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Nature's Wonders Sneak Peek Thread

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
While I'm steadily working on the Bird of Prey series updates (native DS version, Iray and Superfly support), I did take a break this morning to work a little more on my next Nature's Wonders model...

ant.jpg
 

Miss B

Drawing Life 1 Pixel at a Time
CV-BEE
Ohhhhhhh Kaaaaaay. I'm stumped Ken. What/which insect is that? Curious minds want to know.
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
Yup... a generic ant. While there are over 12,000 ant species in the world, I'll probably only do 12 (unless there's a big demand for more).

The 12 I've decided on are these. What I haven't decided yet is whether all of those species are going to also be "prop" ant line models as well as full characters. I'm planning on a ant line prop (probably a dozen of so) that would have some movement/variation morphs like my flock formation sets have. With the several duplicate props, it will be super easy to create a sizeable ant line.
 
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Miss B

Drawing Life 1 Pixel at a Time
CV-BEE
Ohhhh, I'm liking where you're planning on going with these. A single ant line marching along would be great, but a bunch of them hanging around one area, say a picnic blanket with unguarded food, would be great too.
 

Lyne

Distinguished
HW Honey Bear
Yup... a generic ant. While there are over 12,000 ant species in the world, I'll probably only do 12 (unless there's a big demand for more).

The 12 I've decided on are these. What I haven't decided yet is whether all of those species are going to also be "prop" ant line models as well as full characters. I'm planning on a ant line prop (probably a dozen of so) that would have some movement/variation morphs like my flock formation sets have. With the several duplicate props, it will be super easy to create a sizeable ant line.

I'm glad your site of "these" (link) is SO visited, it's down for the moment... I mean, so many visitors it's exceeded the allowance... shows how much interest! :) I'll try again later... I must admit I wasn't sure I'd want an ant, as I have one very high quality red ant I got somewhere long ago, BUT thinking of adding that detail with different kinds of ants IS very appealing, so I AM interested! :)

One thing about a line of ants....especially for on YOUR grounds... they'd have to be able to be individually moved up or down, slanted, etc to place a line on uneven ground.... yes?
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
One thing about a line of ants....especially for on YOUR grounds... they'd have to be able to be individually moved up or down, slanted, etc to place a line on uneven ground.... yes?

I'm not sure how much of a "tilt/slant" control I can do but maybe simple 20 degree x rotate. There will definitely be a separate ytrans control for each ant on the line. as well as some x and z movement as a group meandering the line a bit as well as lengthening/shortening distance between the ants. I'll probably add an opposite leg up morph(s) so that you can give the appearance of movement for animation.

The "red" ants you are probably referring to are Harvester Ants. We have a dozen or so colonies in our native garden. The LA County Natural History Museum comes by about every two months to collect some for their exhibit and lab work. They also collect black widow spiders. I tell them not to hold back on either and collect as much as they want. lol.

For those unfamiliar with Harvester Ants; they are fairly large red-orange ants that have a very painful sting (3 out of 4 on the Schmidt pain scale). The pain index works like a Richter scale-- a "2" sting is about 10 times worse than a "1" sting. A "2" sting would be like a honey bee. Yes, I have been stung numerous times by harvesters and even once by a "4", the tarantula hawk. I didn't see it in a bush I was trimming until it was too late. It was like putting my finger in a light socket for 5 minutes. I used a lot of very colorful language (and for those who know me, that's very uncharacteristic).

A little bit of native garden medicine, if you get stung and have Artemisia douglasiana (more commonly known as "Mugwort"). Rub a mugwort leaf on the sting site-- it will offer significant pain relief. It wouldn't have worked for the tarantula hawk, but it has helped with mosquito bites and harvester stings.

Ps. I used Atlas Obscura's site for the Schmidt article partially to share that site with you. It's a worldwide organization that organizes field trips to interesting places-- anyone can go. We've had a couple Atlas Obscura trips to our house/garden.
 
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