Sundown — A Star Wars Story

A blog dedicated to my Star Wars story project, Sundown! Will be posting everything from doodles to finished concept art. Thanks for stopping by! : ) Star Wars Blog: forcebewithyall | Main Blog: theskycaller

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Welcome to Sundown Squad!

Sundown Squad are an elite group of shadow troopers led by Jedi Knight Nitsani Ziomar that specialize in undercover operations in Separatist controlled space. They do everything your standard clone commandos and shadow troopers would do, with a few twists thrown in.

Quick Links

Meet the Characters Sundown Squad Website Stories and Excerpts

Ask box is: Open!

Want to ask questions about the characters, story lines, etc.? Send 'em over, I'd love to answer them! I might even draw an answer to your ask, too. SFW asks only, please!

[Ask Box]

FAQ's

Q: Can I create my own ottabura characters? A: Yes! Please see the Ottabura Creation Guidelines for more information.

Q: Where does someone new to the blog start? A: The Sundown Squad story is still a work in progress, so the content isn't in a specific order yet. It's currently a collection of art and story excerpts that I release as I work on the main story episodes (which have not yet been released). You'll be able to catch up on all of the content by taking a tour through the blog or checking out the galleries on the Sundown Squad Website.

Thanks for stopping by! : )

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Don’t know if this blog is active anymore, but if it is I just wanna share some unfinished Otta designs I’ve done. Ottas are still near and dear to me and I have big plans

Hi!! They all look amazing, I love them! 😍 Such unique designs! And those tack designs are really cool too! Thanks so much for sharing with me! <33

And yup, still here! 😆 Just been super busy this last year. I'm still actively working on Sundown behind the scenes and should have new stuff to share in the near future. 👀

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It's Drums' turn for a backlight portrait! Wanted to do something simple to get back into art after being away.

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Some more practice to play around with stylization and format! Also still trying to get the hang of simple animation effects. A still of the animation included under the cut!

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Some portrait studies based on photo reference! Been messing around with a bunch of stuff and decided to polish these ones up a bit.

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Sounds like the Ottas are the only ones who could get away with a surprise boop on Kess and Drums. Bet they’re also the most comforting like a giant wild eyed service animal if they have episodes or anything of the like.

Oh for sure, the Ottas get a free pass on nose boops. Lol And you're right! The Ottas' gentle demeanor and cuddly social behaviors make them very comforting to be around. They're also very sensitive animals, and have a knack for being able to tell when someone needs a little interaction. It's why members of the squad will wander down in the middle of the night to the cargo bay where the Ottas live if they can't sleep. The Ottas just lay their heads on people and essentially lull them to sleep with how warm and soft they are. Everyone in the squad has fallen asleep down there at least once. Lol

And to also answer another ask:

@padawansofthejediorder Sending your hug to Drums via Noodle! <3

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Okay! Okay! Listen! Listen! I saw that post of Knox being crushed by Thea and the first thing that popped into my mind was a post I saw forever ago! (Please enjoy this mental image)

The post basically said “I work out so I can hold ALL dogs like a baby”

*insert struggling trooper or troopers attempting to hold a happy Thea like a baby* 💜💜

Sundown work out so they can:

Crush droids like a tin can

Hold the giant babies

Doesn't take long before holding the babies becomes a team effort, though.

"She won't stop growing - send help" Unknown Location, Unknown Time

Noodle is six weeks old in this picture. Lol

Inspired by: [Link]

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The Ottas (especially Thea) love getting pats and scratches from random passer-bys. Knox figures it's good socialization for the Ottas, so he's happy to let other troopers pet and interact with them. Sometimes a line inadvertently forms with troopers waiting for their turn to say hi.

This was more practice of drawing from 3D models! I created a simple Ottabura model that I can use for reference and to pose trooper models on so I can more easily get the perspective right when they're riding.

Images of the 3D model included under the cut!

I always forget how fun low-poly models are to make. The forms are super simple but man do they make good art references.

Clone Trooper Model by Admiral Tributon on Sketchfab.

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I love your troopers so much, it makes me so happy when they pop up on my feed and if I don’t see them in awhile I come on here to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Also, my introduction to your squad was Drums and I love his character, and seeing his lack of confidence makes me want to hug him and tell him he’s great.

(Please deliver him a hug from me)

Thank you so much!!! That makes me so happy to hear! ❤️❤️❤️

As for your hug, Riggs was sent on a mission to deliver it to Drums.

Hug Status: Delivered!

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Here's a new Noodle Doodle! She couldn't decide which fishy toy she wanted to show off to Knox, so she split the difference and brought all of them.

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Some random scribble scratching! Sundown are sent to investigate a lot of different things, including places like ancient ruins that are rumored to have Force connections.

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Speedy: I found the droids! Kess: On our way! How many hostiles? Speedy: 23 on sensors! ... 21! ... 17! ... Knox: Hey, leave some for us! Speedy: 13! ... 9! ...

A doodle that ended up getting way out of hand. :'D I was scribbling some things to try and get back in the groove and liked this one enough to keep going. Also messing around with the kama designs again. Lol Wanted to play with adding a split up the back so they're a bit easier to move in.

Background photo used: [Link]

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I've been watching a vet show a lot lately, and now every time i see a horse i think. Ottas are that big. That's incredible. I want ottaburas to be real so much. You have made such a wonderful creature and now I'm sad I cannot see a real ottabura :'D

Thank you so much! ;w; For real though, me too. I wanna give an otta some hugs and snoot boops in person so bad. I was actually at a stock show recently and had a similar thought when I got to see some draft horses up close. Some of those horses were easily 5’9” at the withers and I was just thinking like “Oooh, otta sized”. Lol

But hey, while we're on the subject of ottas and vet shows... you reminded me of a clone vet character I have that’s been waiting in the wings. Lol

This is Feradae:

When Stormhunter Battalion put together their otta platoon, they brought in a bunch of outside stable managers, trainers, and veterinarians to get the program off the ground and train the Stormhunter troopers. In addition to the clones that were being trained to be the riders in the cavalry, a couple of clones were also chosen to train as otta vets. The clone chosen to be the Chief Veterinarian was Feradae.

He was originally a hospital corpsman before being pulled into the cavalry. At first, he wasn't overly enthused about being chosen to be the “Chief Otta Babysitter", as he called it. But like everyone else who starts out skeptical, the ottas quickly won him over.

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Oh my god giant otter horses I’m in love

Thank you so much!! ❤️❤️❤️

The squad are in love too. Lol

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Some doodles of Drums in between all the other stuff I'm working on! In addition to working on droids, Drums also likes to invent new tech, like his collection of specialized grenades. And sometimes, when he's working through a particularly challenging engineering problem, he'll go visit Thea and let her chitter at him until he can think up a solution.

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And here's the last one, Sketch Dump #5! This was a short experiment I did to test out some features and mess around with the formatting of the episodes. This thing is only 21 seconds long but I learned so much trying to make it. Lol

And here's a still of that first frame:

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Otterburas have "big dog that was a lapdog as a puppy and still thinks its a lapdog despite being people sized" energy. Im imagining the clones settling in around a campfire, and one of the otterburas comes over and plonks down on top of them, no one can move, the bura is Very Happy for Cuddles.

They totally are! :'D Because Ottas grow faster than weeds in a bucket of fertilizer they don't really have time to adjust to just how big they've gotten.

And it can be challenging to explain to a 2,000 pound animal with a puppy brain that she's now too big to sit in your lap.