As an artist, I do four things; Oils on Canvas (Social Commentary), Drawings of National Parks, Photography of Birds and California Native Plants and 2D/3D Digital.
Since most here will be interest in digital work, I'll talk about that. I started in the digital world with a TI-99/4a computer in the early 1980's and immediately started creating art and animation with a very limited graphic range in hexadecimal code (16 colors, 256 shapes). I eventually became a published artist for Asgard Software and a year later when out on my own to form “Notung Software” which became on of the most popular TI Software companies. In 2010, I was inducted in the TI-99/4a Hall of Fame.
After making my switch to the PC, I started with Sketcher (the precursor to Painter) and even owned Fractal Design's "Poser 1". I didn't start seriously playing with Poser until Version 3 came around. With the advent of Poser 4, I began by creating textures and started a career as a digital artist, selling my work through Zygote, Vista, DAZ3D, Hivewire3D and Renderosity.
I really didn’t find my nitch in the 3D world until I partnered with BL Render to do the Songbird ReMix Series in 2003. The following year, I came into my own blending my love and knowledge of birds with a strong environmental theme "Threatened, Endangered, Extinct". That set, designed specifically to raise awareness about threatened species and why they're going extinct, became a template for all my work.
Since then I’ve steadily worked on improving my skills with Painter and Modo, and of course, producing more 3D birds and other flora and fauna with a strong environmental message. Today, the Songbird Remix birds have appeared in films such as ”I am Legend”, in Audubon literature and advertising, Duncraft (bird product & seed) advertising, in the museum presentations (such as the National Wildlife Research Center of Saudi Arabia) and even billboards and bus benches for the Omaha Reads promotions.
Besides being a Renderosity Vendor, I work at home as a freelance artist/photographer and also volunteer/lecture at the Theodore Payne Foundation (a Foundation that focuses a native plant awareness) and at Audubon California.
Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.
This site uses cookies to deliver the best experience. Our own cookies make user accounts and other features possible. Third-party cookies are used to display relevant ads and to analyze how Renderosity is used. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our Terms of Service, including our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy.
Comments (10)
dragonfly2000
The Sparrows are great. Good scene. Ripples in After Effects? Vue somehow?
Ken _Gilliland
"Vue somehow?" is right. It was a pretty simple process, I made a map in Painter. I created a layer of "O" shapes, used the "Bevel world" feature to make a nice rolling ripple, grey-scaled it and created a terrain with the map.
Brandi
Looks great - a bird's eye view ;) Love the ripples... you did a wonderful job with that.
Heart'Song
Man! This is really impressive! And what a lot of hard work you put into it. I love this. You obviously know what you're doing!
MikeJ
DOH! Great job Ken, really, and those sparrows look terrific. A Painter-made terrain! I was soooo close too. I was thinking of the whole splash thing in terms of BUMP maps, which I tried to make in Painter, but they turned out all funky-looking on the water in Vue. Thanks for the tip!
dolly
ken ...this is exellent the ripples are a nice touch
Varian
Wow oh wowie. What a great camera angle. And gosh, the birds look excellent! :)
Devon
Same Fantastic Image quality as you allways do Ken...Love it.
booface
Ohmygod - Sparrows are my favorites! I am so envious!!!!!!! This is absolutely beautiful work.
czekser
I've used quite the same techniques for my ripples in my "looking for air" pic. The only way to have bump mapping in vue, is to use both terrain and bump mapping from the same image (beware of scaling) of ripples, but it's harder than that ! I love the work, btw !