Post #164765 by Tiki-bot on Thu, Jun 9, 2005 10:46 AM

Wow, FD, this is a great start. In fact, you could easily make a great image from the elements you have there already. Work out your composition on paper a bit (tiki a little closer, move to right [centered is no good], then change your lighting to sunset [more moody], replace the snow-capped mtn with an erupting volcano. Add a couple tiki torches with flames to light the tiki and voila - 3D tiki masterpiece!

I'm actually doing my very first 3D tiki scene right now and it's hard even with 14 years 3D art experience. The 3D software on the market is really more suited to regular, mechanical, hard-surface models, and doing things like randomized plants and landscape is still difficult. If you don't want to make your own, Google for free 3D plant models and you'll find a few. Sometimes it's fun to just doodle with object placement without all the modeling and texturing to slow you down. Then you can perfect your lighting and composition and if you get something you really like, you can always go in and replace some weaker models with some nice ones.

Good luck!