Alright, let’s talk about this ‘m bison horse’ thing I was working on. Sounds a bit random, I know, and honestly, it started that way. I was just digging through some old project files on my computer, found these 3D models I hadn’t looked at in years.
So, I fired up Blender. You know, the free 3D software, it does the job. I had this horse model, pretty standard stuff, and then I found this M. Bison model someone had shared way back when. Low-poly, kinda rough. Just for a laugh, I decided I’d try and put Bison on the horse. Seemed simple enough, right?
Getting Started
First thing, that Bison model needed serious cleanup. The mesh was a mess. Polygons were overlapping, vertices pointing every which way. I probably spent a good couple of hours just trying to sort that out, nudging points around, merging vertices. Tedious stuff.
Then came the rigging. Oh boy. Trying to get Bison into a believable riding pose on that horse was tougher than I thought. I initially tried to rig him properly, set up bones and constraints. But his crazy cape? It kept clipping straight through the horse’s back no matter what I did. I messed with the physics simulation for a bit, hoping it would drape nicely. Nope. The whole thing just kind of exploded into a mess of digital fabric.
- Cleaned up the Bison mesh.
- Attempted rigging Bison to the horse model.
- Fought with cape clipping issues.
- Abandoned physics simulation after it failed spectacularly.
Manual Posing and a Little Detour
Ended up just manually posing him. Took way longer. Bending limbs, twisting the torso, trying to make it look like he wasn’t just floating there. Had to adjust the horse’s saddle too, remodelled it slightly so it looked like it could actually support the guy. It’s funny, getting stuck on stuff like this.
Reminds me of this one weekend I spent trying to assemble a flat-pack bookshelf. The instructions looked simple, just diagrams. But I got halfway through, and this one shelf just wouldn’t fit right. Tried forcing it, swapping parts around, convinced the holes were drilled wrong. Got really frustrated. My wife came in, took one look, pointed out I had the whole back panel upside down. Felt like an idiot, but flipping it fixed everything instantly. Sometimes you just need fresh eyes, or to just step back from the screen, you know?
Texturing and Finishing Up
Anyway, back to Bison and his noble steed. Once the pose was kinda locked in, I moved onto textures. Didn’t want him looking pristine. Used the texture painting tools in Blender. Kept his iconic red uniform, of course, but layered on some dirt, some scuff marks. Made it look like maybe he’d actually been riding through somewhere dusty. Did the same for the horse, roughed up its texture a bit, less ‘My Little Pony’, more ‘actual working animal’.
So, what’s the final result? Well, I’ve got a 3D scene with M. Bison sitting on a horse. It looks… well, it looks like M. Bison on a horse. A bit goofy, maybe slightly imposing? Hard to say. I rendered out a few static images from different angles.
Didn’t bother trying to animate it. The pose is too forced, the rig is basically non-existent now. It just sits there on my hard drive. Maybe I’ll use the render for a profile picture somewhere for a laugh. It wasn’t really about making a masterpiece. It was just the process, you know? Fiddling around, trying to solve little problems, keeping the hands busy. That was the main thing. Just a weird little project I did.
