Click on a picture to see the original version or the new version.

For more information about how this shot was created, see below!


Cut #3 presented a number of problems. This is a fan favorite; "Turu the Terrible". However, like so many of the characters in the JQ line up, Turu never quite looks the same twice. In the opening titles, he is shown as two-toned purple with a white beak. In the actual episode, he is black and pinkish with a tan beak. And the shape of the beak, itself, changes sometimes within one continuous shot. It ranges from very short and pointed to long and roundish. I decided to go with a combination of looks, which would be black and grey with a tan beak in the shape of a typical Hanna Barbara animal character. Also - and this is probably the most distressing feature - Turu has a really large pot belly and teensy, tiny feet which are clearly too small to support such a grand waistline.  Considering that the tubby look is a mandatory part of the Turu Legend, I decided to increase the thickness of his legs and widen his shoulder muscles a bit. Not that ANY of this will increase his aerodymanics but this would hopefully make the belly less of an issue. In short, I threw out any sense of a realistic pteranodon and went totally cartoon, in terms of design.
But color wise, I just couldn't bring myself to build a purple dinosaur.
Sorry, you JQ Purists. Too "Barney" for my comfort zone.

To start, we need a dinosaur skeleton!


 


 

First I draw an outline of the torso on some hardwood.

A bit of sanding to take off the rough edges.


 

A careful application of putty to add girth without adding too much weight.
 


 

A wooden skull with a really, really large, hinged mouth is frabricated from hardwood, as well.
 


 

I then draw an outline of the skeleton.
 


 

The joints of the skeleton armature will require some very strong but flexible wire. After haunting the local hardware store, I came across a sale on some cheap bottle brushes. The twisted steel wire turned out to be ideal.
 

The outer "arms" required a gentle curvature. So I soaked wooden dowel in hot water and then bent them in a quicky jig. Once dry, they held their shape perfectly.


 

A quick test to make sure that the armature fits the drawing!
 


 

The flight path was a simple arc. So I constructed this pivoting model mount that could be marked off very precisely in increments.
 


 

Looking very "Alien" at this stage.
 


 

And here we have the classic Hanna Barbara look. I found that sometimes Turu looked a lot like Dino with wings.
 


 

While I worked on the head, Brandi was tasked with rolling out the clay for the wings. The total wingspan was about 30 inches, so that required several bricks of clay. Making her job more difficult was the need for the clay to be black on once side and grey on the other. So two sheets were created and then rolled together into one. This is much harder than it looks.
Which is why I let Brandi do it. ;)
 


 

Once the clay was flattened, the armature was carefully put in place and the wings cut out with an exacto knife. The extra long leg is to attached to the rotating model mover.
 


 

Turu in front of the blue screen, awaiting his close up.
 


 

Me doing the honors. Click on the photo for a larger view!
 


 

What the final comp looked like.  Motion blur for the wings was added in Photoshop. The clouds are from a shot I took today. I just stepped outside, pointed the camera at the sky across from our house and, presto! Instant background. I then animated it on the computer to slide by at a diagonal and also added a tiny bit of motion blur, for good measure. Sun flare courtesy of Adobe.  Click on the photo for a larger view!

The final clip is at the top of the page!
Thanks for looking!

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