New Velociraptor

[dinocarl]

Been a while since I posted a WIP, so here is a render from a short I'm working on. I'm digging on hair and new and improved displacement maps, which I'm using here instead of bump maps.

http://www.dinocarl.com/velociraptor.jpg

 

Comments welcome!

 

Carl

[oakchas]

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Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat) Server at www.dinocarl.com Port 80

Can't see it ... can't comment!

[dinocarl]

Oops sorry about that! I'll attach it this time.

[oakchas]

A hairy velociraptor with a rather large "pope's nose"?

 

I like it! it makes me smile... odd... wonder why?

[dinocarl]

I should have been more explicit. The hair follicles are actually images that have alpha channels made to shape them into feathers. I wanted to make a dinosaur that was as anatomically accurate as I could make it and most paleontologists now feather their smaller theropods, including Velociraptor. I've made raptors in the past, but this one is the most fully textured, the most sophisticated, the most accurate, and in my opinion the best one I've made.

[3DArtZ]

So Good!!!

 

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

[zandoriastudios]

Excellent !!! Great work!

[Paul Forwood]

It looks great to me.

[oakchas]

I should have been more explicit. The hair follicles are actually images that have alpha channels made to shape them into feathers. I wanted to make a dinosaur that was as anatomically accurate as I could make it and most paleontologists now feather their smaller theropods, including Velociraptor. I've made raptors in the past, but this one is the most fully textured, the most sophisticated, the most accurate, and in my opinion the best one I've made.

 

Please don't take my original comment as derogatory. I know you are going for realism. I know that the hair is made to be feathers. I think it is an exquisite model, and would agree one of the best I've seen. (though, honestly, I've never seen one to compare it with... few have, I hear...)

 

Fact is, it still makes me smile!

[agep]

Great work! I would really like to see him run

[KenH]

Very cool. Are you using displacements?

[mfortunato]

I just went to the Natural History Museum in NYC a few weeks ago and they have updated a number of their dinosaur exhibits. Your model is very accurate from my memory of the changes they made to the theropods. I don't know much about the current information about dinosaurs but I was with a friend who was educating me. I'm sending him a link to this image - he will be thrilled!

 

Incredible work. I immediately recognized that you had feathers on the velociraptor. Looks fantastic!

 

- Michael

[dinocarl]

Hey guys,

 

Thanks for the positive feedback, everyone (especially to Mike, William and Paul)!

 

oakchas, I'm sorry I misconstrued your comment; I'm glad you like it and that it made you smile. As for comparisons, I hesitate to point out the amazing Velociraptor that Billy Eggington posted that he and his crew made back in about 2001 because I know mine will suffer by comparison. But here it is anyway:

http://www.hash.com/stills/displayimage.ph...cat=0&pos=6

 

Ken, I am using displacement maps on the face, hands and feet. I haven't noticed any render time increase because of it. The maps all started out as bump maps, but I was curious to see how the displacement application would perform, and I was so happy to see that it did great. They're all set to 20% displacement.

 

In case anyone's interested, this frame took about 35 minutes to render at a 9x9 Multi-Pass on my 2.5 GHz Athlon64 (it's about 10 times faster without the feathers).

 

mfortunato, thanks for the nice comments. I, too, was recently at the Museum of Natural History in New York and took a number of reference photos. It really helped me with both the details as well as the overall structure of the model.

 

There is definitely a run cycle in this model's immediate future, agep, as well as a whole lot more. He will be the star of the animated short I'm currently working on. And I'll be posting glimpses as I go along.

 

Carl

[UNGLAUBLICHUSA]

Why in GOD's name didn't you enter that in anything goes? It is fantastic! 10 out of 10 starts from me.

[Viper GTX2.0]

Nice texture!!

[the_black_mage]

sweet dude!

 

do you plan on adding scenery to it?

[Zaryin]

That is an excellent model!

[dinocarl]

Thanks for all the nice comments! I hadn't entered any render with this model in it for the previous contest because I hadn't finished it yet. Only two nights ago did I finally get the render that I had been working for. As for scenery, that'll be in the next scene. For it, I've already gotten great use out of Marcel Bricman's amazing Treeez plugin. I'll post more as it becomes available.

 

By the way, I re-rendered the scene because I noticed in the previous render that there were a bunch of spots where you could see the skin of the model through the feathers. Rather than increase the density of the feathers and thus render time, I opted to do the quick and easy fix, namely, reapply the texture map that use to color the feathers to also color the skin. Minor fixes to be sure, but I think improvements, nonetheless.

[trajcedrv]

Great model! Amazing attention to detail, looks real. I know that it would add a lot of work but it simply MUST be colored!

[PeterS]

Great model. Would you post a wireframe?

[gazzamataz]

Dinocarl

It's great to see a dinosaur model again, I think it was dinosaurs that helped to get me into 3D in the first place.

 

I think your model is great but there is one thing that don't look quite right. The scaley bits like the arms, snout and feet look fab, but the body bits look a bit flat. Have a look at the bits on the image I have highlighted. Perhaps a hint at a rib or two, a little more definition in the gastrocnemius and the parson's nose. They just look a bit too much like a lump.

 

What do you think?

[3DArtZ]

Well, if the dino is covered in "pre-feather" material....

you probably wouldn'tbe able to see ribs.... but it does look

a touch flat in the rib area now that Gazz pointed that area out...

 

 

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

[dinocarl]

Thanks for the critiques, gazzamataz and Mike. You may be right and adding more definition to those areas may help. I'll try a quick and dirty way first, namely adding another displacement map on the calf and the ribs to see how (and if) that works. That'll be a lot less painful than remodeling those areas. However, that said, the underlying model itself does have a more defined calf and thigh, though much of that is being obscured by the feathers. I'm not convinced that it would be better off with more definition, but it's definitely worth a try.

 

Still, it is true that the areas you highlight could use more visual interest. From recent informal birdwatching, I'm inclined to think that modifiying the feather texture may be a better approach. After all, the image that I'm using for the feathers is actually completely white with a feather alpha channel. Perhaps by adding some variation to it or adding an additional feather image that had more variation in it could help the animal's appearance.

 

I'll see what I can whip up and post here again (along with a featherless wireframe, Peter).

 

BTW, there actually is a semi colored version of this model, but I'm going to be working for this project mostly in black and white. When I post next, I'll make sure to use the full color maps.

 

Carl

[dinocarl]

Here are the full color and real time renders that people asked for of my new velociraptor.

 

gazzamataz, after playing with both the feather image and the body of the animal, I came down on the side of leaving it as it is. It really seams to me that the anatomy of the animal and its feathers would result in this sort of appearance.

 

The velociraptor itself is about 6300 patches, and the skull on the floor is about 4300.