Abstract
Based on the analysis of morphological characteristics of the beak of
the cuttlefish Sepia pharaonic, computer graphics technology and state
of art 3-D modeling technology were used to reconstruct the 3-D model of
the beak. The light reflection principle of a 45° prism was used to
obtain a beak image containing five isometric views from different
angles after one shot. Then the software Photoshop CC was applied to
extract the external outline of the beak from the image respectively,
and the reference gallery was established. The ZBrush 2020 software had
been applied to sculpting the beaks as realistic as possible before
these digital 3-D assets were printed as an existing object. These
printed models were compared with their prototype beaks and that of big
fin reef squid to verify their accuracy. It required enough learning
cost to manipulate the state-of-art 3-D constructed software like
ZBrush. However, once a standardized model of the beak has been built,
it’s easy to refine and apply to species of cephalopod from different
types of habitat (pelagic, benthic, and demersal). The models can be
obtained quickly with lower cost compared with present underwater
photogrammetry and/or micro-CT scanning and have sufficient precision
for quantitative interspecific morphological analyses. The research can
provide new ideas and lay a foundation for the comparative morphology
analysis of the beak of different species, and also provides convenience
for marine biology visualization, and/or digital multimedia development.