• Welcome to the Community Forums at HiveWire 3D! Please note that the user name you choose for our forum will be displayed to the public. Our store was closed as January 4, 2021. You can find HiveWire 3D and Lisa's Botanicals products, as well as many of our Contributing Artists, at Renderosity. This thread lists where many are now selling their products. Renderosity is generously putting products which were purchased at HiveWire 3D and are now sold at their store into customer accounts by gifting them. This is not an overnight process so please be patient, if you have already emailed them about this. If you have NOT emailed them, please see the 2nd post in this thread for instructions on what you need to do

RELEASED Hivewire Big Cat Has Begun!

Mythocentric

Extraordinary
Thank you! There are some amazing big cat videos on the NG site. That's one of the unseen bonuses of Hivewires Big Cat for me in that it got me thinking about their real life counterparts and, sadly how much trouble some of them are in. There are only around 10,000 cheetahs left in the wild and mainly because of human predation! One thing that did impress me was the total concentration on their prey. The way their heads tracked the target almost as if they had some kind of TA radar! Totally locked on!
Whatever you do make time for that trip. It's the journey of a lifetime! We took the girls to Kenya some years back and one of the highlights of the trip was seeing a lioness stalk and bring down an antelope within 15 feet of the truck. It appears that they've learned to use the trucks as sort of mobile camoflage but the finesse and speed of that lady was awesome. Not that some of the other occupants were impressed. They considered it, "Disgusting! We shouldn't be allowed to see that sort of thing!". I don't know where the hell they find these people but happily for the rest of us, they left a couple of days later after one of them found a (large) spider in her shoe!
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the Big Cat family. If the Leopards anything to go by we're in for a real trat of epic proportions!
 

Harimau

Eager
Hi Chris,

Had a good look at the attachments given above by Desertsilver. Your models of the cougar (Puma concolor) are really nice, but they are not the final ones yet, are they? I hope it is not out of place for me to comment on the current models.
1. The cougar and its close relative the cheetah are quite distinct from the other big cats. They are actually big "small cats". They have proportionately smaller heads relative to their body size when compared to the other big cats. Your model's head, I think could be a wee bit smaller.
2. It has a long heavy tail, about two thirds to almost the combined length of its head and body. I think you captured this very well indeed.
3. Among all the the big cats, the cougar has proportionately the biggest hind limbs of all, allowing it to make spectacular leaps. The hind limbs of your model could be made a bit bigger.
Here are 2 pictures I downloaded from the Web to illustrate the points that I am making.
cougar-jumping-felid-wild-animal-mammalia-carnivora-wilderness-wildlife-1280x1024.jpg
1000064-cougar.jpg


I can't resist this picture of a kitten with its mother. Hint: I hope you will include a kitten in your release.
Motherly Love.jpg

Incidentally, there IS another puma, the jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi). This is a rather unusual looking small small cat - see the following pictures
Jaguarundi.jpg

mam033-184116.jpg

5370463399_e5585cb9c7_b.jpg


You may consider this a future project????
 

Zaarin

Brilliant
I agree with Harimau's comments about the mountain lion/puma/cougar/[insert nth regional name here] (the Tlingit have a proverb that a child with many names is a sign of much love: P. concolor clearly is a dearly beloved cat). Cool thing once we have the mountain lion: it would be a great base for the American cheetah (Miracinonyx spp.). :D
 

Chris

HW3D President
Staff member
Co-Founder
Thanks for the Cougar input. Always helpful to gather more insights.

Yeah, I've read the same info on Wikapedia, and have made the head smaller, and face shorter, tail much longer and thicker, and back limbs longer and taller among other adjustments. I've also collected many images as references and found the best that I could to use as a sizing outline for a profile reference to use as a guide point for me.
 

Lyne

Distinguished
HW Honey Bear
Oooo oooo!! I just bought the new movie Jungle Book on BluRay!! Have to ask is there any news on when the 'boys' might be ready for us?
 

Chris

HW3D President
Staff member
Co-Founder
I think Alisa might have an update on the boys, or could certainly answer that better.
 

Miss B

Drawing Life 1 Pixel at a Time
CV-BEE
That's an interesting observation Lyne. I never realized they had that difference.
 

Lyne

Distinguished
HW Honey Bear
To Bump or Not To Bump.... I've found that in certain lighting, the bump is set too high for the leopard/cub... in Poser 2014 anyway... so today I went in and turned the bump on: Fur- Body/Ears/Tail way down...and got a softer smoother coat, much to my delight! Some of my leopard renders are fine, but others show an almost 'rough clay sculpted' look to the fur that is from the bump setting... I'm glad that Poser offers me ways to make subtle changes in the material nodes... one reason I do love PP 2014! :) The one I'm working on now has very strong lighting from a challenging direction- hence my studying on this... I've noticed that really some strong/bright lights can bring out/up the bump.... and in case you wonder, it's the same for Ray Trace and Depth Cued shadows. (I also turned the bump OFF on the Asiatic Lilly petals, as it was causing ridges).
 

