DJTHED @djthed - Tumblr Blog

3D Test Animation of my Character!

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Been once again super busy with work lately, but found some time to sneak in getting this little project done!

I've recently changed up my profile pictures to use a character design that I can actually credit to myself! I will always love Leafeon and will miss using them as a profile picture, but the biggest problem with using them as a way to identify me is that they aren't really my character or my design. And my own iteration of Leafeon's model isn't that derivative anyway, nor would I really want it to. And also considering how long I've been a FiM fan, I think it's a long time coming that I finally make a design of a pony for myself to use as a sona!

With that said, when it comes to this model, I started working a bit on it a few months back. Mostly in the coat coloring and headshape department. The head topology is the same as before, but now I have controls in the rig that can change the head shape to feel more "stallion"-like. For how I tuned the shape for my character, he's kind of got a shape in-between a full on mare and stallion head shape.

Work ceased for a while as I got involved working on a project called "Billie Bust Up!" (which I will talk more about later if that got your attention, don't worry!). It's been very busy, but the past week I decided to sit down and get this done on my own time. I did a few streams where I would work continuously on my model, like getting all the hair done, and working on all the animation. You can find all the VODs to these in the Live section on YouTube Channel. I really like doing livestreams, as it has a very VERY obvious affect on how I am able to focus, and makes working on things a lot easier and more efficient. I want to do them more again, I miss streaming a lot. Maybe for BBU I'll find a way, but only time will tell.

This animation was really fun to make. Haven't really done super dynamic quadruped animation since I was involved in the G5 pony game, so it was nice to get at it again to refresh my skills there. Didn't feel too hard, so that's a good sign I wasn't getting too rusty. And rendering was not nearly as bad as you might expect. Talked a bit about this during my Marina commission about my new methods of denoising renders that were done in Cycles. This entire render uses a flat 128 sample count, and using my new methods that keeps noise temporally stable and then denoise after, it produces a very VERY nice result. Once I rap up releasing this animation, I'll try to finally record a guide, or at least the process I take, on how I get this done, as it's definitely a viable option in a lot of cases.

Thank you guys for sticking around during my staggered activity on this channel! Once I started getting involved in real animation jobs, it's been tough finding a good balance between my own personal animation projects and actual animation work. And lately I've been feeling the urge to actually try to find that balance so that I can do both. Hopefully I find it, because I miss this!

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Special Thanks to my Patrons!: interru Katharine Berry CyberPon3 Nathan Copier StableCoder SteveLynx Subserial Guillaume Troton

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If you wish to support me, here's my Patreon link:

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YouTube:

Amateur 3D Animator here. I plan to mostly just upload Animations here from now on, as well as other heavily edited videos that would requir

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#pony #mlp #animation #3d animation #blender #djthed #blender3d #blender animation

It's a Twilight!

#blender #mlp #pony #blender3d #twilight sparkle #twilight #b3d

Marina Waves to You!

Very happy how this turned out. Marina was a very challenging, and also enlightening character to work on for a commission, so shoutouts to the anonymous person for commissioning me!

There's also a very interesting technical story about how I managed to make this render incredibly clean and temporally stable with only 128 samples per frame. I will make a dedicated video about this soon, but it is quite game changing and can save a lot of time for me when rendering things out.

2 hour timelapse of the entire process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZoDaPgWi8

#blender3d #blender #commission #pony #mlp #animation #3D animation

Commission #2 Complete! Thank you to anonymous!

This is one of the two renders made for Marina. There is a 2nd one that is animated that I'll post here soon, as well as a 2 hour timelapse!

#blender3d #blender #commission #pony #mlp

Hey Tumblr, long time no see! The bird site is kind of on fire at the moment, so I think better now than later to revive this old account.

I’ll periodically be uploading some of my past work as well as current stuff, because my Tumblr account hasn’t been given a lot of attention over the years, and most of my recent stuff just straight up isn’t on this site... yet! I figure this can also help get this account some traction after many years of inactivity, so bare with me as we slowly start getting this account back up and running!

