PLAY IT NOW

This new diorama will be a little more scientific and a bit smaller. Right now I am planning on using the 3D printer to construct creatures, the environment and the enclosure for the diorama itself.

Here’s my first sketch and a more finished painting.

In order to test the limits of a new 3-d printer , which can print varying densities of plastic and rubber, I’ve been asked to make any kind of model I wish, as long as it includes different materials in one print. I’ve decided to make a new little creature, design its skull and jaws, and then have the printer create the different bone and muscle structures so that it physically works. Luckily, I have access to a powder-based 3-d printer to test the design. So here’s a gallery of the concept/testing I’m doing. Soon I’ll have a hi-poly 3d model and the muscle structures laid out exactly where they will need to go.

The creature is a kind of dog, about 3 feet tall at its shoulders. Though it has no visible eyes, it sees out of a large, crystalline dome that sticks out of the top of its head. It this dome is almost like a surveillance camera, and it can swivel its field of vision in any direction. It has keen ears as well, but a fairly poor sense of smell. Therefore, it hunts mostly what it sees and hears, rather than long distance scent tracking. It is built for springing and chasing in bursts. Once its catches its prey, however, its unique physiology insures that few meals will be able to fight or escape.

Its jaws have two sets of mandibles. one for puncturing and grasping food, the other for tearing and eating. The long, grasping, curved jaws extend from the side of the creature’s head and curve around to clamp firmly into the victim. Cross muscles under the skull weave up and enable the fangs to constrict with up to 1200 lbs of pressure, roughly the equivalent of a hyena. Hunting in packs, these creatures would use their dagger-like mandibles to take down prey much larger than themselves.