Mare of Steel 3D

[Justin_Case001 4,896]

You've seen her in 2D (maybe).  Get ready to experience the Mare of Steel as you've never seen her before!  Prepare yourself for Mare of Steel in glorious, eye-popping, mind-blowing, face-melting 3D!

 

 

I made her in with Blender.  She's fully rigged, obviously, with particle fur, mane and tail.  I'm quite pleased with how she turned out, if I do say so myself.  And yes, I gave her ruby and sapphire stud earrings because I thought it was adorable and awesome.

 

 

And here's some pictures of her without her suit, to showcase her beautiful fur and lovely cutie mark.

 

Positively precious, isn't she?  For her nude poses, I chose ruby and sapphire loop earrings.

 

 

But wait, there's more!  With a few simple adjustments, I transformed my model into a couple other ponies as well!

 

Pinkie

 

 

 

AJ

 

 

At first I tried cutting a slot in her hat for her ears to fit through, but it looked terrible.  I toyed between folding her ears forward slightly, and having the hat sit on top of them, or just saying screw it and letting the ears clip through.  I chose the latter, as you can see, because it just looks better.  In 3D, you realize that there is simply no possible way for a pony to wear a hat like that and have it fit between their ears.

 

 

I was originally planning to just make Rainbow, but I decided (rather last minute, in fact), to make AJ and Pinkie as well.  The reason I chose these three is because they have identical eye shapes, and since the wings were already done, all I had to do was delete those, change the colors of some textures, re-style the manes and tails, make the new cutie marks, and badda-bing badda-boom, AJ & Pinkie done.  Easy peasy like Cider Squeezy.  Making the other three would mean completely different eye shapes for each, and that means going back to square one, re-modeling, re-unwrapping, and most difficult of all, completely re-working the eye rig with new bones, weights, and actions, a nightmarish clusterf*ck, honestly.  That's why you only see these three, because the base model could be identical.  Ideally, I'd love to make the others, but I don't have any immediate plans.  (Sorry, Ghostie and ooBrony.)  Poor Rarity, Twi, and Flutters.  But AJ is the one who's always left out of the toys anyway, so...

 

And now we have the costar and group shots!

 

My vision for this one was to showcase their range of emotions.

 

In 3D, you're more limited with the poses you can do.  In 2D, you can do anything, but a 3D pony rig is going to behave more like a real horse, and their more personified poses (such as Lyra sitting like a human in a chair with her forelegs crossed like arms) will simply be impossible without horrible, contorting deformations that make it look like their bones are broken.  But I was quite pleased that my rig is still capable of some very FIM-like deformations, as showcased here by Pinkie's bear hug.

 

Of course, you know what this is a parody of!  I made this one specifically to showcase their range of facial expressions, and the capabilities of my facial rig.  I only wish I could have done all six, plus the sisters and Cadence.  The mane 6 plus the other three princesses = nine for the Pony Bunch!  That would have been perfect.  Oh well.  This was already a Herculean task as is.

 

And finally, an Appledash ship.  (My personal favorite Render so far.)

 

Admit it: your heart is melting like the One Ring in the fires of Mt. Doom, right?

 

 

 

That's all for now.  I will surely do more renders in the future.  I hope you enjoyed this 3D pony experience!

 

Edited January 28, 2016 by Justin_Case001

[Limeblossom 482]

Looking heroic. Which 3D program did you use to create them?

[Justin_Case001 4,896]

@@Limeblossom:  Thanks!  In answer to your question, Blender.  (It's in the OP.)

[Limeblossom 482]

@@Limeblossom:  Thanks!  In answer to your question, Blender.  (It's in the OP.)

You're welcome.

 

I heard some good things about Blender, but 3DS MAX is more used in my home.

[Core 410]

If I can be honest... they all look good and well made, and I bet you spent alot of time on them, but they are very terrifying 

[Kenshiro 13,493]

Well done Justin. Your 3D models embellishes our pony artwork section my friend '''

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

I hope I'm not the only one who finds some of the pictures incredibly creepy...

[Riganthor 484]

looks pretty damn amazing. but I do hope that the mare of steel doesn't destroy half of metropolis in her movie

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Wow...that is just pure awesome...

[Crusaders Forever 88]

I hope I'm not the only one who finds some of the pictures incredibly creepy...

Nope. You aren't the only one.

[Justin_Case001 4,896]

Huh.  Well, the general consensus seems to be that they're creepy.  Gotta say, I'm a bit... ...crushed, to be honest.  I thought they were adorable, but I guess it was just prejudiced blindness or whatever you want to call it.  Oh well, it's not like I had anything productive to do with the last five months of my life, anyway.  Maybe they'll want my models for the next Five Nights At Freddy's, then.

