My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Page 601

No, this is not a joke/trolling thread. We don't need more filler posts asking if it is.

Remember to spoiler season 6 content, and clearly label your spoilers.

rastaban

United States2294 Posts

June 14 2012 14:44 GMT

#12001

~~600~~601 needs more Shining Armor and Filly Twilight. Edit: Because every page does!

zeroISM

Japan161 Posts

June 14 2012 14:59 GMT

#12002

Gary Oak

Canada2381 Posts

June 14 2012 18:52 GMT

#12003

On June 14 2012 22:11 FnF wrote:

Show nested quote +

That interpretation just doesn't add up with the state of things. Something's off.

For various reasons, I cannot prove my statement, but I honestly wouldn't hold your breath for more episodes. They might think that simply syndicating the show and forgetting it is best for their bottom line, despite their recent interactions with the fandom and its continued growth.

Raelcun

United States3747 Posts

June 14 2012 19:35 GMT

#12004

On June 15 2012 03:52 Gary Oak wrote:

Show nested quote +

Every other generation has had a movie...

Think about it.

I would honestly be surprised if they stopped after that though.

Aylear

Norway3988 Posts

June 14 2012 19:36 GMT

#12005

TOO MANY PICTURES!

...

I love it. Happy 600, everyone. ♥

[image loading]

FnF

Finland200 Posts

June 14 2012 19:40 GMT

#12006

On June 15 2012 03:52 Gary Oak wrote:
For various reasons, I cannot prove my statement, but I honestly wouldn't hold your breath for more episodes. They might think that simply syndicating the show and forgetting it is best for their bottom line, despite their recent interactions with the fandom and its continued growth.

So who do you think "they" are, and just what economic advantages do you believe that plan to have?

Raelcun

United States3747 Posts

June 14 2012 20:22 GMT

#12007

I loved that gif but it was running a bit slow, I removed a few unnecessary frames to make it look like she's swinging the chicken faster. I like the difference.

[image loading]

Phant

United States737 Posts

June 14 2012 21:19 GMT

#12008

On June 15 2012 03:52 Gary Oak wrote:

Show nested quote +

I think it would be a really dumb business move to can MLP after 13 more episodes if they want to keep The Hub alive. MLP is their highest rated show and is a fantastic tool for growing the channel. If they cancel it right now there really isn't much to fill in the gap and they could lose over half their audience. Unless they have something amazing to fill in the gap, I can see The Hub dying off shortly after they cancel MLP. I will remain hopeful they extend the series further, but you never know. At least we have 13 more episodes to look forward to.

FnF

Finland200 Posts

June 14 2012 22:15 GMT

#12009

On June 15 2012 06:19 Phant wrote:
I think it would be a really dumb business move to can MLP after 13 more episodes if they want to keep The Hub alive. MLP is their highest rated show and is a fantastic tool for growing the channel. If they cancel it right now there really isn't much to fill in the gap and they could lose over half their audience. Unless they have something amazing to fill in the gap, I can see The Hub dying off shortly after they cancel MLP. I will remain hopeful they extend the series further, but you never know. At least we have 13 more episodes to look forward to.

Even "dumb" decisions have a logic and motivation - however misguided - behind them. Nothing we know so far leaves room for any of those, and outright spontaneous insanity doesn't penetrate the steps of management.

I'm not buying into the conspiracy theories.

Camail

United States1030 Posts

June 14 2012 22:25 GMT

#12010

+ Show Spoiler +

Raelcun

United States3747 Posts

June 15 2012 03:03 GMT

#12011

Was feeling nice and drew a friend's OC with his GF's OC played around with doing the lines a little differently I like it.

[image loading]

http://koyiro.deviantart.com/art/Cuddles-308439086

Camail

United States1030 Posts

June 15 2012 08:05 GMT

#12012

Holy balls, it has been awhile. Well, everything else has gone to shit and I haven't done anything productive for a month, it's about time I get my act together and use this self-directed shame to do something useful!

