The Brigham Young University Museum of Paleontology recently acquired a new Utahraptor specimen that they wanted to place with their other cretaceous fossils (2017). The museum curator and lead paleontologist asked me to recreate the space in question using 3D packages to experiment with different interior layouts. I came up with five configurations for them to investigate as part of the brainstorming process. To do this I used Autodesk Recap Photo to get the exact dimensions of the room, cleaned up the scans and posed the fossils with Autodesk Maya, and rendered it in SideFX Houdini.

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They had several parameters I had to comply with in coming up with the designs:

1. All cretaceous fossils must stay together in the same room (meaning that I needed to add the Utahraptor without removing any of the other fossils),

2. All fossils must be either out of reach from children or have it be clear that you shouldn't touch them (with the exception of the large sauropod, which is sturdy enough to not worry),

3. If possible, there should be a small exhibit built into the Utahraptor mount to display the original fossils, and

4. Save as much money as possible. (Specimens can't be re-posed, re-use as many structures as possible, etc.)

I was able to suggest redesigns of the specimen mounts (bases) in this visualization so long as it was within their capabilities to do (i.e. I figured curved glass, round wood, etc. would be too expensive and labor intensive, and I tried to keep as many of the bases/structures they already had to reduce labor costs). 

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Please note that I did not model the skeletons shown; they are either downloaded from third parties or are cleaned up scans from the actual museum. Please also note that this had to be completed within just a couple of weeks, and as a result is not lit, shaded, or set-dressed with production quality. It is a very practical interior layout brainstorm meant to communicate placement ideas.

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