Cardinals by Ken _Gilliland
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Description
In updating my Songbird ReMix series, its been fun to re-explore some birds I haven't used in literally a decade. Even more fun is to see the stark differences that reworked model, rigging and textures can have on a 17-year product, such as in the original "Songbird ReMix" set, that started me on my avian 3D career.
Being from the western coast of the US, the northern cardinal isn't one of my familiar "local" birds. Cardinals for the most part are east of the Mississippi, although there are scattered populations, even in Arizona, where it can be seen next to its southwestern cousin, the Pyrrhuloxia. The Pyrrhuloxia (m/f) will be appearing in one of my first Renderosity releases "SBRM Characters v3" in January 2021.
The Northern Cardinal is the US State government’s most popular bird; it’s the state bird in 7 states. The male averages slightly larger than the female and is sexually dimorphic. The adult male is a brilliant crimson red color with a black face mask over the eyes, extending to the upper chest. The color becomes duller and darker on the back and wings. The female is fawn, with mostly grayish-brown tones and a slight reddish tint on the wings, the crest, and the tail feathers. The face mask of the female is gray to black and is less defined than that of the male. Both sexes possess prominent raised crests and bright coral-colored beaks.
The plumage color of the males is produced from carotenoid pigments in the diet. Coloration is produced from both red pigments and yellow carotenoid pigments. Northern cardinal males normally metabolize carotenoid pigments to create plumage pigmentation of a color different from the ingested pigment. When fed only yellow pigments, males become a pale red color. A few "yellow morph" cardinals lack the enzyme to do this conversion. Their beak and feathers (except for black face mask) are yellow. Sightings are rare of these. There 19 subspecies of Northern Cardinal varying in color intensity and size.
Rendered in Iray. Models include the "original" Songbird ReMix (updated in 2020)
Comments (6)
Nightwind
Your birds are always stellar and the cardinal is one of my favorites and my state's bird. They are very striking when they are walking about in snow or landed on a snow covered branch.
Kordouane
Superb rendering, the birds are so realistic, but I don't need to tell you anymore that I love your work very much.
crender
Fantastic !!!!
mtdana
Great image - looking forward the release!
3DClassics123456
Your birds are amazing and I wonder how you can create such realistic 3D models. Modeling a car, an airplane or a train, like I do, is far more easy, for sure! But I appreciate a lot the comments which you add, so that I learn a lot about birds!
Flint_Hawk
I love these birds!