Today we have an artist who has gained my interest because of one picture, but first we should get to know her a bit, she is:

LaurenMagpie!

http://laurenmagpie.deviantart.com/

So ideally these are pretty long, but I want to ease my way into this. Really I have no idea how long this is going to be, but my list of topics is much simpler this time around so I won't be doing much. What I want to do first though, is introduce this image.

+ Show Spoiler +

I can't speak for anyone else but this is one of the more powerful images I have seen come from this fandom. Now, I'm not sure if its the cruelness in my heart or my inherently sadistic nature, but I'm not going to explain anything about this right now. There are the usual matters at hand with so I'll be partaking in a brief gallery study of Lauren.

+ Show Spoiler +

      First step is pony poses and anatomy! We were lucky to find a pic that gives such a great example of both of these, here we have apple jack in a fairly complicated action pose, as well as a a nice ¾ body pose to show proportions. LaurenMagpie stays very close to the show style as far as pony form goes. The legs are average height, the next smoothly blend into the torso area, and hind legs turn at an angle in the way that no one would find disagreeable. It is as if she took the ponies out of flash and translated them into the style of a digital painter.
      For comments that are specifically about this picture, I would mention that her pose is very cool and well done. Her body is twisted in a fluid manner and her front legs are positioned is just the right way to show much of her weight burdening her right hoof. Her entire body is in the same plane up until we get to the neck, where the extra flexibility allows for a greater counter-clockwise torquing of the body. I think the subtlest key is that her neck abruptly ends at her chin. Her head takes an extra few degrees of rotation to completely face the viewer. At that point there was a decision to be made, if Lauren chose to continue drawing the neck up to the side of her face while blending it into the entire head structure she would have a much more fluid throwing style, but the way AJ has her entire body thrown at a more acute angle the sense of motion is different. The kinetic energy moves from her fore legs, up towards her neck, and whips out at an accelerated rate through her head, each point of transition adding a bit more power to the throw. Disregarding the pose of her body for a moment, I think the final piece of evidence I need to prove all of this composition was intentional is her mane and tail. Her mane is in a gravity defying hold folded in on itself as if it was pulled towards the sky and push down before it had chance to settle. The jerking motion of her body would undoubtedly result the mane having it's own whipping motion.
      No doubt that there are a few minor mistakes in the pose, as her center of gravity seems to not fully justify the amount of weight she is putting on her right fore leg, but all in all it is a very well done piece.

I'll still be talking about this pic, but I want to tie in one more before entering into pony face time ™.

+ Show Spoiler +

Omg those wings...

Her coloring style makes the ponies seem very smooth, which allows her to transition into the muzzle very smoothly, to the point that it has the same effect as the flat coloring of the show. This also allows for a more expressive face though, because she also has depth to work with because of the shadows. This lets her make a crinkled nose, a wide grimace, and various eye configurations. The clearest way that she expresses any emotion is with the pony's brow line. She doesn't have actual eyebrows like the show does, she uses different values and shadows that stay consistent with the coloring of the rest of the pony to indicate where they are. This point is mostly just true of the spitfire and rarity piece, but it certainly shows how she can take advantage of her style, and has done so in other pictures as well. Other than that the pony faces are faithful to the show.

I've mentioned that she has a smooth coloring style and that it has allowed her to make use of both the simplicity of the show's design and add in depth, so let us look at that for a bit, hm? What? You don't want to? Well shut your face.

+ Show Spoiler +

Did I mention she is really good at wings too? Cuz' she is.

      She uses a soft shading technique whenever she has to deal with objects that are being hit directly by the light source, and uses harder edges whenever something is casting a shadow (like Fluttershy's side and left fore leg). Its an interesting choice, I don't really think it does anything exceptionally special enough to mention, but it is just another stylistic quirk that I noticed in this pic.

