Meeting Abstract S8-6  Monday, Jan. 6 10:30 – 11:00  Convergent evolution of vertebral morphology and locomotion in snake-like lizards BERGMANN, P.J.*; MANN, S.D.W.; MORINAGA, G.; FREITAS, E.S.; SILER, C.D.; Clark University; Clark University; Oklahoma State University; University of Oklahoma; University of Oklahoma pbergmann@clarku.edu https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/pbergmann/ Snake-like body forms have evolved convergently dozens of times in most major lineages […]

Meeting Abstract S8-4  Monday, Jan. 6 09:00 – 09:30  Body lateral deformation and compliance help snakes and snake robots stably traverse large steps FU, Q; GART, SW; MITCHEL, TW; KIM, JS; CHIRIKJIAN, GS; LI, C*; Johns Hopkins University chen.li@jhu.edu https://li.me.jhu.edu/ Many snakes live in mountains and forests and traverse large obstacles comparable to their body size. Similarly, […]

REGA, E.A.: The “dynamic digital human” in research, entertainment and education The demand for human anatomical material in teaching at the undergraduate and professional school level is enormous, as attested to by the sheer volume of (expensive) textbooks, manuals and study aids on the market and the number of academic positions whose primary teaching responsibilities […]

REDD, J.: Modeling Fur and Feathers and the Need to Balance Perception, Science, and Entertainment Artistic decisions are constantly made regarding the presentation of characters in films, especially when fanciful characters are placed into realistic or photorealistic environments. When animating or digitally producing a clearly fanciful character, care must be taken to adopt certain elements […]

POLCYN, D.M.: From Creepy Crawlies to Cuddly Critters: Can Arthropods Really Be Tweaked Enough to Capture the Nation’s Attention? In a nation which spends billions of dollars a year to kill arthropods, in which people young and old would rather swat an insect than observe it, it seems hard to imagine how film studios could […]

GATESY, S.M.: Dinosaur Feet, Pigeon Wings, and 3-D Animation: Entertaining Science? Software developed for the entertainment industry is a valuable resource for biologists and paleontologists interested in studying motion. Despite rather steep learning curves, high-end packages contain tools ideally suited for modeling organic structures, controlling articulated elements, importing video/film sequences, and running dynamic simulations. My […]

KRENTZ, D.: Design of Digitally Animated Characters: Biological Solutions for Fantastic Situations Design of animals in animated films must balance the needs to make them believable as organisms and interesting as characters that interact with a defined storyline. Morphological construction for organisms focuses initially on musculoskeletal anatomy. Initial designs attempt to remain as true to […]

HYNEMAN, W.: Creation of an animated human musculo-skeletal system In spite of enormous interest, realistic animation of the range of movements of the human skeleton has not yet been achieved by existing bio-medical software. Utilising commercially-available three-dimensional scans of the human skeleton and range of motion data compiled from the scientific literature, a model of […]

SUMIDA, S.S.: Biological Principals that Drive Digital Effects and Strategies of Animation: Trading Lessons between Vertebrate Mechanics and Commercial Entertainment Comparative morphological studies and responsible strategies of animation (both traditionally hand-drawn and computer generated) both require an understanding of structure, function, ontogenetic variation, and sexual dimorphism. Within animation, different techniques utilize slightly differing emphases. Traditional […]

BROCHU, C. A.: Beyond Mere Morphology: Reflections of a Computed Tomography Addict Computed tomographic (CT) technology has become a standard method for nondestructively accessing the interior structures of irreplaceable fossils. This vastly increases the informative power of fossils and allows researchers a unique opportunity to visualize internal features in three dimensions, either through three-dimensional reconstruction […]