Dr Matt Dempsey
@sketchy-raptor
🦕 Musculoskeletal biologist & vertebrate palaeontologist 🏛️ PhD'd with the University of Liverpool and the Natural History Museum, London 🎓 University of Manchester graduate 🖊️ Sci-illustrator 🎥 Likes movies
Probably my fave photo of the day. The spine is suspended using a series of metal cords and elastic bungie tendons which hold the alert posture of the neck in place without the need for excessive mounting frames. We're experimenting with novel materials and building methods.
Today I'm building life sized mecha Megalosaurus in the Future Fossils workshop - a mixture of 3D prints of my digital designs, carved foam, and machine parts, all produced under the direction of Jay Jay Burridge. More photos to come! And debuting at Blenheim Palace next week...
A present to myself following the success of my stall at DinoCon...
The first wave of the Futue Fossils Megalosaurus skeletons will be making their debut in the Blenheim Palace gardens, from August 10th to November 1st 2026. Book now to see one of the coolest dinosaur projects I've ever been a part of! blenheimpalace.com/whats-on/eve... 🦖🦴🤖🦿 (6/6)
As director, Jay has put together a top team of concept artists & material fabricators to make Future Fossils a reality. We have collaborated to turn my base skeletal model into stylised, machine-like depictions that can physically exist as free standing poseable displays. (4/6)
Future Fossils is developed with the support of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, so we're going back to where it all began: Megalosaurus. For the first phase, I sculpted a generalised skeleton in my usual style, based on the syntype series & related taxa. (3/6)
Last summer, Jay approached me with the coolest pitch: life sized, free standing, poseable dinosaur skeletons. Jay has worked for decades in the creation of spectacular art installations & exhibitions, but needed me to ensure the dinosaurs were anatomically contemporary. (2/6)
For about a year, I've been working as vizdev artist, science guy, & 3D CAD designer on an awesome project - Future Fossils. Directed by Jay Jay Burridge, Future Fossils is manufacturing a pack of life sized Megalosaurus skeletons, stylised as living machines. A thread (1/6) 🧵
We are set up in the vendor hall (table 14) at #DinoConUk (@dinoconuk), and we have a lot of stuff to offer! I will be absent from the stall from between 10:00 and 11:00, as I'm presenting the first main talk of the day! But we're here all weekend. Come and say hello! 🦖🦕🦴
I had no prior knowledge outside of the original green text meme & a handful of other viral images, so the lore stuff just didn't mean much to me. But it wasn't just that which lost my interest. Stuff like the dinner & Captain Clark just didn't work for me. These were my full thoughts post-viewing:
The opening slide of my @dinoconuk.bsky.social talk... I'm on immediately after the opening ceremony in the King's Suite on the Saturday, so hopefully I can start everyone's weekend in a fun way. We'll be investigating the idea of dinosaurs as living machines, size, muscularity, and more!
And the tracking version. I'm happy enought with how this looks in motion and how the rig functions that I should stop milking walk cycles and start doing some gestural tests and actual scene blocking...
A second walk cycle attempt of my "Crooked Rex" Tyrannosaur character model, with a look at the inner workings of the rig. It features a partial muscle and skin simulation using the native cloth physics in Blender, influencing the main mesh via surface deform modifiers.
With @dinoconuk.bsky.social just around the corner, I'm taking the opportunity to capture a few shots of the models I'll be bringing to my stall in the summer evening light.
And now, the same task again... But really really small. Eyes and claws to be painted tomorrow!
From the earliest WIPs, to the official press renders for Nature, to the raw 3D prints, to the handpainted miniature (debuting at @dinoconuk.bsky.social), my Spicomellus has certainly been a process.
Some more views of my painted Spicomellus. The model is about 30cm long, making it around 1/20 scale in a very approximate sense (the full body dimensions of the real animal are ambiguous).
Spicomellus, almost ready for @dinoconuk.bsky.social (just needs varnishing). This was not easy to paint for obvious reasons, but I'm super happy with the results.
(The goal is to bring it as close to the press renders as possible)