Songbird Remix's Product Preview Thread

[Ken Gilliland]

There are two folders:
29 Birds of Legend & 29 Birds of Legend for DS3
I'm using DS4.7 ... so which one should I keep?

dump the DS3 ones-- DAZ significantly rewrote their Poser code importer in Version 4.0+ to conform with all Poser coding. Version 3 or earlier versions didn't allow Poser's Propagating Scaling of child items which Songbird ReMix uses heavily.

I've discontinued support of any version of DAZ Studio below v4.5
I'm currently supporting Poser 9+ (although any of my birds will work in Poser 6).

 

[WillowRaven]

Thanks. I wanted to make sure I was using the right one and want to save a monochrome of space by deleting the other.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's a great video about Cornell studying a species the Florida Scrubjay-- there's some truly magic moments in the video.
You can use my Western Scrubjay to fill in for the Florida one-- they look the same-- it's the location, call and behavior that set the species apart.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Good bird news... The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing the i'iwi, a red honeycreeper unique to Hawaii, as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the agency announced Monday.

The I'iwi is found in Songbird Remix Cool 'n' Unusual Birds 1 and Songbird Remix Hawai'i

 

[Miss B]

I remembering thinking that was very unusual when I saw your promos for it. I wondered how it got anything with it's beak/nose shaped like that.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I remembering thinking that was very unusual when I saw your promos for it. I wondered how it got anything with it's beak/nose shaped like that.

It has specifically evolved to the shape of Hawaiian orchids so it can feed on their nectar. As more and more Hawaiian orchids have gone extinct (thanks to humans), the beak of the I'iwi has slowly been straightening.

 

[Miss B]

Oh, interesting, and yes drinking nector would work with that shape. I'm not all that up on the feeding habits of all species of birds, so was thinking if it had to actually "eat" solid food, it would be hard.

One thing you can count on with Nature, everything evolves according to it's necessities.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

For those of you thinking that I created my Sagebrush Habitat specifically for the lizard sets, that's only partially true... I'm back to work on my next bird model which will encompass 3 species; The Greater Sage-grouse and the Lesser and Greater Prairie Chickens. The Sage-Grouse lives almost entirely on the Great Basin Sagebrush (Artemsia tridentata), which just happens to be the centerpiece of the Sagebrush set.

wip model


For those unfamiliar with these majestic and endangered birds, here's a video clip of the Sage-grouse...

Yes, I will be making the animate-able air sac on the males.

Here also a National Geographic video on all life in the sagebrush habitat

 

[Miss B]

Ohhh, birds for the Sagebrush Habitat! Niiiiice.

 

[Alisa]

Amazing looking creatures! Watched a few minutes of the video - need to go back to it later

 

[Jan]

Agree with Alisa. Wondering how you are going to do the males fluffy feathers on the breast around the sac. Going to look good though, is it going to be a stand alone base or are you morphing one of the other bases. I loved the way the female was giving the males an up and down look, one could almost imaging her holding up flash cards of her score

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Agree with Alisa. Wondering how you are going to do the males fluffy feathers on the breast around the sac. Going to look good though, is it going to be a stand alone base or are you morphing one of the other bases. I loved the way the female was giving the males an up and down look, one could almost imaging her holding up flash cards of her score

It will be a new base because I'm going to need a lot of extra geometry in the neck to create the air sac on the males. I've been thinking about that fluffy collar... there are two routes; one is to do what I did in Vultures with a series of rings to make the collar, the other is to create a huge series of planes... I'm leaning towards the latter.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Amazing looking creatures! Watched a few minutes of the video - need to go back to it later

Yes, the National Geographic video, I think in particular, is a great resource... it shows an amazing amount of wildlife in the Sagebrush Steppe habitat. From the Golden Eagle and the Great Horned and Burrowing Owls, to wolves, pronghorn, coyotes, rabbits, prairie dogs, and mule deer, this vast 'wasteland' is anything but that.

