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LumenNightlight

Muffin
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About LumenNightlight

  • Birthday May 16

Nickname

  • Nickname
    Stigma

My Little Pony

  • Best Pony
    Limestone Pie
  • Best Anthropomorphic FiM Race
    Changeling
  • Best Princess
    Luna
  • Best Mane Character
    Rarity
  • Best CMC
    Sweetie Bell

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Muffin

Muffin (2/23)

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  1. Alright, so I`m not sure if this is a good idea or not. I know that I can be VERY adamant about my designs using my ideas and my ideas alone , and I would absolutely understand if you feel the same way. When I was designing Stigma (my avatar) I went through a lot of ideas for body parts. I`m ...not that experienced in character design, so this was a trial and error operation. Among these was an idea for a carapace that was be stylised like armor. Individual plates would overlap and could even function like the tail of a rattlesnake. This was done because I was unhappy with his soft outline then, I really wanted to preserve the "essence" of Changelings- and for me that was their literal edgyness. All of this just really reminded me of Salix and could still work within his thematic frame. At the end I took the armor out, since I had many other ideas floating around and wanted to take my OC in a completely different direction conceptually. They also ate a lot of visual attention, something which unescessarily cluttered a design already far too crowded. My attached sketch isn`t very good, it`s far too bulky for a what is supposed to be an agile warrior type and doesn`t expand all that well on the concept. Maybe you can pick up were I failed, I imagine you`re probably already on the lookout for something that could replace the elytron. You seem like a creative type, so I imagine you could develope this concept into something that really pops
  2. I'm currently late for a job interview I'm already very nervous about, because I got on the wrong bus by accident. Which wasn't even entirely my fault because my cities transit app has a weird aversion to telling you the full name of the bus line you're supposed to take. Oh, and it's raining and cold too.
  3. Yooo, new Changeling morphs. You love to see it. I like your redesigns, they have their own identity both design and colour wise compared to the OG designs. They`re simple enought to be memorable, yet sufficiently dense to still be visually engaging. Willow`s predatory nature being translated into her personality is just a neat attention to detail. Although I do have to critique Salix`s design a little. His shape language isn`t that distinctive or telling when compared to his sister, plus I don`t really get why he has wing covers when he`s supposed to be based on a scorpion. ...Unless he DOES have wings, which would be absolutely terrifying Also I get that you made his eyes a lighter shade so it doesn`t clash with the hair, but it makes him look like he just smoked a fat one. Although that would help with his anger issues, so maybe it`s for the better Cool concept all around, I`m a huge sucker for all things bug related if you couldn`t tell by now I`m giving this my unofficial official Alterling thumbs up of approval.
  4. I suppose this was my fault for moving all that relevant info to the PDF instead of the characters sheet. Within the alternate timeline he resides in, the events of A Canterlot Wedding have just transpired, however Thorax decieded to stay with the main cast in this timeline. From him we know that changelings are not nescessarily parasitic, but are not yet aware of their transformative potential. Stigma is the very first to transfrom in some capacity. Luna mentoring him thus has a political layer to it. Of course it is also a play on moths literally using the moon to guide them. His nocturnal nature reasonably puts some limits on who he can even form a relationship with, which is part of the reason I decieded to tie him to Luna. Stigma is meant to embody a sort of older brother role in relation to the mane cast, another reason I inserted him into the constellation around Canterlot. For Luna I thought this developement would make sense, I am pretty confident she still has some residual feelings of envy towards her sister. Objectively, not a lot changed about her situation and the events of A Royal problem seem to confirm this theory to me. Just like Moondancers recolour he is a student of friendship, something, I thought to myself, could be a fun challenge for Luna to grow on and find some satisfaction in. Personality wise he is meant to be a soft counterpart to Twiggy, in other words my intention was to mirror her relationship to Tia. And that`s the full sauce. I know using an alternate timeline that bends around my OC is a lil cheep, but that`s just how I like to imagine myself in the MLP universe. The later seasons introduced/forgot many concepts, something I`m not the biggest fan of. Most of these are reasons why I made this decision, which is I assume what you meant? If you were actually taliking about their dynamic then, well, horseapples. You caught me red-handed, I barely have any notes on that. And while all of these certainly are reasons, that doesn`t nescessarily mean they are good ones. Oh, and Alterling is a great name, I`m definitely keeping that, tysm.
  5. I hope this is still in the spirit of your question. I have a pet scorpion that I would obviously really love to take pictures of. The problem is that handling causes them a lot stress, since they can`t differentiate between friendly humans and predators. They are also really fragile, their anatomy isn`t designed to take large falls. Basically if you drop them from anywhere in the 1m and above range they instantly die, which actually almost happened to him once Even to just get them out of their enclosure you will likely have to remove their hide or burrow they onerously dug themselves. ...so I pretty much just leave him to his own devices, even if he would look really cool clinging to my sweater Here`s a fun one: Have you ever been tempted to talk to one of those really weird people you meet on the street? I`m talking" guy cycling through the freezing weather in his underwear" type of people.
