Abstract
The beak which is the feeding organ of cephalopods contains extremely
rich ecological information. To understand its function in different
species the research to the 3-D morphology is essential. In this
article, a full workflow of 3-D model restoration of high-fidelity
cephalopods beak, based on software-oriented techniques, was
established. To begin with, take an upper beak of cuttlefish Sepia
pharaonis for example, a group of isometic view from different
orientations for modeling references could be obtained synchronously, in
few images, with triangular prisms around it. The software Photoshop ©
was applied then to extract the contour of the beak hence to build the
2-D reference gallery. Thirdly, the software ZBrush 2020© was exerted to
create the beaks in 3-D digital form as realistic as possible, based on
reference gallery we built, and printed. These digital-twin models were
compared with their prototype beaks and that of big fin reef squid to
verify their accuracy. The aim of this study was to provide a feasible
method for digital modeling of small organic objects like cephalopod
beak that is accurate, and fast enough to support scientific research
and popular communication.