[WindShear 543]

I think your models look really nice! 

 

I think the reason some are finding them creepy has to do with the teeth. There is something about the teeth that when they are showing they sort of cross the line into the uncanny valley to me.  

 

Aside from that though, I really like them 

[Faze Five 61]

Huh.  Well, the general consensus seems to be that they're creepy.  Gotta say, I'm a bit... ...crushed, to be honest.  I thought they were adorable, but I guess it was just prejudiced blindness or whatever you want to call it.  Oh well, it's not like I had anything productive to do with the last five months of my life, anyway.  Maybe they'll want my models for the next Five Nights At Freddy's, then.

The face rig looks great, and I feel that you have really good models (the mane of Pinkie Pie is amazing), if people think that they are creepy I think that is because the fur material in the body, maybe without that velvet shininess it would look better. And personally i think that the labia and mouth are a bit strange, at least in Applejack. Human-like mouths in ponies/animals always looks creepy, this effect (and some others) is called "uncanny valley".

 

Don't be dissapointed, I think that adjusting only the materials and teeth they can look really great. I want to see more pony models!

Edited February 4, 2016 by Faztor 5

[Justin_Case001 4,896]

@, Thank you for your kind words.  And while I greatly appreciate your constructive criticism, I will not be changing anything in my models.  I never intended to.  I had certainly hoped that my art would be well received by the community, and while it's disappointing that the reactions were not as overwhelmingly positive as I had anticipated, I have to be honest and true to myself first.  I made these models for myself above anyone else.  I made them because I wanted to see the ponies in glorious 3D, the way I think they should look.  I took painstaking efforts to make them perfect in my eyes, and to suit my vision...within reason, of course.  Necessary and reasonable compromises had to be made.  Had I a $12,000 super computer, I'd love to have done three times as many particle hairs, each of them one third the width.  But for all intents and purposes, I consider them perfect.  If I did not, I never would have posted them for all to see.  I certainly concede that it's often important to listen to criticism and make changes, such as in the case of trying to please the majority with a game or product.  But in this case, I made them for me, and they will remain as I think they should.

 

Coincidentally, I have a set of bonus renders which I had planned to do from the start as well.  Perhaps some of these will be more to peoples' liking.

 

First, another obligatory Mare of Steel.

 

Not really anything new, but I wanted to add one more.

 

 

Solos.

 

Each pony deserved a little more solo time in the spotlight.

 

 

And finally, group and costar.

 

How I managed to completely forget an AJ-Pinkie costar the first time around, I have no idea.  I had planned on doing every pairing, but somehow missed this one.  Not too surprising, I guess, considering the massive amount of work, stress, and things piling up as the project approached completion, and I struggled to get everything done, organized, sent out to friends, etc.  So, I did two AJ-Pinkie costars this time to make up for it.

 

If I wanted to put in a lot more work, perhaps I'd have stirred up leaves all around them, but I still love it as is.

 

Perhaps my very favorite render.  I love how their expressions turned out.

 

It was quite difficult to get this pose to work, but I really wanted to do it.  Though it didn't turn out as well as the original group hug imo, I'm still happy with it.

 

 

That's all for now, and probably for a good long while.  I have no more plans for additional renders in the immediate future.  Hope at least some of you enjoyed the show!

[Faze Five 61]

That's comprehensive, everyone has their own vision. Those last renders with groups are beautiful, especially the one of the moustache 

 

How much time took the renders?

[Justin_Case001 4,896]

Those last renders with groups are beautiful, especially the one of the moustache 

 

How much time took the renders?

Thanks!  Heheh, yeah I love The 'stache.  Oh, about 2 hours apiece, but bear in mind that's for the full resolution versions.  The ones posted here are scaled down 50%.

[ChikaChan 7,324]

What happens if I think,that they are creepy looking o~o;;;

[Justin_Case001 4,896]

What happens if I think,that they are creepy looking o~o;;;

Oh, just makes me feel like a complete and utter failure, and that I wasted five months of my life on a project that I put everything I had into.  I know I shouldn't feel that way, and I'm trying not to, but it's really difficult.  What frustrates me so much is that I just don't understand what everyone is talking about.  It sounds as though everyone thinks they just looks like animatronics that are going to come to life in the night and kill you with a butcher knife, but I just don't see at all.  I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, no pun intended.  There are a couple of specific renders where I can think, "Yeah, okay, I can sorta understand if people find that expression a tad too sinister."  That wouldn't bother me.  Okay, it's just a couple of bad poses.  But apparently people just hate all of them?  I don't know.  Not that it really matters, I suppose, but some useful feedback would be appreciated.  May I ask specifically which renders you find creepy and why?

