Nature's Wonders Sneak Peek Thread

[Rae134]

There are 2 ways, it depends on the type of snake. They can unhinge their jaw, swallow the thing whole. They can't digest fur feathers or claws so they regurgitate that after the rest is digested. The other way is with their venom, the victim is bit and injected with the powerful venom, this will start to break down the tissues inside of it. Then the snake is able to suck up the liquid remains and enough a meal.

 

[Miss B]

Yeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww! I'm so glad I already ate, or I'd probably want to regurgitate.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

It's probably too much work to hybridize my lizard model to this species but thought I'd share the article about this super cool looking salamander

Swampy Thing: The Giant New Salamander Species Discovered in Florida and Alabama • The Revelator

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Amazing!

 

[Miss B]

If I weren't able to see his eyes easily in that first image, I would've thought he was a plant! Amazing for sure.

 

[Stezza]

Here's a story for you ant lovers

Story link here

Known as the dracula ant, its jaws snaps shut 5,000 times quicker than the blink of an eye.

A Blood-sucking ant with a scaringly speedy jaw sets the new record for fastest animal

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I'm trying to squeeze in one more project before the end of the year (although it probably won't get released until next year)...

here's 2 of the 5 lizards (Yellow-headed Gecko and Carolina Anole) for Lizards of the World v4: Lizards of Central and South America

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Two more, the Rainbow Whiptail and the Mexican Alligator Lizard... now just the Giant Tegu left to do

 

[Miss B]

Oh I'm liking that Rainbow Whiptail.

 

[JOdel]

Lizzies! Animals studying to be jewelry!

 

[Flint_Hawk]

These are striking Ken!

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I thought the Rainbow Whiptail was a challenging lizard to create, but the texture for what I thought was a "simple" white and black lizard with a Gila Monster type patterning was not so easy (he says three bloodshot eyes days later).

The giant tegu is giant... measuring about 36 inches (92 cm) at maturity and can get up to 55 inches (140 cm).

Now, that I have the lizard textures in place, it a matter of tuning them, adding some bump/normal maps where needed and creating the materials. I'm guessing this lizard set will surface in the store in early January.

 

[Chris]

Wow, Ken you sure are prolific! And these all look great.

Way to go man.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

This lizard is found in dry, open regions of Brazil (Amazonas, Rio Grande do Sul, Goias, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Ceará, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Sergipe, Piauí, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Paraíba), Uruguay, Bolivia (Santa Cruz), Paraguay, Argentina (Formosa, Corrientes)
USA (introduced to Florida). Adult males are much larger than the females and can reach 3 ft (92 cm) in length at maturity. It can reach 55 inches (140 cm) in length.

Tegus have unusually high intelligence and can also be house-broken. Like other reptiles, tegus go into brumation (a form of hibernation) in autumn when the temperature drops. They exhibit a high level of activity during their wakeful period of the year.

Salvator merianae has recently been shown to be one of the few partially warm-blooded lizards, having a temperature up to 10 °C (18 °F) higher than the ambient temperature at night time.

Rendered in Iray with no post work. Models include Stonemason's "Through the Woods" and my Nature's Wonders Lizards and Lizards of the World v4

 

[Flint_Hawk]

That looks amazing Ken!

 

[Miss B]

Absolutely amazing work Ken.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Lizards of the World v4 is out!

...and yes, the Lizards set base is required.

Also the updates for Vultures v1, Vultures v2 and Condors are out. If you already own these, redownload them. If you bought them at the other place and haven't registered them at Hivewire3D, follow the instructions to transfer your products. If you don't have them (why is that? lol)... here's a way to solve that issue with the Scavengers Bundle.

 

[Alisa]

Adding my note here too and my lol

I inadvertently wrote in the HW ReadMe files for the Condor and both Vultures that these were updated as of 1-5-2018 instead of 1-5-2019.

I've fixed that in the files and they will be re-uploaded, so you may want to wait til I post here that they are fixed (or change that date in your ReadMe to 1-5-2019 ) before re-downloading.

 

[Alisa]

All fixed!

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's my Rainbow Whiptail from Lizards of the World v4 along with the Yell0w-footed Tortoise in an Iray render. I used Stonemason's "Through the Woods" for the environment. While I love that set, if I did the render again I probably would have replaced the ground texture with one of my "habitat" ground textures that holds up better to close focus. My habitat sets are specifically made to hold up better to macro shots.