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Off-Topic Archive / Who's the Boss? vs. Charles in Charge
2015 Apr 17, 19:07:04
This thread is for very serious people to very seriously compare two 1984 fish-out-of-water housekeeper sitcoms. General deconstruction of either show, or the genre as a whole, is perfectly welcome, but please attempt to frame it within the context of comparison when applicable. I know we all have strong feelings on this issue, but please try to keep discussion as civil as possible.
2
News Archive / Canterlot Gardens needs donations!
2013 Mar 18, 17:55:52
Many of you will remember last year's stress test, during which Legends of Equestria was temporarily available for public play during the weekend of Canterlot Gardens, where we allowed the fans to play the game alongside the development team, and even a few community celebrities. Some of you even had the opportunity to attend Canterlot Gardens for yourselves in Strongsville, Ohio, to see the panels, meet the guests, buy the merchandise, hear the musical performances, and take part in all of the other activities that made Canterlot Gardens such a fun and rewarding experience.
Right now, Canterlot Gardens would like to provide all of us with another opportunity to have such an experience, but they need our help to do it. Last year's Canterlot Gardens was Legends of Equestria's most successful weekend since we first began, and we recieved thousands of new forum members during the time we spent at the convention. That is why Legends of Equestria is asking our fans to help fund a second year of Canterlot Gardens, so that we can all enjoy it together, and grow even more as a result.
For anyone interested in helping, their kickstarter can be found at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1380300948/canterlot-gardens-2013. So please give what you can, and make sure to spread the word. They're counting on us!
Right now, Canterlot Gardens would like to provide all of us with another opportunity to have such an experience, but they need our help to do it. Last year's Canterlot Gardens was Legends of Equestria's most successful weekend since we first began, and we recieved thousands of new forum members during the time we spent at the convention. That is why Legends of Equestria is asking our fans to help fund a second year of Canterlot Gardens, so that we can all enjoy it together, and grow even more as a result.
For anyone interested in helping, their kickstarter can be found at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1380300948/canterlot-gardens-2013. So please give what you can, and make sure to spread the word. They're counting on us!
3
Artist Showcases / Grassy Fields and Cocoa St. Lauren
2013 Feb 19, 15:09:54
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the February edition of the Legends of Equestria Artist Showcase! This month, we'll be focusing on some of the game's NPCs. For those of you not familiar with the terminology, an NPC, or Non-Playable Character, is any character in a game that isn't controlled by a player. In this case, we'll be talking specifically about two of Legends of Equestria's finished NPCs, Grassy Fields and Cocoa St. Lauren.
Now, the first step, as you could probably guess, is to write the character into a google document. Almost every finished concept in the game does, of course, start in a document of some sort, and we have a fairly large and extremely talented team of writers dedicated to creating the quests and NPCs that will go in the game. While it is possible to have a quest without any NPC involvement, most or all of the quests you'll find in Legends of Equestria will heavily involve one or more of our NPCs.
As you can see from this image, the very first step involved in creating a character is creating a physical description, as well as giving some important information about the character. In this case, Aurethius, the writer responsible for writing the character Grassy Fields, filled in the biography by listing the relationships and occupation of the character, as well as leaving a note about the character's voice. Any special information about the character needs to be placed near the top of the page so that the voice actors, concept artists, and possibly the animators, will know whatever they need to about the character's voice, mannerisms, and appearance.
A description can be as long or as short as the original author feels it should be, and in contrast to the two lines of text written for Grassy Fields, author Saddlesoap Opera decided that this particular character, Cocoa St. Lauren, would need a more in-depth background and description in order to properly convey every detail he had in mind for the character. There is no right or wrong length for a character, and the depth given to the description relies heavily on how prominently the NPC in question will be featured in the game, as well as how complicated their personality and appearance are and several other factors. When questioned about the conceptualization of this particular character, Saddlesoap had this to say:
This is Cocoa's cutie mark story and general dialogues. The cutie mark stories are something that our writing team does a bit differently from what you might find in a typical game. We feel that it is important for each character to have a distinct personality and reasoning behind their every action, rather than just existing to dispense quests to the players. In keeping with this, any character that has a cutie mark must logically have attained it at one point, and this is a very important detail in the lives of the citizens of Equestria who have undergone this rite of passage. Therefore, it's required that every cutie mark has a backstory told by the pony who has it, in their own words. By giving each character a unique story to tell and having them describe an important event in their lives in such a way, we are forced to put a large amount of thought into each character and get inside their heads a little bit while creating them. The only exceptions are characters that don't have a cutie mark, are incapable of telling the player about their cutie mark, or refuse to tell the player about their cutie mark. Since the game is set in a land of happy magical ponies, the latter two categories are typically few and far between.
Under the cutie mark story in each of these, you'll see the character's general dialogues. The general dialogues are triggered whenever you try to talk to an NPC, but they don't have anything important to say to you at the time. Instead of having a box full of text pop up like you would if the NPC were talking to you about a particular quest or event, you'll hear them say one of these phrases. To avoid tedium, each writer is required to come up with at least ten general dialogues for each character, and they're almost always completely unique to that character.
Since Grassy Fields does give you the option to purchase pies, it's also necessary for her to have a few dialogues for this on her character sheet. Any set of dialogues like this, which aren't unique to any particular quest, but are unique to a particular NPC, are placed here.
