Post #643543 by Gene S Morgan on Tue, Jul 10, 2012 9:23 PM

I have been following the recent thread by Whystler on creating tiki pendants with 3D computer programs. I thought I could add a little to the discussion. About a year ago I had a thread about trying to create tiki designs for t-shirts. At that time many of the artist here like Wendy, Zerotiki, MaddogMike, and others encouraged and helped me in my attempts. I really love the step by step threads here (Wendy drives me crazy with her cool ceramic work. I wish I could still do that)

This image is of an assortment of tiki pendants I have made using one design. OK, they are not perfect tikis. It was my first try and I was experimenting with different designs to see how they would print up.
This thread may go a little slow …. I'm on dial-up and everything I do is in slow motion.

This is a free computer program called Sculptris. It is free and available online. It starts with a gray ball of digital clay. I'll show you some of the ways you can shape it.

Couple of things you do to start. On the right you will see a carved tiki I have grabbed an image of online. (I do that a lot for inspiration. You will see I don't come close to copying) This is done using another free program called Image Overlay which allows you to keep a reference image visible on top of Sculptris. The bottom white arrow points to the symmetry button. If you push that button all your work will be mirrored. (makes things easier) The top arrow points to Grab. With Grab you use a big brush and pull the ball into any shape you want. I often start with a log. That is what you are suppose to carve tikis from.