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Behind the Scenes: Transforming the Dinosaurs from Jurassic World: Rebirth
In today's Behind the Scenes, learn how we brought each species that features in Universal Pictures’ and Amblin Entertainment’s Jurassic World Rebirth to life in the Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion, from building the highly detailed models to animating their behaviours and giving the dinosaurs a voice.
Finer Details
The dinosaur creation process for Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion was slightly different than when we built our base game dinosaurs from scratch. We were incredibly grateful to our partners at Universal Products and Experiences for providing the team with fantastic film-quality 3D models as part of the collaborative creation process, featuring a huge amount of detail to be able to bring these animals to life on the silver screen.
Our Character team took these complex assets and transformed them into workable, game-ready models, while maintaining the high level of visual fidelity that our players love and expect from our dinosaurs.
In the case of the Quetzalcoatlus model, the raw files we received were incredibly large, comprising of hundreds of texture maps. Our talented team used these amazing assets to faithfully create dinosaurs inspired by those in the Jurassic World Rebirth film, reworking the small details, to deliver workable models that could be used in the game.
*Raw asset model before translating fine details.
One of the biggest parts of this process is translating all the fine scale and wrinkle details into useable displacement maps, so each model looks and feels as close to the film as possible. Using a variety of tools, the team converted all the details from the provided models into a precise greyscale map which is then applied back into a working ZBrush model to rebuild all that high level detail. This takes time as each ridge of skin, wrinkle of a wing or quill has to be translated over into the model before it is passed over to our Rigging and Animation teams.
*Displacement map with all fine details translated.
We also have to consider how this detail will appear to players in game, interacting with the world around it, like light sources. To add a further level of life-like elements, we used new transmission and subsurface scatter technology from the base game to bring the membrane of the Queztalcoatlus wings to life. Light passes though the thin skin of their wings naturally, exposing the veins, folds and wrinkles. Once illuminated by the sun, players will even be able to see small tears in the membrane that could be from prior injuries this fierce predatory pterosaur sustained while hunting. These small touches enhance the intensity and detail of the dinosaurs in the Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion, showing players and fans the dinosaurs they experienced in the film, up close and personal.
Each of the new species in the Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion includes its own film skin as a default option for players, but many of these species have new alternative patterns for players to choose from, expanding the visual options and giving players more ways to personalise their research sites. We tried to strike the balance between inspiration and creative interpretation with the alternative skins, so each of the species comes to life believably in their own way, while also showing a little personality and flair. Check out the Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion page for more information.
When designing the skins based on Jurassic World Rebirth, the team used shots from the film as references to make each one as accurate as possible. Every aspect was matched as closely as possible to make sure dinosaurs, like the giant sky-dominating Queztalcoatlus, had the same presence as they did in the film.
Not only did the Character team work on some dazzling skins for the new species in the Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion, they also created some fantastic new skins inspired by the movie variants for existing base game adult dinosaurs from Jurassic World Evolution 3, including the Tyrannosaurus rex, Spinosaurus, Mosasaurus and more!
Once we'd covered the flying species, we turned to look at the land based species, such as the tiny Aquilops.
As the Aquilops was one of the species that required a full family unit, the team had to look to paleo-research when designing the model for the juvenile. Using the film quality model provided , the team looked at any palaeontological research we had and interpreted it to create the most accurate juvenile Aquilops they could. Since it is already a small species, we had to consider how much smaller their young would be by looking at key features of the adult model we had been given, and then realistically size them down to build a juvenile Aquilops model to complete the family unit.
Once we had both the juvenile and adult models to make a full family unit for the Aquilops, the team could look at the skins and adult dimorphism for the species. Unlike some of the predatory dinosaurs in the Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion, this small herbivore wants to blend into its environment so its patterning leans more towards earthy colours that will camouflage it from danger.
Making Moves
Once the Character team have adapted the models to make them perfect for in-game use, they get passed to our Rigging and Animation teams to bring them to life with movement!
This process starts with a detailed look at the film to observe and note any of the interactions and behaviours we see, so we can accurately map out the way each species moves in context. This also gives us a good idea of what might be missing from the list of behaviours we need to animate for the dinosaurs in-game. While we see the Mutadon wreaking havoc on Ile Saint-Hubert, we don't see them relaxing in their enclosures or interacting with some of the other dinosaurs so, to match our other Jurassic World Evolution 3 species, we need to develop a full collection of animated behaviours.
