Hederik

Deep inhale. Long exhale. A cloud of dust rises above the plains. Silence.

Well, I never did anything professional, semi-professional or even in a professional manner when it comes to graphics. I've seen people multiply layers endlessly, and hey, if that works for somebody, cool. But I'll stick to my Ockham's Razor approach. I could swear I saw blue-tinged opalescence around the crystal structures, but I'll have to take a closer look on them when an occasion presents itself. I *am* working at four to eight hundred percent zoom most of the time, so don't tell about magnifying glasses EDITED IN: Don't these contradict a tad? Woah, there are deadlines now? I'll still most likely meet it (see below; only a few windows, all the bricks and sky gradient left to tackle... plus the two vine sections), but this is new and makes me wonder just how far the creation of your animation has progressed already.

Well, I've done this much, it would be a shame to let it go to waste. If you look really closely on the little crystals on the doors in the lower part of #5, I've done almost exactly that. Except I'd add a few things to the method you wrote up, namely: 1. You don't have to use an additional layer, just create a primitive or a group. Layers are more professional, but once you do a dozen of them it's difficult (in my workspace at least) to sort through them efficiently. 2. When putting the gradient in, begin from creating a circle, then resize and bend it into a proper shape and position. Otherwise, the gradient may not be spread evenly at the edges. 3. Use the same hue on the inside (~30%) as on the outside (0%). This isn't all the problem with light and reflections, however. As there is no way to deconstruct a bitmap color into the original color and the lighting color (well, none that is easy), there is a lot of guesswork when picking the colors - especially if the surface in question is illuminated in its entirety. And light can range from white, through yellow, pink and light blue, to even more extreme cases like pale greens or reds. Plus, the various light sources sometimes overlap, and that's when things really get tricky. If you just said you wanted to zoom in on it, I'd understand just as well

Right now? I'm so tired I only have the strength to brohoof this topic. Made me chuckle when I noticed its title And oh, go away, challenge my opinions. I don't believe they'll budge

A'int my style. (Which is a fancy way of saying it would take several times as long, because I'd never believe my choice of curves and whatnots was the correct way to go. Well, this took a [insert swear]load of distorted ovals and curved lines, but the main vine body is done. Phew! By the way, have you looked at the picture really close? It was fun to notice how much more detail there is to everything around the window Twilight stands in. Now to tackle the last doozy in this image: the clouds. So many overlapping gradients beginning and ending nowhere... EDITED IN: I really, honestly believed that this would have been the easy picture. It's been a while since I've been so wrong. I won't let that stop me, but I needed to take a break from the clouds. So here's a little less than two hours' worth of work (which is perhaps half of what I spent on these hellish plants ), very basic so far. I already dread the crystals and all their reflected light, heh. EDITED IN TO AVOID THE MESSAGES GETTING NEEDLESSLY JOINED: Windows are done. And the working week is back, so the weekend (re)creation spree is over. Just the insane sky gradients and the small vine sections left to do though. By the way, if you don't mind me asking, why is it necessary that the backgrounds be vector, rather than made by simple 'shopping of the pictures you posted?

I wouldn't mind lending a hoof. But from the announcements I've read you mostly need people specializing in maintaining servers, servicing databases and writing in languages that are alien to me -- I just work in C# a little. Heck, I'd gladly learn them to help you, if I could squeeze a dozen extra hours out of a day, but it's not going to happen presently. Unless I misunderstood, in which case I might be interested. I don't want to sound bitter about this -- I really have no ground to be so, as I'm pretty happy with how the site has been treating me these past few months -- but from the reply, I gather that you're working on implementing these and other features on the new site, and thus would rather avoid unnecessarily doubling your workload by working on them here at the same time. That is understandable, and if the project is alive, quite frankly perhaps even preferable to having them here and waiting longer till the big project is completed. Might I ask if there is indeed a realistic ETA for PonyRoleplay? Or is there so much to be done still that no dependable dates are conjurable? Also, for the points that are indeed going to be looked at, many thanks. I appreciate very much this being taken seriously, not to mention the quick and honest reply.

This? Touché. Yes, it does serve the similar purpose. You'd have to search thrice, however, to browse the full scope of Planning/Searching/Open RPs. (Sorry if this gets sent twice, it got stuck on "Saving..." for kind of a long time.) Edited in: Also, unless I've missed something, this isn't the most instinctive feature, as there is no option to sort/search by Tag in the category view, you just have to figure out that the tags themselves are clickable for a reason.

