For a while now, some of us have been having some fun photographing toy Jeeps against real world backgrounds. It's another way of appreciating the craftsmanship that goes into a nice model, or just seeing the toy in a new way.
Steve Mark of Kansas City has taken this idea a step further, by creating a virtual 3D model of a Tonka Toy Jeep, whose color, position and size can be manipulated on screen, before it is placed into a background photo.
Click on any of Steve's pictures for a large version (100K) suitable for use as an 800x600 desktop picture.
Working primarily from the side view photo on the Dispatcher Details page, Steve created a wire frame 3D model (seen behind the Tonkas here) which can be rotated into any position. It is then given details, color and lighting, and rendered to produce a final version which can be placed in front of a background.
Steve says, "The programs used to create the digital pictures, were Adobe Illustrator 5.5, Adobe Dimensions 2.0, and Adobe Photoshop 3.0. The images were created on a Power Macintosh G3/266, with 416 megs of RAM, a Hewlett Packard ScanJet 5P, and a Sony DCR-TRV320 digital camcorder, with memory stick. High resolution versions of the digital images were created at 300 dpi. The bigger files are 25-30 megs each. You can still use old software and a 4 year old Macintosh, to create really nice images."
"Everything in this picture is virtual, even the snow. Its was a lot of fun playing with, on a cold winter's day in the midwest! The Jeeps are not exact dupes, because of the limitations of the 3-D program, and the processing time to render it out," comments Steve, who has obviously played with a few real Tonkas in his time.
"Here's a drawing of a 3-D Tonka on the beach. I really like the lighting on this one. All of the photo backgrounds are out of Jeep catalogs. There is a real Jeep Wrangler hidden behind the virtual Jeep in this photo."
Here's the most elaborate illustration Steve Mark has done in his series of virtual 3D renderings of Tonka Toy Jeeps. This one is the popular Tonka AA Wrecker.
Steve comments, "It's a Texaco filling station of the late 1940's. It wouldn't be without its trusty Tonka Jeep Wrecker, ready for its next service call. Notice the detail in the Coke machine, and bottles. All of the motor oil cans are labeled. You can even see the gas prices in the pumps, and the details in the small tools. I wish I had this set up when I was a kid to play with!"
He's also done a cutaway wire-frame illustration of the wrecker (60K GIF).
Thanks to Steve for the cool illustrations. He's also done the Fire Pumper. -- Derek Redmond
See also some real Tonka Toy Jeeps on CJ3B.info.
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