• 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

Songbird Remix's Product Preview Thread

JOdel

Dances with Bees
HW Honey Bear
The other week, as I was on my way to class down by the Santa Monica Airport there was a flock of good sized birds flying towards the ocean in a classic 'V' formation. I'm assuming they were geese, but it was too far to tell for certain. I don't know of many types of birds who fly in an actual formation around here. Most seem to just fly in unruly groups.
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
The other week, as I was on my way to class down by the Santa Monica Airport there was a flock of good sized birds flying towards the ocean in a classic 'V' formation. I'm assuming they were geese, but it was too far to tell for certain. I don't know of many types of birds who fly in an actual formation around here. Most seem to just fly in unruly groups.

It's probably Canada Geese... spring migration is starting
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
I shared this on my FB page but thought my thread followers would enjoy seeing it as well...

Quail Hollow Peafowl Invasion! ... Due to some road work down the street, our local "muster" of 10 peafowl were displaced from their normal digs and discovered our yard, Quail Hollow. Elsa (our pet cockatoo) was not amused and shrieked in only a way a cockatoo can (Cockatoos are the loudest in the parrot family). Thankfully, after filling up on seed and water, they went on their way and peace and quiet was restored (hopefully, not on a temporary basis) to Quail Hollow.

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Miss B

Drawing Life 1 Pixel at a Time
CV-BEE
Nice Ken. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again . . . I wouldn't mind a house with a yard like that, peafowl and all. ;)
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
While I've been all about frogs lately, it wouldn't be right if my Audubon's Birthday Celebration didn't have at least some sort of new bird item so here's a surprise entry in the Songbird ReMix line that should be out by the end of April...

Flock Formations2... a sequel to my popular prop-based groups of flying birds. This set will be ground based and include 6 types of bird; Finches, Pigeons, Geese, Sparrows, Sandpipers and Quail. Each bird in the prop has individual up/down positioning. Each prop also includes some morphs to vary the look/placement of the group as well as multiple materials to change the bird species.

FF2_Main.jpg
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
Flock Formations2 will be showing up in the store today-- it's a sequel to my popular prop-based groups of flying birds. This set will be ground based and include 6 types of bird; Finches, Pigeons, Geese, Sparrows, Sandpipers and Quail. Each bird in the prop has individual up/down positioning. Each prop also includes some morphs to vary the look/placement of the group as well as multiple materials to change the bird species. A prop seed pile is included.

Also appearing will be my Nature's Wonders base Frog set. This set will allow you to finally retire that 20+ year old stock Poser/Studio Frog model with something a little more state-of-the-art. Granted, some of you won't care about functioning Nictating Membranes (that's a protective film that allows frogs to see while swimming underwater) or a functioning tongue and throat air sac (yes, the old frog doesn't have any of those), but the top notch textures, better joint bending and over 80 morphs will have most skeptics cheering, "My Prince has arrived!".

This model comes with the California Red-legged Frog made famous by Mark Twain's story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and the European Common Frog who is believed to be the inspiration behind the Brothers Grimm story "The Frog Prince". The set comes in two versions; a Poser version that supports Firefly and Superfly rendering and a DAZ Studio version which supports 3Delight and Iray rendering.

On my website in the Nature's Wonders Store/Download section, Frogs has some free materials that will give a "drier" look to the two frogs included (for those who want them less slimy).

And for those who haven't figured it out yet, we've turned the corner towards the 'end of April' and are nearing "Earth Day" (April 22nd) and J.J.Audubon's birthday (April 26th) and that can only mean one thing to Songbird ReMix/Nature's Wonders fans everywhere...

BirthdaySaleBanner.jpg


Yes, it's the one time of the year when all my products (except new releases) are 50% off (or more when you add in Reward Points). At the end of the sale I will donate at least 35% of the proceeds to Audubon's efforts to save the Tri-colored Blackbird (and other endangered species). Audubon has a great track record with using the donated funds-- for every dollar, at least one bird is saved. See more about the Tri-colored Blackbird.
 
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Alisa

RETIRED HW3D QAV Director (QAV Queen Bee)
Staff member
QAV-BEE
Exciting and awesome stuff!! And completely awesome that it's a charity event for the Audubon Society!
 

Pendraia

Sage
Contributing Artist
Both the frog and the formations are in my trolley...I'm trying to figure out if I can afford the Saguaro Habitat as well...I have the kiwi burrow.
 

Lyne

Distinguished
HW Honey Bear
I'm about to upload a MASSIVE art piece but here's a section with the new ground flock... and my discovery... I didn't realize we get NEW sparrows for the set!?... when I wanted to match a flying one to the ground ones.... I had to hand apply their sparrow (called a wcsparrow) to the flying one...!
Sparrows.jpg

sadly when I reduce my art to the limit of 1600 they will be REALLY tiny... but I always put a link to my large version under it in the gallery here.

Anyway, either I'm missing a bird set I didn't know I was, or we do get new sparrows? OH WAIT, I DO HAVE IT... in Cool and Unusual birds... it's the White Crowned Sparrow! Sooo many birds, I could not find it until I had Flint help me, with both of us looking in our runtimes! :)

PS and yes, went back and changed the beak color...
 
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Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
I'm about to upload a MASSIVE art piece but here's a section with the new ground flock... and my discovery... I didn't realize we get NEW sparrows for the set!?...
...
Anyway, either I'm missing a bird set I didn't know I was, or we do get new sparrows? OH WAIT, I DO HAVE IT... in Cool and Unusual birds... it's the White Crowned Sparrow! Sooo many birds, I could not find it until I had Flint help me, with both of us looking in our runtimes! :)

Yes, not all of the ground feeding birds in Flock Formations 2 match the flying ones in Flock Formations. I didn't do seagulls or crows for FF2... instead you get Quail, Sparrows and Sandpipers.

As you mentioned in the second half of your post, it is possible to take many of the existing Songbird ReMix textures from the individual sets (like Cool 'n' Unusual or Sparrows of the World) and apply them to FF1 or FF2. You have to be a little careful in the selection of materials-- obviously you wouldn't attach a hummingbird material to the sparrow or quail props. Finches, Grosbeaks and Sparrow look close to one another, so you use those in a sparrow or finch prop.

Creating materials for most of these props is pretty easy (some extra work is required for m/f props). Load a SBRM bird from the set you want and do a material save, then apply the saved material to the Flock Formations prop. That's it!

With the M/F props you'll need to apply the materials individually on the second sex because they have unique material names (like "wingfeathersf " as opposed to the default "wingfeathers").

I'm probably getting into the weeds a little here but here's a few specific tips for those that are adventurous with material changes...

I have a freebie for FF1 that uses the Northern Gannet texture (from Seabirds2) for the "Geese in Flight" prop. One note is that the Goose prop from FF1 uses the older WF1/WF1B base (used in Seabirds I/II, Birds of Legend and Hawai'i) , while the Goose prop in FF2 uses the newer (and better) Goose model from Waterfowl v4 (so only use textures from Waterfowl v4 with that prop).

When using the "Sparrows of the World" texture maps that have m/f versions-- I suggest using the "Finches in Flight" prop (in FF) and the "Finches" prop (in FF2) that both support m/f materials. The "Sparrows" prop in FF2 only supports one texture set (male or female).

Flock Formations 1 will be getting a little update this summer so it's matched Flock Formations 2 format (with a reorganized folder structure, Superfly/Iray materials and a DS native format). This newer format will probably be the new standard for all my sets.
 
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