Dimorphodon 3D model

[Dinoreplicas]

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.

[Dinoreplicas]

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.

[Justin_]

I'm asking this with zero knowledge of digital modelling. Is this something you've built from scratch or is it some form of stock model you are improving?

[Dinoreplicas]

I'm asking this with zero knowledge of digital modelling. Is this something you've built from scratch or is it some form of stock model you are improving?

I only scratchbuild, Found lots of reference including Padian (1983) for the proportions, skull and details of the limb bones. Useful Pterosaur info on Mark Witton's blog and in his book, The Palaeoartist's Handbook.

[Halichoeres]

Ooh, pterosaurs. Always nice to see them done right. I look forward to watching your progress!

[Dinoreplicas]

Ooh, pterosaurs. Always nice to see them done right. I look forward to watching your progress!

Thanks, gonna try my best.

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.

[Dinoreplicas]

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 hind-limb 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.

[Dinoreplicas]

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

[Dinoreplicas]

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.

[Dinoreplicas]

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.

[Dinoreplicas]

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.

[Dinoreplicas]

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.

[Tyto_Theropod]

Awesome work.  I'd love to see this all detailed and printed.  I'd buy one if it looked as nice in the plastic!

[Dinoreplicas]

Awesome work.  I'd love to see this all detailed and printed.  I'd buy one if it looked as nice in the plastic!

Thanks.

[Dinoreplicas]

Found a little time today to run up some pose concepts. 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 try one in a vertical posture to hang on the side of my printer.

[Dinoreplicas]

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.

[Killekor]

@Dinoreplicas I've been following this thread from when it started, and I think that the model that you're sculpting is turning out great! Will you sell the final figures?

Killekor

[Dinoreplicas]

@Dinoreplicas I've been following this thread from when it started, and I think that the model that you're sculpting is turning out great! Will you sell the final figures?

Killekor

Hi @Killekor, thanks for your support. This project is a bit experimental but I'm hoping it will be 3D printable. All going well I'll put the models up on my Shapeways shop.

[Killekor]

@Dinoreplicas I've been following this thread from when it started, and I think that the model that you're sculpting is turning out great! Will you sell the final figures?

Killekor

Hi @Killekor, thanks for your support. This project is a bit experimental but I'm hoping it will be 3D printable. All going well I'll put the models up on my Shapeways shop.

Thanks for the information and good luck!

Killekor

[Halichoeres]

I've always thought it must be really hard to sculpt a folded wing membrane, either in clay or digitally. How have you found that process?