Purple Pony Creations

So, Flower released a Roman-nosed version of the Mustang, and since I must have all things horse (even though I'm behind on quad avs), I picked it up. Here's a comparison of the three Raawr equine heads.

Before I start, the Mustang's mods will fit the Roman-nosed version. I have tested this with the Donkey mod.


First, a front on view of the three. Horse to the left, standard Mustang in the middle, Roman-nosed Mustang on right.


The difference in the profile is pretty striking from the Horse to the Roman-nosed head. It's a nicely filled gap, finally, essentially covering your Arabian-type heads with a pronounced dish, a more typical Quarter Horse or Thoroughbred profile, and then your Draft or Baroque head. The latter I honestly have not seen much in SL, while TB-type heads are most common for anthros. You see the AVentity 2.0 the most (at least I do).


And from the other side: Roman-nose Mustang, standard Mustang, and Horse.


I thought about ending the look at these heads with that last pic, but I wanted to show off the size differences, so here's the head from the top. Noses are against the front board, Roman-nose Mustang's head is touching the back, and you can see the difference in lengths.


This is the Horse head in a slightly transparent box. The edges of the box are just extended past the head enough to not show the head through it. The box's dimensions are:
X 0.26262
Y 0.18082
Z 0.19904


And the standard Mustang head in a box. This box's was dragged to the Mustang head from the Horse, and then scaled up to fit. It's dimensions are:
X 0.28691
Y 0.18082
Z 0.20459


And finally, the Roman-nose Mustang. Same as above, I drug the box over onto it, and then resized it to fit the head. The dimensions are:
X 0.29871
Y 0.18082
Z 0.20752


And another profile look. Roman-nosed Mustang in front, standard Mustang in middle, and Horse on far end.


And a reverse of the above.




While I was writing this, I got to thinking: what avs do I have/have I seen that have Roman noses? I concentrated mostly on anthros, but there's some commentary on a few quads in the following.

Listing off head types of avatars I have, and I'm logged on to my alt, Adian (Samiya.Rossini), to look the oldest ones up...
- The very, very old Hoof It! Anthro equines had more of the QH/TB style.
- The AnthroXstacy horse had a very flat profile, but still not a Roman nose.
- The Wingless Horse is, again, more TB-ish.
- Hoof It!'s quad equines all have TB-like faces. The Foal's head was dished, but about to the level you would expect in a foal.
- Water Horse's original sculpted horse had several options. The standard avatar (QH/TB) was available, and for that you could get an Arabian add-on with two heads, one with a smaller muzzle. (Perhaps it just came with it? I can't remember...) So there's three heads, and they did have a Draft head as well, but I'm fairly certain that avatar was separate. The nose on the draft was slightly convex.
- AVentity Equine v1 was more of the TB profile.
- AVentity Equine 2.0 is definitely more Arabian.
- Kinzart Kreetures has two equines: a standard and a draft. I have both and the heads are effectively the same: Flat (like the AX horse) with a slight "stop" (as you would call it on a dog) near the eyes. (The wings on this av are still top notch.)
- I'm going to break out the super old avs here that I don't have on Snowhawk. Once upon a time, there was a creator named White Guildenstern, and they had a store called White Zebra Creations. The account is over 10 years old, and they closed their store before I found it again on Snowhawk so... That should give you an idea of the age of this av. Anyway. I have all of their avatars. 2 horses, a donkey, a unicorn, and two cows. (I'm pretty sure that was all anyway...) All the equines have the same face, and it's a Roman nose. So, finally, an equine anthro with a roman nose!
- Another old av creator is Envi Kanno, who made the "Little Furs" line. These were adorable for the time (little dated now). I have the white Pony, and it's definitely not a Roman nose, though the nose id bulbous.
- Extrovirtual has some Tiny horses, anthro and quad, and if I remember correctly, they used the same head. I have two Tiny quad horses, and they both have a very slight convex profile. I feel this may be more from the prims used though.
- Whinge Languish (of Ninja Weasel Studios) had a unicorn that I to this day still adore. It was my second avatar purchased in SL. The head on it is not exactly flat, though, again, I suspect the roundness is from the prims used instead of any intentional effect to make a Roman nose.
- Lucah Solvang had her line of avatars once, and they were also adorable. The faces were more cutesy, like the Little Furs, so the head is very pony-ish, as most have some to know the term. More dished then flat. Certainly not convex.
- Amsel Wombat (I don't believe there was a store name) had a line of zebras. Very cutesy, like Lucah and Little Furs' avatars. However, this head has more of a Roman profile than some others. So, finally, a second convex nose on an anthro.
- And finally, the last I can find, is from a creator named Hydrogen Excelsior, and they are currently running Niramyth, though they once had a brand called ::: 6ixth :::. They had the Unicorna avatar, which was scripted to be able to switch back and forth from a large, anthro alicorn (winged unicorn, pegacorn, whatever term you use) to a half human/half equine form, which was dubbed the Angel form. The face of the alicorn form is much more like a TB/QH than either of the other options.

