Here's the first sneak peek of my latest bird model set, Hornbills... This set has been about 18 years in the making. Those years have been spent building the technical skills needed to create this iconic species of bird. The main road block has been its casque (the horn on the top of its beak). To the create the casque for a single bird is challenging but do-able. To create a generic casque for 10 unique species that challenge the 3D geometry mesh and UV maps was quite another thing. The casque shapes range from a slight grooved bump to the aircraft carrier shape (Great Hornbill) to the massive horn shape on the Rhinoceros Hornbill. I'm planning a late September to Octoberish release. The Great Hornbill is aptly named with its 6 foot (180 cm) wingspan. It is found in the Western Ghats (southern India); southern Himalayas (Garhwal and Kumaon) eastward to north-central Myanmar, southern China (west Yunnan) and Vietnam, and south to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. It is considered "Vulnerable" to extinction due to high rates of deforestation and hunting. It lives mainly on fruit, supplementing its diet with flowers, buds and insects/reptiles. All hornbills are cavity nesters which the female sealing herself up in the cavity. She depends on the male to pass food through a small opening until the egg(s) hatch. Hornbills are all sexually dimorphic. Females are generally 10% smaller with smaller casques. In the Great Hornbills' case, the female lacks the black edging on the casque, has red orbital skin and its iris is whitish.