Mount Rushmore

[pixelpusher636]

I've always swung for the fence but this might be a stretch... Can the experts out there on forum advise? I would like to create Mount Rushmore but have no idea how. I have ideas where to begin but nothing solid. I'm not an advanced user nor a novice. Ideas on the best method anyone? Thanks in advance.

J

[TheBadger]

Hi,

Im no expert. But I had wanted to do this too.  I thought one way would be to get a geological map of the actual terrain. Normally maps like this are costly, but because its a national forest I would bet that you can find something for free.
That would give you a great level of realism in the terrain details; scale, position of land marks, and so on.

For the monument it's self... I had thought that the best way to put the sculpture in to the mountain side would be to do a 3D model in a modeling app, and once you got it into TG an properly placed you could texture it in TG2.

I think that doing it procedurally would be a nightmare project, if its even possible. But I don't think its possible because of the overhangs, and the amount of very specific information needed; not just 4 faces, but 4 distinct faces!

There are probably lots of other ways, but this is the one I would have tried.

If you don't know how to model, it may be possible to find a model. Google's 3D warehouse is your best bet for something like that.

Others may have a better method.

Good luck. And let us see it if you get it looking good.

[cyphyr]

Try here:
http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
You'll need to create an account (which is free) and I believe there may be some restrictions on data use.
Tutorial By Ryan Archer here. Looks like the USGS site has updated since this tut but the principles will be the same.
Do a search for USGS on this forum for lots more links.
Good luck
Richard

[lat 64]

There are lots of models of Mt Rush at:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=mount+rushmore&styp=m&scoring=t&btnG=Search

I use the free Sketchup to model things and then export to Collada .dae format, and then pipe it through Blender to get a .obj file—very clunky, but it works!
If I had the coin to buy Sketchup ($500.00) I could just export directly to .obj.
Money cures everything eh?

Russ

[cyphyr]

Useful methodology, but can you add trees and other populations to an imported obj? I think not.
Richard

[pixelpusher636]

Wow! I'm SO glad this site isn't dead like I was beggining to think. It's still a community after all!! Thanks guys for the input. Cypher I think I'm going to persue your idea, as it makes the most sense to me and with my limited skills. I appreciate your time in answering this. I will certainly post my results. Looks like I'm firing up blender! Strayed from it since they changed so much of the UI. albeit the changes were for the better but that doesn't help me when learning where everything is all over again. I'll be in touch guys!

[pixelpusher636]

Adittionally, I think this method would be great for creating Easte Island sculptures.

[cyphyr]

Hmmm, my apologies for being a bit thick!
Mount Rushmore, the one with the huge faces of US presidents. Yup, should have realised  ...
The method I described above will give you a relitvly high resolution base mesh for your actual mountain but will not help with the faces. Possibly a method similar to Chris_x422 described here sculpting the faces in ZBrush and importing them back into TG.
Richard

[pixelpusher636]

We that's a very good point Richard! It didn't register with me right away either but it certainly does now. I was trying to wrap my mind around how it could pick up the front faces but then again I have seen some impressive Buttes from the western US. Also thanks for the link! Not only is it informative but extremely interesting.. Who knew!

Jay

[bigben]

Get a hang glider, strap on a lot of cameras, create a point cloud with photogrammetry software. Convert the point cloud to an obj.

Love the work of XREZ.
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=1a012e5b-f88f-481f-ab3e-98f32c36665e
[attach=1]
Overhead point cloud view of Yosemite

[Oshyan]

Yeah, the Yosemite data is *incredible*. I was experimenting with a workflow to get that data into TG a little while ago. Preliminary results were promising but there was as yet no easy/direct route. Hopefully one day, as it's really awesome-looking data.

- Oshyan

[bigben]

There are people who have hacked the point cloud from photosynth. It was a bit out of my field but I'll see if I can find the paper

[Oshyan]

There's a site that actually rasterizes the point cloud into standard DEM formats. That's what I was using. Something that turned it into contiguous geometry would be useful too, but actually as a terrain it's better for TG so you can populate on it, etc.

- Oshyan

[bigben]

OMG, there goes my weekend...   It was quite some time ago that I looked at models but there's a whole range of stuff pointing to elevation models. We've just established a new relationship with research services at our uni and this has some interesting potential (to do more fun stuff at work )

[Oshyan]

I think this is what I was playing with:
http://opentopo.sdsc.edu:8080/gridsphere/gridsphere?gs_action=lidarDataset&cid=geonlidarframeportlet&opentopoID=OTLAS.112011.26911.2
Notice you can calculate a DEM using Local Gridding or TIN.

- Oshyan