Major change made to Gryphon 2 release:
After working with the old Gryphon again, I regret to say that I feel that figure needs to be fully retired. What will be coming Friday in place of the originally announced expansion is a completely new Gryphon figure, incorporating the features originally intended for the Gryphon 1 expansion including:

1. alternate head geometries for traditional and "demonic" gryphon designs
2. alternate wing geometries for more realistic feathered look and a special "demonic" style
3. complete new uv set allowing for enhanced texturing for the base figure and it's alternate geometries
4. addition of a "split tail" option, an element found frequently in traditional gryphon lore
5. improved material zones allowing greater material control over many sections of the figure

Our reasons for this change are very plain: the original Gryphon figure was released roughly one year ago. Over the course of this past year, between commercial releases and client work, we have produced over 150 fully rigged, textured and many times, animated figures. A workload like that will force you to hone your skills many times over, and that is exactly what has happened for us. Because of this, I feel the quality level we can offer now surpasses what we released a year ago to such an extent that to simply build onto something that no longer reflects what we're capable of would be a disservice to both ourselves and our users. So, we have started completely new, with an all new mesh and rig. This new Gryphon uses the same revolutionary wing rigging techniques pioneered on our Draconis Rex figure allowing the Gryphon to have "true modeled" feathers without the ugly breaks and distortions common to many previous attempts at fluid, feathery wings in Poser. Also, the UV's have been unwrapped in such a way as to allow all the limbs to remain fully connected to the torso, eliminating connection seams (the seams found in many models where the limbs connect to the torso) and allowing the uv template to be 100% overlap free.Also, the feathers of the wings have been structured based on real world anatomical studies, contain material zones named to approximate the actual names given scientifically to the various feather bundles found in many types of bird wings, and have uv's developed to allow for unique texturing of each and every feather in the wings in a quick and easy manner. We are also going to include a Photoshop PSD file with the package containing a breakdown of the wing mapping with the various feather groups on individual layers.

I feel the Gryphon v.2 is one of the absolute highest quality figures we have produced to date and am proud to continue our policy of making this great new figure available free to owners of our previous Gryphon figure.

So when is it due?

Wow. Very nice. Jay

Is it too late in the development stage to add transmapped feathery tufts to the ears?

Valandar - "What will be coming Friday" ;) (all going well)

Ever read Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series?!? This could be straight out of there, though there is no character exactly like it in there! Excellent stuff! Larry F Sixus1 fan for life

This looks awesome! I am a HUGE fan of the original Grpyhon so I cant wait for this one! Talk about a great Thanksgiving announcement!! CheeriO! Gina

breaking news.... tufts and belly fur to be included as a conforming figure. :) -Les

now THAT is a Gryphon! Okay Les, totally see and understand the statements now that I see the 2 images and the differences. Great job. Almost night and day from the ver1 to ver2 models, and textures.

That royally kicks @$$! Talk about a Happy Thanksgiving! ;)

wow... looks great

WOW! Beautiful... cant wait for the update.

Looks great! Can we get a side view of it standing upright, btw?

Handsome indeed! :)

He is beautiful..

I'll bet adding a transmap, or making his wings a little transparant would make those look like real feathers. This by FAR is Les's most beautiful creation. Just awesome!

He's a keeper :)

Will the Gryphon1 armor fit???

We are planning on releasing re-fits of the old armor for the new Gryphon. Release dates and further details will be made available over the weekend/early next week. -Les

Thank you, you'all have been very busy:)

You guys should help DAZ work on their Mil Big Cat. This is awesome for sure

Thanks Dave-So. We never got an invite to that particular party, but if users ask us to address any issues with that figure in the form of add-ons or some kind of expansion rebuilding what is there to fit thier needs, I'm sure we could be persuaded to go there. If our users express an interest in having our studio move into the area of realistic animals, I'll be all for it too, but just haven't gone there yet because, silly enough, monsters are just a lot more fun for me. :) If you watch our boards, you'll find that we are moving in directions now that should open up a lot of exciting new options on all kinds of things that Poser users probably never expected from us. ;) -Les

My friend, you truly have a twisted mind. I really wonder where the hell you get the ideas for all your super creatures. You have a unique style and I LOVE IT.

The Gryphon is a traditional creature from mythology. The demon part is because likes 'em scary. :) --Rebekah--

Well I for one would like to see some realistic animals. There are already quite a few out there from awesome artists like Noggin and Lyne (vista internet) but that Gryphon is totally awesome, and being a combination of animals, it really shows what you can do! I'd seriously be interested in Sixus1 animals. Daz has a lot of animals but a lot of those are the old zygote animals, and the meshes are pretty blocky by todays standards. Lyne's look nice (excellent textures) but some being based on the zygote animals, they look a little blocky too. What I've really been looking for is a cool wolf model. Lyne's textures for the P4 dog are nice, but the model itself leaves a lot to be desired, especially in the ears. What would be 100x awesome would be a nice wolf model that could be used to transform into your werewolf characters. I don't know what is and isn't possible in poser, and that is asking quite a bit...but man that would be cool. I would be willing to pay a premium for that alone.

