a double background pony in S.5: ep:7

[power strike 198]

So in the episode after watching it a few times i notice a time travel pony must be a fan referance to doctor who fan episodes. I noticed it when during discored says : im actually warm about cake there was pinkie pie talking to a bright silver type mane blue pony with a time travel cutie mark just like the one from the fan episodes then i noticed during when rarity opened the doors he was there again but close to the doors and no pinkie pie this time but a light green type pony...and there was a close up pony with the same cutie mark but dark blue hair this time (maybey there brothers ?) and then after the next frame withe smooze the same pony (the dark blue hair one) was talking to this other pony when before that shot he was inside the galla but when it showed outside he was outside...... then after that frame when twilight is talking to discord he was inside again (dark blue one) so eaither there brothers or time travel brothers or the animators ran out of ideas of background ponies lol.

[I used to be a stranger 7,994]

 

 then after that frame when twilight is talking to discord he was inside again (dark blue one) so eaither there brothers or time travel brothers or the animators ran out of ideas of background ponies lol.

 

it's not as much ran out of ideas as ran out of time or money.

Creating new background characters requires time from artists, and that time is also needed for coming up with looks for the Mane Characters in new costumes, new plot-relevant characters, monsters and animals. It's also possible that the team responsible for character design also work on background object design, like carts, food, trees, furniture and other scene props.

 

All of that doing would populate a list of usable assets which are then plopped into the scene for animation. In scenes were there are a large number of background characters, it can become very taxing resource-wise to fill the entire crowd with unique characters, all animated. (Granted the most common kind of animation in these situations is just a small head-bob or blinking.)

 

Repeating characters happens a lot in Season 1 and 2 when their asset list was smaller, and the show's budget was less.