|
Post by foxilized on Jan 26, 2010 23:50:49 GMT
I recently re-read the JP novel and made a collection of drawings of the beasts based on Chrichton's descriptions. Please note I'm not a proffesional artist and that the intention never was being scientifcally accurate at all, but simply have some fun creating some cartoon-like dinos. Instead of being anatomically correct, I just tried them to have some personality, making them look friendly, or vicious, or both. All of them are as novel-accurate as possible, though... least that's what I tried... These are made with the d**n "PAINT" program of windows, I like to use that one, I dunno why... Images have lost quality since I transformed them into .jpg to make the frustrating upload easier... Hope you enjoy watching them as much as I enjoyed doing them. Raptor on 4 legs: Raptor on 2 legs: Free raptor (these are dark green and change colour like a chamaleon): Swimming Raptor: Othnielia: Hypsilophodon: Maiasaura: Cearadactylus: Microceratops: Procompsognathus: Trike: Rex (young): Rex (adult): Tongue: Sleeping (with eyes open): Swimming: Swimming (crocodile-like version):
|
|
|
Post by [][][]cordylus[][][] on Jan 27, 2010 0:07:22 GMT
I love how you captured the lizardy look of the velociraptors.
|
|
|
Post by ikessauro on Jan 27, 2010 0:11:58 GMT
That's cool
I'm reading the novel too, started last week and probably will finish it today or tomorrow; I already read it, but wanted to do it again. I was thinking about the differences between the dinos in the novel and the ones in the movie. I prefer the novel version of Dilophosaurus, with red crests and without frill at the neck.
|
|
|
Post by foxilized on Jan 27, 2010 0:33:57 GMT
I was thinking about the differences between the dinos in the novel and the ones in the movie. I prefer the novel version of Dilophosaurus, with red crests and without frill at the neck. And 3 meters high!
|
|
|
Post by [][][]cordylus[][][] on Jan 27, 2010 1:06:01 GMT
I think the the non-raptor theropods in the JP novels were written as having tails dragging on the ground, or at least close to the ground, thus making the head higher up in the air than if it were completely horizontal to the ground.
|
|
|
Post by Griffin on Jan 27, 2010 2:17:59 GMT
Really? Does it say in there anywhere they had a posture like that in the books?
|
|
|
Post by ikessauro on Jan 27, 2010 4:48:10 GMT
I was thinking about the differences between the dinos in the novel and the ones in the movie. I prefer the novel version of Dilophosaurus, with red crests and without frill at the neck. And 3 meters high! Yep I think a 3 meter high Dilopho is fine in size accuracy, but in the movie it turned in a 3 meter long animal! Maybe because it killed Nedry inside that car and a big animal couldn't do that.
|
|
|
Post by sid on Jan 27, 2010 8:07:47 GMT
Wow, kickass drawings of the uber-reptilian dinos of the novel I prefer the movie versions, though... I always found strange, when i read JP for the first time, that Crichton described Raptors and Compys with 5 fingers for hand And no, as far as i remember, in the novel it's never stated that dinosaurs dragged their tails on the ground; they are described taller probably because in the late '80s, as you may remember, dinosaurs were thought to be bigger than they really were (have you forgotten all the older books stating T.Rex was 6 m high and 15 m long?)...
|
|
|
Post by foxilized on Jan 27, 2010 13:27:54 GMT
As far as I know, I don't recall the dinos to be described tail-dragging either.... Chrichton indeed cites a lot of paleoartists he has been inspired by, at the end of the book, and all of them were actually depicting dinos with rised tails. Where exactly would you say Chrichton said that, Ike?
|
|
|
Post by Horridus on Jan 27, 2010 16:51:52 GMT
I remember the odd features of some of the animals, like forked tongues. I'm not sure if they were explained away as results of the imperfect cloning process, and the splicing of DNA from other animals, or if they're just strange errors.
As an aside, some of the JP series 1 toys were clearly inspired by the novel; for example, the Young Tyrannosaurus rex (aka 'Tyrannosaurus rex Junior' in the US), the colouration of the big rex toy, and the size and forked tongues of the Dilophosaurus toys.
By the way, I can't believe you did those in MSPaint! That must've taken FOREVER!
|
|
|
Post by Griffin on Jan 27, 2010 20:00:04 GMT
I also noticed you went for the jowls look on the rex with the lip covering the upper teeth and the lower teeth being exposed. Interesting.