Having spent a few months on the site, I feel eligible to share a few thoughts I have concerning the area of the forums I mostly dwell in, namely the RP section -- or, to be more specific, the readily accessible part of it called Everfee Empire. Much of what I'm suggesting may already be a part of the plans for the roleplaying Poniverse site, but since it isn't yet here, I might as well bring these up. 1. Segregation isn't always a bad thing tl;dr Move some topics elsewhere to make the category more transparent. The current layout of the category makes it kind of difficult to use, as it's a huge melting pot of ideas, open invitations and discussions concerning currently-active sessions. From what I've gathered, the traffic in said category has greatly diminished in comparison to previous years, but to me it still looks like a few improvements would be prudent. a) Sieve the ready from the forming tl;dr Create separate categories for player-recruiting threads and OOC discussion of running RPs. A visitor to the category of EvE OOC will most likely be interested in finding a session to join him- or herself. Instead, the most active topics around there are often the OOC threads of RPs that are already underway, and neither interested nor open to accepting newcomers. Conversely, the posted offers of RPs to be launched get a few responses at best and after a few days fall onto a second page of the category, unless they're systematically bumped. And, since said practice in itself is somewhat questionable, it shouldn't be encouraged by how the environment behaves. Thus, it would seem wise to somehow divide the currently overlapping zones of these two levels of activity. b] Promote the quality tl;dr Exactly. Plus, high standard means a long time to reply, leading to the thread being difficult to find. At first glance, the RPing forums follow this principle: there is a separate category for "advanced" roleplays to take place in. After a closer look, however, the only purpose of said exclusion is enforcing the several-hundred characters minimum length of posts (which to a properly selected group is rather redundant, and may perhaps even be an obstacle, but that is beside my point). Especially since the differentiation only applies to running RPs, which, to be honest, aren't probably all that often sought - the participants either have them bookmarked or are notified of new answers therein. Now, I'm not saying anything of it is wrong -- but it is too little. The OOC section of the roleplaying category contains no such rift. And mostly any "advanced" RP topic is bound to be flooded in the rest of activity happening there. I do not intend to insult anyone in any way by saying this, but a majority of the posts appearing in the RP section contain a mere few words and are directed towards the sessions with lower requirements. It is a good thing! RPing is a fantastic way to practice written language, develop imagination, maintain a healthy, intellectual hobby and tighten the bonds between users. But with such an influx of messages to the topics that might be outside the scope of interest of those looking for more, the threads that would potentially draw them may easily go unnoticed. I recognize that this may create a little friction. RPs deemed to be "advanced" enough to be moved to their own category may be looked upon as elitist, and some may find it unfair if their RP isn't accepted into the high-brow "club". It is an issue that would have to be addressed along with the requirements for admission and I'd love to hear others' opinions on the matter. c) Take out the trash tl;dr There are 79 pages of RP-related threads. I doubt 5% of them is in any way active. This one would potentially require a lot of work, or a clever implementation of code, but how about making the forming (i.e. not yet connected to a running RP) threads have an expiration date? That way, topics which have seen no traffic over the course of, say, two weeks would automatically be moved to some kind of archive. With the deadline drawing near, the author could refresh it, proving they're still active on the forums and interested in carrying out the RP -- it would also function as a "within the lines", officially-approved bumping tool. And as an effect, the entire category would be made that much more transparent, which if implemented along with proposition a) could perhaps make the entire b] point redundant. To avoid confusion: as I see it, the archived topics would still be easily accessible, especially to their creators, who could refresh their expiration date from there to automatically have them restored to the active section. 2. Open discussion: RP learning 101 AND a refining tool tl;dr Provide an option to learn by public discussion, concerning both the basic skills and the more advanced techniques involved. I applaud the initiative to help the inexperienced RPers along, implemented in the form of the Mentor program. As I have pointed (perhaps in a somewhat unclear manner) some time ago, it does not meet all the needs of teaching and training people in RPing. It is discreet, focused on the individual and tailored to their needs. And it's commendable. Its effects, however, are in no way accessible to anyone who would seek the same answers in the future and thus, there is no way to search for already-answered questions in order to avoid pointlessly asking them again. Furthermore, while some may enjoy the behind-closed-doors approach, others might appreciate hearing opinions of more than one person on the matter. Plus, by asking the right questions, the "newbies" could involuntarily work for the betterment of the more experienced players, forcing them to ponder certain aspects of their hobby. On a related note, I find it almost unbelievable that a forums of this volume and age has gone by without a topic for the discussion of RP "meta". Beyond the basic educational needs concerning RPing, there is a world of topics that could provoke interesting and worthwhile exchange of opinions and ideas. How do you handle a player character dying? What is your outlook towards rule-heavy vs description-based RPing? What is the acceptable ration of OC to NPC? Do you plan far ahead or let the RP flow as it will? This is just scraping the tip of an iceberg, and I'm surely not going to request a Mentor to discuss such things with, especially since I'd be more interested in hearing a variety of opinions from different people. Why did I not just start the topic myself? Well, I'm really not quite sure if the OOC section would be the best place for it. And since I was already going to write here, I decided I might as well avoid irritating somebody with building without permit. 3. For pony's sake tl;dr Really? This one is a really minor suggestion, but how about a "Pony" or "MLP" tag to differentiate the pony-related RPs from those focused elsewhere? The authors often forget to make it clear themselves, and it would often provide instant clarification when just browsing the OOC section. Because that's the extent to which I see it implemented: OOC. Once an RP is running, there is no need to encumber its title with a tag that by then is irrelevant. Honest congratulations and heartfelt thanks to each and any reader who made it through the entirety of this post. I eagerly await whatever response this might provoke, be it from fellow forum users or the moderating staff. Kind regards, Hederik. Edited in: P.S. "b" + ")" is not exactly the same as "B" + ")" and I find it ungrounded that it should produce the emoticon rendered as . Not that I have anything against the emoticon itself.

