Daiwik Bommireddipally

Jack Godwin
Gavin Orehostky
Melody Zhang
Proposal
Our project animation will focus on the evolution of the human skull. The human skull
has evolved considerably since the genus Homo first appeared about 2.4 million years ago.
Although the evolution of the human skull doesnt necessarily follow a linear path, we will be
following one in order to produce a clear animation. Evolution is taught in the biology
curriculum at Panther Creek, but many areas in evolution are still up for debate.
The skull will be floating in a museum-like room to show its gradual evolution into the
modern-day human. The movie will start from Homo habilis, then to Homo erectus, then to
Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and finally Homo sapiens. The movie will be a
smooth animation until the skull reaches each distinctive evolutionary stage, whereupon the
animation will pause briefly for a short piece of information and the skull will be viewed from
multiple viewports.
To create the first skull, well start with a sphere and extrude, bevel, and apply textures;
this will be a learning process and is subject to change. As we go from skull to skull, well use
the morph tool to apply each evolutionary change. Homo habilis had a cranial capacity of
slightly less than half the modern human (at about 650 cm3) and more closely resembled the
skull of an ape. Homo erectus had a cranial capacity of roughly 1000 cm3; compared to Habilis,
this species had a face that was less protrusive. After Erectus comes Heidelbergensis, a species
that shared traits with both its predecessor and Sapiens. It had a cranial capacity of roughly 1300
cm3; in addition, it is believed to have been the first of Homo to bury its dead. Heidelbergensis
had a series of firsts in developing recognizable human culture.

Daiwik Bommireddipally
Jack Godwin
Gavin Orehostky
Melody Zhang
Although not a lot of people have heard of Heidelbergensis, the word Neanderthals
conjures the image of a typical caveman. Neanderthalensis is closely related to the modern
human with only 0.12% of their DNA being different. Their brain size was actually larger
because they lived at higher latitudes, but their brain to body size ratio is about equal with
humans. Neanderthals had a large nose and a reduced chin, but otherwise were quite similar to
Sapiens.
Our project animation will focus mainly on the skull and its evolving bone structure; the
background scene will not be detail-heavy for that reason. In addition to an animated skull, we
will have animated words representing the main location and spread of each species. The
background music will be unobtrusive and continuous throughout the entire movie. Our movie
will begin with a spoken introduction and end with a conclusion.