Chirotherium - Ancestor of Dinosaurs

Very little is known about these early reptiles, and
importantly there is no major evidence to suggest
what they actually looked like. No bones have
survived, or none so far discovered.

The footprints offer some clues, and perhaps the
closest living creature, in appearance, is the
Komodo Dragon. But even then it would be wrong,
without much more evidence, to assume that
Chirotherium looked like Komodo Dragons.

A project to depict Chirotherium and its world is
currently underway, between Julian Baum of Take 27
and Steve Woolfall, Heritage Services Manager of
Chester City Council. Watch our website for
updates, but meantime have a look at these links for more info: Chirotherium in the region and Wikipedia.

We chose to show two Chirotherium taking a
welcome drink from a pool following a rainstorm.
It was also important to depict the vast barreness of
the area, the intense heat, clear skies and isolation of
the creatures.

This is the world of the great supercontinent, Pangea
(meaning 'all the land'), and a time following the
largest mass-extinction event in the history of life,
when the survivors were spreading outwards and
re-colonising the Earth. So it was crucial to get this
sense of emptiness and isolation.

On the left is our 3D model of a portion of the desert
complete with pools. Compared with the one above,
which shows the low camera angle, you can see the
need to still build a vast expanse even when you
apparently see very little of it.

One of the biggest clues to showing a hot desert, or actually any hot surface, is heat-haze. A road in
summer, or the spout of a boiling kettle, all display
this effect in the roiling air above them.

In cgi, particle simulation has a multitude of uses. In
other episodes we have used it to add mist and smoke,
but here we made a simulation to add the distortion
of the shimmering air above the desert surface.

On the right is a screengrab showing our cloud of
particles and the path of the camera through it.

The movie on the left shows a
portion of the simulation when
rendered. It was then combined
with the master cgi footage and
set to distort it.

The link on the right takes you to
the final shot.