A recent issue of 3D World had this model of a Doc Oc like character and a tutorial on how to set the rig up. I started working through the tutorial but found it somewhat impractical. They used a spline IK solely to drive the tentacle setup, which gives it a nice smooth look but keeps it from being able to plant on any surface and ends up severely limits its usefulness. I ended up doing a completely different setup than the one in the tutorial, even delving quite a bit into mel script to get what I wanted, and am fairly pleased with the results, enough to include it on my new demo reel.

The tentacles are not mine and were provided from the CD of the above mentioned magazine. I eliminated the Doc Oc model from the scene, partially so that I could separate the work I did from the tutorial and partially because I wanted a simple central character to test my tentacles with.