McGrandpa posted at 9:41AM Tue, 03 November 2020 - #4402991

@Dustrider - those are great renders! But, just to be pedantic: that nocked and drawn arrow should be resting ON the thumb, on the other side of the bow. With the bowstring inside the nock of the arrow (hence the term, nocked!). Yeah I am terrible, I know it. That said I really like the crispness and palette, and the image on the whole!

Hey McG! Thanks!

Hmmm, I never really zoomed in on the final image to make sure it looked right, since I spent quite a bit of time putting it in the "right" place. So, being a little pedantic myself, I had to go back and check the original image and scene set. The alignment on the arrow nock is matched perfectly to the string. Unfortunately, like way too many Poser/DAZ products, the person who made the bow (and the original pose I used for the image) was not an archer, and probably didn't do a lot of research on the subject. The bow draw morph for the bow (and the pose for the figure) was designed for the string to be deformed/bent by the noched arrow, with the archer drawing the bow by pinching the arrow noch between the thumb and fingers, not by placing the arrow between the index and middle fingers and using the fingers on the string to draw the bow. Unfortunately that makes the deformation of the string wrong for proper placement of the fingers, resulting in the fletching for the arrows being way to close to the noch to fully noch the arrow, so you are left with the options of 1) not posing the figure properly to draw a heavy weight bow, 2) posing the fingers properly and having the arrow fully noched which will cause the fletching to intersect (cut through) the fingers, 3) posing the fingers properly with the arrow in the proper location relative to the fingers and the arrow fully noched which will cause the string to cut through the fingers, or 4) pose the fingers properly with the arrow in the proper location relative to the noch but don't noch the arrow so the string does not cut through the fingers. I chose the last option, thinking that it would not be obvious the the arrow was not fully noched given the viewing angle. I obviously didn't do a zoomed inspection to see if I was right (I did just check the original file, and the arrow is in proper alignment), so that is why things look off. Of course the other obvious solution to the problem would be to fix the original morph. Unfortunately that wasn't an option due to the lack of geometry in the bow string. Anyhoo, great catch!! Of course now it's going to bug the heck out of me every time I look at the image now!!

With regard to the placement of the arrow in relation to the bow, she's holding it the way I was taught (and the way I shot for many years with a long bow, left and right handed recurves, and a compound - haven't shot in about 30 years though). She's has the arrow on the proper side of the bow for a lefty, the arrow always goes on the opposite side of the bow from the draw arm. I had a similar discussion with someone at DA, which caused me to double check to make sure it was right back then (but he missed the noching issue). I'm ambidextrous and slightly dyslexic, so I do make mistakes some times. The bow in the scene doesn't have an arrow shelf, but I did noticed that the angle of the image is creating a slight illusion of an arrow shelf on the opposite side from the arrow which makes it "look" like the arrow should be on the other side, plus she is shooting left handed which can add to the confusion. Having bow hunted for several years (always still hunting, stalking the prey) I would hate to try to hold the arrow on the bow with my thumb, much more natural to hold it with the index finger until you are ready to draw the bow. Additionally, when using the two finger draw, if the arrow is placed on the other side of the bow it will tend to move away from (sideways from) the bow when the string/arrow is released, which will adversely affect accuracy.

Here is a quick photo reference on a long bow

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