Utahraptor Reconstruction

The Utahraptor; an extremely popular dinosaur because of it's prominent sickle claw and boxy head. The largest confirmed dromaeosaur, it was a pleasure to work on this from the bottom-up. I prefer to make scientific reconstructions, as accurately as possible. In Zbrush, I started first with the skeleton, then muscles and even organs, and finally skin. I took it to Blender for retopology, UV mapping and feather generation, and Substance Painter for baking and texture work.

I thought about the composition of this piece very carefully. I wanted the eye to be drawn to the open expanse of sky; I wanted you to feel as if you were in a cave looking up at the stars. Then the eye would travel to the Utahraptor, notice its aggressive pose, then to what lies below...

I took this render as an opportunity to tell a different sort of story, and as an opportunity to use, at least in the slightest way, some of the groundwork it took to create the Utahraptor écorché. In this case, I used the skeleton and organs - in a spectacular manner. 

Full turnaround, for the Academy of Art Spring Show. Rendered and composited in Blender's Cycles rendering engine.

The full Zbrush models of the Utahraptor's skeleton, organs, muscles, and finally skin. I utilize dynamesh until I'm at a final body shape, whereupon I use zremesher to give me a better base to work off of, then I use layers, morph target and polygroups to complete my sculpt. 

My Substance Painter process starts with a bake, then I'll use generators with curvature maps to mask out the shadows and heighlights, usually at least for the roughness map, sometimes with some color as well. Then I'll work with masks and individual colors to complete the look. Finally I'll top it off with a carefully controlled dirt mask for realism.

2k Texture maps.

I use Blender's particle system to generate feathers. I create vertex groups to control where on the body they will show up and how long they can grow, and then groom them into place. I use several groups for individual body parts, as it's easier to control.

Credit where credit is due:

The eye model and texture is from tinynocky's Tiny Eye Blender addon. I was focusing more on the Utahraptor itself, and having such a great resource helped a lot:  https://tinynocky.gumroad.com/l/tinyeye

The feathers were generated using meown's Procedural Feathers Geometry Nodes for Blender 3.1. I customized the feathers I wanted and baked out normal and opacity maps:  https://miauarts.gumroad.com/l/zrvcj

In order to get as scientifically accurate as possible, I had to do some research. The following were the most influential on my work.

I used Matt Dempsey's Deinonychus muscle chart as reference when building up my Utahraptor's muscles, and received very helpful advice from him as well:  https://sketchy-raptor.artstation.com/projects/q9zx42

Finally, I used Scott Hartman's Utahraptor skeletal to help start my 3D model:  https://www.skeletaldrawing.com/theropods