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As for this render, this is one of my more recent ones! Originally finished and uploaded on July 18th, 2022. This particular version was a revision of an initial publication of this very image, which applied a good amount of feedback to hone in on the filly facial design that I didn’t quite nail down the first time. And that circles to why this render was put together in the first place, which was to test drive the rigging set up I had that allowed my base pony models to have different proportions based on age, which would then allow me to work on actual characters that are foals!

#My Little Pony #My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #blender #b3d #twilight sparkle #MLP #MLP: FiM #3d #3d art

Once again, the hat is currently not completely originally created by me. It's been borrowed from CreatorOfPony's AJ model, but with a lot of modifications to its material, color, and shape. Hopefully I'll find a way to model the hat myself because I really would prefer that the models I make are truly 100% my own. Anyway, FRECKLES! I totally didn't forget to add them last time... :D This pose was a bit tricky to pull off... and I'm still not sure if it's good enough. But I can't be spending days on a single pose, so...

2048x2048 Hi-Res Version: http://therealdjthed.deviantart.com/art/AppleJackTestRender3-676869533

#my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #MLP #mlp: fim #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #3D #Applejack #Pony #Pony Model

Quick note first of all: AJ's hat wasn't originally my model, at least for now. It's a modified version of CreatorOfPony's AJ Hat, but I made quite a few modifications to its material, color, and shape to fit my model and to be a bit more show-accurate. I'll try to create my own model later down the road because I would highly prefer that my models are actually 100% created by me. The rest of AJ was all modeled by me. Anyway, yeah, it's finally time I start working on other pony models! I chose Applejack first for a few reasons. For one, she is an Earth Pony just like Coloratura, who I used as a base. That made the first conversion I did easier. Her mane and tail was also pretty straight forward to model; I finished the mane in one night. And she also has a friend relationship with Coloratura, the model I have been using for months, so it would fit to have them side-by-side for a test render not only for comparison's sake, but also to tell a story. And about the freckles...: "I'll be honest, I actually forgot about them. I was too hyper-focused on getting the eyes, mane, and hat right... I'll get right on that. :V" ^ Whoops

2048x2048 Hi-Res Version: http://therealdjthed.deviantart.com/art/Applejack-Conversion-Test-Render-676702457

#my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #MLP #mlp: fim #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #3D #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model #Applejack

Been experimenting with the facial rig a lot lately. I make a lot of poses for the face behind the scenes for testing purposes. I would publish more of them, but with Coloratura being the only model I have at the moment, it would flood my DeviantArt, Derpibooru, and Tumblr page with even more Coloratura (So, you know, it’ll make the lack of variety even worse). Trust me, I want to get to publishing more stuff like this with other characters as much as anyone else. Hopefully at the pace I’m working at, that time will come soon. The main reason I published this one in particular was that I keep finding it hilarious whenever I look at it! Man, I love how this facial rig is going.

2048x2048 Hi-Res Version: http://therealdjthed.deviantart.com/art/Yet-Another-Over-the-top-3D-Pony-Face-676150176

#my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #mlp #mlp: fim #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #Animation #3D Animation #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model

Refined some of the shape keys for the eyelids, and I finally revived the "Blink2" shape key that I haven’t used since the "Equestria, the Land I Love" Test Animation. It’s been out of service when I overhauled the face topology shortly after that animation was completed. It’s now back and here to make adorable faces. :V Animated Version: http://therealdjthed.deviantart.com/art/Adorable-Rara-Animated-675858067 2048x2048 Hi-Res Version: http://therealdjthed.deviantart.com/art/Adorable-Rara-675803847

#my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #mlp #mlp: fim #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #Animation #3D Animation #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model #Pony Animation

The Mane Attraction WIP 6 Set - Background Terrain

Layed out the background terrain. It's a bit simple looking right now, but once I get to adding more of the detailing for the background (such as the trees, shrubs, fences), it should look pretty nice... I hope. :V

#the magic inside #i am just a pony #my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #MLP #MLP FiM #MLP: FiM #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model

Animating the lips are a challenge, but it's a fun challenge. And its nice front and center. But the part what you don't see (or barely see) is Coloratura actually playing the 23 key piano with her hooves. That isn't very fun to animate as you could probably imagine. And you don't even get to see most of it in a lot of these shots. I do like how this is going though. Can't wait to see this in a finished state.

