

For example, they knew from fossils the size of saber-toothed cats. They also documented the decisions they used to create these new models. The Los Angeles team reviewed the process along the way. Artists from Polyperfect drew the shape of the model, then animated it. The paleontologists shared detailed instructions on how the animals should look and move. This company creates animated characters for video games. They worked with a company called Polyperfect to make the models. “We used our knowledge of bones, the fossil record and scientific literature to make the most accurate AR models we could,” explains Lindsey. To make their images realistic, the Los Angeles team turned to science. In fact, these dinos were actually the size of turkeys and covered in feathers.
ICE AGE WATCH ONLINE MOVIE
That is, after all, how the 2015 movie Jurassic World portrayed them. For instance, many people think velociraptors were large, leathery, dangerous predators. But if their images aren’t scientifically accurate, they can misrepresent the ancient world. Without a time machine, we’ll never know exactly what Ice Age animals looked like. They now describe how they did it in the March Palaeontologia Electronica. That set them on a new path - to model those prehistoric creatures themselves. And they quickly found that there weren’t any. They planned to test it using a virtual-reality exhibit on Ice Age animals.īut to do that, the two paleontologists would need scientifically accurate, digital renderings of those now-extinct animals.

He and Emily Lindsey, at the museum’s La Brea Tar Pits, wondered if VR and AR might help people learn science concepts better than just reading about them or viewing fossils. Matt Davis works at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, Calif. Museums across the United States have been turning to AR and VR in hopes that it will allow people to experience the ancient world in a new and more meaningful way. Experiencing this is more like entering a 3-D movie, where you are part of the action. Or they can come from virtual reality, or VR. It can superimpose virtual images onto what you see in your environment - be it a classroom, bedroom or soccer field. These meet-ups are brought to you through a technology known as augmented reality, or AR. You can interact with these creatures safely. Scientists have just brought a herd of Ice Age animals back to life - in the virtual world, anyway. Whoa! A saber-toothed cat just sniffed my couch.
