Live Blogging: Melding of Greats

Righto, I've been working on the T-Rex's head since the last post.


Peter found my photoshop comparison technique rather interesting in person. He'll probably be popping on here or his blog with his take on this shortly.


All I have to say is multiple layers and transparencies are your best friend when comparing works.

This is where I started.

This is where I'm currently at.

So I need to get the details like lip scales and teeth back onto the head.

I'm also toren as to whether go with the new age concept of Theropod lips covering up the teeth.

Live Blog: Time to get Serious

So it was a little touch and go at the beginning of the hour. We were up against the "Pants of Doom" after all.


Fortunately we Canadians had a secret weapon in our arsenal. Mukmuk the official mascot sidekick...

With him cheering on our team, how could we fail?

Okay so I get a little manic and silly when facing Curling stress, but my Mukmuk action figure needed a breakout.

Anyways he did the trick, and we won the Curling 6-3! I'll give Norway credit on a great game. They certainly had me stressed out in End 7!

Now the only big stressful sports event left on the agenda is the men's Ice Hockey game. I'm seriously worried about Canada's chances... but here's hoping.

So while I was wasting a good chunk of the afternoon on Curling, Peter was working hard.

(Okay, and in my defense I did a bit of work on upgrading the texture)

He cranked out an awesome Tyrannosaur in an hour in a half. So power on him.

So here is the design sketch I'm going to TRY and match in 3D. Peter will have the "fun" task of supervising and motivating me on this effort.

Wish us luck!

A Joint Project

After an intense month of Olympics (and work for Peter), me and Bond have finally managed to sit down to do one of dozens of potential joint projects.

Today's we've decided to have Bond supervise one of my 3D projects. He often wants me to include many tweaks and details into my models, that while in theory would be awesome, my 3Ding skills and techniques are incapable of. Through this project I'm hoping to educate him on what I can and can not do.


Our subject, the most iconic. Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Say good bye to this version, the Mark 3 edition, of the Rex. We're hoping to get him up to at least a Mark 5. We might even push the boundaries of my work to Mark 6... but one thing at a time.
So prepare for a special edition live blogging event!

We are currently an hour in. Peter is busy working off references and creating his definitive T-Rex from which I shall attempt to work off.

We'll keep you posted how this goes throughout the afternoon.

I in the meantime am unbelievably in suspense over the Gold Medal Men's Curling match. It is Canada vs. "The Pants of Doom" Norway (I'll try to find you a picture of these pants... a true example of psychological warfare!).

So far Canada is winning 5-3 midway through the 9th end (out of 10), but I just can't trust anyone wearing pants like those. This game isn't over yet folks.

Need Canada to win if I'm to calm down...

What a Night!!!

Of the many adventures I've had in the last two months, none of them quite compare to tonight's!

Through no direct planning, we timed our Olympic event PERFECTLY for the end of our Olympic tolerance... Everyone in town is a little Olympiced out as it were here in Vancouver. However that is another story for another time (I need to goto bed).

Which Olympic event did we goto you might ask?

Why the greatest of them all... Water Bucketing!

You haven't heard of the classic winter game Water Bucketing?

That's a sad thing. As it means you haven't actually been to the even I witnessed today! They cut the Water Bucketing out of the TV broadcasts... for some reason :P

We saw the last of the Short Track Speed Skating...

It was not only incredibly fun to watch, but stressful throughout, and in the end proved to be mighty EPIC!

Canada won two Gold medals, and a Bronze right in front of our eyes! The only single night and venue we have achieved this multi-gold feat at... and I was there for it! So indescribably cool!

Topping it off is this photo I somehow managed to snap. This is about 1/100 of a second after Canada crossed the finish line for its second Gold of the night, in the men's relay... That red dude on the left with his arms in the air is our last skater literally having just won the race. This is probably the single coolest photo I've ever taken.

I'm planning a couple Olympic posts (first and foremost explaining why I love the Olympics so much... as those who know me are quite confused by my sudden sports obsession. Normally I steer clear of them) and these will include a more detailed post about tonight. So watch for those soon.

For now I NEED to go to bed. Just had to share some of the overwhelmingness while it was fresh!

Dino Winter Games Preview

I know we haven't used it in a little while, but Peter and I are trying to get back to posting over on the main Prehistoric Insanity blog.

As part of this effort, we offer a special sneak peek of one of the Dinosaur teams about to participate in Traumador's big Olympic event!

So be sure to pop over there and check it out, and watch for our renewed effort to bring back the Prehistoric Insanity updates!

Live Blogging Conclusion

Here is the post battle report of yesterdays Olympic edition Live Blogging.