This rocks big time. That's all I really wanted to say. :)

This is something that I'm going to have to buy. There are a lot of mythical critters which haven't been done yet, and most of the ones out there have been done inadaquately. There are also major lacks in the real creatures. I've posted lists in the past and don't feel like redoing them today, but instead of making yet another horse, wolf, or big cat why not do something NOBODY else has done? Do you see groundhogs, hedgehogs, or badgers anywhere? Nope. These are popular and useful critters, too, as are a lot of others. Meanwhile, I'm happy for a decent-looking gryphon. :) Carolly

well I've stated it before but I would love to have some Sixus Animals. This gryphon is absolutly fab!! Nice work. I really like your fantasy line of characters.

Attached Link: https://www.poserproducts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=140

Let's see. I own the Gryphon1 and his armor, how do I go about getting the free up grade? I may not have the original receipts. I lost a bunch with hard drive failures:( I missed the Dragon to because of that.

If you could just send an email with the email address that you used and which method/place of payment (Direct from us with PayPal or CC OR from Rendo--which should be sending a download link as soon as the email is approved by the admins here). --Rebekah-- Rebekah@sixus1.com

Got mine here, can't wait for the e-mail! I liked the old one, but it looked more like an alien critter called a Gryphon because it resembled one. THIS one LOOKS like a mythological Gryphon!!

Thank you Rebekah, I just sent you an e-mail.

I'll need the upgrade as well..;) BTW does this totally replace the original files? I'd like to keep the old one around, as well as the new one..

Same folder, differently named files. Shouldn't be a problem. --Rebekah--

You guys should help DAZ work on their Mil Big Cat. This is awesome for sure Thanks Dave-So. We never got an invite to that particular party, but if users ask us to address any issues with that figure in the form of add-ons or some kind of expansion rebuilding what is there to fit thier needs, I'm sure we could be persuaded to go there. You know me, I'd love to see a big cat, a lion or tiger (done right) and a virile bull. A wolf that could run with the other werewolf shapes would be nice too. Sheesh, Les, you are doing the work of an entire army!

Though, guess I should add, I'm more excited about seeing the new monsters than I would be to see more animals. Of course I'd pay for the bull and the big cat, while the monsters may not end up in the shopping cart.

I can certainly say there are a number of animals I would really enjoy doing, and some I've done but just haven't released. The big reason for not releasing them is that I know animals come under an amazing amount of scrutiny and that can take a lot of the spontenaity (sp.?) and creativity out of the work for me. Part of why I enjoy doing the really bizarre monsters that have had few to no interpretations is that people don't see them then judge that against thier preconcieved notions. The Zarathant is a great example: it's one of my own creatures from a story of my own so noone can tell me what it is supposed to look like. I had a level of freedom on that figure that made working on it such fun that it was literally completed in under one day. If I'm working on figure that comes with a lot of community baggage, like the horse I've kept shelved for over a year now, I find that all the opinions that will fly about it can become such a bummer that it just isn't fun anymore. I know that's a really simple thing to say but it's true: the attraction to this as a business for me is the ability to be creative and have fun while making a living. When working on a figure just isn't fun anymore, well... that makes is "work" in a very bad way and I know at that point the project will suffer. It's also one of the primary reasons I don't post WIP images very often. It's not just that I don't like to show unfinished work, but a lot of times people become offended if you don't take 100% of what they say into the production, so we just sort of try to avoid that as much as possible. I'm also extremely self critical, so compounding that with other opinions can be really infuriating; I'd rather get opinions close to completion when I've had a chance to distance myself a bit. OK... enough of me rambling... I'll just wrap this post by saying that if anyone out there would seriously like to see Sixus1 Media producing some high quality animals, it's not out of the question, we do listen closely to the users, and so it might not be a bad idea to let us know what you want. Doesn't mean it will happen immediately, but you can bet that things we get requests for do go into the "ideas list" on our production board (the almighty dry erase board that stares at me all day from just beyond my desk... damn you production board... damn you!!!!)where it is very likely to get worked on at some point. -Les

btw: the production board haunts me.. I swear it's cursed.. every day it just seems to have more and more on it.... -Les :)

Would the word "badger" on the production board result in a waddling critter or a breakdown? The eyes on your evil gryphon have almost the look about them. ;^) And, yes, I've seen badgers, and, no, they are not cute. Carolly

Maybe instead of doing "realistic" animals, you could take a crack at doing a stylized one? I'd think a Sixus Shark would be pretty cool...

Hmmm.. ya'know, I think we could do a badger. I thought very seriously about doing a beaver, but it seams that the more popular beavers out there have been removed from Rendo and that Rendo is going "all beaverless". I, for one, am totally against any form of beaver descrimination and vow that one day soon, Sixus1 Media will provide you with an excellent new specimen of beaver. Badger's are cool too. :) -Les

And without doing conforming fur props, you'd have a shaved beaver! ;)

Now THAT'S a figure we should make... I can see the marketing now... New! Shaved Beaver v. 1.0 Original Poser Figure! Mimic compatible right out of the "box"! (Insert rimshot... not job... shot....sound effects, dammit...) -Les (FYI: you know, a while back, as a joke, 'bekah asked me to build a mimic ready vagina for her... so I did. it was truly frightening!!!!)

--Rebekah--