Songbird Remix's Product Preview Thread

[JOdel]

So, no privatizing bird names. Got it.

 

[Janet]

Yes, the American Ornithological Society has decided to remove people's names from the common names of birds... so birds like Audubon's Warbler will go back to Yellow-rumped Warbler (a name they've had 3 or 4 times since their discovery-- it's bounced between that and "Audubons").

Personally, I think they should just drop all the human-oriented names and go to the descriptive ones like "Yellow-rumped Wabler".

The American Ornithological Society Will Change the English Names of Bird Species Named After People
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/01/bird-names-racism-audubon/

I just logged in to post an article about this.

This article has a slightly different take I think.

Dozens of birds, including ones named after white supremacists, are being renamed (msn.com)

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I just logged in to post an article about this.

This article has a slightly different take I think.

Dozens of birds, including ones named after white supremacists, are being renamed (msn.com)

I left the "named after controversial humans" part out of my post, thinking that the two articles I linked to explained that reasoning as well, but the renaming goes farther than that. The AOS is planning to remove the "named-after-human" names on all birds in their jurisdiction regardless of the person's possibly checkered past.

------------------

Here is my Common Cuckoo from my upcoming Cuckoo set in Iray. Its call sounds exactly like one of the clocks that bears its name. Cuckoos probably win the "bad parents" award considering they lay their eggs in other birds nests and let them raise their offspring. In the case of the Common Cuckoo, it has the ability to change its eggs color (prior to laying it) to match those already in the nest, thus helping to fool the unsuspecting foster parents.

 

[Janet]

Okay.

By the way the wing fold on your chickens is fantastic!

 

[JOdel]

I've been seeing ads for this company in the fanfics I've been reading for some time now. But the chicken leash is a new one...

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Digital gardeners beware.... I'm working on a Caterpillar project for the end/start of the year. This is a work in progress shot of the rigged model with a couple basic morphs to create the Tomato Hornworm. This model will (I hope) be able to create a number of the spined/spikey species too

 

[JOdel]

Ah. More bird food.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Yup... lots of birds eat caterpillars

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's another Iray render from my latest release, Cuckoos...

This is the Chestnut-breasted Malkoha which occurs from southern Myanmar (Tenasserim), through the Thai-Malay Peninsula including Singapore, and on Sumatra and the neighboring Mentawai Islands and Bangka, Java and Bali, Borneo, and the Palawan group in the southwestern Philippines.
Its favorite food is caterpillars.

 

[JOdel]

I see the cuckoos are out at Rendo.

 

[Miss B]

Yes, I just saw them too.

 

[JOdel]

So/ Today's cool thing on the internet was a series of scrap metal bird sculptures by Airtight Artwork which I gather is on Etsy. There was a whole series of them reblogged on a Tumblr account that I look in on.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I finally got a wip texture on my caterpillar... here's the terror of most vegetable gardeners... the Tomato Hornworm

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's a Firefly render of the Tomato Hornworm in a wip promo image. I'm still deciding what exactly to put in this base set. It has the usual; the model, some poses and a key species (the Hornworm). There are numerous texture variations on the Hornworm so I'll probably include some of those. The versatility of the model will show on the add-on "Caterpillars of the World". I plan to do the "Spiny Elm Caterpillar" (which turns into a Mourning Cloak Butterfly), a Woolly Bear (which turns into a Tiger Moth) and a Black Woolly (which turns into a Painted Tiger Moth), as well as others. I guess another moth set might also be in order so the caterpillars counterparts will be available.

I might also have to do a tomato plant for my hungry caterpillar... lol

 

[Stezza]

Curly grubs are plentiful here and we collect them for the local wildlife rescue who feed them to the bandicoots which is their fav food.

Curly grubs turn into scarab beetles like the iridescent Christmas beetle which seems to have all but disappeared because of the windscreen phenomenon

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I may eventually do grubs... and actually debated trying to do a grub morph on the caterpillar, but the arraignment of body parts is just too far apart to do it well-- it needs a separate model

 

[Ken Gilliland]

It's starting to look like a finished product-- here's an Iray render of the White-lined Caterpillar on a Hummingbird Sage (from my Hummingbird Garden set). The moth that this caterpillar turns into (the White-lined Sphinx Moth) is part of the Giant Moths base set.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's wip version (Poser-Firefly) of my Western Tent Caterpillar

 

[Flint_Hawk]

That is amazing!

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's an overview of my Caterpillar sets in Poser FF/SF... the base set includes 3 types of Hornworm and the first "...of the World" set includes 5 different types of caterpillar including a few of the most well known like the "woolly" ones and the Milkweed (that turns into a Monarch Butterfly). I'll probably be looking to rebuild my Moth model into a Butterfly over the Holidays