|
|
|
Post by foxilized on Jan 28, 2010 15:35:35 GMT
Heh, yeah I chose the "lipped" version of the Rex... That's not on the novel at all, but I thought it would be a detail that maybe somebody would catch here. And It didn't actually take me too much time to do those with the Paint, really, I am used to it and I draw pretty fast. The colouration of the animals (like the raptors) yeah, it took some time but since I wasn't worried about perfection I enjoyed it without caring too much. I enjoy drawing with the Paint, it's rough and fun, and I could achieve some grade of expressiveness on drawings that I doubt I could get with other media. Chrichton repeats several times in the novel that these are NOT real dinosaurs, but modified artificial beasts. Like only an unknown degree of them would be the real thing. That way he is covering his ass on not being totally accurate, because he knew that would be totally impossible. Also it helps explain some pure literary aesthethical choices like the tongue of the raptors. That idea gave him more freedom and less responsibility in the reconstructions. Spielberg didnt follow that path, he wanted to show the most accurate reconstructions ever (at least that's what he sold). Only in JP3 Grant mentions the dinos of Ingen weren't real dinos, but modified artificial beasts with only some level of true dinosaur degree.
|
|
|
Post by Griffin on Jan 28, 2010 16:06:12 GMT
When they were making the Jurassic Park movie, they did a lot of scenes involving the dinosaurs first using "go-motion". It is the technique used in movies like Clash of the Titans and such. In the scene with the raptors in the kitchen, the animator gave them flicking tongues like a monitor lizard which they never used in the final cut with CGI.
Foxilized, why don't you try doing some artwork freehand and putting those images up there? If you are that good with the paint program I'd be interested to see what you can do on paper.
|
|
|
Post by Horridus on Jan 28, 2010 18:30:10 GMT
When they were making the Jurassic Park movie, they did a lot of scenes involving the dinosaurs first using "go-motion". It is the technique used in movies like Clash of the Titans and such. In the scene with the raptors in the kitchen, the animator gave them flicking tongues like a monitor lizard which they never used in the final cut with CGI. That was an animatic that also featured in The Making of Jurassic Park, wasn't it? Apparently Horner reacted very badly to it, as is quite understandable... ;D
|
|
|
Post by Griffin on Jan 28, 2010 20:12:15 GMT
Its in the behind the scenes special feature of my JP DVD set. Yes they interviewed the animator whos idea it was to give them tongues like that and he said Horner was like "Who's idea was it to give them tongues???" "errr...me?" Horner: "Thats not right, get those off right now." He said he was pretty embarrassed.
|
|
|
Post by Horridus on Jan 28, 2010 20:40:45 GMT
Its in the behind the scenes special feature of my JP DVD set. Yes they interviewed the animator whos idea it was to give them tongues like that and he said Horner was like "Who's idea was it to give them tongues???" "errr...me?" Horner: "Thats not right, get those off right now." He said he was pretty embarrassed. Didn't they also cut to Horner - "They had these little tongues flicking in and out like snakes, and I said [suddenly hysterical] NO! They couldn't do that!" Good old Horner, he always seems a little bit off his rocker when I see videos of him. Bob Bakker too. Something they have in common, although Horner sports a more traditional look while Bakker looks like a member of ZZ Top half the time.
|
|
|
Post by Griffin on Jan 28, 2010 22:55:55 GMT
Yeah now that I think of it they interviewed horner about it as well. Bakker seems to be super loony but I love it. He's so enthusiastic about stuff whenever you see him being interviewed and he makes the funniest analogies that even the youngest viewer can understand. "One hundred bloodhounds ductaped together" Well said Bob, well said.
|
|
|
Post by [][][]cordylus[][][] on Jan 28, 2010 23:22:50 GMT
Really? Does it say in there anywhere they had a posture like that in the books? Yes. In the lost world, the tyrannosaurus was described as "... having a head twenty feet up in the air, with a tapering tail seven feet above the ground..". That seems like the picture of a tail-dragger to me, while the tail wasn't *really* touching the ground.
|
|
|
Post by Griffin on Jan 29, 2010 2:29:53 GMT
Hmm I think you could be taking that line too much to heart. Maybe it was just the way it was standing at the time. Or perhaps the tapered part of the tail drooped but the overall posture was balanced. It really could mean a lot of things. I think that if he really meant them to stand more upright like that, he would have made a point to make it more clear to the reader.
|
|
|
Post by foxilized on Jan 29, 2010 3:39:44 GMT
Yes, I am unsure too about the dragging tails but mostly because of the sources Chrichton had at the time, all of them were actually modern straight tails... He cites Horner, Bakker and Ostrom (all of them had attacked the dragging tail reconstructions since the 70's If I'm not wrong...). Also cites paleoart of "Kenneth Carpenter, Margaret Colbert, Stephen and Sylvia Czerkas, John Gurche, Mark Hallett, Douglas Henderson y William Stout" and I think all of them who were actually depicting raised up tails since the very early 80's... Some strange postures of the Rex also appear on the first novel, like when she's sleeping sat with the back against a tree... But since the dinos are very very often called "more birds than reptilian" in the novel, I assumed the sleeping posture of the Rex was similar to a bird resting, and that she was sat in his big pelvis bone or something. Griffin, it's been a hundred years or so since I don't draw on paper... But I guess I can try
|
|