Reptilian reproduction: with help from scientists, animators digitally clone a new species of dinosaur. (broadcast).

It's a tale that would make Indiana Jones envious: Two paleontology graduate students from the US unearth long-forgotten research by a turn-of-the-century German explorer that leads them to a unique find in the Egyptian desert--a new species of dinosaur. Their story of adventure, tenacity, and luck will be the subject of an upcoming A&E Network special, The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt, by MPH Entertainment and Cosmos Studios, which funded the recent excavation and the documentary that recorded the event.

The fossils are creating a buzz within the scientific community, but they only provide a partial picture of the ancient creature. That's why MPH hired Rainbow Studios in Phoenix to flesh out the dinosaur's framework by creating 3D models of what the huge beast possibly looked like, based on scientific evidence. Rainbow Studios also created nearly 10 minutes of computer-generated animation to augment the live-action documentary.

Given that the models and animation will provide viewers with the first glimpse of paralititan stomeri, a brontosaurus-like plant eater that is the second-largest known land-dwelling reptile, it was imperative that the re-creation be as scientifically precise as possible. "We had heard many stories from scientists about how inaccurately dinosaurs have been depicted over the years--that some of the most famous imagery contains misinformation and falsehoods, such as wrongly shaped bodies, heads, and behaviors," says Nick Napp, producer and vice president at Rainbow Studios. "To avoid those issues, we worked closely with the paleontologists and others from the scientific community. This meant that every aspect of the digital creation--down to the placement of a foot or the blink of an eye--was critiqued to the nth degree."

Jurassic Revisited

The digital portion of the project began with a film crew shooting scenery for background plates in the Florida Everglades, where the backdrop of water, foliage, and trees represent what scientists believe the Egyptian landscape looked like during this Jurassic period. Accompanying the crew were paleobiologists and a group of modelers and animators, whose observations enabled them to better understand how the dinosaurs would have traversed this terrain.

Next, the artists created the dinosaurs, using a sketch by paleontological restoration illustrator Robert Walters as a reference for constructing the various models in NewTek's LightWave. "Even though we consulted with paleontologists, there's still a tremendous amount of educated guesswork involved," says Napp. "The models went through numerous iterations until everyone agreed on the final outcome." In addition to the new dinosaur species, the artists also created several models of well-known dinosaurs, including the carnivorous spinosaurus, which were added to the scenes for effect.

Using The Beaver Project's translation software, the artists transferred the LightWave models into Alias/Wavefront's Maya, where they were animated. Later, the models were ported back into LightWave, where they were rendered. "LightWave's renderer is very flexible, and you can get some fantastic-looking results without the added layer of complexity that RenderMan or Mental Ray adds," notes Napp.