So there you have it... All those avs, and two anthros with a Roman nose. This is a needed addition to the line.

And that's my look at these heads!

So, before I get down to modding the ever living hell out of the new Raawr Mustang/Heavy Horse (it's called both in files), I wanted to share some comparison shots of the head with the older Raawr Horse head. These are taken straight out of the boxes. All I have done is positioned the jaw and then placed them beside each other. I haven't opened Photoshop to crop these down, these are raw screenshots.


So, starting from the front. The Mustang is on the left, the Horse on the right. Right off the bat, the Horse is much rounder. This makes it look more pony-ish, or you could say the look of the Mustang is more mature. (I hate to call the Horse "childish," because that's not what the look is, but it could be pointed that direction.)


The profile difference is pretty noticeable here. I used the snap grid to align them and you can see that the mustang head is longer than the horse. Will this cause issue with hair? I haven't seen it do so yet, but I've only tried on a few hairs. Some rigged hairs might not fit as well due to the slip of the Mustang's head.


he expression is different as well. The horse seems to have a slight "smile" while the Mustang's face is more neutral. I checked the HUDs and what changes with expressions, and what seems to take away the smile on the Horse is the "sad" emote, but there's no other difference with the mouth.

Some other observations I've had:
- The shoes from the Horse fit the Mustang just fine!
- The rigged legs are different so the Horse's alpha cannot be used (there is a large gap if it is). There are also non-rigged and cut feet, like with other Raawr Mesh avatars.
- Related: The fetlock fluff is part of the leg on the Mustang, instead of an additional attachment as on the Horse. This is not removable, but it is on separate faces, so you can make it transparent. If you like the look of the Horse's fetlock fluff, it seems like it will more than likely work on the Mustang, but any textures would need to be modded as they stick out the back of the hock as is. The Mustang's legs are thicker than the horse's so they do "eat" the fetlock at the top.
- There are both rigged and non rigged hands. I don't tend to use hand attachments that come with furry avs, but you have a choice now.
- This jaw attaches to the mouth instead of the chin like the horse.
- It's possibly SL being weird, but I can't get the torso muscles to stop looking like balloons on the female shape. I have modded my Raawr Horse shape in the mean time.
- Both hair and tail textures are blonde instead of grey scale. This could be potentially problematic for folks who just tint tails. I will be doing a greyscale texture for the hair and tail in future mods, or modding the one I've previously made since I got it looking better.

So, there you have it, my quick look at the Mustang before I start modding. I would have had it modded by now, but I had to sleep right after the release party.

Edit: Upon looking at the PSD files, it appears that there were supposed to be shoes with this av? Hmm, perhaps they got left out of the box.

So I'll let you in on a little secret.  For the past couple weeks, my boobs in SL... have been mesh.

Yep, they're Lolas.

I've fought with the idea of picking these up for... well over 6 months. I hemmed and hawed and finally said "f-it!" and got them.

Why? Well, I'd slowly been accumulating clothes with appliers. And I know, if I ever start creating skins or clothes, I'm probably gonna get asked about them. So I stopped over at the Lolas store to see if they had anything for creators set out. Couldn't find anything but... Well, what's done is done.

And lo, the boobs came with a developer's kit.

And it was stupid easy to make appliers for my own personal skin. Like... holy shit easy. Easier than typing a blog. Didn't even have to upload a new texture, just used the UUID for the existing texture(s) and boom, boobs!

I did scale them down significantly. But yeah, new boobs.

