Like millions worldwide, I was mesmerized by the BBC production of Walking with Dinosaurs last year. I had long felt it was high time someone used Hollywood-style digital effects for educational purposes, and FrameStore did just that for the BBC production.
Not that dinosaurs were the only stars of the documentary - I found the pieces featuring the other prehistoric reptiles of interest as well, including one segment set beneath the waves of Tethys, the prehistoric ocean. The 'stars' of the segment were Liopleurodon, the largest predator of its time (teeth twice the size of Tyrannosaurus, in a 5-meter skull!), a pliosaur (short-necked plesiosaur); and Ophthalmosaurus, a 5-meter ichthyosaur, the reptilian dolphins of the Mesozoic.
I have long been frustrated that there aren't more accurate dinosaur/prehistoric models available for use in Poser. I found the Liopleurodon by Virus, but while he has also done an ichthyosaur, I didn't find it as accurate as I would like. So, recently, I decided to take the proverbial bit beneath my teeth, and learn to create my own Poser models. The ichthyosaur in this image is the first product of that learning process. Along the way, I overcame my fear of the confusing trueSpace interface, using it to create the basic model. I brought the model into the Poser Pro Pack, and also learned some aspects of the Setup Room, the feature which was supposed to make character creation accessible to everyone... It's still pretty arcane stuff, but I've learned enough to turn out this model (admittedly after a couple of aborted attempts). At the end of the day, this model is probably no better than the one I could have bought; but I ain't finished yet! I'll probably continue to refine it until I'm satisfied (even if that means going back to square one and starting again). And, the experience of learning to create my own figures will serve me in good stead...
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