Sunday, May 20, 2012

New product : Sassy Ponygirl AO

Hi there, long time no see !

I've been silent lately... only because I was busy. I have been working hard on three projects at the same time, and today is the time to release the first one : my new Sassy Ponygirl Animation Overrider.

Wait, what ? An AO ? A ponygirl AO ? It is true that my business, restraints, is only remotely tied to ponyplay. Ponygirls (and ponyboys) do often require restraints for training, but not all of them, and not at all times. However, I am very much fond of ponyplay myself, and have been training seriously for years. And although the pony gear you can find in SL is high quality, I can't say the same of the animations (with the notable exception of the MD pony boots, that I like a lot). I have a big gripe particularly against that freebie pony walk you see everywhere. With its overly arched back, its arms swaying at the beginning of the anim, its heavy walk and... its twitch at the end... aaargh. Sorry but I just can't stand it, and I know I am not the only one.


So, here is my attempt at making something nice for ponygirls. And ponyboys, to an extent, although this project is clearly aimed at female ponies.

Firstly, a word about the Animation Overrider (AO) itself. I am using the ZHAO-II scripts, which are full perms, open-source scripts created years ago by Francis Chung, then modified later by Ziggy Puff. It has been passed around and modified by some people, including myself, over the years. You are allowed to use these scripts and modify them at will, even resell products containing them, but the Gnu General Public License requires you to keep them full perms if you do so, and credit the previous scripters in the code.

The animations themselves are copy/mod/no-trans, which means you can copy the AO at will but you cannot transfer it. The sounds themselves are full-perms because of an SL limitation with playing sounds, but I do not grant the right to use them in your own projects, unless they are private and not meant to be distributed. You would not find them very useful outside this AO anyway.

Yes, you read right : sounds. This particular AO uses modified scripts that offer support for sounds, for example when you walk. Each walk has its own sound, and each sound is synchronized with it. To be able to play the sounds, you must wear the secondary attachment that comes with the AO, because SL does not let a HUD play a sound that must be heard in-world, it must come from an object attached on the body.

Another nice feature of this AO is blending animations, ala Vista AO. Since the walks are quite natural, your arms will be swinging back and forth. Most ponies and trainers don't want that, and prefer the arms to stay above the chest, behind the back, what-have-you. Some ponies do not even have arms at all ! So with the press of a button, you can force your arms to stay in one position, whether you walk, fly, jump, sit, run or whatever you can think of.

But enough talk ! Let's show you some eye candy, starting with the look of the AO itself :


I have used my old Divine Girl AO from Vista as an inspiration for the look of this HUD.


This Pony AO is good not only for ponyplay. You don't really like to have to switch your AO all the time, and you might not be always in your pony tack. So the first stand and walk of this AO are not actually pony-like. They are sexy and feminine, but work very well in everyday life :





And if you want to be all seductive, walk slowly by "crouch-walking" (by pressing Page Down plus an arrow key) :



No guy can resist that. There are 9 poses, all of them leaving the head free and the body relaxed, not looking painful at all :







The last pose is funny, and suitable for eager ponies ! Now enough of the vanilla stuff, let's move on to the pony stuff ! Let me put on my tack and show you some walks :







I have only showed you 3 walks (the vanilla one, a sloppy prance and a more serious prance), but there are actually 9 walks. The last three are older but no less good. They are less wiggly, hence I guess fitter for ponyboys. Try them all ! Ponygirls like running, too !




Of course, all those poses and anims work well with restraints. Let's show you how it looks with my armbinder on :




But ponies are not always restrained. In fact, I know some who loathe being restrained, because they believe restraints get in the way of submission. I won't argue about that here, and that's why I provide what I call "blend anims", which are additional animations for the arms, to be held still while walking, running and doing other stuff :



(there is no bug here, I am merely switching the blend anim on and off while walking, to show you that it does refresh itself)



You have 3 blend anims to hold your hands above your chest or at shoulder level, two blend anims to hold your arms behind your back, and one blend anim... for ponies who do not have arms at all !

After the effort, ponies like to rest. But how can you sit when you have a big plug up your... well, you know. That's why they usually kneel on the ground instead :



But when they do NOT have a big plug up their *beep*, they do like to look good when sitting down :



When you're a good pony, even difficult landings must be done with elegance :



Now, let's not forget that ponies do need to communicate. Or at least to indicate they have understood orders. Usually, they stomp. Once for yes, twice for no. This is not really the role of an AO, but you don't want to be an incomplete pony, right ? So here are three gestures that I include as a bonus. Stomping ("/i" for once, "/u" for twice) :



Aaaand... a cute curtsy ("/curtsy"). Because ponies are cute.



Thank you for watching !

This AO can be found in any vendor of mine that sell products from the Marine's Goodies brand, like my Riding Reins HUD or my Diamond HUD. It is not sold like my restraints in the RealRestraint brand, because it has nothing in common with restraints. The price is L$600, which for a product of this quality, is very inexpensive.


And as a bonus, I also include a copy of one of the stands and one of the walks as full-perms freebies. Feel free to redistribute them at will, just do not rip them off, please. All of these animations have required hard work and a lot of time. But if it can help getting rid of that awkward-looking freebie pony walk with the twitch, the one nobody can stand, the better.

At the time of this writing, there are only 2 Marine's Goodies vendors. One at my shop in Pak, the other in Lineside. I plan to add more, specifically at pony sims.

My shop : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pak/76/61/105

Little Shop of Kink : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lineside/102/146/77

Have fun !
Marine


PS 1 : There are actually more anims and sounds than those that are used in the AO, I left them there in case you had different tastes. For instance, a variant of the heel click, or a slightly different run, with the legs less extended. Try them out !

PS 2 : Since some people focus more on what I wear rather than on what I show off, here is how I assembled my pony tack : 
- Hybridz horse hood, minus the hair 
- Juliana hair by Truth 
- A mix of Tish Celt's hooves and Julia Faulkland's ankle ballet boots 
- A black catsuit from Hugo Designs 
- My Vixen collar on the 3rd pose 
- And of course my RR armbinder

And for the non pony gear : 
- Latex corset dress by KaS 
- Mesh Classic heels by Skifija

PS 3 : In the video, you may catch a glimpse of the other projects that I'm working on. No further comment for the moment though :)