Not only do we draw on Jurassic World Rebirth as reference for each of the species, we also look at some of the animals that were used as reference for their movement in the film.
As a combination of Velociraptors and Pterosaurs, Mutadons are cunning predators that needed to move naturally on land and in the air, making them an interesting challenge as we've never had a species quite like this in a Jurassic World Evolution game before. We looked to Universal Products and Experiences' use of condors and vultures as inspiration for the way Mutadons might move, as they have similar locomotion when navigating the transition from air to land.
The Mutadon wasn't the only interesting dinosaur to animate in the Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion. We worked together with the Narrative team to make sure each species' behaviours reflected their inferred nature.
The Distortus rex, for example, is a brand-new terrifying predator created at the main facility on Ile Saint-Hubert that has also been forced into existence by scientists pushing the boundaries of nature without care for the consequences. These origins framed how we approached the animation of the Distortus rex, using awkward movements such as lashing out with immense aggression to communicate that it may be in pain and discomfort as it traverses around its environment. Due to the Distortus rex's additional limbs and the way it favours its hind legs in the film, we also looked at how gorillas manoeuvred to create realistic movements for this new apex predator.
The Titanosaurus is another new species featured in the Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion and one of the largest species we have had to animate in a Jurassic World Evolution game. There were several hurdles the Animation team faced with this giant sauropod, the first of which was its size when interacting with the Hatchery! This graceful dinosaur has a long, slender tail and tall neck meaning our clever Animation team had to use their talents to keep the Titanosaurs concealed within the smaller Hatchery, before emerging successfully and making its way into an enclosure.
The second animation hurdle was the Titanosaur's tail itself. Memorably revealed by its iconic appearance in Jurassic World Rebirth, this dinosaur's swishing tail had to be true to its film appearance and interact correctly with the world around it. Designed to move gracefully, the team worked to ensure this magnificent tail cooperated with its surroundings to help minimise any clipping through buildings, fences and foliage, at risk of breaking players immersion in the wonder of the island's innovative species.
Once our dinosaurs looked fantastic and interacted with the world around them realistically, we moved on to one of the final steps of the process; giving them their voice.
Talking with Dinosaurs
Creating the sounds and vocalisations for the new species of the Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion was an interesting process as the majority of the dinosaurs are unique to the film, requiring close collaboration with Universal Products and Experiences and Skywalker Sounds.
The audio team started their research by watching each of the individual dinosaur scenes in Jurassic World Rebirth, making notes of how each species is portrayed. Then, we compared these scenes to the audio sources we were given, analysing how the vocalisation had been used for each dinosaur, matching the calls to certain behaviours or interactions. Much like the Animation team's process, this allows the Audio team to see where there were any potential gaps in the vocalisation profiles. Since we don't see moments of downtime with the dinosaurs during Jurassic World Rebirth, we need to create a full set of in-game vocalisation for any interaction, like eating, drinking or hunting, to add to that feeling that each of these dinosaurs is really alive.
To create this set of vocalisations for each species, we have two ways to build the additional dinosaur interaction sounds. Firstly, the team goes through the audio sources from Skywalker Sounds to see if they can be edited and expanded into more call variations. Then, if we can't find appropriate sources, we will reverse engineer the original audio to create new sounds for certain behaviours, using the same or similar sources of audio, and being guided by how the original vocalisations had been processed for the film to build a complete picture.
To do this we looked at the animals that inspired each species, including some of the the zoos where some of the sound sources were recorded. Working with the team at Skywalker Sounds, we also learned that they had used some really unique sounds to create species calls, roars and other vocalisations, such as their own pets, rubber oven mitts squeaking on countertops and even some extremely slowed down bird calls!
Going through these steps allowed us to make sure we had a full set of audio for each species, whether it's peacefully roaming its enclosure or breaking out and causing chaos.
Wishlist Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion Now
From adapting 3D film models and designing unique species patterns, to developing realistic movements and vocalisations, every team took care and had a lot of fun bringing each of these dinosaurs to life. Each step in the process allows us to bring a level of detail to these new, innovative species we hope you will love as you discover the ground-breaking secrets the island has to offer.
Observe the unique dinosaurs inhabiting Île Saint-Hubert, manage a top-secret facility and take on the inevitable chaos. Wishlist Jurassic World Evolution 3: Rebirth Expansion on Steam and Epic now.
