Songbird Remix's Product Preview Thread

[DanaTA]

I spotted it as soon as I scrolled down enough to see the bottom of the image! The right wing pair drew my eyes, then I noticed the head and the striped body.

Dana

 

[Ken Gilliland]

As the Australia Tiger has probably given away, these birds are found in Australia and New Zealand (although the Pacific Reef Heron can be seen elsewhere too).

For bird nerds, this spoonbill is different from every other spoonbill because Australia always does things a little differently Seriously though, whereas every other Spoonbills have a distinct spoon-like bill, the Yellow-billeds' bill looks more like tongs.

 

[Szark]

again another awesome render and cool new birds. They look very cool, never saw them in NZ, mind you I never saw many species whilst living there, shame on me.

Is that Stonemason's Willow Creek set? Have it in my wishlist.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Yes it is Willow Creek... I picked it up recently when it was on sale. I figured it was perfect since Stonemason usually includes NZ looking plants in his sets.
While this range map doesn't show it, the Yellow-billed does visit the southern edge of NZ

 

[Szark]

are I never went farther south than Milford Sounds and only there. My main area was Taupo and Rotorua though I lived in Auckland.

 

[JOdel]

Somebody over on tumblr posted a shot of and article on the Bearded Vulture. Very handsome bird. And scary.
BLOOD AND BONE

 

[DanaTA]

Wow! The California Condor also has a nine foot wingspan. Scary stuff.

Dana

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Yup, the Bearded Vulture loves bone marrow and is the biggest vulture of the "old" world. The California Condor is the biggest in the "new" world. The primary difference between between old and new world vultures is that while old world vultures use sight to find their prey, new world vultures follow their noses, tracking prey from up to 10 miles away.

The Bearded Vulture (the one with the Guy Fox facial hair) graced my Vultures volume 2 main art when it was first released.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's the Red-crowned cranes from the upcoming SBRM Shorebirds v4

 

[Janet]

Shape shifting birds??? I was taking a shower this morning, got back to my laptop and my cat was sitting on the keyboard watching this video:

No idea how she got there. Thought some people here might enjoy it.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

yes, birds of paradise are pretty amazing

 

[Miss B]

That's putting it mildly. Good on your cat, Janet, for finding that video.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's my Easter Egg hunt image from Shorebirds v4. The birds featured are a couple Scarlet Ibises in the background and the Rufescent Tiger-heron in the foreground. Also, in the image are number of Nature's Wonders product... hence the egg hunt. So what are we looking for?

• 3 Decorated beauties (m/f) from Moths of the World v2
• 2 Mangrove darters (m/f) from Dragonflies and Damselflies of the World
• 1 South Leopard Frog from Frogs of the world v1
• a line of Leaf Cutter ants from Ants Lines

Chances are you'll have trouble seeing everything because of the field of depth and slightly over-exposed sun settings I used, but most of it is visible.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's a sneak peek at one of the changes you can expect on the update to Flock Formations (which probably will be out towards the end of my sale). Apart of the new folder structure, feather translucency and Iray/Superfly support. I redid the Flying V and Inverse Flying V sets completely.

The old 2008 goose model is not match for my 2018 Goose model (which the update uses now).

Original Flock Formations Goose


Updated Flock Formations Goose


I may create an additional materials set that adds two both volumes

 

[Miss B]

Are you updating both Flock Formations now, or is this just the original, with updates to the second set at a later date?

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Both Flock Formations have been updated and are already in the QAV pipeline. Volume 1 received a significant update with the replacement of the Goose and the addition of Iray and SF materials. Volume 2 is a little more cosmetic with the moving of the Poser folder structure to the Character folder (in Studio, it was already that way).

I've managed to stop-up the pipeline with all my updates and new sets. With my sets, first you'll see Shorebirds v4 appear, I'm then guessing it's going to be at least a week-maybe two, before you see both Flock Formations go live. In addition, Ostriches has been updated and is waiting.

 

[Szark]

I am swamped with work at the mo but as soon as I am free I will take a gander, no pun intended.

 

[Miss B]

Both Flock Formations have been updated and are already in the QAV pipeline. Volume 1 received a significant update with the replacement of the Goose and the addition of Iray and SF materials. Volume 2 is a little more cosmetic with the moving of the Poser folder structure to the Character folder (in Studio, it was already that way).

Thank you Ken, as I have both sets, so am happy you've worked on both of them.

 

[JOdel]

Oh splendid. The Flock formations is something that gets used a lot.

Am looking forward to the new birds as well. I saw in your newsletter that the peafowl are still in the pipeline. I've needed a white peacock for years. Will there be chicks? Or is that for some later version of the Motherhood set?

 

[Ken Gilliland]

The peafowl, which I sidelined in favor of finishing "close-to-ready" items done by the sale, will go back to my full-attention in a few weeks (after I unwind a little from the sale). I am planning to do the Indian (Blue with some Green), the Green (Green with Bronze), the Congo (doesn't display and has shorter feathers) as well as the leucistic (white) Indian peafowl. Each species will have peacock (male) and peahen (female) versions. There aren't any plans for chicks or juveniles at this time. I could always explore doing that whenever I finally get to the Motherhood update (as well as Motherhood2 which I've had close to finished and sitting on the shelf for years)... but Motherhood will be one of the last to SBRM set to update, so it's going to be a while.

While I have the peacock male pretty close and rigged, there's still a lot of work to go and it probably won't be released until mid-summer (and that's with everything going right). As my newsletter said, I am developing a 4-staged wing fold which will look right and realistic from any setting between 0 and 1 and that is very, very complex to get right. Once I get that right, I think I'll be able to hybridized the wing set to use with all the base SBRM sets (that being one reason those haven't been updated yet).

All this is a tough balance; updating sets and developing new ones and trying to maintain some sort of economic stream (which is why I jump to easier, quick projects like Lizards v4 and Fish in-between the difficult ones like peafowl and "free" updates).