How The Hivewire Horse (harry) Came To Be.

[Chris]

Showing some highlights of screen grabs of some of the work on our horse, that was affectionately named "Harry" by CWRW. Frankly with all the input and direction that Laurie Prindle gave to me while modeling the horse, she could have called him "Mr. Marbles" or whatever and it would have stuck with us. Flint_Hawk was also a huge help in giving guidance and suggesting needed tweaks along the way. With these two ladies giving superb and needed input, and further input from this caring community of artists, our Harry has become the standard to beat for 3D horses in this community.

I first need to post the beautiful product image that CWRW rendered for Harry. This also shows off the superb texture work created by CWRW. With Laurie's maps, and Paul's stellar and ground breaking rigging work, this model has become the quality product that it is.

Now I'll show you all some of the work that got it started.

 

[Chris]

Believe it or not, this is how I chose to start this horse... as a morph from Dawn.

 

[Miss B]

It still totally amazes me, Chris, that you were able to create Harry as a morph from Dawn's original mesh. Just amazing work!!

 

[Chris]

From here I chopped off the hands of Dawn (sorry Dawn, but it had to be done), and started roughing in the legs and hooves. Notice the overall topology is still pretty knarly and unacceptable. And actually the overall look is very poor. But hey, ya gotta start some where. Actually embarrassing to show some of this early stuff. Yuck. But if ya know it's bad and still needs tweaks then that's a good thing.

 

[Chris]

It still totally amazes me, Chris, that you were able to creat Harry as a morph from Dawn's original mesh. Just amazing work!!

Thanks Miss B.

 

[Chris]

Then the horsey starts to get some refinement from here. I totally gutted the topology from muzzle to hooves, and redirected for a more appropriate flow to support bends, maps, and morphs.

This still has many, many problems, look at the hooves for one.

 

[Chris]

Laurie soon stepped in to give her expert advice and guidance. Over, and over we went thru many rounds of changes, improvements and enhancements. Then we got to a look that is much more appropriate and representational of what would become our Harry. In fact these are images Laurie put together to show a better more pleasing look then the crappy screen grabs that I'm known for.

 

[Chris]

Then I tried to plan out what I thought would be best for the mane, tail and fetlock geometry. With input from Paul this is what I came up with as a first sketch and we went on from there and improved as I modeled. Notice how the fetlock geometry changed.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

I am still blown away by how awesome Harry is.

Not that I consider the earlier harrys to be all that horrible. But then ... I'm using to seeing MMORPG horses that don't look all that different (or worse) than early Harry.

So ... I forget. How did we end up calling Harry, Harry???

 

[Chris]

Then we started adding in a bunch of breed morphs. Some of these have not made it to be a full product yet. Zebra, donkey, mule are some that don't have a home yet. But many of these other fine breeds are in the store.

 

[Chris]

I am still blown away by how awesome Harry is.

Not that I consider the earlier harrys to be all that horrible. But then ... I'm using to seeing MMORPG horses that don't look all that different (or worse) than early Harry.

So ... I forget. How did we end up calling Harry, Harry???

It was Laurie. I forget if it was in an email to me or in a forum post. But she thought it looked like a "Harry". That's what I recall anyway. So... she called it Harry from then on.

 

[Chris]

Oh, almost forgot, that I had to come up with some teeth for our Harry. That took some serious effort also.

 

[Chris]

Then we added in the Unicorn with a bunch of horn morphs and shapes. Oh, and the foal too. Cute lil' fart of a foal.

 

[Chris]

Then came a ton of shaping morphs and expressions. I'll spare you all and only show a few here. If you have the product, you know what I'm talking about.

 

[Chris]

Now some of the cool stuff that can be done with the mane, tail and fetlocks. Some folks don't realize that they can go into the mane and manipulate the bones on the mane and create some unique shaping.

 

[Chris]

Then I created additional morphs from Harry to create new animals that will require Harry as the base. Obviously the horns and antlers will be conforming figures or props.

 

[Chris]

Then this sweet beast of a Spanish bull. Laurie was simply applying her Friesian map I believe, just to see how the horse maps applied.

And the cow of course. Both still pure morphs from the Horse.

 

[Miss B]

Now some of the cool stuff that can be done with the mane, tail and fetlocks. Some folks don't realize that they can go into the mane and manipulate the bones on the mane and create some unique shaping.

OMG, I had absolutely no idea that could be done. I'm definitely going to play with those. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[Flint_Hawk]

How about the little unicorn, Whisper, Chris? I would love to see a picture again. I am so anxious for Whisper to be available!

 

[Chris]

Yeah, was going to post Whisper and Thistle next, but had to break for the evening and focus on other things. Flint_Hawk. Exactly right. Would love to see Whisper out also. Hopeful that will indeed happen before too long? Whisper is inspired by an image that was sent to me by Rose_2000. I've had the morph done for this lil' fella for some time now. Showing some very early test images from CWRW as well.