djthed

3D Test Animation of my Character!

Been once again super busy with work lately, but found some time to sneak in getting this little project done!

I've recently changed up my profile pictures to use a character design that I can actually credit to myself! I will always love Leafeon and will miss using them as a profile picture, but the biggest problem with using them as a way to identify me is that they aren't really my character or my design. And my own iteration of Leafeon's model isn't that derivative anyway, nor would...

Filly Twilight!

Been working on the filly/foal base model in anticipation for them to be used in The Magic Inside 3D for the CMCs (Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo)!

Currently, this still uses the same rigging and mesh topology as the normal adult models, just with adjusted proportions. I may still change some things based on feedback!

Equestria, the Land I Love - Remake

Thank you all for all of the support and feedback over the last 5 years. I've learned a lot since I started this journey, and there is still more to learn in the future!  

Original "Equestria, the Land I Love" Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aK50K0ZQZE

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This video contains new (and is focused around) an independently made fan-animation by me, and therefore is also not directly ...

Coloratura!

Experimenting with a new rendering aesthetic!

I previewed this a couple months ago in the Patreon discord, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't with a more fuzzy aesthetic.

Look out for an animation featuring this style in the coming days.

Happy 11th Anniversary MLP: FiM!

Thank you MLP for everything. :)

I decided to do this render on short notice, so I'm just a bit late, but here it is! Still can't jump back into doing stuff like this until the start of next year or so. Currently involved in some contract work that I'm doing that will be rapping up around that time, and then I'll have much more free time to get back into the swing of things. But I wanted to make the time to do something for the Anniversary when I heard it was that time of year. I wanted...

Hello!

It's been a while since I've pushed something new out...  

Don't get used to that, though. I've been incredibly busy lately with work that I can't talk too much about yet. I truly do appreciate all of you folks that have stuck around during a somewhat slow year, at least publicly. 

Just be aware that it will continue to be slow up until around sometime at the start of next year. Don't feel sorry if you want to pull out of the patron list because of this. This is by no me...

New Pateron Tier Banner Renders!

As you can see below, this is what the new Patreon tier system looks like for my page. Spent some time the last couple days putting together renders for these tiers, as there were none before. And I added a whole bunch more bonus tiers past the "Credited Patron" tier.

These new tiers don't have any tangible rewards, other than just supporting me more, but if anyone has any ideas on what rewards I could potentially give out to any patrons who pledge for those higher tiers, please let me ...

My MLP Generation 5 Thoughts

(Warning, video is incredibly long)  

This topic does peak my interest, naturally speaking. I had lots to say. Hopefully you guys find this  video interesting, at least.

Fluttershy Render

Just a fairly quick test render after doing some also fairly quick changes to the model. I liked the pose enough to make it into something  publishable.

The main things you'll be able to notice that has changed is the muzzle/snout and the wings. The muzzle's mesh topology has been reworked completely and also was re-shaped a bit so that the shape is a bit more well defined overall. It is still rigged the same as before, just with a slightly new, cleaner look. The wings, while not t...

Background Character Render 1 (Rose, Lyra, Amethyst)

Hello! I've been working furiously on The Magic Inside 3D project the last couple months. A lot of which was live-streamed on my YouTube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNShZ0WlFEPJCJ1WZYAKcmA ). A lot of the primary animation for for the singing from Coloratura and stuff is pretty nearly complete at this point, and I'm starting to work on other aspects of the animation project that nee...

Twilight gets Spooked

She also walks a bit I think, so that's kinda neat.

...

Anyway, first off, I want to apologize for not posting on this Patreon page for a while. I've been really bad at keeping things up to date here lately. I do recommend you guys follow my twitter (@_DJTHED), or my YouTube channel (Link in the embeded YouTube video), as I've been very active and still doing work there, and I've been sharing some progress on the Patreon Discord Server as well for those of you who have access to i...

Unexpected Hug (And Model Release Details)

After finally reaching my $300 Patreon goal, the models are finally going to be released! If you want to try them out yourself, check this DA Journal linked here:
https://www.deviantart.com/therealdjthed/journal/MLP-Model-Release-Public-Beta-Information-822263408

As for this render itself, I made it to show the three models I intended to release...

An Absolutely Fabulous Render

One last fabulous render before I start finishing up what I need  to do to prep the 3 character models for release. Just wanted to push  the rig a bit to make sure everything is pretty much good to go. Still a  few things to iron out, some of which might not be done in time for the  first release. I think I will probably include this pose, along with a  few others, in the action list when I publish these models so that  people can refer to the poses to s...

Thinking Rarity Test Render + Model Release Update

I have been really busy with these models lately. Something I don't bring up a whole lot is how much time it takes for me to transfer changes and improvements to all of my other models. Every change I make to the base model, it needs to get shared with all of the models. And that can get tricky, especially between different races of pony. Currently, only Rarity and Fluttershy are fully synced with the most recent changes. And one is a unicorn, the other a pegasus, which certainly isnt the onl...

$300/month Goal & Model Release Update

Since we've been bouncing in and out of the $300 goal for a while now, I thought I'd let you guys know how I'm going to handle the goal reward.

Last month, this was also at $300 at some point, but it didn't stick until the end of the month, which isn't unusual, some Patrons understandably can't stay forever. Even though it says the $300 goal has been reached again now as of today, I won't consider this goal fully fulfilled if it ends up ...

Unicorn Magic Animation Render Test

So the time has finally come. A few months ago I made a lot of progress with Pegasus wing models and rigs, and while they still do have some improvements that can be made at some point, I do have some progress to show off for another race of ponies, being the Unicorns and their magic aura and glow that emit from their horns.

