Continued Work on the 3D Ponatina Model by DJTHED

The Ponatina model by DJTHED is coming along great! With the core setup complete we're free to pose and animate her however we like. Just keeping aware that each render is costly and takes time to "print" out so we can't do it forever without an infinite budget.

This 4K Battle Gem Pony was made based on DJ's existing pony template he's already spent years perfecting, so basically the unique mane was the newest/hardest part. But even this streamlined commission experience has foreshadowed just how tough it'd be to get all the BGP characters done up this way. So it's a good thing we're not planning on jumping to 3D til we're a comfortable couple sequels deep into things and could stretch a budget for it.

To get started we came up with some reference images for pose ideas then DJ got to work with bringing our Digital Ponatina Puppet to life!

Gathered all kinds of faces for emotes, a variety of standing poses we could use in multiple contexts, and some reference sprites for an attack animation. All this together should show off a decently clear vision of what 3D Battle Gem Ponies could look like.

So one of the first up was the crouching action pose.

Version 1 came out at sortof a weird angle. So after tilting her head up a bit we got a nicer silhouette.

After that it got a glow up with all the post processing effects on top and....

She was lookin' FIERCE! Ready for action! You could see this being her character select pose in a fighting game! (Which we found very amusing.)

There was also a fun surprised face pose, the classic WHOA like in the game when a x4 or higher attack is headed your way.

This one also came with the added benefit of being worthy of a meme template. Finally! A Battle Gem Ponies reaction template!

Just imagine the possibilities!

We also wanted to take a look at the Chroma Ponatina in super 4K HD, so we posed them up like sisters, displaying some of that feisty personality. We also played around with lighting and background colors to explore what made her look best.

We settled on a dark purplish room and some warm lights. Not to harsh on shadows or highlights. And with a subtle glow on her chest gem to make it stand out.

And it came out great! A personal favorite among the team. (We'll probably use that left one a lot.) And to continue riding the wave of expressive faces, we came up with ideas for Discord emotes. We aimed for a good variety of faces for as many different moods as we could.

Had to alter the face suggestions a bit based on DJ's recommendations and feedback. The Ponatina model has limits, so we can't go too cartoony with exaggerations, but can still stretch things pretty far. 

These might even end up in devlog videos as a reaction avatar in the corner. We'll find lots of use for 'em one way or another.

We'll be posting these in the Discord by the end of 2022, so keep an eye out!

Here's a few close-up examples so you can take a better look.

It really is great stuff and we couldn't be any more pleased with how this turned out. Looking forward to sharing the big finale of the attack and idle animations soon as the render farm's done with 'em. 

With our commission money DJTHED was able to upgrade his computer and cut down processing time by a decent amount, so now ALL his future comms will proceed more smoothly and even at a lower cost. It really is special being the first ever commission customers for someone we look up to (and even play smash bros with). There's something magical about gamedev comradery...

But anyways, see you next week with the big fancy KICK!