 

[carmen indorato]

Here's those test renders I promised.... and yes, that's a Kakapo (a very endangered NZ parrot) on the snag branch. It's looking pretty good overall; I'm going to need to add some geometry to smooth out the base of the tree snag, move some intersecting flax blades and fix a few texture seams. I'll also probably add some SSS to the plant leaves.

I did use several endemic NZ plants for this set... the Kidney Fern (Trichomanes reniforme), the Kauri Tree Snag (Agathis australis), the common shield fern (Polystichum richardii) and Bush Lily (Astelia fragrans).

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This terrain like the other one I saw in your store looks really cool. I have a few of yours in my wish list but for now
I am desperate for a good large set of sand dunes. Complete with wind blown scrub grass and detailed drifted sand and beach debris (pebbles, shells, sea grass dead fish and realistic fish skeletons, twigs and half buried driftwood, etc.).

Your birds (and mine!) would love to live there if you include nests and other options for them to build nests in. I have a set of ground debris I think you had for sale at DAZ yesteryear somewhere i hope I can find or re-download from my huge purchase archive there but I really need this sand dune set. Gonna take a look through your tore again while here and see if there are any other environments there i might be able to adapt for this project....for now.
But are there any hopes sir for the needed set above!?
Or if anyone else knows of a good sand dune set that you think would fit my description please let me know.

 

[Lyne]

Wonderful, Ken!

 

[Ken Gilliland]

This terrain like the other one I saw in your store looks really cool. I have a few of yours in my wish list but for now
I am desperate for a good large set of sand dunes. Complete with wind blown scrub grass and detailed drifted sand and beach debris (pebbles, shells, sea grass dead fish and realistic fish skeletons, twigs and half buried driftwood, etc.).

Your birds (and mine!) would love to live there if you include nests and other options for them to build nests in. I have a set of ground debris I think you had for sale at DAZ yesteryear somewhere i hope I can find or re-download from my huge purchase archive there but I really need this sand dune set. Gonna take a look through your tore again while here and see if there are any other environments there i might be able to adapt for this project....for now.
But are there any hopes sir for the needed set above!?
Or if anyone else knows of a good sand dune set that you think would fit my description please let me know.

While not exactly what you are asking for, Nerd3D's "Waves at the Beach" is fairly close. You could easily add some grasses to it or repurpose some of mine by shifting the hue on the texture maps and/or altering the transparency maps (the standalone bush lily or blue grama grass come to mind). I do standalone versions of all my plants for just that reason, so they can be used to supplement the main set or used outside the set. I also recommend Nerd3D's Swamp set-- I use that all the time for my Waterfowl and Shorebird sets. I've shifted the color of the reeds and removed the trees to make some great coastal wetlands renders.

I will eventually do more habitat sets (and the dunes is an interesting idea), but right now my focus is returning to birds.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Oh, interesting, and yes drinking nector would work with that shape. I'm not all that up on the feeding habits of all species of birds, so was thinking if it had to actually "eat" solid food, it would be hard.

One thing you can count on with Nature, everything evolves according to it's necessities.

The most fascinating thing about the majority of Hawaiian birds is that they all evolved from the common house finch. Somehow some house finches got blow off course and ended up in Hawaii thousands of years ago. From there, they evolved to their surroundings; in areas where there were lots of orchids, curved beaks occurred... in areas, where there were lots of insects, flycatcher behaviors became the norm and in areas where there was a lot of seed and grain, thick seed cracking bills evolved.

Here's a chart from my SBRM Hawai'i manual...

 

[Miss B]

Amazing they all evolved from the house Finch.

 

[Jan]

Carmen, there is a set at Renderosity called Sandworld-Oasis by 3-d-c that you could check out, it has a sand terrain and even a water pool. Maybe this would suit your need, have a look.

 

[Jan]

It will be a new base because I'm going to need a lot of extra geometry in the neck to create the air sac on the males. I've been thinking about that fluffy collar... there are two routes; one is to do what I did in Vultures with a series of rings to make the collar, the other is to create a huge series of planes... I'm leaning towards the latter.

Sounds like a challenging process, but worth it.