      So yea, you have all seen a few artist with similar styles of coloring, but they usually don't take advantage of it in quite the same way as Lauren does with the faces. In general I really think its because of her color choice, she commonly uses fairly light, unsaturated colors that have a natural smoothness about them when applied to objects with depth.

      There is one downside to all of this though. While it is true that most of the benefits of the simple show style as well as the more complex paint style are maintained in Lauren's work, every transition that is not supposed to be super-smooth looks a bit weird.

+ Show Spoiler +

In this case all of the same stylistic propeties are used, but at this angle and with that mouth shape, it simply doesn't work. I really love everything else, but it just shows that every style has its limits.

Anyway, on to the important part. That rarity.

+ Show Spoiler +

So good.

      I want to beak this image down into three parts: the position of the legs, the position of the head, and the position of the eyes. All the combine into a heavy amount of body language that pretty much smacks you over the head with desperation.

      The position of the legs is almost completely hidden because her upper body is obviously the center of attention, but they play no small part in making this pic as amazing as it is. She is caught with her legs ever so slightly raised in a meek gesture we usually only see in Fluttershy. She does not have any confidence to plant a hoof down, and this light-footedness translates into a very submissive tone that we see in people when they awkwardly shuffle their feet or pace a little bit. She is also moving forward, towards the viewer and directing all of the uneasiness towards you; I find this to be an interaction with her and the viewer.

      Next his her head, I'm not really mentioning the body because it is fairly standard. What I want to focus on is how the head is angled, with a mild not on the ears. Based on the shadowing of the muzzle and the horn placement we get the sense that her head is drooping. Again, this is a submissive gesture. The lower to the floor you are the more vulnerable you look, and just like any time we've seen a dog with a guilty conscious we know two things: it's head is down and its ears are back. Lauren is aware of how to work ears and make them seem just as submissive, I have found that they are the most expressive feature of the head, as their angle can dictate all the varieties of emotion. Pointed forward for alertness/paranoia, straight u for joy, and down for sadness/insecurity. Aside from that, I want to mention just how important the muzzle is. Like the nose on a human face, the muzzle give the direction. The angle that she uses is absolutely amazing, and with such few shadows she manages to give a sense of depth to such a complicated angle. The show gets passed this my making the muzzle a single line with two nostrils because they lack the depth of shadows, but she knew that even if this is an extremely hard angle to conceptualized, it was the perfect one for the piece. This, coupled with the slightest frown possible, really keeps the entire pose focused on just how depressed she seems to be.

      The eyes are a big enough part to be separate, but they owe a lot of their power to the head. Where the eye is looking is very important, but it is given its context be where the head is. That being said, she is staring into our souls! Huge pupils and beautiful irises instantly draw you towards them. I'm sure I should have more to say (and probably would if I didn't take a month and a half break from these), but you can see everything yourself.

      Well, I'm gonna end it here. I just wanted to write something. I know its a bit short, maybe I'll add more to it later. I don't have a ton of feelings for this artist, so next time I'm gonna pick someone who I can properly fanboi at.

Special Endrey

Germany1929 Posts

June 15 2012 19:21 GMT

#12013

Random fact of the day:

Did you know,

+ Show Spoiler +

that pinky pie is actually the best pony ?+ Show Spoiler +

GMarshal

United States22154 Posts

June 15 2012 20:58 GMT

#12014

Quickly, which was better, season 1 or season 2?

What was the best episode of season 2?

KharadBanar

Austria463 Posts

June 15 2012 21:00 GMT

#12015

Season 2. Episode 24.

I'm probably just saying that because it's one of the last episodes I watched, but I was laughing the whole time during it.
The. Whole. Time.
/(^3^)\

GGTeMpLaR

United States7226 Posts

June 15 2012 21:03 GMT

#12016

Season 1

Last episode of Season 2.

Lynda

649 Posts

June 15 2012 21:31 GMT

#12017

Season 1.

The Cutie Mark Chronicles. Its ending is just the most heartwarming thing ever.

hacklebeast

United States5090 Posts