Songbird ReMix Cool and Unusual Birds 3 - Does it come with bird poses?

barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
edited December 1969 in The Commons

I've been eying Songbird ReMix Cool and Unusual Birds 3 , because I want the Hyacinth Macaw. I don't have any of the other bird products. Does this product come with the poses that are shown in the promo images?

Comments

  • Songbird ReMixSongbird ReMix Posts: 289
    edited December 1969

    barbult said:
    I've been eying Songbird ReMix Cool and Unusual Birds 3 , because I want the Hyacinth Macaw. I don't have any of the other bird products. Does this product come with the poses that are shown in the promo images?

    Unfortunately, I didn't include poses in this package- some times I do-- sometimes I don't. To be honest with the amount of poses I've done included in other sets and in my two pose packages over the 9 year history of the Songbird ReMix series-- it's hard to come up with anything fresh or different anymore.

    The poses I used with the Hyacinth Macaws were slight variations of poses from Songbird ReMix Parrots of the World.

    While not poses, I do have lots of Free Birds, Props and other goodies in my songbirdremix.com downloads

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited December 1969

    Ken, thanks for your reply. If I buy one of the pose packs, do those poses work with all birds? I'm not clear on how to select compatible products, I guess.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited July 2012

    barbult said:
    Ken, thanks for your reply. If I buy one of the pose packs, do those poses work with all birds? I'm not clear on how to select compatible products, I guess.

    It is all in the way Ken categorises his birds. Have you noticed a combination of Letters or Numbers or Both on the icons? Plus Ken always provides a PDF Readme file which expains what does what and with whom. :) If you try to figure it out for yourself it will put you in good stead later. I think if you look hard enough all will become clear...if not ask and we shall try to help furhter.

    Post edited by Szark on
  • Songbird ReMixSongbird ReMix Posts: 289
    edited December 1969

    barbult said:
    Ken, thanks for your reply. If I buy one of the pose packs, do those poses work with all birds? I'm not clear on how to select compatible products, I guess.

    Pose Pack2 has support for a wide variety of the bird models I use in my sets and will work better than Pose Pack1 for your purpose. The Parrot base (as does the Zygodacyl base) have zygodactyl feet (two toes forward, two toes back). That is the primary different between those models and the basic Songbird ReMix one. You could apply any pose for the Songbird ReMix model on the parrot model and it would translate perfectly with the exception of the feet. Here's where Pose Pack2 is useful-- it has dozens of partial poses so it possible to correct the feet with a zygodacyl partial foot pose. So you can pick a larger variety that specifically built parrot and use them with partial pose foot corrections. I do this all the time.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited July 2012

    Szark, I haven't purchased any of the songbird products yet. Are the letters and numbers you mention only visible on the product files after you buy them? I can't find anything like that on the product promo images. Am I not looking in the right place?


    From what I can figure out from the product descriptions, to get the Hyacinth Macaw and some poses that work for it, I would need to buy:
    Songbird ReMix, $24.95 (required by Songbird ReMix Parrots of the World)
    Songbird ReMix Parrots of the World, $19.95 (to get parrot poses Ken mentioned)
    Songbird ReMix Cool and Unusual Birds 3, $13.97 on sale now (to get the Hyacinth Macaw)


    I can't justify spending that much just to get a poseable Hyacinth Macaw. Of course, I would get lots of other interesting birds with all that, and they look great, but I'd better wait for the next Audubon sale. Or, I could just buy Songbird ReMix Cool and Unusual Birds 3 while it is on sale, and try to pose him myself.


    Edit: I didn't see Ken's reply when I replied to Szark.


    So now it looks like I need:
    Songbird ReMix Cool and Unusual Birds 3, $13.97 on sale now (to get the Hyacinth Macaw)
    Songbird ReMix Pose Pack 2, $9.95 (but it says it requires Songbird Remix)


    That is sounding like a reasonable investment. I'm assuming I can use the poses in the pose pack on the birds in Songbird ReMix Cool and Unusual Birds 3 without buying Songbird Remix itself. Is that correct?

    Post edited by barbult on
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Sorry to be presuming, may bad. :( Yes this becomes clear when your purchase and install the items. Sorry for the misleading information. I will let Ken deal with the rest.

  • Songbird ReMixSongbird ReMix Posts: 289
    edited July 2012

    barbult said:
    Szark, I haven't purchased any of the songbird products yet. Are the letters and numbers you mention only visible on the product files after you buy them? I can't find anything like that on the product promo images. Am I not looking in the right place?


    From what I can figure out from the product descriptions, to get the Hyacinth Macaw and some poses that work for it, I would need to buy:
    Songbird ReMix, $24.95 (required by Songbird ReMix Parrots of the World)
    Songbird ReMix Parrots of the World, $19.95 (to get parrot poses Ken mentioned)
    Songbird ReMix Cool and Unusual Birds 3, $13.97 on sale now (to get the Hyacinth Macaw)


    I can't justify spending that much just to get a poseable Hyacinth Macaw. Of course, I would get lots of other interesting birds with all that, and they look great, but I'd better wait for the next Audubon sale. Or, I could just buy Songbird ReMix Cool and Unusual Birds 3 while it is on sale, and try to pose him myself.

    actually (and you didn't hear this from me) ;) , but the base Songbird ReMix set is not needed for "Parrots of the World" or "Pose Pack 2" if you have C&U3;-- I've moved to a standalone solution in my later volumes, so most of the bird models that would be only found in the original set set are also included in later ones. Also, if you have the C&U3; set the majority of the freebies found in the 01 Songbird ReMix section will work.

