VFX Research: Jurassic Park

When I think about the perfect dinosaur film, instantly Jurassic Park comes to mind with its fantastic representation of the prehistoric beasts. But what makes Jurassic Park better then all the rest that came both before and after it? Well, firstly we can see just how stunning these films are by merely watching them, they are perfectly created providing an exciting and thrilling storyline that has created the most amazing dinosaurs ever seen on film in my opinion.

So by combining ground breaking animatronics with the basic powers, at the time, of CGI, meant that this is a childhood favourite of pretty much everyone born in the 80s and 90s. The animatronics that were produced were life-sized, well when it can to the T-Rex, and provided an excellent solution in production as it meant it was a lot easier to create that realistic look that sat in the scene perfectly, because it was really there; making every film maker envious, even now. It is incredible to see how the dinosaurs where put together and used in the film, especially the T-Rex. This dinosaur makes the film and provides so much realism you wouldn't believe this film was made over 20 years ago.

The designs for the animatronics were all brilliant ways for it to be produced but in the end it excelled any plans as it moved so smoothly and without faults, well none that we can see on camera anyway. This meant it could be manipulated in amazing ways and by combing this with the CG that was added after only improved the quality of it further in such a minimalistic sense.

As one of my favourite films I have nothing but praise for the way that the dinosaurs are made, which is the reason why, when modelling my own dinosaur, I will be taking my inspiration from Jurassic Park. Even though the Velociraptor's that were produced fro the film aren't entirely accurate, I will still be taking elements of them into my own design. Raptors are a broad species of dinosaurs, with my different variations, much like a dog has many breeds. In Jurassic Park, despite the fact Steven Spielberg had a lot of help from a team of paleontologists, he decided to change the appearance of the Velociraptor. Taking away the feathers that almost cover the body of the raptor and the long snout-like nose. Spielberg adapted the velociraptor to look more like Deinonychus, a much larger breed of raptor that didn't have feathers and had a shorter more rounder nose. But in the end Spielberg kind of got away with it after the species of raptor called the Gigantoraptor was found. Again a much larger type of raptor but again this one had feathers and was more in common with the Velociraptor in the end.

To me the fact that Spielberg changed the appearance does not matter as either way I will still be looking at what the world sees as the Velociraptor, Jurassic Park's adaptation of it. This look the raptor makes it appear more scary and gives it a certain edge that one with wings would not be able to do, so for my video I have decided to go with this version as it has become known as being the look most commonly associated with the Velociraptor.