Creating a Real Dragon - Part 1

telekrex (54)in #animals • 9 years ago (edited)

The purpose of this project, in the beginning, was to replicate (in physical form) what a dragon would be like in real life using animatronics and art. It was an endeavor to use real-world examples and research to see the truest version of this very diversely depicted creature. This is "Part 1" because I intend to continue posting updates about the project. However, this was started several years ago, so this first bit will be covering everything up until this point.

Here are some results of the skin tests.

Almost too perfect of a pattern, though!

If you read my last post, I explained the difficulty of classifying dragons (should they exist) because of their problematic and extensive history, mostly due to experience with humans. So there are really several "versions" I could have gone with, but I chose to pursue the serpent-wyvern design, as I found it the most captivating. If I do more after this, my next choice would be a eestern serpent (with much Varanus inspiration, I think). There were probably over 20 iterations of the skeletal design during this project (doing most of it in off time) until I recently came to my final decision. There was a point (when I hadn't yet decided on the serpent-wyvern and was interested in Western) where I experimented with waterproofing the skin, to keep the electronic components safe, should my dragon choose to swim.

Water-proof prototype.

The waterproofing was successful, however, the issue of floating was not something I wanted to explore, and reverted back to the serpent-wyvern design (though waterproofing was useful). During this project, and much before, I've spent hours and hours studying the movement of fish, snakes, lizards, and birds.

This is Dracula, one of my tropical girdled lizard, a huge help in this study.

I wrote a program that comes pretty close to replicating the way they behave.

The first winged prototype is born.

That was the last I had done in the sessions prior (about 4 months ago). I have now been revisiting the project (got a new camera too!) and giving it some newer thought. I've decided to drop the electronic components from the build for now. I do plan on making MORE, but for the first finished model, it's going to be mostly art and an attempt at proper anatomy. It's also going to be smaller; a problem comes with using servos, they are loud and can only lift up to a certain weight. I think the better way would be to use larger servos and build a much larger model, but that would be the second or third version.

Updated wings and new skeleton design.