  6. For someone with very little knowledge on design this actually looks really good. It hits a pretty good sweetspot of being neither too boring, nor too cluttered. The colours I like especially, the soft yellow and brown look really soothing together. With no background info the vibe I get from this is an optimistic mare that likes books and nature and is maybe a bit shy and forgetful. I wouldn`t worry as much about the designing aspect if I were you. Avatars are a bit different than fictional characters after all. All your ponysona needs to do is represent you, and if you feel comfortable with this design, then there isn`t much I can say one way or the other. If you like to imagine yourself as some god-like alicorn ruler that`s fine, if you`re all about that quiet ponyville life, that`s fine too. In either case, this isn`t my call to make. Maybe if you get really into OC designing you can start to worry about things like shape language, sillouhette or memorability of a design. But, like, none of these arbitrary design rules are a wrong way to be a person (if there even is such a thing). And again, it looks really good. It doesn`t look to similar to any canon pony, has a strong impression and looks fun to doodle and sketch. There isn`t much more anyone can ask for. As for the cutie mark, I would, if it were my sona, choose a specific flower. Many flowers have some sort of symbolic meaning (roses for love and such) that could reveal some deeper layer of your character. If you`re still on the fence about the flower mark, you could also look in a lexicon of symbols or something and see if anything catches your eye. For my ponysona (sorry you can`t see that right now, I`m still procrastinating working on my profile pic) I chose a symbol from a piece of art that really moved me, maybe you have something similar. Otherwise, go for a walk, look around you for anything interesting, or just let it sit for a while, my best ideas are usually the ones I have spontaniously. So, yeah. Sorry for the wall of text hope you got something helpful out of that.
  7. Day has been going like shit, but I`m proud to say that I did my best to turn it around
  8. Yeah, I didn`t realize this while drawing but now that you point it out to me I can definitely see that his legs are a little stubby. It`s probably the front pair more than the rear. Luna was my main reference point in terms of body build, since I wanted him to be just slightly taller than her. Giving him a few extra inches will maybe make the legs seem a bit less busy, which was one of my main concerns with this phase of the design.
  9. Thank you I`m stupidly proud of having come up with this one. Let`s just hope she(?) doesn`t run out of batteries any time soon...
  10. His name is Stigma. It`s in the ref sheet in the attached album. I know it`s an unconventional choice, part of the reason I chose it was because I thought to no one else would give their OC such a loaded name Stigmata are the holes insects use to breath out of (the spots on his neck and chest). Although the conventional meaning of the word does of course relate back to his personality and past. There are some slightly deeper facets to this, for example his alter pony ego is named Lumen Nightlight. Other than being a unit used to measure light, lumen also refers to the inside of a tubular organ in biology. Basically bringing us back to stigmata. Oh, and in case you`re wondering light is also a major theme of this character. Sorry if that`s a little hard to see in the sketch.
  11. This took many hours and several long nights to make. So y`all better appreciate my hard work, or else. Ponysona is a little misleading. He`s more of an OC I plan to use as an avatar and also a Changeling. More specifically a Changeling that learned to live on his own love, which is why he`s a different morph. The full album is available here: https://imgchest.com/p/agyvrbdaj78 Only images 1-6 are his character sheet, images labelled 1-19 are reference material. This was my very first time making a characters sheet, so appologies if it looks bad or certain details aren`t explained very well. Feedback is appreciated There is also a 10 page PDF expaining my process, reasons for certain decisions, and elaborating on some details. No I`m not kidding about this sadly, it`s available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/ehvjow6q3g8e6uh/OC_Thoughts_and_Prayers.pdf/file You don`t need to read all of this, all of the relevant information should be in his character sheet. But if you`re wondering why I made certain descisions, like why the green looks so washed out, there is a full section where every single colour in his palette is explained in detail. This document was made to be skimmed, I know people will only read the sections that interest them, so don`t be intimidated by its lenght. I would also like to apologize here for the poor style of this document, this was at the tail end of all my creative struggles and I just wanted to get it done. Pinkie Party Promise I can write better than that There have been many different revisions of just about every aspect of this character. This is only the semi-final version, I would not be asking for feedback otherwise. Everything is fair game, everything can be changed. And don`t hold back with your scalding criticism. Obviously this isn`t an invite to be unnescessarily rude, but don`t sugarcoat anything to spare my feelings. Lastly here`s a fun question I have no notes on: What should I call this new Changeling morph? Best Answer will be taken. Thanks to all of you in advance.
  12. Hope this is the right board to post. I'm currently in the process of making my Ponysona, who is a completely new Changeling morph. Like most people I find there is more to criticise than to like about the reformed designs, which is why I wanted to see for myself if I could do better (also because I wanted to separate him from the hive because I really hated how that was handled in the later seasons, but that's a topic for a later thread). That's all taking a bit longer than expected, so in the meantime I wanted to share my own thoughts and see what you guys have to say. I'll start of with what I liked because I believe a lot of effort has been put into them, and it would be unfair to discount all of that. Most of the redesigns I see floating around the community seem to take issues with the colours, personally I think they're fine. The pastel tones help to stylistically separate them from other species and communicate nature and optimism. It's also cool to see more complementary palettes, which MLP seems to have a strange aversion to. For most of the regular Changelings that