“You got here in less than a minute, cadet. That’s a new academy record. Now get over here and let’s see if we can break some more.”
 
(Yeah I’m no good at that kind of writing).
 
So since I had ponies down pat, I decided to try my hand at putting together an anthro picture. Pony anthros are another thing I had mixed feelings about in SFM, mainly because, once again, they just don’t look quite right. Mainly because they’re literally sticking a pony head on a human body. But again, under the right circumstances they can look really pretty.
 
Well I wasn’t going to try to knock it out of the park on my first attempt: I just wanted to see how hard it would be to pull off. Turns out: once you get the preparations done, it isn’t that difficult. Originally my testing dummy was going to be Vinyl Scratch, but at some point in time I decided to use Spitfire instead. Though I’ll most likely tackle Vinyl in the near future.
 
Anyway, Spitfire’s “body double” is a model of Miranda from Mass Effect 3 (I have never played any of those games so I have no idea who this character is). The model came with several bodygroups that showed Miranda in varying states of undress. I decided to go with the partially unzipped suit as it seemed the most appealing to me, not to mention the most natural fit considering Spitfire would probably lounge in this state after a hard day’s flying. In hindsight I wish I would’ve edited the entire suit to be that of the colors of the Wonderbolt’s flight suits, but I just didn’t have the time.
 
 
Anyway, because only the torso was exposed there was a minimal amount of skin I had to edit. Using paint.NET I was able to apply Spitfire’s coat color to her skin. Also using some fancy tricks involving layers I was able to paint the skin under the bra in a way so that it was slightly darker than the rest of the torso, due to the mesh covering. Hopefully you don’t even notice it, it just looks right, which means I did a good job.
 
Attaching Spitfire to the model wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t too difficult either. It was simply a matter of scaling down her body, positioning her, then scaling up her head, wings and tail, aligning them with the body, and locking them so they would move along with the body. The end results aren’t 100% perfect, there’s still a slight seam on her neck due to a glitch in the texture, and her tail is actually bent at an impossible angle so it can be seen, but I’m still pretty happy with how she turned out.
 
Unlike last time where I used pre baked poses and tweaked them a bit, this time the posing was 100% done by hand. I originally wanted to use one of the Demoman’s poses from the WAR TF2 update, but I couldn’t get it to work with the rigging, so I got as close as I could. Posing in SFM is actually very easy, and while it does take a little bit to get right, it never feels frustrating. I aimed to give Spitfire a posture that looked like a sort of sexy recline on the sofa, and while the result isn’t 100% perfect, I am very happy with hot it turned out.
 
I also added on some other details to her model: I included her flight goggles resting on top of her head (I originally wanted to have her wear her aviators but I couldn’t find the appropriate model) as well as a pair of dog tags around her neck. The dog tags are actually inscribed as well. Originally I was going to make an inscription based on what the US Air Force currently inscribes on their dog tags, but I decided to base it off the dog tags used by Canadian Armed Forces as a nod to the Canadian origins of the show. While you can’t make out the inscription, here’s the text for anyone interested:
 
C02112011  
SPITFIRE  
SOL FORCES SOL
 
The set is pretty straightforward. The photo is in an empty apartment with a sofa spawned. The only other major object of note is the cityscape that’s outside the window. Lighting was provided by 3 sources: a nearby red light that was meant to look as if coming from a neon sign just outside the window, a far white light that was meant to simulate diffuse light from the apartment windows and gives some highlights to Spitfire’s face, specifically her right eye and google lens, and finally a volumetric blue light that give the scene and overall blue tint as well as cats some dramatic shadows. This was my first time working with volumetric lighting and I was very impressed by the results.
 
Finally, this was also my first attempt to include a depth of field effect in the shot. It took some time to get right due to the camera’s tight FOV and short distance from the subject, but I finally arrived at a good solution. The slight blurring of the outside apartments, the back wall, and even the couch not only emphasize depth and distance, but draw attention to Spitfire.
 
So once again, pretty happy with how this came out. Once I can find some more “body doubles” I def start playing with anthros some more. In the meantime I’m going to start focusing on actual animations. Now that I have the basics of the program down, it’s time to use it for its intended purpose.