#the magic inside #i am just a pony #my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #MLP #MLP FiM #MLP: FiM #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model #3d animation #animation #pony animation

Progress is being made.

#the magic inside #i am just a pony #my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #MLP #MLP FiM #MLP: FiM #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model #3d animation #animation #pony animation

The Mane Attraction WIP 5 Set - Rough Lighting

Been working on setting up the lighting environment. It's pretty rough, so there's no better time to provide feedback on the general lighting of the stage!

#my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #MLP #MLP FiM #MLP: FiM #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model

The Mane Attraction WIP 4 Set - Apple Stage

Full Size Image: http://orig13.deviantart.net/c9cf/f/2017/085/a/3/the_mane_attraction_wip_4_set___apple_stage_by_therealdjthed-db3oyds.png

Added more detailing to the stage, such as adding spotlights. There's also a piano. A piano with 23 abnormally large keys so that a cartoon horse would have an easier time playing it. It can also somehow play all the range of notes a full piano can play. I have a patent for this.

#my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #MLP #MLP FiM #MLP: FiM #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model

I've made tons of changes to this model since I posted my first test animation with this model:

-The face's mesh was completely overhauled. So no more weird deformations around the mouth area when talking like last time.

-The mouth itself is bigger this time too, and the snout shape has been adjusted.

-I've also added a subtle eyeshadow that's present in the 2D animation.

-The materials have been changed significantly, and the coat has more texture detail.

-I've implemented the "Filmic Blender" color management mod into Blender so that the image has a far better dynamic range and color accuracy than what Blender comes with by default.

-The front and back hooves rigging has been overhauled to look better and be more show accurate, as well as to be more animator friendly.

-I've change my approach when it comes to animating this model. I've decided to not be completely reliant on using the original 2D animation as a reference, and just going with what I feel would be good in a 3D setting, while only using the 2D animation to get the key poses for the most part.

-The hair is still a bitch to manually animate god dammit.

-Isn't the thumbnail gorgeous?

-Many other minor changes that makes the model look that much nicer.

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TIMELAPSE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24EFQhYVw8o

Deviantart: http://therealdjthed.deviantart.com/

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Stay tuned for more animation tests. The animation seen in this video was to test out who expressive her face could be when she's angry. I'd say it was pretty successful. There will be more to come!

#my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #MLP #MLP FiM #MLP: FiM #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #Animation #3D Animation #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Animation

I'm very happy with the progress I've made so far with this model. It's not quite there yet, but it feels so close to how I want it to look.

#my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #mlp #mlp: fim #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #Animation #3D Animation #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model #Pony Animation

The Mane Attraction WIP 2 Set - Stage

Still will have to add some of the stage spotlights, add more detail to the ring and the stage floor, and figure out how I want to implement the curtains.

Not sure how much more I can improve the texture for inside the stage. I’m not a very experienced Texture Painter, so it probably looks a bit rough around the edges, literally.

References: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/0/0a/Applejack_instructing_other_ponies_S5E24.png http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/a/a3/Main_ponies_putting_finishing_touches_on_the_stage_S5E24.png http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/8/8a/Princess_Twilight_walks_onto_the_stage_S5E24.png http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/6/61/Coloratura_playing_The_Magic_Inside_S5E24.png http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/b/be/Coloratura_addressing_the_crowd_S5E24.png

#my little pony #my little pony: friendship is magic #MLP #MLP FiM #MLP: FiM #MLP 3D Model #MLP Model #My Little Pony 3D Model #My Little Pony Model #Blender #Animation #3D Animation #coloratura #The Mane Attraction #Pony #Pony Model #Pony Animation

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