The Songbird Remix bird model series and Poser or DAZ Studio allow you to easily create great looking birds at an affordable price. DAZ Studio is free software that allows you into load or import varies types of 3D imagery andthen create still and animated scenes. Poser is available at a reasonable price and has many powerful animation and rendering abilities and in some ways is easier to use than Studio.  Both programs can also export via FBX and Collada to high end products such as Maya and Max. 

How to Start:

  1. First you'll need DAZ Studio (free) or Poser.

  2. Next you'll need the Songbird Remix Base package (or one of my other sets) from Renderosity.

  3. Install DAZ Studio (or Poser) on your computer and follow the setup options.

  4. Install a Songbird ReMix model set into DAZ Studio (or Poser).

  5. Choose what you want to load. For this example, we’ll create an “American Robin”. Load DAZ Studio and Select the Content Library Tab. Look in Studio’s Poser Formats -> My Library ->  FIGURES and select the Songbird ReMix folder.  In Poser, you'll select the Figures library and the Songbird ReMix folder. Because the “American Robin” uses the basic Songbird Base Model (Songbird ReMix3 filename), we’ll load that.

  6. Now, select the Poser Formats -> My Library ->  Pose -> Songbird ReMix folder and select the appropriate Songbird Remix library. In Poser, you'll select the Pose library and the Songbird ReMix folder.  In this case, we’ll select the “American Robin” pose and apply it to our loaded Songbird ReMix base model. This pose contains morph and texture settings to turn the generic model into an “American Robin”.

  7. You can pose it manually by clicking on the Scene tab and selecting a body part (or by directly selecting the body part on the model) then using the parameters Tab to adjust the body part.  For example,  by selecting the entire model (the name of the bird in the Content tab), you can dialing the wings to fold by selecting WingFold in the parameters tab and turning the dial to "1". You can also get pre-built poses by purchasing add-on libraries in the Songbird Remix Digital Bird Series. Many other 3D items such as people, backdrops, building, plants are available through Renderosity, DAZ and other 3D vendors.