LisaB

HW3D Vice President & Queen Bee
Staff member
Co-Founder
Lighting certainly does make a difference. I think we all strive to develop in generic lighting that shows bump and displacement off at a "normal" camera view. Once something is tweaked or zoomed in or out, then it's sometimes necessary to tweak ... And that's where the magic happens! You go from "load and go" to "customize and go" and become part of the creation process. Beautiful!
 

CWRW

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
What Lisa said:) Different lighting and how close in or far out one is etc will come into play- yes it pays to play with the bump settings for different lighting for sure. Easy to do in ANY version of Poser or Daz Studio actually. I am always messing with tweaking my own and others MATs in most renders I do for myself. In making the MATs for products yes I try to find an average that works in pretty straight forward lighting and showing the full body. I can make myself nuts doing this:) There is no one perfect MAT for every lighting and camera situation, though one tries!
 

Pendraia

Sage
Contributing Artist
Hi Angela and welcome to the Hive! I don't think the tiger is one of the ones they are working on currently but hopefully Chris or Laurie may be able to give you more info.
 

Harimau

Eager
I think the clouded leopard is one lesser known big cat that you should consider doing. It is the smallest of the big cats although the largest specimens are almost as big as a small leopard. It is unique. It has proportionately the longest canines of all living carnivores (Carnivora) almost as long as the canines of the shorter-toothed sabertooths with a gape of close to 90° (all other extant felids can only open their mouth up to an angle of 55 - 65°). It is also the most arboreal of the big cats and like the margay (Leopardus wiedii, a small cat), is able to climb down a tree headfirst, as such it has proportionately the shortest limbs among the pantherines with flexible joints in its hind feet and large broad paws. It also has an exceptionally long and plushy tail, almost equivalent to its head-body length as a balancing aid. Along with the "cloud" patterns on its coat, all these attributes make it one of the most beautiful of cats. There are two species of clouded leopard, Neofelis nebulosa (Mainland Clouded Leopard) and Neofelis diardi (Sunda Clouded Leopard). Molecular genetic studies have shown that they are as different from each other genetically as the tiger is from the lion. They are so similar to each other in size and build that as late as 2006 they were considered as one species. The other similar looking big cats are of course the leopard and the jaguar, but these two are very different in size and body build and can be differentiated by these features alone. They can also be differentiated be pelage pattern, the jaguar having central spots in the rosette while the leopard has none. Likewise, the clouded leopards can be differentiated by pelage pattern. I have collected some information and pictures to illustrate the pelage patterns of the two cats and the other features mentioned above which I hope will be of help to you should you decide to do a clouded leopard. The following information on pelage patterns is taken from the paper "Geographical Variation in the Clouded Leopard, Neofelis nebulosa, Reveals Two Species" by Andrew C. Kitchener et al, Current Biology 16, 2377–2383, December 5, 2006:

Neofelis nebulosa (Griffith, 1821 [15]).
Distribution: Mainland Asia, including the Nepal, Sikkim,
Assam, Burma, China, Indochina and Malaya,
and the island of Taiwan.
Diagnosis: On shoulders, large cloud-like markings,
which extend the full depth of the flank and slope
back from the dorsal midline, with mostly few spots
within the clouds; a partially double dorsal stripe;
pale, often tawny ground coloration.

Neofelis diardi (Cuvier, 1823 [18]).
Distribution: Sumatra and Borneo, including the Batu
Islands.
Diagnosis: On shoulders, small irregular cloud-like
markings, which form two or more rows that are arranged
vertically from the dorsal midline on the flank,
with frequent spots within clouds; ground coloration
that is overall grayish yellow or gray hue; a double
dorsal stripe.


This is a photograph of Neofelis nebulosa demonstrating its general build and pelage pattern. Note the proportionately short and sturdy limbs. The pelage pattern is very typical of N. nebulosa with large clouds stretching almost the entire flank anteriorly and smaller clouds in the rear. There are indefinite spots within the clouds anteriorly and almost none posteriorly. Pale, tawny background coloration.
Clouded-Leopard-Log-clouded-leopards-24368628-2560-1920.jpg



This is a photograph of Neofelis diardi. Here the clouds are darker, much smaller and more numerous. There are many definite black spots within the clouds and the clouds have thicker black borders. Darker, tawny background coloration (This one, however, hasn't got the grayish hue; the Sumatran sub-species have a tendency towards tawny).
clouded_leoprd_wwfwallpaper.jpg



These pictures show the pelt of N. nebulosa, A from above and B from below. Note that dorsally there are definite stripes towards the front and also towards the rear. In the mid section striping is indefinite. Again, there is an absence of spots within the clouds. The underbelly is lighter in color, in this case white.
Nebulosa pelt.jpg



These pictures show the pelt of N. diardi, A from above, B from below. Note that there are definite dorsal stripes throughout the full length of the back. Note also the overall grayish yellow ground coloration with a gray hue. The underbelly is also lighter in color, yellow in this case.
Diardi Pelt.jpg



This photograph shows the long canines and huge gape (close to 90°) of the clouded leopard.
Clouded_Leopard_Mouth_Open_(Small).jpg



This photograph shows its plush long tail.
dsc_8148-178166.jpg



This photograph shows its large broad paws.
clouded-leopard1.jpg


Lastly, this a photograph of a cub showing off its oversized right front paw.
2012-07-22-07.jpg
 
Top