Songbird Remix's Product Preview Thread

[Chris]

Mockingbirds are notorious cat attackers.

Here's an Iray render of my Common Poor-will, a nightjar that often seen in our yard at dusk, camped on the ground, patiently waiting to hawk Sphinx Moths. I was searching my library looking for an environment/ground texture that holds up well to close focus and went, duh! lol... why not use my Sagebrush Habitat, after all, that's what I created it for (to hold up to close focus shots).

View attachment 34852

The common poor-will is the only bird known to go into torpor for extended periods (weeks to months). This happens on the southern edge of its range in the United States, where it spends much of the winter inactive, concealed in piles of rocks. This behavior has been reported in California and New Mexico. Such an extended period of torpor is close to a state of hibernation, not known among other birds.

I can't believe how real this looks. So well done. Certainly a favorite.

 

[JOdel]

Question: Is there a database on your site which lists which bird species uses which conforming additions?

I'm in need of a Phoenix, and I've got the Birds of Legend package which has a Phoenix. However, the bottom feathers of the conforming tail 9 which it uses have a transparency map which to my eye is *too* transparent.

A list of what other birds (and which packages to find them in) which use conforming tail 9 might point me at a transmap which would be better for my purposes.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

thanks Chris... praise from you always means a lot to me.

@JOdel- I, at one time, had a list of all the conforming parts and what birds they were used in, but I spent the morning looking for the spreadsheet and can't find it. I don't think T9 is used by any other sets-- I checked some of the other ones I thought that could have used it (Yucatan, Gamebirds, C&U2). I'd suggest taking the T9 template and simply making something that works for you.

 

[JOdel]

Ah, Okay. Was hoping for a shortcut. Thanks in any case.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

I have a little bit of bad news on the Waterfowl series updates... After days of trying to keep it to work and talking with a Poser 11 expert, it appears that Superfly doesn't read stacked transparency layering of my facial feathers correctly on the waterfowl models and produces artifacts. The only real solution would be to redesign the heads of my models to have less transparency layers to accommodate Superfly's issues or to simply wait until the Poser developers address the issue. I've chosen the later since many of the waterfowl species depend on those transparency layers. On the plus side, this appears to be the only models that have this issue (that's noticeable) in Superfly.

In short, the updated Waterfowl series will get new Iray and 3Delight versions for DAZ Studio and an updated Firefly version for Poser. I will do a Superfly version as well IF the rendering issue is ever corrected by the developers.

 

[Miss B]

Thanks for letting us know Ken. We can only hope the Poser team corrects the SuperFly rendering engine to get it to work properly with multiple transparency layers.

 

[phdubrov]

It's a pity. One question to be sure: do these artifacts appear with really crazy high min/max transparent bounces, like 128/256?

 

[Ken Gilliland]

It's a pity. One question to be sure: do these artifacts appear with really crazy high min/max transparent bounces, like 128/256?

Unfortunately they do...BUT this last weekend I reworked the 4 Waterfowl models, carefully adding a little more space behind the transparency layers. While it hasn't solved all the SF issues, I think they're minor enough to let SF users have them and let them decide what's showstopping (A little post-work will fix the worst issues).

There is good news for the current and future DS waterfowl users too. Since I corrected the models for Superfly, I had to reimported them into DS. This led to my dissatisfaction which how my Iray secular maps efforts had turned out.

It's not an easy thing to simulate iridescent feathers that have multi-colored sheen (as many birds have). Of course you can paint the sheen into the texture but it's not really the same as the lighting hitting the texture and making the sheen. After a couple days of experimenting with every single input in the iray materials, I found the right formula (at least I think-- ask me again tomorrow when I look at the ducks again lol).

Here are some iray test renders showing the iridescent feathers...

The male Northern Shoveler... notice the green and blue sheen in the neck... btw if you were wondering how this duck got its name-- check out the bill

The extinct Pink-headed Duck has a nice green to turquoise sheen on the back and wing feathers ...

The male Wood Duck is a showstopper with its colorful aqua (cheeks) green to brown (Crest) and Purple to Brown (neck) colored sheen

Okay, enough show and tell, time to finish building the Superfly versions

 

[Miss B]

Hey Ken, when's your annual Audubon sale going to be this year?

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Hey Ken, when's your annual Audubon sale going to be this year?

Do you mean my annual Audubon's Birthday sale?
I never publicly announce when the sale is before it starts (at best referring to it as "my Audubon event near the end of April), but it is pretty easy to figure out if you do some Googling on it's namesake

Here's a Superfly Canada Goose

 

[Miss B]

Do you mean my annual Audubon's Birthday sale?
I never publicly announce when the sale is before it starts (at best referring to it as "my Audubon event near the end of April), but it is pretty to figure out if you do some Googling on it's namesake

Funny you should mention it's namesake, as I had checked the online dictionary for the spelling, and it had further information about the man himself.

As far as the announcement, I understand that, and I thought it was around "this time of year", so no problem, I understand.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's a Superfly render of the male Mandarin Duck. There was a small artifact rendered (which I retouched) on the forehead/beak, but it's 95% better than it was last week... so the Superfly versions will be included in the update.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

With over 10,00 different bird species around the world, it's not a surprise that even I find birds I've never heard of/seen/read about before...

Such is the case with the Araripe manakin... check out his hair-do

The Araripe Manakin, Keeper of the Spring Waters

 

[Miss B]

Ohhhh look at that, though I think I like the female's crest better, but red IS my favorite color.

 

[Jan]

I looked and liked the male Araripe Manakin from the rear view with his striking black markings on white topped off with his red headdress.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's a little more eye candy from products you'll see at the end of the month (this time, a Poser firefly render). It's nice to have a proper Nēnē, that old Seabirds (WF1) model never captured a goose too well. The Bean Goose from Birds of Legend will probably get a remake too using the Waterfowl Goose model (though that will come later this year)

 

[Miss B]

Niiiiice. I'm going to have to check to see which of the water fowl I have.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

The Nēnē (Hawaiian Goose) is now listed as "Vulnerable" which has been which has been saved thanks to the Federal Endangered Species Act (FESA). The population when Captain James Cook landed in Hawaii in 1778 was estimated at 25,000 birds. It fell to 30 birds by 1952. The Nēnē population currently stands at 2,500 birds with over half in the wild and the rest in in wildfowl collections and zoos.

 

[Janet]

The three babies are getting big!

Bald Eagle Nest Cam - Sauces Eagles at Channel Islands NP | Explore.org