Prehistoric Diorama

Before I started any modelling or sculpting the Triassic diorama piece, I roughly sketched out on how I want the erythrosuchus diorama piece would look for this piece. The depiction I originally wanted to create was erythrosuchus eating off small tree of bennettitales leaves which references on how modern crocodiles will sometimes eat vegetation on rare occasion to supplement their diet.

Bennettitales (scrapped):

The tree was originally supposed to be part of the diorama piece that was based on the sketch but, I was running out of time and had limited use of technology devices because I had to rely on the computers from college since the computer that I had at home was broken at the time. This caused me to scrapped this mesh and only focus on the main star of this diorama piece. I will talk about on how I was able to create the Bennettitales tree before eventually scrapping it.

Firstly, I created the original Bennettitales tree by using simple smooth cylinder mesh and, match the proportions of actual Bennettitales tree reference that I used for this project. Next, I tried to make the smaller somewhat rounder branches of the Bennettitales tree on the right side by also creating another smooth cylinder mesh and then inserting it into tree mesh. Originally, I deleted the faces and circularize the Bennettitales tree mesh so I can combine both of the meshes to merge into one but, the process that I was trying to attempt didn't exactly work as I planned. The smaller branch mesh wasn't really merging with the tree mesh so I had to keep rotating and modifying the edges at the bottom of the mesh to make it work somehow but, I decided that I simply position the branch mesh onto the tree mesh and then merge them together as I noticed that the reference that the branches looked like that they were glued together. This process helped me on creating the first tree branch as I didn't need to waste time on trying to merge the meshes together through the hole method (meshes that hole on the bottom and use the bridge tool to merge the two meshes together) as faster alternative.

Low Poly:

To create the low poly, I increase the subdivisions to smoothen the cube so I can create organic mesh after I outline the skeletal reconstruction to create the base of the erythrosuchus. This method would help me to create the mesh look smooth and clean so I can create an high poly of the 3D model.

After outlining the base of the animal figure, I tried to extrude to create the 3D model look more three-dimensional so I can modify the mesh by pulling the vertices and scale to match the proportions of the actual animal. However, the mesh itself looked extremely crumbled and ugly after I extruded the outline which caused me to think that I need to fix it or redo it to make the mesh look more cleaner and organic by making the topology less complex and use the 3D cube mesh to create the base of the erythrosuchus model. Using 3D cube mesh meant that the model is already three-dimensional so I didn't need to extrude the mesh which helped me to make the mesh look more clean and topology simplistic so I can modify the mesh to better match the proportion of the actual animal as I tried to pull and stretch vertices/edges/faces of the mesh.

Next, I deleted the faces to create the mouth/jaw and move the vertices to better match the skeletal reference to match the proportions of the animal jaw. However, I noticed that I had limited amount of faces which greatly affected on continuing modifying the mesh as if I add more edges to the mesh, it would make the mesh look more untidy and topology more complex than it really needs to be as I want it to look more tidy and clear on how it outlines the anatomical features of the animal. The complexity of the topology makes it more harder for me to continue modelling as the mesh will stop letting me to insert vertices and makes the mesh look more crumbled after apply smoothing, this causes the mesh to be unusable and causes loading times to slow down the software due to high topology being applied. Eventually, I decided to stop using Maya as I wasn't really experienced on doing low poly in this software and there were limited tutorials that help Maya users to do low poly modelling. I decided to shift from Maya to Blender to try to create the low poly model of erythrosuchus as fast as possible so I can create the base of the animal to complete the Triassic diorama.

Originally, I tried to shift from Maya to Blender as I find Blender better software when it comes to making low poly meshes due to its simplistic and manageable but creative workflow to create creature/character models for games or short films. I use Blender back in the past when I tried to make my Dorito commercial for unit and found it to be better experience in terms of workflow and understanding on how to use tools in Blender due to massive amount of tutorials and more easily accessible than Maya. While Maya is best for animation and rigging, I found that the software wasn't great when it came to low poly modelling so I had to shift into Blender so I'm able to reach the deadline and create the base model as quickly as I can to complete this project of my geological eras diorama pieces project. However, I was running lot of time as I was late during Post-Production so I wasn't able to create organic mesh of erythrosuchus so I decided to create its skeleton instead as an alternative to create the animal 3D model to complete this project. Doing the skeleton of erythrosuchus is probably better option for me to do as I only need to focus on sculpting the form and shapes of the skeleton to create the skeleton which can help me to boost my workflow and make me more engaged in the project so I can meet the deadline and enjoy the sculpting process of creating the erythrosuchus skeleton 3D model to present for my FMP. Also, I wasn't great at doing low poly at the time so I decided to give up doing this method in order to try different approach to create the prehistric animal that I want to showcase for my FMP..

Skeleton:

For the skeleton sculpt, I started off by creating the upper jaw of erythrosuchus to match the proportions of the skull. Next, I sculpted out the bottom of the upper jaw to create the massive hole to make the upper jaw skull look more organic and natural as the massive hole that are found underneath the animals skull is where the flesh and gums appeared when an animal was alive.

Next, I tried to sculpt the upper jaw skull of erythrosuchus in the upper view to match the proportions on how the erythrosuchus skull would look in upper view to make it look more accurate to the actual erythrosuchus upper jaw skull.

Next, I use the mask brush and pulled/scaled into the upper jaw skull to create the holes outline of erythrosuchus skull, specifically near the end of the skull.

