The bow used I think is fine. It may be a bit longer than the recurved bone bows of the Steppe Horsemen but it is not a long bow either. It is recurved and therefore appropriate for something out of Greek myth. The use of the bow from a horse is another matter. The stance of 90 degrees to the tareget is fine for archery practice or using a long bow for distance shooting but using a recurve off a moving horse...even if in a way you are the horse!....takes another kind of consideration.. That is why the character seems stiff. Wrong stance for the situation. I still think the horse's rear legs need to be firmly planted on the ground to justify the rearing action. In addition it would be better for the dynamics of the body of the horse were more twisted toward the prey bringing into a better position the human body for the shot. The human body can also be slightly twisted at abdomen/chest and shoulders to add a continuum to the horses left body twist and perhaps a slight forward bend as well. I have seen renders of riders of the steppe shooting their bows from horseback and there was much bending and twisting of the body into less stiff and awkward seeming poses. Motion and position change of the prey demands quick response w/follow through of the body positioning on the fly...or in this case....on the hoof. I think that is the dynamic missing from this image. I don't think you need to research more archery and bow use poses as much as you may consider researching horseback battle stances.

No actually I am impressed. You definately seem to have done some serious research in setting this up. Kudos. As I said several times above it looks good. I always seem to try and play Devils Advocate when I see work by artists who ask for imput as to how other artists/Viewers would try and make this better. I just saw it as a bit rigid still and threw some ideas as to what I may have done to "loosen her up a bit". That's all. No straws here friend...just nice images and a reason for being! Thanks for shareing it! More Please! LOL :)

It would mean doing a bit of repositioning and believe me I know what a hassle that is...been working with a similar image using Lisha PT and a modified P4 horse/Unicorn character which has a smaller neck area for better fitting to the female hip. In your image, the body of the centauress has to move as if it were one. So if it is coming out of a gallop and stopping abruptly to turn and shoot it would turn as a horse would turn...at the horse waist and neck as well as at the waist and shoulders of the human body parts. I think it would be hugely more dynamic and realistic if both bodies are into that stop/slide/turn and set up for the shoot instead of the way it is. The two bodies seem to be working aganist each other instead of together.The horse body seems off center and unballanced and she seems too stiff for a creature used to the bow and setting up "off the hip" shots. Don't know if you have ever shot a bow but it is a bit more difficult than it appears in the movies and this kind of "off balance" would not get her the bird! I would have to agree with the concern for a breast guard especially with the position of the release hand. Should be up at the jaw line for proper alignment. Also your idea of adding a forearm guard is a dire one. Bow string and fletching when released are a mean pain when whipped agains the forearm. I like either the blonde hair or the black but one little thing you may consider...the horse has a black tail and black socks so I would have given her black hair to match and contrast the skin tones of horse and woman parts. I repeat it is a nice image but just my two and a half cents worth! :)

Hey Doc! I did that. I parented all the items to a primitive square parent called "floor'. When placed in the library they work fine when recalled so I know they are properly grouped and parented. I exported them as an .obj file. I reimported the newly exported file as an .obj and it came in all nice and grouped and scaleable...HOWEVER...all the individual materials(textures and bumps) for all the detailed parts were gone and in their place I have one single mterial setting for THE WHOLE OBJECT! No good. I need to retain all those individual textures and bumps. Soooo...next page!? :)

As usual mac users are left out on this great little utility. :(

Oh I have many of these models but I never saw the mermaid. Where was that hidden Thorne? What are the chances of making that available again!?

I probably got here a bit late for this thread but I was curious why both hind legs aren't firmly planted on the ground? The horse body seems awkward and unstable and would definately not be rearing up like that especially if the Centauress head needed to set up a difficult shot like Bird kill with a bow. I would have liked to see an alternate image with both legs firmly planted and the body slightly twisted toward the birds giving the image the feel of a sudden turn and shoot action. Would also help that awkward twisting of the human body parts. The image is nice but it was just a thought!

Ha! Ha! Time to whip out that dusty version of PhotoShop dude. Better than watching the sci-fi channel!

Thanks I will try that!

Ghostofmacbeth: How does one contact rbtwhiz? Haven't seen anything bout him in a while? Is he still in the community? Any leads helpful. Yeah I have a lot of Centaurs too -both male and female-but all that I know of are the old parent-them-together set-up. I tried one when I first got into Poser. I selected the horse part of the character and used a standard horse pose rearing and the human upper body went flying. Funny. But I removed the character right away and didn't use centaurs until Zygote distributed their centaur. But what pissed me off was the weak market strategy then of non-support for their releases. Oh the offered some different textures and poses and I think some accessories but for the most part it lacked after market support. I am glad they seem of late, to be changing that marketing philosophy. I am looking forward to seeing this new version and hopefully more support will be made available for it as well as a compareable mate! ;)

Tomsde I feel the same way. thought of taking advantage of the offer from Vue d'Sprit manufacturers and get the Pro version which, according to my understanding, also imports Pz3 files but it seems like a steep price and equally steep learning curve. IF Carrara also imports said Pz3 files it would be nice but then it would give different capabilities. Do you want nature environments? Get Vue. Do you want the ability to model and create MTs for Poser? Get Carrara. It would be nice if they were combined but they aren't. Meantime I'll just suffer with Poser! BLAHHH!

Thanks All! Just what I needed to know. But I am gonna wait until this "announcement" turns to realware this time before dishing over my HARD earned chump change. Last time a software company made that claim it was breathlessly awaited only to turn to fizzie-ware. You must all remember RayDream Studio and the interface promise made to us when Poser4 came out. Hmmm?? Sounds about the same and with Carrara being a higher ended child of RayDream and Infini-D it all seems like DejaVu! We shall see sayeth the mise-er man!

Someone at DAZ is creating a Freak Minotaur and I can see this SheFreak as a fem Minotaur or better yet a femCentauress (with the DAZ MilHorse as the base. What are the chances of that?! A whole set of conforming and PP2 armour set for both human and horse body parts. The combo would be fantastic!!!!! Ok...ok...so I am foaming at the mouth just thinking about it alright!? But...who will be the first to take up the gauntlet!? LOL

Hey hauksdottir: I followed up on your Cooler bedroll lead at 3dCommune but turned up empty. Is that where you remember seeing it or somewhere else?

Thanks everyone helping me here I will be looking for that other stuff! Hai! I was just looking for your e-mail address last night from the readme files on your saddle blanket prop. It looks great. That is the thingy I need to tie it all together. When do you anticipate completing it? Is it conforming or just a smart prop? Even if not completely finished (not knowing your intent) as long as all the straps meet in the right places enough to drop it and texture it in poser it'll do for my needs for now. :) Also, at your site I tried getting some items that had dead links. Not sure you were aware of it so I thought I would let you know. Though not sure how many items were dead these were for sure: -Poseable tail pdf manual -All of the Horsefeathers 8 stuff (3 seperate DLs I beleive) Also, I thought you were working in conjunction with the very cool poseable tail, a poseable mane. If so, was that ever completed and/or made availabe? Didn't see it at your DL site.