Megalodon Jaws

 Something I had started work on the first time I tried to scan the megalodon tooth was a set of jaws to display them with. They were basically finished being modelled when the tooth proved too difficult to complete.

I started by grabbing two reference images of shark jaws from google to use as orthographic reference. The jaws were proving to be quite a difficult shape due to the twisted nature of the bone.

Using a lot of edge loops and distorting the mesh in some very peculiar ways, I was able to produce this low poly version of the 1/4 of the jaws at only 230 tris.

 From this I was able to UV it quite easily as it had sharp edges to cut across and I smoothed it with a subdivision of 2, leaving the model at just less that 4k.

I was happy with the smoothed result so chose to go ahead and duplicate it, top and bottom. I felt that since the jaws were not the primary focus of this exhibition that it was not super important that the jaws were different on the bottom. Also due the variation between shark species and the variation in megalodon fossil shapes, I thought that duplicating it would be most efficient.

I then took the model into substance painter and used the bone smart material to give it a basic texture. I duplicated the dirt layer and decreased the height level for it creating a worn and porous look to the bone.

The final step was taking it into UE4 and lining up the teeth on it. The model was too big to fit inside a single case so I removed the divider which I think improved the aesthetic by adding some variety into the museum. Once I had the teeth laid out on 1/4 of the jaws, I grouped them and then adjusted the scale and rotation to fit the jaws on the other sides. I also adjusted the lighting within the case adding some deep blues for an ocean colour and then some ambient green spotlights for the bottom to add a tint.

I am happy with this last minute addition to the museum as I think it is a very appealing display complete with the inspectable aspect of the teeth. It brings the megalodon teeth together into a great final piece.