This post has not point, I'm just trying to get my mind off some stupidity.

So Erin delivered this to me tonight, and, omg, I'm so happy!



For a refresher, this is the new Mesh Thoroughbred av in SL, in a one-of-a-kind skin, made just for Fantasy Faire 2014. I'm wearing the zebra tattoo over it because... I want to rock some stripes.


Here it is with the filigree you saw in the other picture. :3

And, this is post teh 200! Too bad I don't have anything else to talk about, lol.

(LOTS OF PICS. Slow internet people, beware!)

Yes, finally, version 2 of the AVentity equine is out.


Yes, I am currently rocking the FUCK out of the updated zebra.

So, let's take a look at it!

(Sorry this pics are of the white version, I hadn't gone to get another color yet... :p)

To start, these do NOT include wings or horns like the version 1. There are a million alicorns across the grid, I'm sure you won't die. As for wings... the original ones were very high ARC, and while I'm not a horrible "OMG GET YOUR ARC DOWN TO ONE" like some people can be, it can be a concern. The wings were high prim, with alpha textures, so, yeah, I'm sure you can find replacements. (I'm sure there are some in the part store that's around the AVentity vendors now.) They also do not include hand attachments, but I never really used those much any more.

All that said they ARE cheaper than they were at release, now costing L$640, down from L$800 a little over a year ago. Mephitis has lowered the price of all her avatars, and you get both sexes, so they're a really good deal. Honestly, one of the best deals on the market. The price is why I can't complain TOO much about the small issues I have with the avatar. The biggest of which is, again, lack of out-of-the-box Viewer 2 compatibility. The legs and hooves still use invisiprims. It's a simple as hell fix for me, and I'll take care of it as soon as I can, but if someone is not savvy in how to edit this, it can be a problem.

(Meph, please, if you read this, everyone will be FORCED to go to a V2 compatible viewer soon. Yes, forced. Might as well make those legs V2 compatible! :3 I've got a free digitigrade alpha texture that I created (because all the other free ones I tried were no mod and/or not well done) I will -GIVE- you, full perm, so you can include it and stop using those archaic invisiprims.)


The other issue I have is more of a personal one, and it is... av height. Yeah, I like short avs. But again, it's not a hard fix. And at least it's not as tall as some.

Anyway! Onto the av. :3

This is what you first drag to the ground...


Then you get a folder from that with two other boxes, one for the male av, one for the female. We're gonna look at the female av...



The first thing I notice, and love, is the fixing of the avatar's proportions. The arms are no longer too short, probably having to do with the lack of hand attachments. The figure is pretty extreme, but there are versions of my own, personal shape that are similar. Due to how SL does the joints, they always look stick thin, regardless of how muscular the limbs are. This is a SL issue, not one Meph caused with her shape, though toning down the muscles on the legs can help alleviate the strange look. Also, this shape is slightly knock-kneed, like the wolf was, so the width of the calf and the hoof becomes problematic (*smoosh*) on a pose stand like the one I'm on. In normal use, you don't really notice it. Modding would help too, if it's a problem for the user.


From the side, the av is pretty thin, and almost looks bottom heavy with the size of the legs. Again, I think the average user would alleviate this look some if they were to mod the avatar's legs. Over all, I DO love these legs and hooves so many times more than the old legs. No longer are the toes of the hooves super long and the heels severely under-run. I'll touch more on the hooves later. The new tail is flagged, and reminds me of an Arabian, fitting well with the face shape. The new female hair style is similar to the style of the KZK horse, with it being like an actual mane and pulled to one side. Several years back, Wingless Emoto did this with her old horse avatars, and you can still find those across the grid.

(A note about the fingers: There is an optional, tintable "glove" that adds the tips to the fingers. I was wearing it while photographing.)



From the back, you can see the style of the mane, and also how fluffy the tail is (in the first image) and the shading of the backside (in the second). The av looks great from pretty much any angle.


Back to the head for a moment... I'm not sure if I'm sold on the eyebrows but... I think I can deal with them. The difference in this face shape over the original is pretty signifigant.

And yes, those appear to be the same ears. I loved the original ear sculpts, and I'm glad she kept them.

