<ins>Captured Spies</ins>

Brighter version can be found here: https://derpibooru.org/images/2544671

Our heroes Rarity and Applejack have been caught by their captors, who ever will come and rescue them? Tune in next time…. perhaps I shall tell you….

<span class="caps">BEWARE</span> <span class="caps">BORING</span> <span class="caps">DEV</span> <span class="caps">NOTES</span> <span class="caps">BELOW</span>!!

This piece if you ask me is perhaps my most ambitious to date in terms of making <span class="caps">MLP</span> artwork and this is for several reasons. This is where I have been experimenting a fair bit more with modelling assets, rather than just exclusively importing everything wholesale.

Catsuit: Ever since I saw Fluttershy in the show wear that cool spy outfit I really wanted to make a piece that involved a skin tight costume. While there are a few catsuit assets out there, none of them were what I was really looking for. So at the end of December last year I got to work modelling a the catsuit and its accessories and while I can definitely see places for future improvement, for a first attempt the costume has turned out quite nice if you ask me!

This wasn’t without its headaches though, as I found that a few specific characters due to differing face shapes and topologies on the body, I ended up having to manufacture separate suit and mask sets for those individuals. For example I couldn’t use the default mask I made for Rarity as her eye shape is different the mask wouldn’t look right. With the all the variants this took me a good three weeks for me to finish a working prototype set taking me into January…

With the set made I now had to properly test what I had before releasing a set for public use; so I had to start on my next piece which is what you see here. I didn’t really have a plan as such, other than perhaps as a side objective was to practice new skills wherever possible. I was also watching several tutorials in tandem in order to (attempt to) learn how Blender works and what you can potentially do with it.

One of the main things I experimented with was learning how to make procedural rope, wherein using Bezier curves I could create a rope and use it to tie ligatures. This wasn’t a particularly easy thing to pull off as I had issues replicating desired results most of the time, however with perseverance I kind of know how it works and how you control them (mostly anyway!).

While choosing to make ones own assets is very time consuming and it means I have less time to make actual pictures; I believe it is actually starting to pay dividends. Practicing things like modelling and UV unwrapping means I have more options available to make more varied pieces instead of just relying on exclusively on pre-made assets; it is extremely rewarding process and this latest piece is the fruits of my labour.

A scenario where Rarity and Applejack appear to have been captured by unknown assailants and have gotten cooped up in some kind of utility room in some unspecified building. They are locked up fairly tight by their bindings and magic is out of the question thanks to the suppression ring.

What is going to happen to them I wonder? Who is going to rescue them I wonder? Perhaps I may explore these avenues down the road, who can say?

Catsuit, Horn Ring, Utility room and Various Signage modelled by me

Various creative commons assets were obtained from: https://sketchfab.com/ and https://free3d.com/

Various C0 textures were obtained from https://cc0textures.com/

Special thanks to:

JDash for giving me advice and inspiration for making my Catsuit costume

TrailsSFM for helping me test run the catsuit set prototypes and finding several issues-bugs that I missed.

Hunterz263 for general technical support and advice with Blender.