Margo & LEC Espresso: Appaloosa Plains 2013 Spring Series

Spring's come for the Equus Sims forums, which means competition season is in full swing! The new forums are absolutely fantastic, but with classier holdings comes classier shows  to compete at--so this time around, I have to read through the rules carefully to make sure I know what I'm doing!

Now that LEC Espresso is happily registered with the Hunter Jumper Club on the new site, he and Margo have entered their very first A-Rated show! As of right now, Margo is still participating in shows as a member of the Lawrence Equestrian Riding Academy; she'll probably be representing them until she graduates from High School.

Without further ado though, here's Margo's entry:

 Here, seen approaching Jump 2--

 And here, taking jump 5b (Obviously, haha!)--

 This shot is a little tricker to decipher, but she's taking a rollback after jump 4, to procide to jump 5a.

Here, Margo lets her hair loose and steers Bean back to the stables--while he smirks cheekily at the camera.

Having been absent from the Equus community for so long, I decided that to get my mind back into things I'd make my poses from scratch again (even the ones I didn't need to)... And, well, it proved a little more challenging than I thought. Even though I'd wager they look fairly decent from the angles I caught, there's still some parts of each pose I'm not really that pleased with, so it may be a little while until I release them to the public. I certainly would like to, though.

As for editing, I did a few things different this time around than usual:

First, I used the Amber Action from Florabella Spring Set I, as well as some of the other additives from that set. I don't use those actions a lot because they're fairly overpowering on Sims screens, but because Appaloosa Plains has so much variation in color, and the jumps are also all quite varied, I felt having something to tone down all the shades and mellow them would  be better than my normal actions, which focus on enhancing colors rather than subduing.

Second, I used motion blurring on the legs to try and get more impression of movement. I'm not sure if it's working as intended, but I'm happy with the result, so oh well. :)

Third: I did a bit more hair editing than  usual, which hopefully turned out alright... I am not as good as some, but at least Bean's mane is nice and short. I also edited clothes for the first time in the "jump" picture, to give the jacket some lift in the back. Doesn't look too bad.

Anyways, I am SO excited to be back in the Equus scene--there's always so much going on, and getting Margo involved makes her feel like a part of something so much bigger than just Desperate Sims. I already have so many plans for Margo's future, being able to involve so many wonderful people in them makes me a happy camper indeed. ♥

Cheers!