Nature's Wonders Sneak Peek Thread

[Ken Gilliland]

I see some of these at the reptile show. Tiny, tiny little froggies. Colorful as bedamed, and probably nowhere near as dangerous as in nature. But I'm still not picking them up with my bare hands.

Yes, the majority of Poison Dart Frogs are only .08-1.2 inches (20-88mm) in length, so they are really, really small. I suggest tuning sensitivity/nudge in your xyz trans and rotate when posing these to at least 10 times more sensitive.

Now that I have a little more time to play (the HW horse version of Racing Tack is about done), here's a render of my Dyeing Poison Dart Frog.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

After starting research for my Frogs v3 set, I might be changing the order of volumes. While v1 (leopard frogs and other common ones throughout the world) and v2 (the colorful poison dart frogs) were pretty much no brainers, v3 I feel needs to start filling some gaps in my digital frog world. Originally, I was considering Bullfrogs for v3. As I researched I found that Bullfrogs aren't really a scientific classification of frogs, rather they are simply lumped into a group by their large size and aggressive behavior. I think for v3, I'm now more inclined to pick an actual scientific classification like Toads or Tree frogs... I'm leaning towards toads because they will require a few new morphs and that will give me the chance to add and correct a few things I want in the base model.

For you froggers, here's a chance to give me suggestion for more morphs... I know I already want some morphs to expand/fatten up the underside of the frog.

 

[Flint_Hawk]

I never realized there were so many colorful toads!

My favorite is the Fire-bellied Toads. But there's also:
Red Toad
Yellow Toad
Green Toad
Bumble bee toads
Sonoran green toad

 

[JOdel]

Yes. Toads are a reasonable next step. They turn up in gardens which don't have a water feature (other than the gardener watering them) and ghod knows they turn up in folklore.

But then again...

 

[JOdel]

BTW, the vendor known as Parrotdolphin (pervayor of fine shader packages to Poser users, and more recently to DAZ Iray users as well) has just today released a character over on the DAZ site. It's called Pd Poison for G3F.

It's a human poison dart frog skin.

 

[Rae134]

Here in Aus I think we only have frogs that look like toads with only one "True Toad" being the introduced pest Cane Toad.

 

[Harimau]

Here in Aus I think we only have frogs that look like toads with only one "True Toad" being the introduced pest Cane Toad.

Aussie Tree Frogs do look like real frogs, I think. Here is an example.

 

[Rae134]

Yes Harimau we do have some pretty frogs, but Ken was doing "True Toads" which I don't think we have any

 

[Harimau]

Yes, you are correct. There are no native toads in Australia. Incidentally, poison dart frogs are actually genetically closer to toads than to true frogs. Strange is'nt it?

 

[Miss B]

BTW, the vendor known as Parrotdolphin (pervayor of fine shader packages to Poser users, and more recently to DAZ Iray users as well) has just today released a character over on the DAZ site. It's called Pd Poison for G3F.

It's a human poison dart frog skin.

I saw that, and knew PD had to have been over here viewing Ken's wonderful artwork.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I never realized there were so many colorful toads!

My favorite is the Fire-bellied Toads. But there's also:
Red Toad
Yellow Toad
Green Toad
Bumble bee toads
Sonoran green toad

Some interesting toads, FlintHawk, looks like I might have to do a second toad volume since only the Fire-bellied is on my Volume 3 list.

Aussie Tree Frogs do look like real frogs, I think.

There will be a tree frog volume. I do have plans for more Australian/NZ frogs; Hochstetter’s Frog (Leiopelma hochstetter),
Eastern Banjo Frog (Limnodynastes dumerilii), and White’s Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea) (the frog in your picture) are on my lists.

Yes, you are correct. There are no native toads in Australia. Incidentally, poison dart frogs are actually genetically closer to toads than to true frogs. Strange is'nt it?

Yes, they are,... the Panamanian Gold Toad is on my list which also falls on some Poison Dart frog lists.

Here's my list of Toads for Volume 3:

• Oriental Fire-bellied Toad (Bombina orientalis) found in Asia
• European Common Toad (Bufo bufo) found in Eurasia and Africa
• Common Spadefoot Toad (Pelobates fuscus) found in Europe
• Panamanian Gold Toad (Atelopus zeteki) found in Central America, Critically Endangered/extinct in the wild
  
• Southern Toad (Bufo terrestris) found in North America (Deep South, USA)
  
• Western Spadefoot Toad (Spea hammondii) found in North America (California, USA)

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I saw that, and knew PD had to have been over here viewing Ken's wonderful artwork.

Interesting...probably not a coincidence. My frogs even showed up in DAZ advertising last week and Renderosity's about 3 weeks ago. I'm just glad someone besides me likes frogs

 

[Miss B]

Actually she did a nice job of it. A very unusual character skin, but it looks pretty much like the design of your Poison Dart Frog.

 

[JOdel]

Yes, you are correct. There are no native toads in Australia. Incidentally, poison dart frogs are actually genetically closer to toads than to true frogs. Strange is'nt it?

Not that strange. Toad skin has irritants too. Nothing like a poison dart frog, but a predator which happily catches and eats frogs (like, say, a cat) will usually only try that once with a toad.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

For those who haven't seen this yet...

2017 Open Rendering Season Contest is here

There is a small sale of my and LisaB/HW products alongside this contest with a Central and South American theme which just happens to fit in nicely with Poison Dart Frogs

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I think I've added enough new morphs to make a decent toad... I'm going to look at my list for the other volumes and see if I need any others, plus add in a couple small things that bugged me about the originally cr2. I might add in a control that brings all the digits closely together (toes/fingers on the feet and hands) , so there's no spread.

 

[Chris]

Looks great Ken, this will be fun to watch this develop.

 

[Harimau]

Ken, will you be issuing a value stack on your frog series in the near future or beyond? Here is an interesting fact on the most poisonous Poison Dart Frog of them all, the Golden dart frog, Phyllobates terribilis (which translates as ‘terrible leaf walker’). Interestingly, the frogs are non-poisonous in captivity. It gets its poison, batrachotoxin, from an as-yet-unidentified arthropod, probably a melyrid beetle.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Frogs will be put eventually into a value stack as I did it with the Lizards and Moths. I rarely bundled them upon release, to me bundling is a way to give products a second life-- to reintroduce products at the store. In my experience, making a living at creating animal models takes a lot of patience. They rarely sell big numbers upfront as most other models do but usually have an extraordinarily long shelf life. It takes years often for me to break even on a set, so I pace my sales and discounts accordingly.

Interesting stuff you posted about the Golden PD frog.

 

[Harimau]

I think all your sets are superb, but I am not into birds and lizards. I am more interested in mammals. However frogs are an interesting bunch. I'll try and save up for a few sets. Incidentally, all poison dart frogs lose their toxicity in captivity, not just the golden PD frog as my last post seem to imply. Keep up the good work.