Now, onto where I am going to nitpick every horse avatar I come across: the hooves. There is a saying: "No hoof, no horse." The hoof is the foundation of every equine, and to see it neglected is just... appalling. That said, the hooves are MUCH improved over the original.


To start, this avatar does come with a system shoe. Most ever horse av has this, and it really throws off my re-scaling. ... Just sayin', guys... :p


I'm not sure what's with the coronet area's discoloration on the white av. I don't really notice this on the zebra, and I forgot to look on the chestnut. The hooves are short, yes, but they're not over grown, as the old ones appeared. It fits with the chunky look, and a user can modify this, as the hoof is a prim of it's own.


While the outside of the hoof looks good, I am kind of "meh" about the lack of attention paid to the sole and frog areas of the hoof.


Still the hoof is nice and proportional, with the length and width being about even. Some other makers ignore this, so it's nice to see attention paid to it. (Had to take one hoof off, otherwise, you'd have seen something that looks kinda like a butt.)

Over all, I'm so damn happy to see this. The original, while a good av for it's time (early sculpties), hadn't aged as well as one would hope, especially considering there's a lack of GOOD anthro equine avs on the grid.

AVentity halter update will be out in a day or so, and I will also be taking a look at the updated AnthroXstacy horse, and comparing it to the original (which I didn't really care for...) Let's just say I bought a second AX horse.

So, Eversky Aeon over at The Pony Store released some sculpted shoes for her sculpted hooves! :3

I just had to trot (...lol) right over and grab them! :)


(Pardon my giant assed invisiprim there. My hooves are very small, and Emerald hasn't been updated to use alpha layers that everyone can see yet.)



They're very cute, and perfect for my av. I was missing the silver flash when I walked with my old hooves.

Edit: Just as a comparison, here are my previous hooves, and my current ones, side by side.



(horsebutt)


My mesh foot is sticking out in the middle of the old hoof, so that's the strange purple there.

This thing will be a work in progress for a long time, me thinks...


So I poked at it a little more today. One of the things that had been bothering me was how tall my av was, and, as I've mentioned, I prefer a shorter avatar. I pulled off the top few prims of the hoof so it would sit lower on my foot. I understand why Meph did the foot the way she did but... Not preferred for me. (I tend to forget to take off shoe bases, or I'll accidentally replace them.)


I'll eventually find an equine or other ungulate leg that I like (thinking maybe the leg on the DSD ram), but for now I have a re-textured leg from the Tokushi Chinese Crested. Super fluffy! <3 (That texture isn't the greatest, but I'm half asleep and did it in like 10 minutes. x_x)


While pulling parts from the Chinese Crested, I decided to try the arm fluff from it. Really like how cute it is, so, she gets that too. :3

Still working on getting pics together for the last review. I've been busy with another project...

Which I'm gonna show you here!

So, as I said, I got some L$ for my birthday, and I send some to Snowhawk so I could get her an Aventity horse av. Again, these aren't the ideal avs for this character, but I can make them work.

This is what I got:


Simple, white horse av.

First things first, change the shape! ... And wow did I look weird. Again, this is a tall av, 7'5", so the attachments are big. Scaling them down was easy, then some adjustments to where everything was situated. I detailed how I go about making the feet, leg, and arm/hand attachments even sizes when I did the Rez Fantasy kirin av, so I won't go into that again. (Too lazy to do it again. :p)

Now, my character is VERY purple. Like.. All over. Except her eyes and horn. And a little white snip on her nose. But she's not just -purple-, she's grullo... Just purple.

Which means I had to retexture everything.

Let me tell you... the addition of the "Temporary" textures saved me a LOT of L$. I was constantly playing around with everything, went through three versions of the eye textures for the head... and only spent L$100 for my uploads. That's all I added. 10 textures.

The skin is three (4 if you count the "mature" version), then four for the head, one for the ears, and a flat color for the attachments, since I just did the barring she one on the skin.


It's not perfect, the face isn't quite what I wanted, and the transition between the head and body isn't quite right.

But still, this is my first major modification project where I did everything. Even retexturing the Hoof It's was easier since I had instructions.







The skin is based off one of the open source skins (Another), and I didn't have to do much to them other than add the base and lighten most of the details. Then I added the markings and fiddled around until the seams matched up as best as I could get them.

It was a fun little project. :)