On the Warpath

[mtpeak2]

Here's my newest project. Still alot to do.

[TheSpleen]

love it!

the girl horse background, all of it

[Rodney]

Very nice Mark!

 

It's probably too early to make suggestions but you know me...

I'm torn between suggesting whether or not to put a bend in her knees. I can envision both bend and straight working at different times of the action.

I'd say for a still image having her knees bend with her foot back against the lower part of the horses ribcage will suggest a very solid connection/weight/balance between the horse and rider. It'd also push the supporting elements of the line of action forward in the direction of travel.

 

Impressive scenery too!

Dare I ask... how much of that is photograph?

 

Love the over all composition.

[mtpeak2]

Thanks guys.

 

The background is a photo and the horse is from the extra cd. Though I would like to try replicating the landscape, if I can find the time. I think I did something similar for SO.

[mtpeak2]

Here's an update.

 

Added a force for the hair, repositioned spear and took Rodney's suggestion for the knees.

[Vertexspline]

Mark,

I liked both images. The second one if I may make a suggestion. It would seem her hair and horses mane is blowing a little too strong considering the apparent gait of the horse. Now one frame shots of even horses at full gallop can catch them in some remarkable poses as it were but the normally for a horse to have its tail blowing and the riders hair blowing from the wind of the gallop their legs will either be very extended outwards or pretty tucked together underneath and curled as they gallop.

 

but that's maybe just me.....I see a lot of horses where I am from - and they are very beautiful creatures indeed --so that's why I liked the image too.

[Dpendleton77]

Man that is sweet.

[Maniac]

I like that really nice work

[mtpeak2]

Thanks.

 

Another update.

 

Added hair material for the mane and tail. Also toned down the force.

[itsjustme]

Great stuff, Mark!

[steve392]

Thats looking real good Mark it has a lot of movement in it ,graet looking background

[mtpeak2]

Thanks guys.

 

Steve, I can't take credit For the background, it's a photo.

[Vertexspline]

Mark---that slight adjustment worked really well---nice image indeed.

[largento]

I think you've integrated the models into the background really well! The only suggestion I might make is to attempt to recreate some of the ground plain to use as a foreground element, to give the composition added depth.

[steve392]

Steve, I can't take credit For the background, it's a photo.

 

Yea but you picked it to go well with this image

[mtpeak2]

Thanks Steve.

 

Mark, I do have 2 grass models set to front projection targets, to mask the rear hooves. I'll see what I can do with adding more elements.

[Shelton]

Very cool Mark!

 

Steve

[zandoriastudios]

Nice work, Mark!

[John Bigboote]

All good suggestions... powerful image! I am diggin watching the progress!

[Rodney]

Mark,

I'm going to post a few observations. Make what you will out of them...

 

One thing that I hope my image doesn't subtract from is the nice sense of blurring of light that you have in your current image.

Example: The girls legs and the horses body almost seem to blend together. In the time tested and true fashion of Frazetta/Boris this is a good thing in my opinion. What I have suggested in the attached image may seem to contradict this but there is no contradiction, in my effort to show you what I'm thinking I'm just working the same thing from different angles.

 

The important thing to note about the 'Frazetta effect' is that he's using that mostly as a matter of light and shade.

For the girl's leg next to the horse's body this works very well (you might consider giving her an ankle bracelet if you want to add some contrast there... and at the same time suggest to the viewer that you fully understand what is going on with regard to light and shade in that area). Conversely, the slightly confusing color/tint of the horse's front legs are mostly a matter of positioning. This leads me to my second observation; that of the position of the horses legs.

 

There is something that seems off in the horse's leg positions, particularly the hind legs. and I've been meaning to google up some reference imagery to research this to satisfy my curiousity. In the meantime I'll speculate and point you to that as an area to consider.

 

The other observation, that of the horse's head orientation, could be attacked in several ways. The first thing I note is that its head isn't oriented in the same direction as the girl... while that is okay in and of itself the attitude (that is to say motivated direction) is definitely not with her same motivation. In wondering where these two are going I cannot help but wonder if the horse is sufficiently motivated (particularly by the girl who we presume has prompted the horse to "Go there... now!") The head certainly can be down... that might actually work quite well... but if down then I think you'll need to work out some additional detail in the horse's face to suggest it's motivation/concentration.

 

Added: By raising the horse's head just above the horizon line it seems to me that it also makes the horse (and therefore the horse and girl) pop out a bit more from the background. When they overlap they are cemented together onto the image's 2D plane.

 

All this for what it's worth.

And I hope it makes sense.

 

Added: I really wanted to spotlight some of the cool stuff (flow primarily) you have going on in your image. One is how from the horse's head going down the horse's mane to the girl's loin cloth the viewer's attention whips up her arm and then over to her face. It creates a feeling of space at the most important part of the image... traps the viewer there for awhile even... I really like that!.

[mtpeak2]

Sorry for the late reply.

 

The horse pose is just the first frame of the action that comes with the horse, I didn't edit anything on it. I guess I moved the feet a little to high, I'll lower them a bit.

 

Thanks again everyone and thanks for the suggestions, they help a lot. Hopefully I'll have some time to work on it this weekend.