Finally, there are the related quests. This is just an easy way for us to access the quests in which the character is featured without having to hunt them down. If any significant change is made to a character, it would be highly inefficient for us to go through every single quest in our database and search for the character's name in order to make sure the character stays consistent. It's also nice to have as a reference, in case someone is writing a character into another quest but isn't quite sure on the characterization just from reading the sheet.
After the character has been written, edited, and personally approved by everyone's favorite talking tree, it's sent to the concept artists' pile. Now, the characters as they appear in the final game are going to use the same model as the players, with their own color schemes, cutie marks, and accessories attached, so this concept art is never sent to the 3D modelers like it typically is for buildings or other objects. Instead, it's used as a visual reference to further determine certain aspects of the characterization for the voice actors, as well as the writers for any future uses of the character, as well as for implementing it in the game when it's finished. Many of our fans will be able to tell this just by looking, but the concept art for both of these characters was drawn by Sugarcup, one of Legends of Equestria's extremely talented concept artists. The above image of Grassy Fields was the first NPC concept art Sugarcup ever created for Legends of Equestria.
After the concept art has been finished and approved, the NPCs are sent to the voice acting team. Our audio lead, Hirosashii, personally reads through each character sheet and places them with whichever voice actor or actress will best match the character's personality. I've created a video for you all to watch below, which goes through each of the characters' general dialogues being read by their respective voice actress, as well as a few extras in the case of Grassy Fields. Grassy Fields is voiced by Emichwan88, and Cocoa St. Lauren is voiced by Flootershai.
After the voice acting has been approved, it's sent back to the writers where we have one of our team members build the model using the character creator, and put it in the game! The actual implementation process for NPCs consists of several different steps, and has yet to be entirely completed. But between the animations, models, and scripting beyond this point, we've got enough content to fill another artist showcase as soon as it is, so be sure to check back! We might just see these two again in a later edition!
Now, the first step, as you could probably guess, is to write the character into a google document. Almost every finished concept in the game does, of course, start in a document of some sort, and we have a fairly large and extremely talented team of writers dedicated to creating the quests and NPCs that will go in the game. While it is possible to have a quest without any NPC involvement, most or all of the quests you'll find in Legends of Equestria will heavily involve one or more of our NPCs.
As you can see from this image, the very first step involved in creating a character is creating a physical description, as well as giving some important information about the character. In this case, Aurethius, the writer responsible for writing the character Grassy Fields, filled in the biography by listing the relationships and occupation of the character, as well as leaving a note about the character's voice. Any special information about the character needs to be placed near the top of the page so that the voice actors, concept artists, and possibly the animators, will know whatever they need to about the character's voice, mannerisms, and appearance.
A description can be as long or as short as the original author feels it should be, and in contrast to the two lines of text written for Grassy Fields, author Saddlesoap Opera decided that this particular character, Cocoa St. Lauren, would need a more in-depth background and description in order to properly convey every detail he had in mind for the character. There is no right or wrong length for a character, and the depth given to the description relies heavily on how prominently the NPC in question will be featured in the game, as well as how complicated their personality and appearance are and several other factors. When questioned about the conceptualization of this particular character, Saddlesoap had this to say:
Quote from: Saddlesoap OperaCocoa was written as a somewhat snooty 'Artiste' type, who sees herself as extremely cultured and important, looks down her nose at nearly everypony, and dotes on her ill-behaved little dog. She's a chocolate-maker, but she'd call herself a Chocolatier. In keeping with her high-society style, her name was based on Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent.
This is Cocoa's cutie mark story and general dialogues. The cutie mark stories are something that our writing team does a bit differently from what you might find in a typical game. We feel that it is important for each character to have a distinct personality and reasoning behind their every action, rather than just existing to dispense quests to the players. In keeping with this, any character that has a cutie mark must logically have attained it at one point, and this is a very important detail in the lives of the citizens of Equestria who have undergone this rite of passage. Therefore, it's required that every cutie mark has a backstory told by the pony who has it, in their own words. By giving each character a unique story to tell and having them describe an important event in their lives in such a way, we are forced to put a large amount of thought into each character and get inside their heads a little bit while creating them. The only exceptions are characters that don't have a cutie mark, are incapable of telling the player about their cutie mark, or refuse to tell the player about their cutie mark. Since the game is set in a land of happy magical ponies, the latter two categories are typically few and far between.
Under the cutie mark story in each of these, you'll see the character's general dialogues. The general dialogues are triggered whenever you try to talk to an NPC, but they don't have anything important to say to you at the time. Instead of having a box full of text pop up like you would if the NPC were talking to you about a particular quest or event, you'll hear them say one of these phrases. To avoid tedium, each writer is required to come up with at least ten general dialogues for each character, and they're almost always completely unique to that character.
Since Grassy Fields does give you the option to purchase pies, it's also necessary for her to have a few dialogues for this on her character sheet. Any set of dialogues like this, which aren't unique to any particular quest, but are unique to a particular NPC, are placed here.
Finally, there are the related quests. This is just an easy way for us to access the quests in which the character is featured without having to hunt them down. If any significant change is made to a character, it would be highly inefficient for us to go through every single quest in our database and search for the character's name in order to make sure the character stays consistent. It's also nice to have as a reference, in case someone is writing a character into another quest but isn't quite sure on the characterization just from reading the sheet.
After the character has been written, edited, and personally approved by everyone's favorite talking tree, it's sent to the concept artists' pile. Now, the characters as they appear in the final game are going to use the same model as the players, with their own color schemes, cutie marks, and accessories attached, so this concept art is never sent to the 3D modelers like it typically is for buildings or other objects. Instead, it's used as a visual reference to further determine certain aspects of the characterization for the voice actors, as well as the writers for any future uses of the character, as well as for implementing it in the game when it's finished. Many of our fans will be able to tell this just by looking, but the concept art for both of these characters was drawn by Sugarcup, one of Legends of Equestria's extremely talented concept artists. The above image of Grassy Fields was the first NPC concept art Sugarcup ever created for Legends of Equestria.
After the concept art has been finished and approved, the NPCs are sent to the voice acting team. Our audio lead, Hirosashii, personally reads through each character sheet and places them with whichever voice actor or actress will best match the character's personality. I've created a video for you all to watch below, which goes through each of the characters' general dialogues being read by their respective voice actress, as well as a few extras in the case of Grassy Fields. Grassy Fields is voiced by Emichwan88, and Cocoa St. Lauren is voiced by Flootershai.
After the voice acting has been approved, it's sent back to the writers where we have one of our team members build the model using the character creator, and put it in the game! The actual implementation process for NPCs consists of several different steps, and has yet to be entirely completed. But between the animations, models, and scripting beyond this point, we've got enough content to fill another artist showcase as soon as it is, so be sure to check back! We might just see these two again in a later edition!
4
Original Characters / Riptide Rush
2013 Feb 15, 22:06:54
This is my OC, Riptide Rush. She lives in the ocean, and has never been to the surface. It is therefore highly unlikely that anyone will have the opportunity of interacting with Riptide Rush at any point. She was born the daughter of Whitewater Splash and Alpine Snow in 1997, and has lived happily ever since with her family, which also includes around 250 siblings.
However, hard times came upon young Riptide and her large family, as it became difficult for her parents to support so many seaponies. Therefore, Riptide was given no choice but to take a job in customer service at Little Seasers. She worked her hardest to help support her family, and succeeded. Now they are able to get by given the combination of modest salaries between several of them, and still have enough to afford three cars and a bus and host neighborhood barbecues every couple of months.
Riptide studies botany at the University of Aqualoosa. She hopes to one day own a plant nursery, and possibly start an art studio on the side, if she can get a decent start-up. Her favorite album is 2112.
5
Pony Off-Topic Archive / Hey, Off-Topic board. Guess what?
2013 Jan 22, 21:41:40
[move]
[/move]That's right, everyone. As of today, I am officially pals with Pinkie Pie. I've got my certification and everything right here. Please try to contain your immense jealousy. I'll be over here having an awesome time at the party that I was invited to by my pal, Pinkie Pie. In fact, she was so eager to have me at her party, she actually wrote the invitation right there on the friendship certificate. So yeah, as you can see, I'm pretty much the coolest guy in the entire world. I just thought I'd let you all know that.
6
The Retirement Home / Just Bloombergin' around a bit.
2013 Jan 07, 14:28:04
Well, I've decided I might as well go ahead and try my branch at music, so I've got something I put together that I'd like to share with everyone.
Please let me know what you think.
Electro-BLITZ ~ Topic Locked For inactivity
Please let me know what you think.
Electro-BLITZ ~ Topic Locked For inactivity
7
Artist Showcases / Wonderbolts Headquarters!
2012 Dec 15, 16:59:29
Hello again, and welcome to another glorious edition of the Legends of Equestria Artist Showcase! Last time, we took a look at some of the houses in Ponyville, and today, we're heading over to Canterlot to take a look at one of the buildings you haven't had the opportunity of seeing in the game yet!
You're looking at the Headquarters of the Wonderbolts, Equestria's most prestigious flight team! They've been known to perform stunt shows, hold races, judge competitions, and even assist in matters of national security when needed, but in order to properly conduct business in an environment like Legends of Equestria, they're going to need a base of operations. Without having such an area shown to date, it's up to the Legends of Equestria artists to provide them with the necessary facilities.
These are some of the early sketches that our concept artist, Pa_Hsia, created while conceptualizing the Wonderbolts Headquarters in Canterlot. Unlike the Ponyville houses, this is a building which has not been featured in the show, which means that it's up to our own imaginations as artists to decide what it should look like.
While the process of creating from scratch may allow the artist more freedom, it is typically a more difficult process, as it involves creating a thematically appropriate design with accurate dimensions that can fit into the environment without disrupting its surroundings, while still being visually impressive, all without having any canonical basis! It also runs the risk of being discarded completely should a canonical building actually appear. It's quite the daunting task for our concept artists, even without all the other unforeseen problems that can arise during the creative process.
However, as you can clearly see, we were able to put together all the concept art we would need to create such a complex structure as the Wonderbolts Headquarters, and we were left with some fantastic artwork in the process.
After the concept art was finished and approved, we handed it over to our 3D modeler SteveLynx to turn it into a usable model. Now, unfortunately, we don't have any pictures to show of the process of creating these models. In fact, in the artist's own words,
However, I do think it's safe to say that Steve's work can speak for itself without any problems, so we invite you to have a look at his completed models of the two structures:
As well as the completed version below, brought to life by the accompaniment of these beautiful textures created, once again, by our 2D artist, Musetrigger:
The finished product is quite large, as was mentioned earlier, and there are, of course, interior models intended to accompany both structures currently in the works. Once the game is open to the public, players will be able to explore the Headquarters inside and out, as well as interact with characters and embark on the many quests that will be available from this area, so be sure to look for it once you start playing! And for those of you who have been wondering why the headquarters is split into two parts, the large ship-like building is actually going to serve as a museum, complete with historically significant exhibits detailing the Wonderbolts' exploits, among many other things.
Well, that's all for now, but everyone please give our wonderful artists one last round of applause, and we hope to see you again for next month's edition of the Legends of Equestria Artist Showcase!
You're looking at the Headquarters of the Wonderbolts, Equestria's most prestigious flight team! They've been known to perform stunt shows, hold races, judge competitions, and even assist in matters of national security when needed, but in order to properly conduct business in an environment like Legends of Equestria, they're going to need a base of operations. Without having such an area shown to date, it's up to the Legends of Equestria artists to provide them with the necessary facilities.
These are some of the early sketches that our concept artist, Pa_Hsia, created while conceptualizing the Wonderbolts Headquarters in Canterlot. Unlike the Ponyville houses, this is a building which has not been featured in the show, which means that it's up to our own imaginations as artists to decide what it should look like.
Quote from: Pa_Hsia, Concept ArtistThe design of the Wonderbolts' HQ was influenced by the airport in Sweet and Elite, HMS Belfast, and the Cutty Sark.
While the process of creating from scratch may allow the artist more freedom, it is typically a more difficult process, as it involves creating a thematically appropriate design with accurate dimensions that can fit into the environment without disrupting its surroundings, while still being visually impressive, all without having any canonical basis! It also runs the risk of being discarded completely should a canonical building actually appear. It's quite the daunting task for our concept artists, even without all the other unforeseen problems that can arise during the creative process.
Quote from: Pa_Hsia, Concept ArtistThe design of the top view went through several iterations, but I still struggled to get it to look right: after I drew the front and side views, I realized that the tower small jutting out of the main building was floating six feet from the building!
However, as you can clearly see, we were able to put together all the concept art we would need to create such a complex structure as the Wonderbolts Headquarters, and we were left with some fantastic artwork in the process.
Quote from: Pa_Hsia, Concept ArtistThe final model is *much* bigger than I planned. Since then, I've been far more careful to think about the scale of the buildings I'm drawing and how they'll fit in the scene.
Quote from: Pa_Hsia, Concept ArtistThis was my first full drawing using ArtRage, which is now my staple art program; the Wonderbolts' HQ was instrumental in helping me figure out the ink pen settings I've used for every piece of CA since.
After the concept art was finished and approved, we handed it over to our 3D modeler SteveLynx to turn it into a usable model. Now, unfortunately, we don't have any pictures to show of the process of creating these models. In fact, in the artist's own words,
Quote from: SteveLynx, 3D ModelerSo far all memories I have of modeling that is that I traced some lines of the CA and suddenly the model was done.
Quote from: SteveLynx, 3D ModelerSome evil modeling demon always takes over shortly after starting to model, I can´t control myself nor do I have any memories of whatever happens during that time, I´m pretty sure I´m either cursed or just always really tired during modeling hours.
However, I do think it's safe to say that Steve's work can speak for itself without any problems, so we invite you to have a look at his completed models of the two structures:
As well as the completed version below, brought to life by the accompaniment of these beautiful textures created, once again, by our 2D artist, Musetrigger:
The finished product is quite large, as was mentioned earlier, and there are, of course, interior models intended to accompany both structures currently in the works. Once the game is open to the public, players will be able to explore the Headquarters inside and out, as well as interact with characters and embark on the many quests that will be available from this area, so be sure to look for it once you start playing! And for those of you who have been wondering why the headquarters is split into two parts, the large ship-like building is actually going to serve as a museum, complete with historically significant exhibits detailing the Wonderbolts' exploits, among many other things.
Well, that's all for now, but everyone please give our wonderful artists one last round of applause, and we hope to see you again for next month's edition of the Legends of Equestria Artist Showcase!
8
Artist Showcases / Ponyville Houses!
2012 Nov 06, 00:07:00
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first ever Legends of Equestria artist showcase! Let me just start by telling you how very excited we are to be presenting this to you all. Now, you're probably wondering what exactly an 'artist showcase' is going to entail. Essentially, it's our way of highlighting some of the work being done on the game by our many talented artists of all different sorts. We're going to show you some of the processes involved with creating a project like Legends of Equestria, and you'll learn all sorts of interesting facts along the way! So, if you're as excited to get this started as I am, you'll thank me for skipping the bulk of the ado and heading right into the showcase!
Today, we'll be talking about the generic houses in Ponyville. These are among the very first content of any type to go into Legends of Equestria, and they're very near and dear to us for that reason. Now, to a lot of people, making background houses might seem like a simple, somewhat arbitrary task, but I can tell you personally that this is far from true. Firstly and most simply, the housing in the game plays a very crucial role in world-building. The Ponyville in the show has a large number of houses, and the Ponyville in the game would be very empty and barren without them. Further, the many characters in the game are going to need places to live. Therefore, it is crucial that we have some sort of houses, even if the players never actually step foot inside of them. Now, in keeping with the idea that we should be emulating the show on which the game is primarily based, we have been given many examples of the thatched-roof cottages the many various townsfolk in Ponyville reside in. This is both a blessing and a curse. It means that we are not required to invent a style of housing from scratch, but it also means that we have to make the houses in exactly the same way they're shown in Friendship is Magic.
The task of re-creating these buildings exactly as they appear in the show is first given to our extremely talented team of concept artists. They need to look at the two-dimensional drawings from the show and recreate them from multiple angles, so the other teams know exactly how they're supposed to look.
Here, we see the concept art compared to the finished model that many of you have already had the opportunity to see inside of the game. The beautiful concept art in question was created by Vector, whom many of you already know as the co-leader of the 2D department. You might be wondering why he is doing concept art when we have such a capable concept art department, but on the Legends of Equestria team, it is not at all uncommon for a member of one team to help another when their skill set is able to be put to use. Since Vector is already a 2D artist, drawing is no problem for him, and he was able to look at this house that many of you are familiar with from the show, and recreate top, front, and isometric views to be used in their 3-dimensional recreations.
In order to maintain consistency, this process requires a large amount of research, as well as technical skill. In the artist's own words:
And as you can see here, the images we often see of houses in the show can indeed leave a fair amount of deduction up to our concept artists. It is not a task that we can approach with anything short of careful and comprehensive judgement, as any unchecked mistakes made in the concept art would translate directly to mistakes made in the models themselves. Luckily, we do have a system to ensure quality control, and we team leaders are sure to inspect every piece of art individually before it can make its way into any other departments.
we must have one of our 3D modelers put that concept art to use by translating it into an actual 3D model. There are many options for free and extensive software availiable online for anyone interested in 3D modelling. These particular models were all made in Blender by our artist Minazumi, who is, as you can see, an exceedingly proficient modeler. A common technique when creating complicated models like these buildings is to open the reference image in the program, and build the model atop the given image, before moving and rotating it to fit the different views as needed. For this to work, it is necessary to have at least the front, top, and side views of an object, such as the ones shown here:
from which the modeler would know to create the shape of the building like this:
The more observant among you may be wondering why certain aspects of the concept art seem more intricately detailed than those of the finished models. The answer is simply the polygon count. For an online game such as this one, it is often necessary to use a smaller number of polygons, which are the various flat shapes that make up the object, in order to save space and keep the game from lagging while trying to render an extremely complicated model. Another way we do this is by creating certain objects as textures, such as the vane at the top of the house in the last image. Instead of creating a separate shape for each curve of the vane, we create the whole thing as a single flat image.
However, the vane in the picture does not appear simply as a flat block. Likewise, the house appears as a somewhat realistic, albeit cartoonish, structure, complete with support beams and a straw roof, rather than a solid grey mass. This is as a result of our 2D team, or more specifically in this particular case, Musetrigger. He was responsible for creating the texture that is draped over the model to give it color. This is another area in which the concept art is useful. If you'll notice, it does more than simply describe the shape of the object to be created.
It also shows the lines which separate one color from another. In this case, the colors to be used were obvious, as the houses can be clearly seen in the show. However, this is often not the case, and much of the concept art will come with attached RGB codes for that reason. Now, you may notice a few subtle differences between that concept art and the finished texture below
These are primarily the result of revisions made later on in the process. Communication between team members is probably the most universally important aspect of development. If, for some reason, any part of an idea is replaced with another, it must always be done with the informed consent of the other members involved. Since Vector is, once again, the head of the 2D department, this was not a major problem in this particular case. He was also the one who had to approve the final version of the texture before it could be placed in the game.
I'm sure I don't have to tell you all the different reasons these textures are so important, and you can see for yourselves exactly how well-made they are. Musetrigger himself did have the following comment to make on the subject:
Yes, believe it or not, these were, in fact, the first textures he had made. Of course, what may be easy for Musetrigger is still likely to take years of practice for the more inexperienced, so don't any of you aspiring artists out there be discouraged from pursuing whatever goals you may have.
After the texture is attached to the model, the only thing left to do is stick it in the game! Now, of course, you can't just stick it wherever you think it would look good, or we would have the entire layout of the towns in complete chaos. To remedy this, we have a map team comprised of members of several different teams, who are tasked with creating the layout of each town. When we know where the building is intended to go, we are finally able to place it in the game.
I hope you've all learned a thing or two about the process of creation and the fantastic people behind it. We truly are thrilled to be presenting you with the artist showcase, and hopefully you've had as much fun reading it as we've had putting it together. Everyone behind Legends of Equestria is working very hard to put this all together, and we're pretty thrilled to be here educating all of our wonderful fans on the game's inner-workings. We'd be nothing without you, which is why you can never leave! So we hope to see you all again at next month's exciting edition of the Legends of Equestria artist showcase!
Today, we'll be talking about the generic houses in Ponyville. These are among the very first content of any type to go into Legends of Equestria, and they're very near and dear to us for that reason. Now, to a lot of people, making background houses might seem like a simple, somewhat arbitrary task, but I can tell you personally that this is far from true. Firstly and most simply, the housing in the game plays a very crucial role in world-building. The Ponyville in the show has a large number of houses, and the Ponyville in the game would be very empty and barren without them. Further, the many characters in the game are going to need places to live. Therefore, it is crucial that we have some sort of houses, even if the players never actually step foot inside of them. Now, in keeping with the idea that we should be emulating the show on which the game is primarily based, we have been given many examples of the thatched-roof cottages the many various townsfolk in Ponyville reside in. This is both a blessing and a curse. It means that we are not required to invent a style of housing from scratch, but it also means that we have to make the houses in exactly the same way they're shown in Friendship is Magic.
The task of re-creating these buildings exactly as they appear in the show is first given to our extremely talented team of concept artists. They need to look at the two-dimensional drawings from the show and recreate them from multiple angles, so the other teams know exactly how they're supposed to look.
Here, we see the concept art compared to the finished model that many of you have already had the opportunity to see inside of the game. The beautiful concept art in question was created by Vector, whom many of you already know as the co-leader of the 2D department. You might be wondering why he is doing concept art when we have such a capable concept art department, but on the Legends of Equestria team, it is not at all uncommon for a member of one team to help another when their skill set is able to be put to use. Since Vector is already a 2D artist, drawing is no problem for him, and he was able to look at this house that many of you are familiar with from the show, and recreate top, front, and isometric views to be used in their 3-dimensional recreations.
In order to maintain consistency, this process requires a large amount of research, as well as technical skill. In the artist's own words:
Quote from: Vector, co-leader of 2D DepartmentFor the most part, every one of these houses has appeared in the show at some point, so I had the blessing of most of my work already being done for me. The hard part of the design was coming up with the half, or in some cases three fourths, of the house that was not shown. That seems easy when a lot of the work has already been done, but in actuality it requires a lot of research as opposed to a house you can create from scratch.
In order to stay consistent with the style of the show I had to study the rules the artists followed while creating ponyville's architecture. The beams especially have a very specific pattern to how they were put together. At key points in the architecture there would usually be an engraving of a stylisticly curved wheat stalk or a flower, and if a window was in a key spot, like the center of the house, it would usually have a flower box or a balcony underneath. Certain rules like these governed how most of that extra two thirds got its look and feel. Whenever there is a building shown in the show, we try to stay as close as possible to the original artists depiction of it. Thus, the reasearch stage.
And as you can see here, the images we often see of houses in the show can indeed leave a fair amount of deduction up to our concept artists. It is not a task that we can approach with anything short of careful and comprehensive judgement, as any unchecked mistakes made in the concept art would translate directly to mistakes made in the models themselves. Luckily, we do have a system to ensure quality control, and we team leaders are sure to inspect every piece of art individually before it can make its way into any other departments.
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However, it is not enough to simply have well-constructed concept art. In order to get from this:
to this:
to this:
we must have one of our 3D modelers put that concept art to use by translating it into an actual 3D model. There are many options for free and extensive software availiable online for anyone interested in 3D modelling. These particular models were all made in Blender by our artist Minazumi, who is, as you can see, an exceedingly proficient modeler. A common technique when creating complicated models like these buildings is to open the reference image in the program, and build the model atop the given image, before moving and rotating it to fit the different views as needed. For this to work, it is necessary to have at least the front, top, and side views of an object, such as the ones shown here:
from which the modeler would know to create the shape of the building like this:
The more observant among you may be wondering why certain aspects of the concept art seem more intricately detailed than those of the finished models. The answer is simply the polygon count. For an online game such as this one, it is often necessary to use a smaller number of polygons, which are the various flat shapes that make up the object, in order to save space and keep the game from lagging while trying to render an extremely complicated model. Another way we do this is by creating certain objects as textures, such as the vane at the top of the house in the last image. Instead of creating a separate shape for each curve of the vane, we create the whole thing as a single flat image.
However, the vane in the picture does not appear simply as a flat block. Likewise, the house appears as a somewhat realistic, albeit cartoonish, structure, complete with support beams and a straw roof, rather than a solid grey mass. This is as a result of our 2D team, or more specifically in this particular case, Musetrigger. He was responsible for creating the texture that is draped over the model to give it color. This is another area in which the concept art is useful. If you'll notice, it does more than simply describe the shape of the object to be created.
It also shows the lines which separate one color from another. In this case, the colors to be used were obvious, as the houses can be clearly seen in the show. However, this is often not the case, and much of the concept art will come with attached RGB codes for that reason. Now, you may notice a few subtle differences between that concept art and the finished texture below
These are primarily the result of revisions made later on in the process. Communication between team members is probably the most universally important aspect of development. If, for some reason, any part of an idea is replaced with another, it must always be done with the informed consent of the other members involved. Since Vector is, once again, the head of the 2D department, this was not a major problem in this particular case. He was also the one who had to approve the final version of the texture before it could be placed in the game.
I'm sure I don't have to tell you all the different reasons these textures are so important, and you can see for yourselves exactly how well-made they are. Musetrigger himself did have the following comment to make on the subject:
Quote from: Musetrigger, 2D ArtistI would like to say that while they were easy to make, they were amazing practice, and they happened to be the first true textures I have ever made.
Yes, believe it or not, these were, in fact, the first textures he had made. Of course, what may be easy for Musetrigger is still likely to take years of practice for the more inexperienced, so don't any of you aspiring artists out there be discouraged from pursuing whatever goals you may have.
After the texture is attached to the model, the only thing left to do is stick it in the game! Now, of course, you can't just stick it wherever you think it would look good, or we would have the entire layout of the towns in complete chaos. To remedy this, we have a map team comprised of members of several different teams, who are tasked with creating the layout of each town. When we know where the building is intended to go, we are finally able to place it in the game.
So, after a long and complicated process, we've finally taken an idea from the concept stage: 
and put it in the game as a finished product.
and put it in the game as a finished product.
I hope you've all learned a thing or two about the process of creation and the fantastic people behind it. We truly are thrilled to be presenting you with the artist showcase, and hopefully you've had as much fun reading it as we've had putting it together. Everyone behind Legends of Equestria is working very hard to put this all together, and we're pretty thrilled to be here educating all of our wonderful fans on the game's inner-workings. We'd be nothing without you, which is why you can never leave! So we hope to see you all again at next month's exciting edition of the Legends of Equestria artist showcase!
9
News Archive / Writing Auditions: Congratulations to our new writers!
2012 Jul 20, 16:41:44
Well, after weeks of hard work and suspense, I am proud to announce that the Legends of Equestria writing auditions have officially come to a close! The other finalists are, once again, very likely to be called upon to join the team at a later date, but at this time, I would like to officially welcome our four new writers to the Legends of Equestria staff! The staff gives a warm welcome to:
And again, thank you to all who participated. It has been a lot of work for those of us judging, but it's well worth it to see such talent be added to our ranks. So, remember to congratulate our newest team members, and stay posted for more exciting news and updates from Legends of Equestria!
- Alextrazsa
- Nonnavlis
- Andrew Sean
- Virtus Invicta
And again, thank you to all who participated. It has been a lot of work for those of us judging, but it's well worth it to see such talent be added to our ranks. So, remember to congratulate our newest team members, and stay posted for more exciting news and updates from Legends of Equestria!
Your faithful administrator,
Bloomberg
Bloomberg
10
Team Biographies / Brick Stonewood
2012 Jun 11, 15:25:23
Welcome, one and all, to the page about me. My name is Brick Stonewood, and I am the Editor-In-Chief of Legends of Equestria. I lead the writing team, which gives me a fair amount of creative control over this project, since the writers are the ones that end up creating the quests and NPCs in the game, among many other things. I always push my team to work as hard as they can to make Legends of Equestria the best game it can be, and I'm always willing to do my part to help them out, of course. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.
Outside of Legends of Equestria, I've written a good deal of stories both long and short, a few songs and poems, and a screenplay. I'm working on my second screenplay at the moment, and I have my next few planned out as well. I live in Illinois, in a suburb of St. Louis that's right across the state line from the main city. I'm currently working as a server at a hibachi and sushi restaurant, and I am also an AWA-certified welder. I chose welding because it's something I enjoy doing, and because it will allow me the free-time to write more things until I'm so incredibly rich and famous that I don't need a job other than my writing. I've always been the type to keep myself busy with multiple side-projects, and although Legends of Equestria is the largest, it is not the only one, and between all of them, I have eliminated all of the pesky free-time that everyone else seems to be so utterly over-encumbered with. I have a few other games that I'm hoping to make after Legends of Equestria, and the contacts I've established as a member of this team are sure to be an invaluable asset in any future endeavors. I've recently started creating music. I also do my fair share of volunteer work, primarily dealing in political activism.
Here are all of my favorite things ever:
Video Games: Killer7, Shadow Of The Collosus, No More Heroes, No More Heroes 2, Grim Fandango, Okami, Legends of Equestria
Video Game Developers: Goichi Suda, Tim Schafer, Fumito Ueda, Brick Stonewood (Yes, these are just the names of the guys who made the games I just mentioned.)
Movies: Trainspotting, Reservoir Dogs, Mulholland Drive, Oldboy, Full Metal Jacket, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Requiem For A Dream, Fight Club, The Breakfast Club, Citizen Kane, Yojimbo
Directors: Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Chan-Wook Park, Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese, Danny Boyle, Darren Aaronofsky, Akira Kurosawa, Terry Gilliam
Television Shows: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Deadwood, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Sheep in the Big City, Adventure Time, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei
Musicians: Pink Floyd, David Bowie, The Residents, Porcupine Tree, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Miles Davis, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Coheed and Cambria, Swans, The Who, Jacque Brel, Luciano Pavarotti, The Decemberists
Albums: The Wall, White Album, In the Aeroplane Over The Sea, Demons Dance Alone, Duck Stab, The Hazards of Love
Ballet: The Rite Of Spring, Swan Lake,
Musicals: Chicago, West Side Story, Fiddler On The Roof, The Lion King, Les Miserables
Authors: Douglas Adams, Ernest Hemingway, Brick Stonewood, Mark Twain, George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Oscar Wilde
Books: 1984, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Fight Club, The Prince, The Art of War, A Clockwork Orange, Trainspotting, Catcher In The Rye, Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus
Poets: Oscar Wilde, Dante Alighieri, Edgar Allen Poe
Playwrights: Arthur Miller, Oscar Wilde
Painters: Michelangelo, Salvador Dali, Leonardo Da Vinci, M. C. Escher, Peter Paul Rubens
Cartoonists: Gerald Scharfe, Dr. Seuss, Vector, AnyaSmash
Comics: Watchmen, Arkham Asylum
Superheroes: The Comedian, Hank Pym, The Frenchman, Plastic Man
Ponies: Smarty Pants, Silver Spoon, Fleur-de-Lis, Rarity
Pokemon: Cubone
Philosophers: Socrates, Immanuel Kant, Gautama Buddha, Friedrich Nietzsche
Psychologists: Carl Jung, Rollo May, Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson
Foods: I don't eat foods. I photosynthesize. It would be silly of me to have favorites. I do, however, enjoy the smell of coffee quite a bit.
