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Songbird Remix's Product Preview Thread

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
Here's a couple images from my latest set; Frogmouths, Nightjars and Goatsuckers. Wait, wait... goat--whats? Okay here's a brief description of these unique and amazing nocturnal birds...

Songbird ReMix Frogmouths, Nightjars & Goatsuckers contain species found in the Caprimulgidae, Chordeilinae, Eurostopodidae, Podargus, Batrachostomus and Rigidipenna families. These are all nocturnal birds distantly related to Owls. These birds are known for their exceptionally large mouths and expertise in camouflage.

Nightjars are found around the world. They are in the family Caprimulgidae, characterized by long wings, short legs and short bills. They are mostly active in the late evening and early morning or at night, and feed predominantly on moths and other large flying insects. They are sometimes called “goatsuckers”, due to the ancient folk tale that they sucked the milk from goats making this the bird version of the Chupacabra. With its haunting, ethereal song, the eastern whip-poor-will is the topic of numerous legends. One New England legend says the whip-poor-will can sense a soul departing, and can capture it as it flees.

Nighthawks fall into the Chordeilinae family and are found only in the “new world”. Nighthawks differ from Nightjars by lacking rictal bristles, having shorter bills, and coarser plumage.

Frogmouths are a group of nocturnal birds closely related to the nightjars. They are found from the Indian Subcontinent across Southeast Asia to Australia. They are named for their large flattened hooked bill and huge frog-like gape, which they use to capture insects.


Chuck-will's Widow


Common or European Nightjar


Common Nighthawk


Large Frogmouths
 

Alisa

RETIRED HW3D QAV Director (QAV Queen Bee)
Staff member
QAV-BEE
Completely awesome. Such cool birds!!!
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
The moths I've been doing were the right recipe to get my artistic drive rebooted and get me excited about the avian projects I have started and plan to do.

In doing these moths, I got an idea for a render and don't have the bird I want to feature with the moths (yet)... so yesterday I started one of my 'wild hair/whim' projects and did the rough modeling of a new bird model. Over the next week, I'll create the UVs and then start modeling the trademark layered feathers (or in this case, fur) that my later bird models have.

I plan to do:
  • Great spotted kiwi or Roroa
  • Little spotted kiwi
  • Okarito brown kiwi or Rowi
  • Southern brown kiwi or Tokoeka
    • Stewart Island brown kiwi subspecies
    • Northern Fiordland brown kiwi subspecies
    • Southern Fiordland tokoeka subspecies
    • 'Hasst' brown kiwi subspecies
  • North Island brown kiwi
and, of course, a kiwi egg

here's the wip capture of completed 'rough modeling'
 
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Alisa

RETIRED HW3D QAV Director (QAV Queen Bee)
Staff member
QAV-BEE
Whoo hoo!!!

*waits for the Aussies to arrive and cheer even louder*
 

Pendraia

Sage
Contributing Artist
I don't know about that Alisa...Aussies and New Zealander's aren't always on the same side you should see them when they talk cricket!
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
Thanks everyone... a couple model notes... although the tiny wings will be included in the model-- I haven't decided how functional they'll be. You literally have to dig through the fur to find them. I've tried to sum-up the common qualities of all the different species and generalize them into the model. I then will use morphs define the individual species from the generic model as with my other birds.

A bit about Kiwis borrowed from wikipedia...

Kiwi or kiwis are flightless birds native to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae. At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites (which also consist of ostriches, emus, rheas, and cassowaries), and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world. DNA sequence comparisons have yielded the surprising conclusion that kiwi are much more closely related to the extinct Malagasy elephant birds than to the moa with which they shared New Zealand.

There are five recognized species, two of which are currently vulnerable, one of which is endangered, and one of which is critically endangered. All species have been negatively affected by historic deforestation but currently the remaining large areas of their forest habitat are well protected in reserves and national parks. At present, the greatest threat to their survival is predation by invasive mammalian predators.
 
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Lorraine

The Wicked Witch of the North
:squee:Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!! I did see the teaser comments and I harboured a deep, deep "maybe it's a kiwi!" cos it is the funniest and oddest little bird but to find it is?! I just did a happy dance on a bus! To be able to have my national bird in my runtime, thank you soooooo much, Ken, you've rocked my world! :applause::bounce::happydance::happyflip::inverted::snoopydance::snoopydances:
 

Lorraine

The Wicked Witch of the North
Kiwis are night time birds and when I moved onto the boat I would often hear them calling in the nearby bush. But over the years those calls have died away as have the birds mainly due to dog predation. One night almost the entire kiwi population in the Waitangi forest was wiped out by three local dogs. It's heartbreaking when you read that. Parts of the Opua forest are being slowly cleared of introduced pests and they along with other birds are making a comeback. But for kiwis, it only takes an inattentive or uncaring owner of a dog to stop that comeback. If any of our national birds become extinct it will be a terrible indictment on our people and government and frankly, it's not a country I could be proud of any more. We Kiwis MUST save the kiwi.
 

Alisa

RETIRED HW3D QAV Director (QAV Queen Bee)
Staff member
QAV-BEE
I don't know about that Alisa...Aussies and New Zealander's aren't always on the same side you should see them when they talk cricket!

But they will be about these birds for sure ;)

I didn't mean they'd cheer louder than Lorraine or other New Zealanders, by the way :) But cheering louder than I was cheering ;)
 

Pendraia

Sage
Contributing Artist
lol...that's alright. Yes, it is good to see more birds from this side of the world. Ken does such a great job of representing different types of birds from different areas.
 

Lorraine

The Wicked Witch of the North
I don't know about that Alisa...Aussies and New Zealander's aren't always on the same side you should see them when they talk cricket!

And rugby, and league, and pavlova (we kiwis know we invented it ;) )

There's a tshirt around with 'I support two teams, New Zealand and anyone playing Australia' ;)
 

Pendraia

Sage
Contributing Artist
Oh no you didn't...it was invented here! ; )

Sounds like the Kiwi's I'm sure we have more here than you have in NZ Lorraine...:whistling:
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
Here's the results of a long, long day of tweaking geometry building UVs and then adding over 50 transparency levels. Again the tiny wings are shown here but will be tucked into the fur layers in the default character file.

 

Miss B

Drawing Life 1 Pixel at a Time
CV-BEE
I'll say. That looks like a lot of work Ken. Look forward to seeing more WIPs as you develop this cutie. ;)
 
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