Admittedly both Peter and myself were disappointed in how our live blogging materialized. We had ideas for more detailed views into our artistic processes, but we just haven't had the time. In addition to Peter working full time, the rare instance of being in THE Olympic city during the games has eaten all our spare time.

Speaking of disappointment, I lost my Therizinosaur's body last night. When I say lost, I mean literally lost it. Well my puter did. If I muck around with rigging there is a risk (due to an annoying glitch) that my computer loses model component information and replaces these with a cube. So reloading my Therizinosaur I was greeted with this...

It was a sharp reminder I NEED to backup models before rigging them! At least it was just one part! Last time I hit this problem it replaced EVERY single piece! Though I'd backed up that time.

So this is what my lost model looked like.

After "borrowing" Lillian's body, and tweaking it for about 20 minutes this what I replace my old model with. Overall I have to say I like this body better. It has a lot of subtle detail I've built into it over the years (the Lillian model is almost 3 years old!), that I didn't have to touch.

Still it is rather annoying I put the work into a new body, and to lose it right when it is finished... Oh well it could have been much much worse!

Onto the next big project. The Dinosaur Winter Olympics!

Live Blogging 10

We're now working with David Attenbrough's Life in Cold Blood on in the background.

Despite not the most productive day (in the sense of concentration), I'd say my Therizinosaur has turned out rather well.

A thought has just occurred to me here, looking at it now. That it has a very similar colour scheme to my Brachiosaurs. Oh well. It looked good on them, and it looks good here. That and most modern large herbivores are similarly coloured. Why not Dinosaurs too?

I initially played with posing, but this lead to a disaster... Which has not been resolved, and can not be satisfactorily.

I was in such a rush to show Bond how skeletons work in person I forgot to take the precaution of the ubber backup (which is to save a totally different version of the model), and the puter lost my Dino's body model. The rest of it is fine (arms, fingers, head) thankfully, but I've got no recourse but to rebuild or smash kit another of my models.

I'm opting to the smash kit, and Lillian's body has begun being distorted to replace my lost torso (I'm not spending another hour on a fresh rebuild... in good news the Lillian distortion has in 10 minutes produced a very workable replacement. I'll just need to spend a good 15-20ish more minutes on it, but that's better then starting COMPLETELY over).

So these pics you see here are the last glimpse of this version we'll ever get/see... (also making this post pointless... as at the end of the hour I have unprogress to report BEEP)

Peter update: After a bit of experimenting, Bond has come up with a rather cool photoshop method of colouring his drawing. I think the process has only begun, and there is a lot he can pull off with more layers. However the baseline colour results he is achieving already are quite impressive, and among the best in his already great body of work!

Live Blogging 9

The Olympics are finally over for today.

Have to say today was our second worst so far (yesterday being the worst). If not for the speed skating silver medal, it'd have been as bad as yesterday.

In addition to losing the Ice Hockey, we lost the women's Curling to China ruining our perfect winning streak. Oh well.

This has allowed me to really push away on my shading. The head is now done. Onto the arms and fingers next.

Peter update: Having gotten the pic into his puter, Bond is currently playing around with layering his drawing and whether it will be best to keep it black and white or to goto colour. Head over and help him out.

Live Blogging 7

Oh man... I'm on the edge of my seat!

Canada and China are tied at 5 in the 11 end (Curling version of sudden death overtime!), and two stones to go!

Been working on the body colour pattern this whole time. I'm kind of liking the orange with green spots. We'll see how it goes.

Peter update: Bond has made major progress. Finishing all his inking. He is scanning the drawing onto his computer AS I type this. I think the plan is to try to colour it entirely in photoshop. Hopefully I can help him with a few ideas there.

Obviously keep you posted.

Live Blogging 6

Live Blogging for ART Evolved continues.

Women's curling on TV. I can't have a break. Especially as China is winning... AHHHHHH!!!

Come on Canada pull some of it together tonight please!

Though we are winning Ice Dance... not that I count that as a sport myself.

Mr. (Mrs.?) Therizinosaur has reached the shading stage. Here is the prelimenary shader spread.

I've got a couple test undershades to choose from from. Anyone have any opinions?

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3

Set 4

Peter update: Bond has been crusing with no Hockey to distract him (that and I think he is working off our defeat). All of his Therizinosaur has been penned (which was a lot of penning). All he needs on is a back leg for the Therizinosaur.

We had a funny experinment to determine where this leg would go. I had to reenact slashing a Tyrannosaur with my hands to see where my legs went. In good news Peter wasn't too far off where he needs to be. So we'll see how it pans out.