Initiating a post here as DAZ no longer wants to support us fans of the work of Dinoraul, Swidhelm and those that generously contribute to our fixation.

This is to provide a gathering spot, and to post suggestions for desired prehistoric models of all kinds. Hopefully RMP will be more welcoming then DAZ, and more understanding that these forums are a powerful marketing tool to keep people coming to the site in general and purchasing ALL products that are offered.

Also hope wel see the same level of participation here that we have in the past.

Here i am! :-))))))))

i am interested in the discussion.  I'll just hang around and see where this goes...I could use a little more education. :-)

Hey ho! Glad this is here and thanks for the notice. This could be good to get a better education, and for me, specifically on vegetation. I was wondering if there are any good online sites for plantlife of the Mesozoic with images. I've gone through Wikipedia and done some Google searches, but I have not found any comprehensive sites. If they mention a type of plant without an image/illustration than that's not very helpful to me. I've found myself chasing my tail to find good images. Thanks in advance. Art

http://www.amazon.com/Prehistoric-Life-Definitive-Visual-History/dp/0756655730/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326419075&sr=1-1

Hey adorety

Ancient plants are a real problem in 3d. There's the xfrog series that are ok, availabe at cornucopia, but they don't have info, are really render intensive, and expensive. As an alternate, i'm attaching a link to a book called Prehistoric Life, availabe at amazon. It has lots of info and pictures about plants sorted by era/period. It's a huge book for the price and well worth it.

Thanks very much! I'll check it out. Too bad I just used up my Amazon Gift Cards. I know when you get to the Jurassic some modern trees had their start then, but I wonder how similar they may have looked. This could be a big help and I know what you mean about Xfrog plants. I got a bunch of free ones that are samplers. Some useful, some...not so.

Thanks, Art

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasequoia

http://www.crozetgazette.com/2012/01/in-the-garden-dinosaur-trees/

http://www.dinosaurgardenplants.com/

http://www.scientificsonline.com/dinosaur-park-fern-garden-kit.html

These are all good leads on dino plants. If you Google the proper names you'll more than likely find actual photos or drawings of them. These are plants that are still around today but were main foliage during the dinosaur age.

Just as a side note, if you're Vue users, you can make a couple of "key" prehistoric plants by modifying some standard Vue solid growth.

Imx3d made a great calamite (horsetail) using the Prehistoric Pine Tree. I did the same based on the work he did. You can see the results clearly on this image

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2190427&user_id=457113&np&np

And I've made a fairly descent monkey puzzle tree using the Scots Pine. You can see that clearly in this one.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2124322&user_id=457113&np&np

Xfrog ferns are beautiful but totally unusable in Vue! Seems that all trees and vegetations not made inside the software are loud on renders. For me the major problem is not vegetation high and medium size, but make a decent and credible ground without grass! And now the other big problem is how to do the same protofeathers quality in Vue as in Poser. I don't like too much to make the animal render in poser and the background in Vue, very difficult to match!

Just spotted this so here i am :)

Dinoraul's Tyrannotitan has finally ben released in the marketplace. Looks good!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=91087

Quote - Dinoraul's Tyrannotitan has finally ben released in the marketplace. Looks good!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=91087

Just spotted that , I think this is going to cost me money , and I've already got that wooly rhino waiting in the cart :biggrin:

Happy to see you too here Phil! :-)

Ornitholestes released by dinoraul in the marketplace, and it looks good! Tis really helps fill out the Morrison fauna list

Yes Ornitholestes was one of the most wanted dinos that are not on the Raul fleet! Now wich will be the next most wanted?????? :-)

I Just noticed Raul as released a new free texture  for his triceatops to make it look dead over at content paradise.

 http://www.contentparadise.com/productDetails.aspx?id=20505

I see its landed here as well now along with the Lambeosaurus which is lookin g good :)

And now another anky!:-))))

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/talarurusdr/91251#

Just seen this which i thought you may find interesting, apparently the Archaeopteryx had a least some black feathers:

New evidence suggests Archaeopteryx dressed in black

http://io9.com/5878909/new-evidence-suggests-archaeopteryx-dressed-in-black 

Maybe time to play with the textures :) 

Thanks Phil! Very interesting! I'm working on DR Velociraptor protofeathers and textures. :-)

The new Raul croc is simply awesome!!!! :-)

Back to plants for a moment.

Imx3d found this site that has a great set of cycads that are available as obj and .vob (for one price) which means they can be used in Poser

http://www.silva3d.com/product.php?id_product=48

And Cornucopia3d released a nice looking Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria) Tree this week, which is a "must-have" for Mesozoic renders in Vue (I'd made my own version earlier, but this looks much better and is only $2 USD)

Here's the rules I use for prehistoric plants, other can chime in and correct me where I'm mistaken:

Pre-Triassic: Ferns, Conifers, Mosses, Horsetails. That's about it. Even cycads didn't evolve until the early Triassic. I know this sounds really restrictive, and it is. But it's the reality of what had developed. There were also large club mosses, but as near as I can tell, we don't have any models of those.

Triassic & Jurassic: Same as above, but add cycads.

Early Cretaceous: Same as Triassic and Jurassic

Late Cretaceous: Same as above, but you can add deciduous trees and some grasses, but limited. There were no broad grass prairies as today. You can also add some flowers as they began to evolve in the mid-Cretaceous. NOTE: NO PALM TREES!! There's a tendency to want to show dinosaurs in tropical settings, and while the climate was tropical in many parts of the world, palm trees did not evolve until after the end of the Cretaceous (this is a relatively new discovery for me. Many of my older renders use them).

Tertiary and earlier: Pretty much any modern plants

Enough for now. Anyone else have thoughts?