[ChikaChan 7,324]

@@Justin_Case001,ooooh is nothing really ^^;;;;;

Edited February 7, 2016 by Princess-Moonlight

[Quiz Flight 277]

Oh, just makes me feel like a complete and utter failure, and that I wasted five months of my life on a project that I put everything I had into.  I know I shouldn't feel that way, and I'm trying not to, but it's really difficult.  What frustrates me so much is that I just don't understand what everyone is talking about.  It sounds as though everyone thinks they just looks like animatronics that are going to come to life in the night and kill you with a butcher knife, but I just don't see at all.  I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, no pun intended.  There are a couple of specific renders where I can think, "Yeah, okay, I can sorta understand if people find that expression a tad too sinister."  That wouldn't bother me.  Okay, it's just a couple of bad poses.  But apparently people just hate all of them?  I don't know.  Not that it really matters, I suppose, but some useful feedback would be appreciated.  May I ask specifically which renders you find creepy and why?

You shouldn't feel like a failure when it comes to something you're proud of. If I feel like some people don't like my work I just keep my chin up and chest out. If they think it's creepy just laugh about it! There's no reason for you not to. In my opinion I think they're very cool because of how realistic their fur and manes are! I'm pretty sure that's the reason some people are a little freaked out about it. Next time you see someone say something disappointing about your work just ask them, "Ya well I'd like to see you make one of these yourself!" That's my advice to ya. They are awesome 3D ponies! Keep up the great work!

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Viewing these renders for a second time.

 

While I could see how some people take them as creepy (and I personally did at one point), they don't look half as creepy now that I'm kind of used to looking at them. I guess it's just the shock of seeing a cartoon pony in a hyper-realistic rendition -- shiny, textured fur, realistic teeth, realistic eyes. It's just the bumpy ride that naturally comes with seeing something cartoony portrayed realistically.

 

For the record, I kinda like them a bit better now that I'm used to them. They're still a bit unsettling (I think it's something to do with the teeth honestly), but I'm not gonna have any nightmares.

[Justin_Case001 4,896]

@@NightShade Nidramoon, @@Meson Bolt; Hey, thanks guys.  Really means a lot.  I know I got my hopes up a lot, and was really disappointed when the reception wasn't as good as it had been in my mind.  (I tend to do that.)

 

 

It's just the bumpy ride that naturally comes with seeing something cartoony portrayed realistically.

I think that's it exactly.  Some friends of mine gave me some technical critiques and came to similar conclusions.  I can understand the whole "uncanny valley" thing, and I think it's a very subtle, fine line.  For instance, I think the CG Garfield in that live action movie is creepy looking, probably for the exact same reasons that many found my ponies creepy.  Garfield to me is just this bubbly cartoon, and the CG one seemed too realistic.  I think the movie should have been completely animated, and done in a less realistic, Frozen/Big Hero 6 type way.  Anyway, going way off topic there.  Point is, I get it.  It's just a matter of opinion.  I find the Garfield creepy, but I think my ponies are adorable.  As long as I'm happy, that's all that really matters, but I've always placed too much importance on what other think.

 

My vision for this project was to do something very realistic, while trying to maintain the right balance of cartooniness.  Trying to keep it just on the left precipice of the uncanny valley if you will, a term I had never heard before making this thread, yet a phenomenon I was still aware of.  Though my renders didn't quite strike the right cord with everyone, my thinking was that there wasn't much point to just doing a simple, Source style 3D pony, because it has been done so many times before.  I wanted to raise the stakes and do something very different, or not at all, know what I mean?  And I'm still quite satisfied.  And thanks again for taking a second look, and for the nice post.  Really, it means the world.

 

Evidently, since quite a few found them creepy, I thought to myself, "well hell, let's just go nuts and see how creepy we can make them!"  So I did just that.  Had a bit of fun with some grimdark renders.  It's pretty friggin awesome and hilarious, I gotta say, but unfortunately, very NSFW, so no forum posts.  You can use your imagination.  I titled one of them "I am Pinkamena."  You don't even have to see it, right?  You just know.  Lol.

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

....

 

No problem man! I think the reason why you think they're cute is because... well, you had a LOT of time to work with them, and get used to that style, where was we (the audience) were kinda shocked to see our favorite 2D Flash characters in hyper-realistic 3D.

 

But anyway, I don't wanna ramble here.

 

Point is, I honestly think your work is great. It takes a little bit of getting used to, and some minor details may be a bit unsettling, but I didn't see any glaring errors. Two pony hooves up!