3D Tiki....finally!

I finally did something I've been meaning to do for ages: build a tiki using a 3D modeling program and actually contribute something to "Creating Tiki" other than "awesome painting/carving/mug, dude!". I'm gradually putting together a large, digital tropical/tiki mural image for use in our soon-to-arrive son's room, and I figured the requisite tiki(s) would be a good place to start.

I've made a couple really simple, texture-mapped-only tikis before for the last game I worked on, but nothing this detailed. I thought about which tiki I wanted to reproduce and busted out the Tiki Art Now book. It hit me when I saw Ken Pleasant's awesome KuKu carving, which I saw at the TAN show and absolutely loved.

So, with apologies to Ken, here's my 3D KuKu (with in-progress wireframes for those of us geeks who like those sort of things):

Techie stuff: Created on PC with 3D StudioMax r.5. Basic shape subdivision modeled in polys and editmesh; Meshsmoothed the sub-D mesh, applied procedural wood texture.

Tiki-Bot,

Awesome painting/carving/mug, dude!

Seriously, nice job! Very cool. I can't wait to see the finished piece.

Ooooohhh... Wireframes! [drools]

Great modelling- I like the lighting, too. Well done.

Now make him talk. :)

and shoot laser beams out of his eyes...

That is bad to the bone.
What's the application equivelant for mac, any clues?
(like I really got time to learn another app!!!)

Tiki-bot, that looks so cool. I hope you keep working on the 3-D rendering and create a whole landscape of tikis. That would be a bitchen print to frame.

Nice. You might coulda just said "Looky this thing I carved!" and I'd be all like, "Sweet!"

Well done. I agree that you should eventually make prints. Tangibility adds value.

-Joe

On 2005-07-10 14:32, surfintiki wrote:
That is bad to the bone.
What's the application equivelant for mac, any clues?
(like I really got time to learn another app!!!)

I'm not up on the latest Mac 3D software, but Form-Z was pretty popular a few years ago. It was even used to model some of the spacecraft models ILM created for the "Special Edition" versions of Star Wars a few years ago.

Take a look at the forums on CGTalk.com. There's a sticky thread about "which 3d application should I use?" that probably has a ton of info and semi-informed discussions about which app is better. :)

WOW, I so wish I knew how to do that.

Very cool . Your little one will have the best room ever!!

Awesome Bot! Great modeling and rendering! BTW, you can get Maya for the Mac....I did this crude one while learning it!

project tiki holograms... could it be more cost effective than actual tikis and the related miscellany. man, i think you got something there... for the consumer - home tiki hologram projection sytems that integrate with your home theater or network. you could project entire tiki-themed spaces in any room of the house, yard or garage. sell 'em to retaurants, retail environments and, ultimately, walmart...

or not

send the wireframe through autocad to any one of a variety of milling devices and cnc modelers. mill prototypes and send the winners to asia for full scale production... outstanding!

Tbot, he looks exactly like you carved him out of pine, cypress or redwood, then but=rned the grain for highlites and then put on a mahogany stain. Very cool. Like RumDemon said, you could have passed it off as a carving and we would all be asking what stain and finish you used. Awesome dude!

Funny, it never occured to me to fake a carving with this model, and I've been looking to pull off a faked image gag like this for a while, too. But I wouldn't feel right scamming TC folks...well, maybe a few. :wink:

But if I did do a fake, it might look like this:

Original photo stolen from Basement Kahuna's carving thread. Just to be clear, this photo is a fake. It's my 3d computer generated tiki on top of an old BK photo. I simply adjusted the lighting and camera angle to match his photo as closely as possible.

[ Edited by: Tiki-bot 2005-07-11 09:10 ]

Awesome computer art. I took me a little while to make sure that pic was your digified tiki, not someone elses carving pic you got your inspiration from. I dont know if I can compliment it any btter than that. Looking forward to seeing more.

How long did it take?

Like I said, looks like a real carving. What stain did you use?

This is amazing!!! I wish, oh how I wish I understood all that!! lol

(but I am pricing my first Wacom even as we speak...I'm so excited!!!)

So cool....great job!!

On 2005-07-10 22:02, hewey wrote:
Awesome computer art. I took me a little while to make sure that pic was your digified tiki, not someone elses carving pic you got your inspiration from.

Thanks. Just to make things more confusing, there is a real tiki I used as inspiration in the Tiki Art Now book. The "real" tiki is by Ken Pleasant (keigs20)

How long did it take?

About 3 hours.

On 2005-07-11 06:09, Fourcrows wrote:
This is amazing!!! I wish, oh how I wish I understood all that!! lol

(but I am pricing my first Wacom even as we speak...I'm so excited!!!)

So cool....great job!!

Thanks, FC. I'm just getting back to using my Wacom a bit more than in the past. My 2D skills have deteriorated so badly that I have to fall back on 3D all the time, which is a lot more time consuming. I'm so envious of the skilled 2D artists here and elsewhere, especially the ones with their own distinctive retro or cartoon styles. I could never do stuff like that. But if you need a spaceship modeled.... :wink:

That's so funny...I'm just the opposite...while I love drawing, and have paraphernalia (of the artistic kind!) laying everywhere...lol...my house has become my studio...I see what's done in GC and I'm in absolute awe....I just ordered the Wacom...I got the Intuos3 6x8...I've heard it's something you'll never regret....but 300 bucks for an experiment is SCARY!

anyway, I may just have to talk to you about that spaceship sometime! How cool would that be!?!?

now you've got me thinking...lol...I love this board! :)

and by the way, as far as I'm concerned this is amazing art! (not just computer stuff...) Don't think any less!

Nice job man!

There's some true artistry behind taking something from basic forms & knowing how they will look when you Sub-d 'em!

Very very nice......

How many bandaids did you need for all the cuts from that guy??

that is very cool. the fake looks pretty darn real to me. It would probably have fooled me if you tried to slide it by. again good job.