Skin Swaps! (Owls and parrots that never were... etc.)

[Wain]

While digging through the database last night I noticed that the owl and parrot skin files are identical in format. This means they can be reliably swapped between models for some interesting new looks. The only common difference between the the two is in the eyes.... with the exception of Hell-Hoot's lavender model (which has green eyes with pupils) owls tend to lack pupils and have soulless glowing or inky black eyes. Parrots usually have pupils, except for a few skins that have all-black eyes. So even then there are exceptions and overlap.

For fun I thought I'd post a few nice examples of skin-swaps. Will I add these to the untameable skins list? I'm not sure. Maybe not. But I thought they'd be interesting enough to post here anyway.

Emerald Kaliri:

Azure Kaliri:

Sunburst Macaw:

Ember Owl:

Jungle Owl:

Ghost Cockatoo:

Polly, Aspect of Death and Master of the Unliving:

Royal Kaliri:

Saffron Owl:

Scarlet Screecher:

[Kalliope]

*gawks* Some of these are a little fuzzy, but WOW, I'd love to see the ones on the parrot models! x_x *swoon*

[TygerDarkstorm]

O_O
That is so amazing Wain! There's definitely a few of these that I'm like "DO WANT!"

[Aritria]

WTB Sunburst Macaw.

[Thwip]

I have to agree, some of those are strikingly beautiful!

[Vephriel]

I really love that black skin on the parrot model! The red/black owl is rather nice too. ^^

[Wain]

I really love that black skin on the parrot model! The red/black owl is rather nice too. ^^

I'm surprised how well that "ember" one came out. I think it looks much nicer on the owl than it ever did on the parrot (parrotskincrimson). The format seems to suit it better on the owl. The parrot always looked kinda dirty.

[Vephriel]

*nod* I know what you mean. I had one of the parrots for a while since I was fond of the colours themselves, but something always looked off about them. The dual tone suits an owl better with their extra details.

[Chimera]

I would die for the parrot ones, all of em lol, they're goooooorgeous

[Mindsprocket]

Lol Scarlet Screecher = Yosemite Sam owl. XD

I'm really surprised about how good the parrot skins look on owls. Would be nice to see some of them in game!

[Rawr]

Polly, Aspect of Death and Master of the Unliving: me wants

[Ana]

All of them are extremly lovely Do want to see them all in game for more hunters choises

[Comett]

Wowwww! I'm sure I could squeeze one or two of those into my stables!

[Wain]

Since a lot of people seemed to like the parrots more than the owls, I thought I'd include a few more:
Flamboyant Flyer:

Lavender Parrot:

Crystalline Cockatoo:

[Wain]

Out of interest, the Stormcrow / Druid flight form model also shares the same skins. The parrot and owl skins even include the ears for some reason!

Some of them don't look too bad:
What a fire druid flight form might have looked like if not for firehawks:

Tropical druid:

I'm craaazy and I'm coming to keeeel youuuu:


But on some of them the ears look absurd or miscoloured...

Ears? What ears? Oh, I picked these up at a Star Trek convention.



Interestingly the ears on the stormcrow model (as opposed to the actual druid flight form that it's copied from) could probably easily be switched off by default. And possibly should be. They're only there because it's supposed to be a night elf form and looks completely silly on a wild beast. I wonder if the art team could be encouraged to do that at the request of a certain dev...

[Kurasu]

I personally liked the owls more than the parrots, if truth be known. The Scarlet Owl and Saffron Owl. the Ember Owl's gorgeous, too. The jungle ones are neat, although the Azure one, for some reason, I outright don't like. I do think at least one of them would be joining my Bird Of Prey flock, though!

... hit 'enter' in time to see the stormcrow ones. And *oooooo*. The 'fire hawk' is *STUNNING*. Screw those firey birdies they use: *those* are the ones they need to add! Wanna see more of your color work on those. Wanna, wanna, wanna.

[Wassa]

Eagles can also swap these same skins.

Back when I model edited, I took Olm's current skin and put it on an eagle. It was awesome.

[Wain]

The eagle skins looked just different enough that I hadn't tried them yet. I thought they'd look rough. But you're right, but they do look good.

The black stormcrow skin on the eagle looks very awesome:

A random selection of others:

[Wain]

The reverse, however, doesn't work so well. Eagle skins on owls and stormcrows don't quite work. In fact on the owl it's downright hilarious...

Hey, who stole my chin?


On the stormcrow it simply doesn't connect properly and looks like the bird's wearing an eagle mask:

[GormanGhaste]

!! Love the black eagle and the hyacinth eagle!