I do work with Flash kind of often, but rarely on this type of projects. Mostly the same stuff though, lines and fillings, little else, so I guess I do have some fresh experience. If you want to credit something, link up this guy, he seriously deserves more love than he gets, and I have nothing to gain from being mentioned in whatever way. AGAIN, if you merge my posts, at least put a space between them with a date of the added part. Or, heck, just a few breaks. Damn fabric. By volume, it's halfway done, but the vines are going to be a doozy to recreate, so I'll say more like one third. Also, crystals are not easy, but I've done the best I could without committing way more time.

So, I've gone and done number 3. I thought it would be harder than that, but still, it took a total of 3 hours (2 hours worth of trophies included). I can't really export this to .svg, but since you said you'd be happy with .fla, here you go (.fla, 1,80 MB). I must say, I'm pretty pleased with the result, especially considering how rarely I do this kind of thing I don't even really need the credit, I pretty much have a different nickname of every page I frequent -- not that there's too many of them. Unless anyone else wants it, I will most likely do number 4 (the outside of the building) too, although as the weekend is over, it will definitely spread over a longer period.

Inner Sanctum. Silent Reverie. Calm Waters. Trancer. It is rather difficult, admittedly, when you can't name the special talent, since that is most often what determines -- or at least highly correlates with -- the name, as well as cutie mark. Also, filly is an underaged mare, i.e. female pony. Since your OC is a he, you should really call him a colt in the backstory

I could maybe give it a try. I've never considered myself much of an artist, but I've used Macromedia/Adobe Flash for years for various intents and purposes, so... I'll think about it. What I do need to know first is: - what resolution do you expect from the final image? Because I'm not sure how big of a canvas Flash supports. - what file extension is necessary? I could render the common image extensions or send you a .fla, but you probably use some other company's software. That being said, I could - probably - tackle one of the middle two pictures, since they're the only two where there is no fancy lighting, glares and crazy minute details. Oh yeah, and if we're to talk references, here's my own crowning achievement (based on an image based on a fanfic based on a movie I'm not even going to link up) in the field of vector graphic/animation. I know I'll never animate again after that, but it's nice to have actually created something. Also, do you not fear sharing the fate of JanAnimations?

Come on, I just made a reference to Darkest Dungeon a day or two a ago! In a PM, so you had no way of knowing, but how small can this world be? Also, there IS nothing to be revealed about DD after the intro. I mean, you go through the different realms and hack everything in your way, driving to the ultimate goal of reaching a lair of horrors in the titular DD. Unless there is some huge reveal in that ultimate part of the game, I haven't played since a few good versions back. Anyhow, I suppose it is prudent do divulge more of what is to be expected. The characters are supposed to learn this before any real action begins anyway, and the knowledge may help with the choosing of a character's strengths and attributes. Here goes nothing then, but first, for clarity's sake: An outline of the story Having learned the above, a small group of ponies sets out to a perilous journey that will take them through two remote parts of the world, eventually culminating in the heart of destroyed Equestria. Their mission: to locate and annihilate three portals, dimensional rifts, whatever you call them, that constitute a link between their world and one that seeks to conquer and enslave it. Being constantly outnumbered, the unit will have to rely on stealth and careful planning to achieve its goals, but rest assured, strife will be aplenty as well. While pursuing the ultimate goal, they will have the unforeseen possibility to learn about the world lost to ponies many years ago... possibly more than most of its previous dwellers knew themselves. Would that be better? Also, I'm very glad to have you on board, even if only with one leg for now. I understand caution and hope that we may come to enjoy this together.

For archive purposes only. Unauthorized access will be severely ignored. The original contents of the second and third posts

How did I forget to respond to this? While the horse bit might be true (actually, probably the pony one, too, as long as we're talking real world) - I wouldn't know - I found it difficult to believe there were really no wrinkled foreheads in the realm of MLP. And although it is true that many of the olden ponies have no wrinkles on their foreheads, or said face part covered by bangs, hats and such, I was able to find a few images to present to you as evidence of my blind approach not being heavily un-canon: Ma Hooffield Old McColt The guy on the left Aged Snails