I thought I'd better have a go at a full set of conforming tack to find out what the problems are before I went any further on my Arabian horse tack set. Of course, this is me, so I never make things easy for myself. I've been thinking along the lines of Lipizzaner-type images, so I decided to have a go at modelling some Spanish Riding School tack, which I'll release as a freebie as well as using as a teach-myself-conforming-tack exercise. It's also got a curb chain, so I'll get some practice at modelling chain and trying to come up with something without too many polys that still looks like chain.

So I started modelling the tack, exactly as it looks in the reference photos. The thing is, it's pretty detailed- as you can see. Which means it'll be large-ish in size. Is this just too much detail? Or would people like to see it exactly as it is in the picture (with reins added, of course- more buckles and gold bits on those too, and gold decoration on the noseband and browband).

Obinions gratefully received.

(And there's a rope headcollar on the way as well, plus that summer sheet I started on but haven't finished yet)

I love all the detailed work you do! It looks very nice.

Wish list:

I'd like options so parts can be hidden. Sometimes you would use a more simple tack, when training for example. Then on shows you'd use the whole set up. If you understand what I mean.

Poseable reins which can have a bit slack when horse jumps and rider move hands forward. And that hang down from hands on either side of neck.

Thank you again for the very nice work you do!

No I don't think it's too detailed. Looks very much like the double bridle I used to use on my Arab Park horse mare.

Largish files? Hai, I have one outfit I bought -- just one -- that was almost 100 megs. No freaking way can I load it up, but I save it for the time when I have a computer powerful enough to do so. Detail is good.

For close ups you got to have detail. Looks really good.

I'm having a hard time downloading the other stuff, keeps timing out for some reason. Looks good though. Marque

Thanks for the replies. Detail it is, then! Tiny, I thought making the curb bit and cheek peices hideable would probably be useful. Maybe the nosebane as well. The bridle shouldn't have a throatlash, to be accurate- but I suppose I could add one and make it hidden by default. Reins have to be poseable, too- I thought of making them jointed chains, maybe playing around with IK on them (IK is something else I want to learn to do in figure creation). There is a saddle (with stirrups), breast-girth and saddle-cloth as well. :)

Wonder if I could add my 2 cents worth? by adding old style Native American bit and reigns made of some sort of rope or flax.arrow1

The "want have factor" is raising by the hour! ;o)

Can I add some advise, we did some too, horse tack and I suggest instead of a whole sphere to do some of it, use half a sphere, it will cut down on some of the verticies. Sharen

arrow1, I think the rope thing I'm working on would probably be better for that- it's the kind with the stiffened noseband that I believe is called a bosal. If I have time I'll pop a couple of cheek pieces on and a bit with long shanks. :)

Sharen, thanks for the hint, and I think I know what you mean- but the parts that look like spheres are mostly the smoothed ends of cylinders, and the rest are extruded faces. Unless there's something I'm completely misunderstanding in your explanation? I know it's larger than it needs to be because the different materials are modelled as seperate objects for importing into Poser- I'm not confident enough in my UVMapping skills that I could assign the right material zones to the small details if I made them a single object, and I haven't found a way in the (free!) modelling software to assign multiple materials to a single object. One reason I'm giving this stuff away, not charging for it- I know my skills aren't yet up to scratch!

You know if you bring it into UV mapper and know your model well enough, you might be able to grab just the right verticies, then assign them a material and there you have an object with multiple material....I like to do that with our stuff. What I do, is make separtate groups, bring it into UV Mapper then assign the material, then group the whole thing back together, then save it....Sharen