The new Centaur'n stuff

[rrkknight3]

On RDNA it was a temporary freebie? Otherwise either I have it somewhere, or I missed an area on the site. But well, we'll have this year horsehoes by Chiron and McG 

They would offer freebies in their newsletters.  I believe it was one of them.
Besides, as you said, we now have a genuine made-by-centaurs one!   

[McGrandpa]

I realized yesterday that I have never created procedurals in Poser for any object.   For that, I always used someone elses materials.   Well, I need to create something that both DS and Poser can use.  So, it's a texture coming up!

[McGrandpa]

IF you like the default Iron Gray color Chiron made, well that RAR file is usable.  In Poser Pro 2014 and PP 11 I just import the object, resize, move it to the proper hoof, then parent it to that hoof.  Done.  They look nice enough as is, really!  He modeled the imprints and holes too.   Rather nice job actually!

[Chiron]

Hi McG, here I am as promised - should have been earlier but this morning the doorbell rung and it was the new super duper hi-$ drone my wife had persuaded me to order for her birthday, thus the best part of the day was swallowed by our attempts to make heads or tails of about 200 pages of operating instructions, all in fine print...

Anyway before that happened I had managed to remodel my horseshoe in an "one fits them all" .cr2 that at least here seems to be parentable to any hoof. I even added a dial to reshape it slightly in case it doesn't fit well enough. And it has the nails :smile:
Comments welcome, criticism tolerated

As for the material, I didn't used anything prêt à porter - just a dull gray made slightly and hastily reflective to make it look a bit like steel. I'm sure you qualify better for that

A flatter calkless version is already in the oven :smile:

There's only a minor problem: I don't like it. Each horseshoe takes about 2500 surfaces and 1500 vertices, definitely too much for such a simple model, and seen up close it looks sort of 'lumpy' although the mesh is strictly flat. Thus I'm fiddling with the notion of a drastically simplified mesh where details like grooves, holes and nailheads are all left to a wisely designed Poser-compatible displacement texture - after all no one is likely to look at (and criticize) the upper side of a horseshoe as long as the horse is still wearing it... :winks:

What do you think?

In the meantime...

P.S. The pivot point is at the upper fore end for easier adjustment. The dial opens or closes slightly the hind ends.

[McGrandpa]

Oh no I don't!!!   Just because I've piddled around with this stuff more than 15 years don't make me "GOOD" at any part of it!   LOL!

These look real good Chiron!   Better than the original DAZ ones at that!

[Chiron]

Thanks McG!
You know, even the simplest 3d model is in a way like a home, a boat, a program or a space project: never really finished. One could keep trimming and improving it for years on end without ever being entirely satisfied with it.
Thus it's crucial to have a friend who at the right time tells you "OK, good enough, now STOP!", lest it swallows the rest of your life 

However, just to oblige my curiosity, I'd still give a chance to the horseshoe's 'displacement-textured' version, if only to see what you think of it - I'm pretty sure your Scottish ancestry will allow you to understand my drive to save those few KB of memory :winks:

[McGrandpa]

Say Chiron, I am all for whatever ya want to do!  Experiment to your hearts content!  I am sure there are several of us that will be glad to try them out!  :smile:

[Chiron]

Et voila McG, easier than expected! :smile:

This time I managed to stay below 250 vertices/surfaces  (10% of the previous one), and mesh and textures altogether take less than 260 KB - without degrading appreciably the final results 
(The .zip is larger due to a thick .psd larded with textures, template & details)
 
You'll find more technical stuff in the zipped 'ignore me.txt' I added with a view to the Halloween distribution (i.e. no © constraints for you :winks: ).

What do you think?

[Jherrith]

Smoking

[Chiron]

Smoking

Cannot - my doctor would kill me if I started again