works perfectly fine, the limited colours are actually a necessity considering how busy their designs get. My sole complaint in this category is Thorax. They probably intended him to be more colourful, to differentiate him or highlight his leadership status, similar to Celestia. For Celestia and even RD this works because we see the rainbow as one unit. Thorax on the other hand has his colours seemingly randomly dispersed throughout his body. Poor guy looks like some kid went to town on a colouring page of him. Second is the shape language, which is the strongest aspect of the redesign for me. We have exchanged the brittle shapes from the previous form for sturdier and more dependable ones. Not only does this highlight that they have changed for the better, but also makes them look satiated (recall that they were always starving before that). It also perfectly symbolizes their new ideology, going from an unstable dictatorship to a new system founded on trust and mutual support. The cherry on top is that they kept some of their literal edginess, which to me is the essence of what a changeling is. Preserving that makes them more authentic, as it demonstrates that they have not completely renounced who they are. Finally, I have to appreciate that they gave all of them some unique characteristics. From this we can extrapolate that many of them actually repressed their individuality under Chrysalis or are at least comfortable enough to explore it now. Previously, the Changelings were a uniform horde, and it's cool that we`re trying to subvert that. My only nitpick is the loss of any hair or differentiating tail fashion for that matter. Hair is a powerful means of character expression and the insect world is so much fuzzier than many people realize. Although to be absolutely fair even furred and feathered species don't have that much diversity in hairstyles. Because only the pony master-race is afforded the freedom of personal expression. Didn't have anywhere to fit this in the previous sections, but hiding the wings under the elytron (wing cover) was a great idea. Now for the parts that I don't like, which as stated in the introduction, outweigh the positive aspects for me. Starting off: the new designs are unique, but they are not recognizable. They don't pop, they're just kinda there. What is really missing here is a theme that ties everything together coherently. Certain body parts like the gems on their chest plate seem discordant and without any real purpose. Flowers or a general nature theme, which I believe is what they were trying for, would have gone a long way in helping the design stick. It would have worked great symbolically, since the previous designs look like and canonically came from rotting plant material. My best guess is that they tried too hard to separate them from the Breezies. Many of the obvious choices for design inspiration like ladybugs, butterflies and bees were missed and not wanting two races of colourful flower pixie horses seems to be the only logical explanation here. IMO a really bad call, since the most obvious choices are usually the best when it comes to design, since they ensure readability (also making them fairy ponies would have probably sold a lot more toys). Their primary source of inspiration seem to be beetles, which does not constitute a solid theme, arbitrarily restricts possibilities and is hard to read. Perhaps this all wouldn't be so bad if the design they were contested with, that being the old one, wasn't so great and iconic. This flows into my previous point, but I'm really disappointed they didn't do anything clever either in reference to the old designs or their insectoid nature. Maybe I just have too much useless bug facts crammed into my already narrow brain, but i feel like a whole orchard of low-hanging fruit was missed here. Obvious stuff like patching the holes, giving them a rhinoceros beetle horn, giving them leaf-like wings or hair, I could go on but all of these I'm already working into my OC and a redesign of Thorax and Chrissy. It's also puzzling to see why they continued some design elements, like the 3 stripes on the chest. In the old design they were meant to imply a ribcage poking through, it made them looked starved off and almost like a rotting corpse. So why are we preserving it here? Also, I have nowhere else to add this, but I'm disappointed they didn't make Thorax a visually distinct, separate cast. The only thing separating him are his boring ugly horns and strange colouring decisions. Nothing cool to pair with Chrysalis, nothing cool period. Maybe that was the intention, to show that he is down with his subjects and an approachable leader. This, although beautiful and poetic, is extremely boring and unfun. Also weird, because I don't recall him winning any elections, and if he took Embers advice to heart he probably rules by force anyway. If he's a dictator already they could`ve at the very least made him a hot dictator. Lastly, and again this could have still been part of the first section, they aren't fun to sketch or doodle. This metric is a much harder to hold fast than my previous points. It's like their missing some more transient property of what constitutes a design. Maybe this is the culmination of all that I've brought up this far, everything working together like some elements of disharmony to produce a forgettable design, that, worst of all, does nothing more than it has to. Like the first section I have one last thing that fit nowhere else. Why is Thorax named after a body part he does not have? Asking for extremely accurate insect anatomy is dumb, again I value sketchability and the style of the show is supposed to be reminiscent of childrens drawings, but this one just infuriates me because they specifically drew attention to it. The solution could not be more simple, all they need to add is a single line to give them three-segmented bodies. Worst of all I can`t even pass this off as valid criticism, because of how insignificant and nitpicky it is. Thanks if you`ve read this all the way through. Promise I will read your nerdy rants on this thread as well (if you have any of course).
  13. So yeah. My ponysona is still in the works but will be updated soon. I`m trying to really go all out with the design as I don`t think I will really improve otherwise (and because I`m a stupid perfectionist). But I`m really proud of my work thus far and am excited to show it off to all of you.
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