What were they doing that you were overlooking? 
I sculpted most of the theropods for the program, about 28 in total (theropods, that is)
Awesome :D, which is the name of this program? or it is confidential for now? 
Tucho, it’s called Dinosaur Planet and it’s due later this year on the BBC.
They are probably doing lots of things that I am overlooking, but one of them is the angle of the top eyelid to the bottom. The sculptors brought out the upper-eyelid more than I have in the past. Doing so may soften the features a bit but also create more interesting shadows around the eyes.
I’m going to the British Museum again on Saturday so I’ll be taking more reference photos from all kinds of angles.
MX
Been very busy at work. Finished Planet Dinosaur off a good few months ago. After that it was a small job Zbrushing creatures for Super Snake and have just finished some more creatures for a small British film that should be out soon. When you do VFX for TV there’s much to do in little time.
Thankfully the BBC are putting out some footage now so I can pass on some of the things I’ve worked on.
I also managed to get the chance to write a tutorials and tips article for this months 3D World magazine.
Edit: And a small trailer for the program. I Zbrushed both dinosaurs and the fallen tree.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14747604
Now for a bit of a break and put my feet up. 
MX
For those who are interested… BBC has posted up a little “behind the scenes” video of how the dinosaurs where created.
MX
If anyone is interested… someone has posted up the first half of the first episode of Planet Dinosaur.
Thanks for the links! Very cool!
Cheers!
The Spino Zbrush model. About 52 million polygons in HD.
Planet Dinosaur was a tough project to work on. The only other VFX work I had done in the past was Sea Monsters for National Geographic. On that project I built two creatures from scratch in about 4 months. Planet Dinosaur had a totally different pipeline and schedule as it was made for TV.
This time I had about 7 days to Zbrush each/most of the dinosaurs I worked on… but one or two Dinosaurs, like the Spinosaurus, I had the luxury of 9 days. While I was doing this I was also training and helping my trusty team and also creating a few useful Brushes and Alphas that could be used for everyone and that could be flexible to handle all the creatures. One brush that proved very useful was the Track Brush combined with Alpha 58, rotated 90 degrees and the Alpha MidValue set to Zero. This turned out to be very flexible and I used it for everything from Dinosaurs to trees.
Also, while creating these assets I stuck my nose in on the lighting side of things and before long I was overlooking the use of Zbrushes models and maps. So I was a tad busy but other than a couple of set-backs and missed moment I enjoyed the project. There are always things I wish I had done differently but isn’t that always the way. I’ll put them into motion on whatever the next project is.
Dinosaurs I worked on were: Carcharodontosaurus, Spinosaurus, Rugops, Sarcosuchus, Microraptor, Xianglong, Epidexipteryx, Caudipteryx, Sinornithosaurus, Gigantoraptor, Therizinosaurus, Hatzegopteryx, Daspletosaurus, Troodon, Magyarosaurus, Deinosuchus, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Majungasaurus and the odd tree here and there.
MX
Hey I saw that show the other day at a friends house. I thought to myself “this looks unusually good for one of these types of shows”. I really loved the Spino. Especially in the water hunting scenes.
Great job!
A small update. Been busy… and not so busy. This is a quick concept for a creature done with DynaMesh and a bit of FiberMesh. Hope you like.
Really fantastic work really great gallery ! Totally love your sculpts!
The style of the last one is great, very nice idea!
The spinosaurs is mindblowing too, love the model, amazing amount of detail!
Looking forward seeing more from you,
Best regards and Happy sculpting
- Kenny:)
HA! Nice concept! I am looking forward to more.
Hey Mat!! Cool design!!
Thanks guys. I really want to post more of my current work… but alas… it’s all under NDA and could be for some time. Hopefully I’ll have something more interesting to post up, other for more dinosaurs, which the project should be out in a few month.
Hi,
I don’t know if anyone is interested, a small film I worked on last year has just come out on Friday and the company I work for has posted up some shot-break-downs. I’m afraid it’s more dinosaur models, but I had learnt a bit from Planet Dinosaur and I had a little more time to work on each model. Please see link below.
http://jellyfishpictures.co.uk/recent-work/1039
Dinosaur Project is getting quite good reviews regarding the VFX, so I’m happy.
Thanks
MX
As you can guess, this is for the DBZ challenge.
<iframe src=“http://player.vimeo.com/video/65772182” webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen="" frameborder=“0” height=“584” width=“500”></iframe> ZBrush Movie3 from Mathew Cooling on Vimeo.
First stage sorted. Now to tidy up the mesh, uprez it, and then refine the forms and add detail… then post it, tweak form, paint him up and done. Feedback welcome. If any anatomy or anything looks wrong, let me know.
Thanks
MX
Don’t know if anyone is interested. The company I work at and myself did some VFX for this little film. I used Zbrush to help create the main fish.
<iframe src=“http://player.vimeo.com/video/58646255” width=“500” height=“281” frameborder=“0” webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href=“http://vimeo.com/58646255”>JONAH</a> from <a href=“http://vimeo.com/user7380331”>Factory Fifteen</a> on <a href=“http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
Thanks
Mathew
I had a little bit of free time so attempted a lunch crunch doodle. Then carried on a little bit the next day. I’ll probably leave it as it is. Feedback welcome.
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/72894738" width=“500” height=“395” frameborder=“0” webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href=“http://vimeo.com/72894738”>lunch crunch - Generic alien</a> from <a href=“http://vimeo.com/user2065662”>Mathew Cooling</a> on <a href=“https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/72987480" width=“500” height=“395” frameborder=“0” webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>lunchcrunch 23 08 13 1 from Mathew Cooling on Vimeo.
Cool man, keep on sketching !!
Wohoo! A comment. Thanks Simon. Yes, I must to do more sketches. Whenever I get the chance, I will.