I use the same process for mask brush and then modified the holes proportion and size to match the proportions of actual animal skull. Then, I created the other massive holes to sculpt out to create the most accurate erythrosuchus skull.

Next, I created the lower jaw of erythrosuchus skull to further complete the accurate erythrosuchus skull.

Originally, I tried to scale the bottom jaw and sculpt out the top and bottom surfaces of the mesh to create the massive hole while keeping the side of the lower jaw mesh is still intact. However, it didn't really worked out as the mesh itself wasn't properly trimmed/sculpted out with the trim brush in Nomad Sculpt as, it can only trim certain parts of the mesh based on different type of trim brush (lasso, rectangular, ellipse, etc,.). I wasn't able to sculpted out/trim it to make the lower jaw mesh still intact while getting rid of the surface and back of the mesh to match the accurate bottom jaw of erythrosuchus skull. Luckily, I was able to complete the lower jaw by duplicating or rather mirroring the lower jaw mesh to complete the lower jaw mesh itself, I didn't properly align both the bottom jaw meshes as I referenced on how the lower jaw of actual prehistoric animal skulls such as prehistoric reptiles and dinosaurs don't always align when displayed in museums so I did the exact the same method but in a digital space.

WIP erythrosuchus skull:

Next, I created all the bone parts to create the full skeleton of erythrosuchus to attach to the skull mesh to fully complete the erythrosuchus skeleton sculpt. Firstly, I started to create the one of the vertebrae bones that is found near the back of the skull as the starting point to attach and align with the other vertebrae bones to create the spinal cord.

Next, I sculpted out the bony attachment and place them on the side of the vertebrae to make an attachable vertebrae. Then, I mirror the bony attachment to make two bony attachments to complete the mesh.

Next, I created another vertebrae attachment to further align and create the animal spinal cord. This particular vertebrae has long rectangular point at the top where it points upwards which would be the hump back or back of an organic animal. After creating the vertebrae, I duplicated and align to create erythrosuchus long spinal card until it reaches to certain point where I need to create new vertebrate mesh to further complete the spinal cord.

Next, I created the first teeth of erythrosuchus to be place onto its upper and lower jaw of its skull. I pulled, scaled and dragged to make the teeth more curvier and pointy to make them sharp and conical. However, the first teeth were too long and thin to match the teeth of the actual animal so I had to redo them to make them less long and more mass to them to match the proportions of erythrosuchus teeth. Now the teeth are complete.

Finally, I attach the teeth to the upper and lower jaw of erythrosuchus skull but, I noticed that the teeth weren't align to the skull mesh so I positioned them to place them onto the skull mesh while making sure that it matches to the skeletal reconstruction. Then, I mirror the teeth meshes to the other side of the jaw to complete the entire eruythrosuchus skull so I can create the skeletal body to further complete the skeleton sculpt.

I created the two bone attachments so I can attach them before positioning the leg bones to create the skeletal front limbs. I tried to match the proportions of the bone to make it accurate to the real life bones based on the skeletal reconstruction.

Next, I created the bones of the front limbs to create the front limbs so I can complete the pair of legs for my skeleton erythrosuchus model.

After sculpting all the bone parts of the entire erythrosuchus skeleton, I positioned and attached the bony parts to reconstruct the animal skeleton based on recent skeletal reconstruction. Firstly, I positioned the first main vertebrae to attach to the back of the skull. Secondly, I attach the main vertebrae with the typical vertebrae to further complete the spinal cord until the number of typical vertebrae is already placed onto the digital skeleton. Thirdly, I positioned the femur near the end of the spinal cord where I can place the back legs afterwards. Finally, I made the tail vertebrae with simple and short cylinder like meshes to make the smaller vertebrae bones to create the tail bone for erythrosuchus skeleton. However, I notice that the spinal cord of the skeleton wasn't positioned correctly after I completed the skeletal model so, I tried to redo the arrangement of the spinal cord and make sure that there were in horizontal direction so the spine looked more natural.

Next, I created different pieces of bones to create the toes that would been the animal palm and claws that would then be attached to the legs. This process was the most fun for me to create for my erythrosuchus skeleton model process as I was able to create different shapes of each individual bones to create the toes. Next, I tried to position each bones to match the reference of the toe bone that I used in this project before I continuing modifying it.

Finally, I continued to position and modify the meshes to further complete the toe bone mesh to further match the skeletal reconstruction to create the most recent skeleton reconstruction of erythrosuchus:

Next, I positioned and combined all the individual bones to create the front and back legs of the erythrosuchus while making sure that it matches the skeletal reference. To create the pair of legs to further complete the skeleton mesh, I mirror the front and back legs to complete the leg skeleton to move on into the next step to further complete the erythrosuchus skeleton mesh. However, I noticed that the posture of the leg that I made for my skeleton mesh weren't accurate to the actual erythrosuchus skeleton so I went back and modify the posture to better match the actual skeleton. I position the bones to make somewhat semi sprawling and upright legs as the animal posture were more similar to modern Cuban crocodiles because their legs were positioned underneath the body to help it be more agile and faster to catch its prey.

Finally, I place of the erythrosuchus ribs on the spinal cord and rotate them to further complete the skeleton. After completing the number of ribs, I mirror these ribs to finally complete the erythrosuchus skeleton mesh. Now the erythrosuchus skeleton mesh is finally completed and the Triassic project is completed.

Erythrosuchus skeleton sculpt final: