Pony Smiley Project: What would YOU like to express?

[Parodius]

Been a while with this. Perhaps I'm a bit slowpoke... but what about the :awesome: face? Or is that starting to grow old?

[Dessa]

I'm still working on this, albeit slowly. I've mostly been going back and retouching the existing ones. I often consider starting over from scratch, because there are a few elements here that make things hard.

The first 3 have been revised. Simpler hairstyle. It makes more sense in 3d, and gives her a little depth. Smoothing out all the lines. 23 pixels is a cramped space to work with. Certainly possible, but hard. I know I could make some ****ty ones and finish them fast, but if I want this to endure and/or be a part of the forum's legacy, then they need to be as good as I can make them.

So, what is the :awesome: face?

I've determined to redo a few of the expressions, but the first 4 at least are solid poses. I was really on a roll with those.

I shouldn't have kicked up side projects...

[holypony20]

I think there coming out well. They are all very cute I like them.

[Parodius]

So, what is the :awesome: face?

Don't know the awesome face?

And now you know!

I totally should have posted the 1280x1280 one I found of this~

[Dessa]

After all sorts of hemming and hawing, I've decided to reboot Silver Lining:

The original was poorly planned and inconsistent from one image to the next, and I found myself hitting roadblocks every 3 seconds.

On first glance, similar to the existing. 3 major changes:

1. I've rebuilt her with a bit more of a 3D structure in mind, and she hews closer to the show's design. The 4th image there, "3/4ths view" needs a tweak (and now that I'm posing here, I think I know what that tweak is). Hopefully, this will make it easier to paint her at different angles, which should help me get things done more quickly.

2. I've redone her hair for various reasons. For starters, she fits much more closely the concept of "sun and clouds." Her hair is a lot more visually interesting now, I think, and "clouds" are the sort of shapeless things that don't demand too much of pixels.

This borrows plenty from BrianBlackberry's design, and a bit from Cherilee as well. Having both of these as a reference should help me with the nasty hair rotating issues that have plagued me.

3. It's 24 pixels tall now. You can't tell it here, but that extra pixel will be handy if I need to do something like make her ears perk UP, or have her open her jaw.

The other major change planned is to add shading to the hair. It'll look a bit more like storm clouds, with dark grey underneath. This will contrast the hair right where it borders the face, eliminating the need for a border, which will buy me a pixel right there in the middle of the face OMIGOD ANOTHER PIXEL TO PLAY WITH.

Color tweaks down the line too, as well as eye color.

After that, it's just a matter of building expressions then aliasing them until they're smooth and the inevitable funny spots are fixed.

[Dessa]

5 expressions FINISHED:

^-^ or

;-;

8D or :awesome:

I may go back and add shading to the face (esp. for the crying)

Edit: Hmm, I could probably rotate the Awesome Face toward us a bit.

Moar Edit:

I'm inclined to the ones without shaded faces actually. Thoughts, anyone?

[brianblackberry]

Love the new style with the eyes. The more simple, iconic look to them makes them seem so much more clear and adds to the expressions.

[Dessa]

Love the new style with the eyes. The more simple, iconic look to them makes them seem so much more clear and adds to the expressions.

Thank you! It took a lot of work, and it's never easy to abandon something you've invested time into to start over, but it was well worth it.

Do you prefer the face shaded or unshaded? I feel like shaded looks a bit cheesy.

The hair will remain shaded either way.

[brianblackberry]

Love the new style with the eyes. The more simple, iconic look to them makes them seem so much more clear and adds to the expressions.

Thank you! It took a lot of work, and it's never easy to abandon something you've invested time into to start over, but it was well worth it.

Do you prefer the face shaded or unshaded? I feel like shaded looks a bit cheesy.

The hair will remain shaded either way.

I could go either way honestly. I shaded looks kinda nifty because it looks like she has a cloud on her head, but the unshaded makes it look more iconic in the style of the show's art. I say go with unshaded since you indicated a preference for it.

[Dessa]

The shading is growing on me. I'm getting better at it, and it's damn useful.

-> Tweaka-tweaky-tweak. Lower-right DX is the one I'm settling on, with a few tweaks to the mane shading.

[Dessa]

Biggest additions are and >

I've been having chronic problems with the hair, but I think is the direction I'd like to go with it. It looks like hair, it looks like clouds, and that establishes the for the hair realy well. I sat down and I figured out the physiology of the stuff, which has long eluded me. It took a lot of ****ty sketches to figure that out. When i set out to make smileys, I never imagined that i'd have to worry about **** like that. In fact, i took this because I was sure I didn't have to. But hey, I'm learning new skills, and I'm still having fun with this. Usually.