Welcome back to the SLUGME Dinosaur Video Series! With the main structure complete and the team headed back home, it was time to start bringing Frank to life. I spent countless hours carving foam, filling gaps, refining surfaces, and adding detail. Between fillet knives, Surform shavers, and my trusty reciprocating saw, Frank slowly began to take shape.
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Next came the 3D-printed hands and feet. Using dowel pins and epoxy, we assembled and installed the parts while carefully matching the original pose from our xDesign model. Huge thanks to Gian Calise, the Waltham Fab Lab, and Luke Daley for helping create these incredible components and textures.
To create realistic dinosaur skin, Andy Barnes designed a custom Voronoi texture roller using xGenerative Design. This tool and epoxy sculpting clay gave Frank an amazing organic texture while allowing us to add veins, tendons, and muscle detail.
Then came one of the coolest deliveries of my life! Our friends at GoEngineer printed a massive head using large-format SLA technology and produced incredibly detailed teeth and gums with PolyJet printing. Once installed, I blended everything together and started adding what felt like hundreds of 3D-printed spikes to the dinosaur's back.
By the end of this phase, Frank had transformed from a foam structure into something that finally looked alive.
🦖 Watch now! 🎬
In the next video, we'll finish the texture work, install the horns, claws, and remaining spikes, add ultra-realistic eyes, and get Frank primed and ready for paint. 🦖🎨
