DWH is live ... sort of

Wandered to SFS Western Eventing forum yesterday and just for fun went through what kind of shows are offered. Simply out of interest to future showing of DWH's horses, which are mostly labeled to being primarily cutting & reining. So goal was to see has there been or is there events suitable DWH lineup. Answer is more or less yes, but this doesn't end there...

SFS is from all that I've noticed nice community that's somewhat separate from Equus-Sims and has its focus more or less in western. Good news for any western buff with sim equines, no doubt of that. But all this is just a lead in, cause the point of all this rambling is that SFS events have this nice thing of being open for everyone. If you have something to enter, you're welcome to do so, it doesn't matter what the status of your stable is, everyone's welcome. Yeah, I'm liking this place! Just in case you didn't get that... ;) So yeah, as said I went through what was on offer and western halter show was still open for entries.. Now, DWH isn't in full motion quite yet, but there's foundation horses, family set up, the ranch grounds - including training arena... plausible for halter show, sure. Real show arena of course more professional, but hey, not exactly a problem - doesn't take long to make one!

So yeah, I went ahead to making half of "Dequine Horse Park" to achieve professional arena. It'll be multiple arena facility, but since only one is needed... the rest can wait. ;D After the arena and enough of its surroundings was done, there was no reason not to go ahead and start taking screenshots - goal being entering the halter show!

And here we are, first finished entry shot for first participation in community event is below.

AQH stallion How Do Ya Do It & Michael Dunn, finished shot

Now there's only, uh, five more to do of this pair and then another six from other pairing, so eleven edits await. I was going for three entries as a goal, but I think I'll settle for two. Although this first one took about an hour or so to do, rest won't need that much time each, since the process is much faster to do once it's been "broken in". Still, eleven edits take awhile and the third entry would require setting up its shots too, so I'll call it a day after two finished entries. The candidate for third entry shall remain just as a head in the background in couple shots for the two others.

Here's a little step by step how the above shot was achieved:

1. Starting point, only cropped

2. Little fixes and background blur

3. Mask layer for blurred & sharp areas

4. Added soft light layer

5. Added another soft light layer

6. Added vivid light layer

7. Added color burn layer

8. Added eye & sand effects

9. Added lead rope, finished shot

Keep in mind that this process is meant for darker bases, if the base has already good lighting this will overdo it!

Ok, I'm off to repeat the editing process ten or so times, since one of the eleven shots left is outside the covered arena. Maybe I should have done outdoor arena first...