I thought I'd share something I've been working on.  I've been working at a
hobby pace on the overall project for a while now.  Actually this beast has
a closet full of different smaller project to work out and this is just one
of the latest pieces: my intro into generating meshes.  If this were for
production, then the 100% hand code modality to generate model and rig
wouldn't be the most efficient, but as a hobby, nobody can say there's a
better way than whatever way the hobbiest pleases, and for me that's code
;)  It's got more of a scratch-built feel to it than by other methods.  I'm
keeping a record of my progress with some of my test renders, this being one
of them. Look at the shapes not the colors.  Teeth, even of a bighorned
dragon, are not normally supposed green - no key lime involved!

I'm using a lot of splines, although I'm not directly - I'm entering them as
arrays which can be mirrored/doubled, transformed, or otherwise tweeked
before macro-ing them into sometimes multiple splines. The lastest thing
I've added was a little more convienience in cashing multiple resolutions
of mesh-files without having to re-process when changing to a different
res.  I don't think I'll use this for soft bodies such as the lips. They'll
need regeneration for every movement anyway.

One of my rules is that everything be overlapping solid forms, so the meshes
should be watertight.  Each mesh has either 1) several latitude lines are
explicitely defined with longitude splines going from one pole to the other
passing through these control splines, or 2) the gums use certain
explicitely defined longitudinal splines which do not meet up at the poles,
and then cone-like endcaps are added.

For styling, I wanted the fierce yet mammalian canines and incisors, and big
flaring nostrils. The body looks big and lumbering but the wings will be
pretty good sized as well.  They are 5-digit and batlike wings while the
legs (there are 4 of them) have 4 toes each, one of which is opposed to the
others for grasping.  It's a composite beast like a griffin.

Charles

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Attachments:
Download 'bighorned dragon - gums 2006 07 28 07.png' (200 KB)

Preview of image 'bighorned dragon - gums 2006 07 28 07.png'

from the front

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Attachments:
Download 'bighorned dragon - gums 2006 07 28 06.png' (139 KB)

Preview of image 'bighorned dragon - gums 2006 07 28 06.png'

Charles C wrote:
> from the front
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
Looks great so far...although I'd love to know who its orthodontist is! 
Its front teeth seem very regular for what appears to be quite a fierce 
beast.

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Thanks.   That's a good point.  Making the teeth crooked would be easy
enough although chips and chinks are sounding harder.  It's crossed my mind
(not too seriously) to put braces on it -- inspired by the view when
rendered with the gum splines drawn in.
Charles


Phil Mackenzie <pma### [at] stmarkssaeduau> wrote:
> Looks great so far...although I'd love to know who its orthodontist is!
> Its front teeth seem very regular for what appears to be quite a fierce
> beast.

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"Charles C" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> For styling, I wanted the fierce yet mammalian canines and incisors, and big
> flaring nostrils.

"Fierce yet mammalian"?  I think canines were *invented* by mammals.  Come
to think of it, differentiated teeth (canines, incisors, molars, etc.)
seems to be an exclusively mammalian trait.

Those mammalian incisors look mighty fierce to those quivering blades of
grass, but if your dragon does not graze in the pasture, you might want to
check out a dog or cat's incisors.

The mammalian molars on your therapsoid dragon are upside-down.  The cusps
of a molar are its root.  However, if you right them, the dragon will once
again be a vegetarian.  Unless...

There's a glaring exception to the tooth-design and diet corelation,
however.  That is people, for whom MEAT is the centerpiece of the meal in
most cultures.  People, who can hurl fastballs, thanks to arms that evolved
for throwing spears at MEAT on the hoof.  People, whose unsurpassed manual
dexterity was selected of their ancestors most adept at sculpting
MEAT-piercing arrowheads.  People, whose fuel-guzzling brains required
nutrient-dense MEAT in order to develop the brains required to hunt MEAT
more effectively.  People, whose brains are so demanding of resources that
other body parts cannot develop properly.  Like our jaws, for example,
which aren't big enough to fit all our TEETH.  Those would be our
vegetarian incisors, vegetarian molars, and canines so pathetic that we
carnivore wannabes had to use that SUV-class brain to invent knives.  And
learn how to control fire, to soften up the MEAT so that our carniphobe
teeth could chew it.

Now is there any animal other that _Homo_ spp. with the ability to cook its
own food...?  :-D

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Cousin Ricky nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 10/08/2006 21:51:
> "Charles C" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
>> For styling, I wanted the fierce yet mammalian canines and incisors, and big
>> flaring nostrils.
> 
> "Fierce yet mammalian"?  I think canines were *invented* by mammals.  Come
> to think of it, differentiated teeth (canines, incisors, molars, etc.)
> seems to be an exclusively mammalian trait.
> 
> Those mammalian incisors look mighty fierce to those quivering blades of
> grass, but if your dragon does not graze in the pasture, you might want to
> check out a dog or cat's incisors.
> 
> The mammalian molars on your therapsoid dragon are upside-down.  The cusps
> of a molar are its root.  However, if you right them, the dragon will once
> again be a vegetarian.  Unless...
> 
> There's a glaring exception to the tooth-design and diet corelation,
> however.  That is people, for whom MEAT is the centerpiece of the meal in
> most cultures.  People, who can hurl fastballs, thanks to arms that evolved
> for throwing spears at MEAT on the hoof.  People, whose unsurpassed manual
> dexterity was selected of their ancestors most adept at sculpting
> MEAT-piercing arrowheads.  People, whose fuel-guzzling brains required
> nutrient-dense MEAT in order to develop the brains required to hunt MEAT
> more effectively.  People, whose brains are so demanding of resources that
> other body parts cannot develop properly.  Like our jaws, for example,
> which aren't big enough to fit all our TEETH.  Those would be our
> vegetarian incisors, vegetarian molars, and canines so pathetic that we
> carnivore wannabes had to use that SUV-class brain to invent knives.  And
> learn how to control fire, to soften up the MEAT so that our carniphobe
> teeth could chew it.
> 
> Now is there any animal other that _Homo_ spp. with the ability to cook its
> own food...?  :-D
> 
> 
> 
Yes there are, but very few and most are particular cases, like an isolated 
tribe of monkeys with ready access to a reliable heat source. There is at least 
one case of non-primate animal that taken on cooking it's food, I think by 
boiling it in a natural hot spring. Saw that in a documentary during the early 90's.

-- 
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

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