Believe it or not, but I only just started working on this magic effect and horns just at the start of yesterday. I've been thinking about how to do this effect for...

ANIMATED - Pink Pony sits in Pink Room

Pink Pony also hops in Pink Room, but Pink Pony mainly sits in Pink room. 

So yeah, I decided to animate that Pinkie smile render I did a few days  back. It's been a while, so why not? I wanted to test out the revised  body rigging anyway, and it seems to work nicely for me. This is also my  first actual animation that includes "jiggle physics" automated hair  animation. I use it for the mane exclusively. I still animate the tail  manually, as the script I'...

Pink Pony sits in Pink Room

I recently have made quite a few changes to how the overall body is rigged to vastly improve the ease of use of this rig; making it easier to pose. But this is one of those things I guarantee that you aren't going to notice just by looking at renders. But I suppose I can try to list what I did here, but I'm not too sure how easy it will be to understand without context:

    - A new spine controller that more easily and cleanly poses the spine.

 ...

Quick Ponk Test Render with HDRI Lighting

Just a random quick Pinkie Pie render using HDRI lighting. It's also been almost one and a half years since I've done anything with Pinkie, so it's honestly been kind of a long time coming.

Anywho, currently I'm in the middle of a pretty major rework of some of the mane models for some of the characters I've already modeled, those being Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and MAAAAYBE Coloratura, still not sure. Pinkie Pie's mane model is fine and requires no rework for what I'm doing. ...

Fluttershy Render

Finally we have our next winged main character, Fluttershy! A lot  of the process of making her was streamed on Twitch  ( https://www.twitch.tv/djthed ), and I will also likely make a timelapse  of it similar to what I did for Rainbow Dash.

So,  this surprisingly didn't take too many days to complete! I've got about  19 hours of recorded footage of me working on her across two work days.  ...

Leafeon Lip-Sync 3D Animation Test

This is using my recently made Leafeon model and rig. And, while I didn't originally create this model for the purpose of it being used as sort of a persona, it's starting to turn into that. This animation test was made to test out how the lip-syncing looks with the current rig setup, and to see how good the model looks in motion (as well as the how good the glasses look in motion).

Don't forgot that I'm still by definition an amateur animator. I would be more than happy to r...

My Potential Leafeon Persona Test Render

This is something I wanted to do for a while, which was to create a model that could represent me in some way. It's basically just my Leafeon model wearing a specially fitted pair of amber tinted computer glasses, similar to what I wear in real life. What do you guys think? I was thinking I might use these if I were to make videos talking about things I love and what-not on YouTube sometime down the ...

Leafeon Model Timelapse + Leafeon Model Release Info

Hello Patrons! I'll be making this public in about a day or so after posting this after I make sure everything is ready. But here it is! I've recently had my Profile Picture completely redone due to my unsatisfaction with the old version:

Here we have a comparison between the old version's face, and the n...

It's a Bright Day Today

This render's nothing too crazy, just a simple outdoor lighting scene that I made while testing out the rig when applying the latest changes I've made to my other character models since I started working on wings. I just thought the pose was cute and decided to publish this render despite the simplicity. I should probably do this more.

One thing that has changed significantly since last time are the eyelashes. The eyelashes are now their own model and look like real eyelashes. Just don'...

Rainbow Dash Animated Wing Showcase

Finally, I get to show off the wings in motion. The wings as you see them here is the same exact wings as the Version 2 render I published about a week ago.

As you can see, the wings are able to fold unfold without the use of model swaps, and with barely any use of corrective shape keys. On top of that, the wings are very flexible, despite all of the individual feather models being present.

While I did make this animation to show off the wings, I feel like I spent a lot of that ti...

Flying Rainbow Dash Version 2

Here's the old Version 1:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/flying-rainbow-25342829

I uploaded Version 1 knowing that the wings weren't completely ideal. But considering how long I've been sitting on this wing project, I figured that I'd upload it as it was and hopefully seek some outside perspective on what could be changed, as I've been staring at those wings for months and I've just gotten us...

Flying Rainbow Dash

As promised, here's another render showing off the wings a bit more. Just keep in mind that for the functionality to work, I needed to increase the density of the feathers quite drastically compared to the show-style wings. The wings I have here are able to fold up and spread without model swaps, which I felt was the most important things to get working when figuring out wings. But in terms of their cosmetic look, I'd certainly like to hear some more feedback.

The wings are the same mod...

Rainbow Dash

TIMELAPSE of the Creation of the Model:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTXOj4tzesI

It's been a while since I made a new character model, hasn't it? Well, a lot of that has to do with the wings, but I'll talk more about that in a future submission.

Anywho, I linked to a Timelapse video at the top of this d...

Graceful Gardevoir Render

I have once again found inspiration to do something Pokemon related again. Just like before, this is a heavily modified model of Gardevoir from the Nintendo 3DS games. Similar topology all around, except her face was completely reworked to have actual facial features instead of just a 2D texture. I spent around 3 days on this from start to finish, reworking topology, facial rigging, creating HD textures, among other things.

Those of you with a keen eye may have noticed that I added a fe...

Pichu Twirl

HD Youtube Link:
https://youtu.be/zhP419Ow8IY 

Had to take a bit of a brain break from the work I've been trying to do with pegasi wings and all that. I honestly don't know how I'm going to actually rig them to be fully flexible the way I need them to. So for now, I think I'm going to move on and come back to them later instead of just getting stuck on them. Before I get back into doing other things with my pon...