with his foot anchored to the puppet/suit's foot. The dinosaur, lifting and sliding his foot by the same amount, will barely have moved his leg up or forward to match the step. His performance will be much more static, and a forward walk might look more like a delicate waddle.

I'm making a quick sketch to show you what I'm trying to describe. Keep up the great work - I love the enthusiasm and I can't wait to see where your project goes!

- Douglas

Douglas! Thank you very much for your thorough post! Definitely some good points to consider. And thanks for doing up a sketch. The smaller costume would absolutely be better for getting into buildings and generally just walking around. (Just to clarify though, the one I've had in mind is a Utahraptor which did get up to 23 ft long.)

I really want to think about my comfort (standing straight, freedom of arms and head, etc and I'm not sure I could spend hours on end hunched over like that. However, I AM going to seriously consider it. So many good reasons to do it - money, maneuverability, materials and realistic movement. I really do like the size of the one in your sketch.

Maybe there's an in-between version where I'm crouched/bent-kneed in a smaller version of mine.

Thanks again Douglas, I'll give it some thought with my sketchbook on the train tomorrow.

And @the_batdemon, I've watched a few 'making-of' videos on youtube but haven't seen that one. I'm going to search it out. Thanks