Glamorous Vickie says she wants a ride, she has the boots, anyway! I figured getting the horse that I've been working on for some time done for Spring, Spring is right around the corner, time to get rolling again! I was a little unhappy about how the mesh was progressing, seemed a little too thick-bodied, he was supposed to be an Arabian, after all, the Supermodel (!) of horses. I used the proportions from Jack Hamm's book, which pretty much match the regular Poser horse, but somehow it didn't seem quite right... I finally bought another Beyer Horse figurine, this one is the Huckelberry Bey, an Arabian Stallion, very nicely done, incidently. I can now see where I was going wrong! Still has a long way to go, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is the one GV is touching, next to the dead-end version. I also _think_ I've figured a workable system for the mane too, I really wanted to make it poseable, but I think the only way to do that would be hundreds of individual curls, and nobody will want to spend all day posing that. I'm going to use the same system as all my other hair for the mane, and have several style that swich in with a dial - maybe neat, windblown, and streaming behind on a run. Horse are such pretty animals, I want to do 'em justice.

Nice ass, or do I mean horse... :)

Whoop! Whoop! Could it be? A decent light riding-type horse at last?? One with a conformation that actually resembles that of a real horse??? Oh yes, pleasepleasepleaseplease! Will it have mobile ears?

Jim, I've been working on a set of traditional Bedouin tack for the Poser horse. It's still very much in progress, as you can see from the picture (which is thoroughly unexciting, but it was the only one I had handy with more than one of the various elements in place on the horse. I don't like the tassels, either, so I'm changing them). When complete, it will have a reshmeh (bitless bridle with a chain noseband), breast collar, blankets for the back and loins and a saddle pad with a girth. Would you be interested in letting me work on a version to fit your fellow here? IM me if so. :)

Hope to see this soon, your horse looks great, thanks for the update.

Attached Link: http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/

I second HaiGan on his praise for mobile ears : most a horse's expression comes from the way he moves his ears (front, back, turn, each is independent and says a lot about the horse's mood : if you see he's putting his ears backwards, you'd better tighten your grip on the reins...). The eyes and mouth are mobile too, but carry much less expression. The tail is also very expresive, especially at its base. As for the mane, my favorite style is the short cropped one (don't know how it is called in English : the mane is just cut short and looks like a 3cm long military hair. The przewalski poneys' mane are often cropped like this). I hope you'll include a morph for this short cropped mane. My daughters would probably prefer braided mane and tail, like it's often done before a competition, but that would probably be awfully difficult to do. I joined an URL which sums up various horses races. My favorite being the friesian. I wish you can do as good a job with this horse as you did with Vickie, Jim. With my sincere admiration. Compiler

Oh wow...... Drooooooools... Finally! I second the Fressian though I dearly love the Andolusian!... I can't wait to see this one in action! Snicers at Compiler Always love when my Alma Mmater is referenced ;) but then again our Ag and VetMed colleges are on the ball ;) HUGS and just can't wait!!!!!! Littlefox

I'll have to add another WoW here, both horse and tack are fabulous!

Here are some pictures to illustrate what I meant (my English being what it is...).

Littlefox : I did not get all of what you said (again a blame on my poor English : I guess that "Alma Mater" means your country ? (but which one ?) and I don't know the expression "being on the ball", nor do I know what is an Ag college...).
Sigh.
That's probably why I'm trying to do graphics anyway : Seems I'm better with pictures than with words... :-)

Best wishes for your work, Jim
Compiler

Alma Mater is where she went to university, the link you posted is hosted by her university I think. Hope that helps. :)

Ag college is an agricultural school (land grant colleges in America), being 'on the ball' is similar to the British saying of 'spot on', basically, means you're doing it right.

Thanks for your translation, bijouchat !

Back on the subject of ears again, it just occurred to me that the default (zero) position of the ears really ought to be facing outwards (sideways), not pricked forwards. Given the ability of the ears to rotate though 180 degrees and then flatten back as well, they might even work better as seperate joints rather than trying to use morphs to position them.

Compiler, the terms I know for a close-cropped mane or one clipped short enough to make it stick upright is 'hogged' or 'roached'. The Fjord pony is one good exaple to search for pictures of- it traditionally has its mane cut to stand upright, showing off the dark center tripe down the middle of its silver mane. I'm really not sure that a hogged mane would look good on an Arab, though! Mind you, some people clip the mane out on the neck close behind the ears.

Compiler where I come from that short mane is called roaching. I used to hate it when I was young, always left my personal horses with a long mane, but for working stock it's preferred, less hassle. I can't wait for this new horse. Though I love my big horse from Bloodsong. Marque

Thanks guys! The ears will surely pose, that part is E-Z, one of my figures (Pin-up Stephanie I think, I sort of loose track...) was made with poseable ears. My thinking on this one is "Hot-Blooded Horse", all 3 of the breeds, the Arab, Anglo-Arab and the Thoroughbred. I'm going to have to do a lot of playing around with scaling as well as morphs to make them correct, I'd like to have it so one set of tack fits them all. If the horse sells ;-) I could go on to other breeds later. I was thinking about the real short cropped mane you often see on Thoroughbreds too, so that would be 4 variations, I also plan to have empty slots and morph channels (like Vickie III) so I could come back and add more stuff like this later. I don't normally use beta testers, but I might on this one, I'd be especially intrested in people who know enough about horses to say things like "The Stallion is correct, but the Mare version should have ..." To tell the truth, I don't know all that much about horses, I was a Motocycle Racer myself... ;-)

Oh my ! I'd really wish to be on this list ! I'm not a top notch rider but I love to take care of the horses so I know what they look like and how they behave to a certain extent. I can also enlist the help of my wife, an experienced equestrienne who's been riding horses both for trek and jumping events for 22 years now. My two kiddettes ride their poneys every week, but they might just tell you if they are cute (in case you are planning a horse toonanimal... LOL). Plus I can muster quite some bibliographical references in the various books of our collection... So, feel free add me to your list whenever you want! Best wishes Compiler

ohh i'd love to test too :) although i don't own any horses...but do own books and have been around horses since i was a kid.

Happy to see that you are "back on the horse" Jim!

I still haven't fixed the grazing horse which we talked about a year ago or so... Would it be too much to ask if this beautiful new horse could graze also, and still look normal?

I had an Arabian many years ago. Still miss him. It was a gelding and not all that typical physically but very much so mentally. Pictures at: http://www.unelmahevonen.com/eget/

If you don't get enough of testers I'd be happy to help out.

Regards,
Tiny

Oh, I will surely try and get him to graze, it might involve loading another set of joint parameters for the neck via a pose, but no big deal, I've done that already on GV and V3. Here is a front shot, after a little more work, next to the Poser Horse. You can see the gap in the Poser Horse's Front Hoof mesh in this shot too, has anybody else noticed that? Does the P5 horse still have it? ;-)

That is one good looking horse! Great job.

The Poser 5 horse looks just the same as before. Great to hear it will graze! I can put my troubles aside then. ;o) Your horse looks very promising! Will mane and tail be done with the new Poser hair studio?

Yes, I'd noticed the gap above the hoof. I've done a morph that stretches the mesh of the pastern ('ankle') down to close the gap. Not ideal, but better than nothing! One little request- please make this P4 compatible?

Oh, as I don't use P5 it will surely be P4 (and probably DAZ Studio) compatable! I gather the original Poser animals weren't looked at too closely when they included them, one of the others (the cat, I think) has something wrong with its chest, a hole or something I seem to remember.