    Post edited by Songbird ReMix on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited December 1969

    actually (and you didn’t hear this from me) wink , but the base Songbird ReMix set is not needed for “Parrots of the World” or “Pose Pack 2” if you have C&U3;—I’ve moved to a standalone solution in my later volumes, so most of the bird models that would be only found in the original set set are also included in later ones. Also, if you have the C&U3; set the majority of the freebies found in the 01 Songbird ReMix section will work.

    Thank you for the advice. That's wonderful news! I just bought both Pose Pack 2 and C&U3;. I made two separate purchases and used the DAZ two-use PC coupon PC-P3RK-JULY for $5 off on each order (I had to add a 50 cent Poke-Away to get pose pack over $10). So I got the two wonderful bird products for a total of $14.42. I can't wait to check your website to see the freebies you mentioned. This will be fun!

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited December 1969

    And here he is!

    Thor_flight_palm_2.jpg
    800 x 628 - 528K
  • Thadeus72Thadeus72 Posts: 408
    edited December 1969

    barbult said:
    And here he is!

    beautiful render barbult !

  • Songbird ReMixSongbird ReMix Posts: 289
    edited December 1969

    nice render... and glad the set is working for you

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited December 1969

    The only problem I've had so far with the Hyacinth Macaw is several black triangles in his neck area. This was rendered with DAZ Studio 4 Pro. I saw something on the SBRM website about black triangles with Poser, and the solution was to use the latest CR2 files, I think. But, since I just bought this, and I'm using DAZ, not Poser, I don't know what the solution is for me. Any ideas? You can see the triangles in the image I posted. I'd like to get rid of those black triangles if possible, but overall, I'm very pleased with the product.

  • Songbird ReMixSongbird ReMix Posts: 289
    edited December 1969

    The poser black triangle isn't really an issue anymore-- it was on earlier version of Songbird Remix.

    I played the macaw and DAZ Studio 4 a bit and can't seem to reproduce any issue. My best guess is that it might be lighting based -- perhaps shadows from the Neck "Fluff". If it's the fluff issue... Go to the neck part and try turning the unfluff morph to 100%. You can also control the front forehead fluff by selecting the HeadFeathers part and going into Creation Morphs and playing with the "Comb" morphs. You might also try changing the lighting around and see if that makes a difference.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited December 1969

    The poser black triangle isn't really an issue anymore-- it was on earlier version of Songbird Remix.

    I played the macaw and DAZ Studio 4 a bit and can't seem to reproduce any issue. My best guess is that it might be lighting based -- perhaps shadows from the Neck "Fluff". If it's the fluff issue... Go to the neck part and try turning the unfluff morph to 100%. You can also control the front forehead fluff by selecting the HeadFeathers part and going into Creation Morphs and playing with the "Comb" morphs. You might also try changing the lighting around and see if that makes a difference.

    The problem has something to do with raytraced shadows and displacement maps. I experimented with many things, including the morphs you mentioned. Changing morphs did not change the problem. I am using distant light raytraced shadows and UE2 AO with soft shadow. What worked for me was setting the displacement strength on the Plumage region to 0%. That eliminated all black triangles. The displacement had to be 0%, though. Even 0.1% left the triangles - strange. I also noticed that when I rendered a much closer view of the bird, the triangles were less visible, even with displacement at 100%. That was a slightly different pose, though, so I don't know what difference that made.

    Thor_flight_palm_disp_0_on_plumage.jpg
    800 x 628 - 504K
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    I have seen an umber of folks complaining about the Black Triangles rendering in DS3 and 4 for some time here, not often but every know and again a post would pop up. The last one was a couple of weeks ago, :)


    Two things to try without turning off Displacement. Slightly adjust the light's position and see if the triangles still render. Also another cause could be your Advanced Render Shading Rate Setting? What Shading Rate setting did you render at?

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited July 2012

    I tried rotating the lighting +-30 degrees in increments of 10 degrees. The black triangles sometimes changed slightly, but did not go away or diminish significantly. I rendered with a variety of Advanced Shading Rates from the default 1 to 0.1. I also varied the Pixel Samples between the default 4 and 12. Still no significant improvement. I also varied the Shadow Samples from default 16 to 24. Still no significant improvement.


    The only experiments that got rid of the triangles were:

    1) get rid of ray tracing (use no AO and no shadow at all, or use no AO and use deep shadow map)
    2) set displacement strength to 0 on the Plumage region where the triangles show up
    3) zoom in closer to the bird, which changes the image composition significantly


    To me, turning off the displacement has the least impact on the appearance of the scene.

    Post edited by barbult on
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