Kwakwaka'wakw Honouring Pole Study — Maddie Christian - Environment / Level Artist

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This model is a study of a specific Honouring Pole, the Kwakwaka’wakw Honouring Pole, which is present in Thunderbird Park, British Columbia, Canada. This pole was carved in 1999 by carvers Sean Whonnock and Jonathan Henderson, to honor the Coast Salish People, the Indigenous People of what is now called Thunderbird Park. A 530 year old tree was sourced for the log, which originated from Quatsino Sound.

This 3D study was specifically for me to study existing beautiful art and learn something new in all aspects, as an artist who works with computers and their technical challenges, a traditional artist who has worked with clay and wood, and as a person living on the North American continent.

This study expanded my knowledge in how to handle organic, hard surface objects, character/creature modeling techniques, and fundamental understanding of the artistic and cultural processes and significance that go into honouring poles.

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I sculpted the high polys in Zbrush, retopologized the lower poly models in Maya, baked the high poly maps in Marmoset Toolbag, and textured in Substance Painter. Final texture tweaks were done in Photoshop.

I set up the scene in Unreal Engine 5, utilizing the terrain sculpting, painting, and foliage placement tools to build the forest. The tree and rock models were sourced from Quixel Meganscans. I used a combination of directional lights, sky lights, post process volumes, and point lights to light the scene. I played with the volumetric cloud material to achieve the overcast, stormy clouds that I wanted to further set the mood.

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The programs used to create this project:

Autodesk Maya, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Photoshop, Marmoset Toolbag, Unreal Engine 5.

No Generative AI was used in the making of this project.

All credit for the beautiful, original piece of art goes to carvers Sean Whonnock and Jonathan Henderson, the Coast Salish People, the 530 year old tree the log was sourced from, and the Royal British Columbia Museum for providing the free reference images.

Thanks for reading! :)

Project ETHOS (Public Beta) - Environments

Bristlecone Pine Trees Study