Color: White
Weapons: Halberd, Meteor Hammer, Longbow, Bullwhip, Smith & Wesson Model 500, Winchester 870 Express, Molotov Cocktail, Straight Razor
Words: Pantyhose, Dirigible, Haberdashery
Type of Rock: Sedimentary
Types of Trees: Apple, Maple, Birch, Larch, Cherry, Redwood, Weeping Willow, Sycamore, Gum, Pine
Animals: Pony, Capybara, Tortoise, Dolphin, Wolverine
Livestream Show: http://www.livestream.com/nutsonclark
Religious and/or Mythological Figures: Gautama Buddha, Pontius Pilate, Coyote, Shiva, Dionysius, Prometheus, Persephone, Lillith
Mythological Beasts: Cockatrice, Harpy, Manticore, Leviathan, Cerberus
Languages: English, French, American Sign Language
Board Games: Monopoly, Hungry Hungry Hippos
Outside of Legends of Equestria, I've written a good deal of stories both long and short, a few songs and poems, and a screenplay. I'm working on my second screenplay at the moment, and I have my next few planned out as well. I live in Illinois, in a suburb of St. Louis that's right across the state line from the main city. I'm currently working as a server at a hibachi and sushi restaurant, and I am also an AWA-certified welder. I chose welding because it's something I enjoy doing, and because it will allow me the free-time to write more things until I'm so incredibly rich and famous that I don't need a job other than my writing. I've always been the type to keep myself busy with multiple side-projects, and although Legends of Equestria is the largest, it is not the only one, and between all of them, I have eliminated all of the pesky free-time that everyone else seems to be so utterly over-encumbered with. I have a few other games that I'm hoping to make after Legends of Equestria, and the contacts I've established as a member of this team are sure to be an invaluable asset in any future endeavors. I've recently started creating music. I also do my fair share of volunteer work, primarily dealing in political activism.
Here are all of my favorite things ever:
Video Games: Killer7, Shadow Of The Collosus, No More Heroes, No More Heroes 2, Grim Fandango, Okami, Legends of Equestria
Video Game Developers: Goichi Suda, Tim Schafer, Fumito Ueda, Brick Stonewood (Yes, these are just the names of the guys who made the games I just mentioned.)
Movies: Trainspotting, Reservoir Dogs, Mulholland Drive, Oldboy, Full Metal Jacket, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Requiem For A Dream, Fight Club, The Breakfast Club, Citizen Kane, Yojimbo
Directors: Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Chan-Wook Park, Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese, Danny Boyle, Darren Aaronofsky, Akira Kurosawa, Terry Gilliam
Television Shows: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Deadwood, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Sheep in the Big City, Adventure Time, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei
Musicians: Pink Floyd, David Bowie, The Residents, Porcupine Tree, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Miles Davis, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Coheed and Cambria, Swans, The Who, Jacque Brel, Luciano Pavarotti, The Decemberists
Albums: The Wall, White Album, In the Aeroplane Over The Sea, Demons Dance Alone, Duck Stab, The Hazards of Love
Ballet: The Rite Of Spring, Swan Lake,
Musicals: Chicago, West Side Story, Fiddler On The Roof, The Lion King, Les Miserables
Authors: Douglas Adams, Ernest Hemingway, Brick Stonewood, Mark Twain, George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Oscar Wilde
Books: 1984, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Fight Club, The Prince, The Art of War, A Clockwork Orange, Trainspotting, Catcher In The Rye, Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus
Poets: Oscar Wilde, Dante Alighieri, Edgar Allen Poe
Playwrights: Arthur Miller, Oscar Wilde
Painters: Michelangelo, Salvador Dali, Leonardo Da Vinci, M. C. Escher, Peter Paul Rubens
Cartoonists: Gerald Scharfe, Dr. Seuss, Vector, AnyaSmash
Comics: Watchmen, Arkham Asylum
Superheroes: The Comedian, Hank Pym, The Frenchman, Plastic Man
Ponies: Smarty Pants, Silver Spoon, Fleur-de-Lis, Rarity
Pokemon: Cubone
Philosophers: Socrates, Immanuel Kant, Gautama Buddha, Friedrich Nietzsche
Psychologists: Carl Jung, Rollo May, Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson
Foods: I don't eat foods. I photosynthesize. It would be silly of me to have favorites. I do, however, enjoy the smell of coffee quite a bit.
Color: White
Weapons: Halberd, Meteor Hammer, Longbow, Bullwhip, Smith & Wesson Model 500, Winchester 870 Express, Molotov Cocktail, Straight Razor
Words: Pantyhose, Dirigible, Haberdashery
Type of Rock: Sedimentary
Types of Trees: Apple, Maple, Birch, Larch, Cherry, Redwood, Weeping Willow, Sycamore, Gum, Pine
Animals: Pony, Capybara, Tortoise, Dolphin, Wolverine
Livestream Show: http://www.livestream.com/nutsonclark
Religious and/or Mythological Figures: Gautama Buddha, Pontius Pilate, Coyote, Shiva, Dionysius, Prometheus, Persephone, Lillith
Mythological Beasts: Cockatrice, Harpy, Manticore, Leviathan, Cerberus
Languages: English, French, American Sign Language
Board Games: Monopoly, Hungry Hungry Hippos
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