Sounds good. I'll be getting that monkey puzzle. I'll have to reconfirm, but I believe ginko trees started in the Jurassic, but the only model I know of is in a bundle at C3D. If you type ginko in the top right search, it will take you to that bundle.

I recently picked up the book, The Illustrated History of Prehistoric Life, as suggested in this thread, and find it to be a great source of info and imagery. I was thinking a club moss and maybe some other plants could be adapted from existing Vue .veg models.

Good stuff.

A note about the cycads listed above. The .obj's have some issues in Poser. One side of the leafs are reversed normals and don't render right. Does anyone know how to deal with that?

Quote - A note about the cycads listed above. The .obj's have some issues in Poser. One side of the leafs are reversed normals and don't render right. Does anyone know how to deal with that?

I've had a similar problem with some models in das Studio. I think the pereson who made the mesh needs to alter it and resave the obj file.

As these are static props  You may be able to do it in a moddling programe but Im not sure how. 

I have made the reverse normal action on Cinema4d....polygon by polygon and now it works! In Vue no problem because the software can handle backfaces. L.

I have posted at E-on forum the request for fixing dynamic hair import from Poser, but no answer yet... seems that all the haircut work from Jim and me can show well only in Poser...so i will work to make the best possible environment render in Poser with a Vue background. :-(

I think it's going to be a while before dynamic Poser hair works efficiently in Vue. AM, papillon66 has bears with dynamic fur. I have managed to import them and render them in Vue. However, the resources it takes are almost more than my machine can handle. It seems like Vue sees the hairs as individual objects, yet you cannot weld them and there is little you can do to edit them either. If the hair is too coarse or there is too much highlight, I either can't edit them or the computer just locks up when I try to.

I'm guessing experts from both companies would have to collaborate to address the dynamic hair. If they ever do, I'll be all over it. I'd rather 'grow' my own hair than keep buying 'wigs'.

But it's really curious that no one has post a simple answer to my post at E-on....

Quote - But it's really curious that no one has post a simple answer to my post at E-on....

Probably because they do not have a good answer or an answer you want to hear.

Swidhelm has a dragon with back fur that uses dynamic hair and I tried including that as an .obj in the export, but the hair will not convert to an obj, so that doesn't work either. Maybe by Vue 12.

Maybe some kind of sub program that could group the hair and treat it as one object instead of many. I'm no programmer, so I'm clueless.

AD

Bruno Memain answer this way:

"Delete any color production function for the hair material if any function was automatically created by Vue. Then simply add 86% transparency to the hair material. The render times will rocket sky high, but it's the only way I know."

I will make a try but 86% transparency full hair lenght seems not good. Hope to be wrong.

L.

I've had this response a couple years ago when i first posted the question in the c3d forum. It doesn't work. At least not for the types of things we're trying to do.

So I confirmed ginkgos are from the Jurassic and they are available from X Frog and through C3D. At C3D there are some xfrog versions and a solid growth version by Robin Kleb.

Sometimes is seems as if DR is reading our minds!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/cycads2012-dr/91793

And when Raul is making things these are better than the majority of the rest. In this case are the best absolutely!

Yea those look good have to put them at the top of the list.

Dead leaves are a very welcome feature! Fore grounds needs some dirt!

Raul's been busy!! Dolichorhynchops in the marketplace, and a GREAT image of Centrosaurus in the gallery

Raul is nr.1!:-))))))

Yea I think theres going to be a raid on my back account over the next week or so !

You may have noticed that Dinoraul has released a nice Eurhinosaurus in the marketplace! Very cool icthyosaur. I've made new textures for both Eurhinosaurus and Dollichorhynchops. Images above and below. If you're interested, send me a site mail with your email address and I'll send you the map.

NOTE: These are skin maps only. Use Raul's original maps for teeth, eyes, tongue, etc., and his original bump map. No installers, just the map, so you'll need to apply manually. There may be a couple of minor seam issues as well. These are Poser renders - no idea how they'd work in DS. I'm not offering these in the freebie area because I don't want to make the installers.

Raul's Pelicanimimus is so cool! And love the feathered version by Imx3d. Great additions!!

True, best ornithomimid out now. Thanks for the appreciation! Now i have to do mononykus ans therizinosaur......uff! :-)))

OT:
We'd like to give you all a "sneak preview" of a project that Imx3d, Dinoraul and I have been collaborating on. This will be a new app for iPad that has the working title "The Animated Encyclopedia of Prehistoric Life."
We're still a ways away from launching, but we have prepared a "teaser" promotional video for the product, which you can view here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7xLZKuFl3Q

Feedback is appreciated!

Well, if there was something to get me to buy an iPad, this would be it. Excellent promo video and fantastic idea. Can't wait to see more.

Looking good.

 Now if someone would just send me an ipad...:)

For some reason this thread doesn't show up for me in the forum. I was wondering if anyone knows if the old forum at Daz3D will be resurrected?

Thanks.

nabob21

It should be in the The MarketPlace Wishing Well section. Have you checked your settings you may have chose not to display that forum.

I havent heard that they are going to put any of the old threds back up at daz. I dont think they are. 

Daz have bought the rights for the first bunch of Raul dinos but seems not be interested in prehistoric things anymore.

Thanks for the replies. It seems that it is this particular thread that I am not seeing but I have re-subscribed so hopefully the problems is corrected.

On another note, I haven't had much chance to regularily visit the galleries or comment on images for the past year due to several recent changes (new job, moving etc) but I would like to say that the images that are being posted by mnartist, lmx3d, artbyphil and adorety have all helped to keep my interest alive and help to keep me determined to get back into rendering my own images. Well done and much apreciated to all of you.