@Stellarator
Merry Christmas to you too! I wasn’t waiting for a reply or anything, don’t worry :) And hurrah for new comics! As far as I’m concerned you’ve hit the perfect balance of compelling story and sexy sex.
boring musical digression: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s 1983 album Dazzle Ships, which is full of bits of confrontational weirdness like found art collages and musique concrete interludes. The previous album sold something like eight million copies. Dazzle Ships, um, didn’t.
@Stellarator
Those late 60s/early 70s Beach Boys records are my favourite incarnation of them! Wild Honey, Sunflower, Surf’s Up, Holland, I love them all.
Equally fun fact, my user name and avatar are from an even more extreme act of audience alienation. It’s recognised as a classic of avant garde pop nowadays, but at the time (as a follow up to an album that sold millions of copies) the reaction was very much “what the hay”.
ANYWAY, yes, this has long since transcended the level of ‘just’ being fluffy porn - it’s wonderful! - but it still works great on that level too.
@dazzleships
Thanks! I try to always remember that the series is still fluffy porn, even if I’ve (I hope!) grown beyond being JUST that.
After all, it really sucks as a reader/viewer/whatever when you start a series and it ends up turning into something entirely else. I want to steer clear of full-on Cerebus Syndrome.
So sexy girls (and boys!) doing sexy things remains the focus. Just with some depth also! :)
Fun fact: The Beach Boys tanked their careers for a while because they started doing really interesting experimental psychedelic music. Their existing fans basically said “What is this shit? This isn’t surf music!” and went away, and people who might have enjoyed the experimental stuff said “The Beach Boys? That’s just surf music. No thanks!” and didn’t check it out.
I know lots of people (including me!) have posted comments along the lines of “clicked for the sexy girls, stayed for the riveting story, believable relationships and compelling characters”, and that’s definitely still true, this is my favourite MLP comic strip…
…but I just also wanted to say, these two look absolutely amazing and gorgeous and beautiful, and I don’t want to downplay that just because they’re also super well written!
@Stellarator
Oh woah!, It looks like even tho some parts are not made from scratch you have made a lot of work to them, thanks for making the effort necessary to make such a wonderful comic series!~
Unfortunately that seems to have run into a cul-de-sac
Yeah, that’s why we haven’t seen too much of them in the last little bit. They’re busy being content but not having a whole lot happen. But I haven’t forgotten about Aria! She’s just on the back-burner for now.
Doggone - and here I thought Smoothie had the souvenir concession for the Dazzling’s shows, and was making and selling those shirts himself. Oh well, I hope you give him a good deal on them, so he makes some profit.
Smoothie’s shirt is just an existing asset that I re-textured.
Doggone - and here I thought Smoothie had the souvenir concession for the Dazzling’s shows, and was making and selling those shirts himself. Oh well, I hope you give him a good deal on them, so he makes some profit.
The character development of Aria is especially notable, since she tends to get overlooked by other artists. From “agressively defensive” to “trusting (even if it’s only one guy)” is a pretty big move. Unfortunately that seems to have run into a cul-de-sac, it’s a bit hard to see a story line moving on from there (other than marry, move to the burbs, have 2.3 kids, and live a boring middle class life). OTOH, if anyone can figure a way out from that corner, Stellarator would be the guy.
As to whether I make the models…yes but it’s complicated. XD
I’ve made my own version of one of the pony heads that is the same one used in a lot of other 3d things, and meshed it together with human body anatomy from Daz Studio (customized by me for each character, so they have slightly different body types) and unguligrade pony legs that I made from scratch.
The hair is a combination of things made from scratch by me, and bits from other hair assets kit-bashed together (depends on the character).
The clothes likewise are not usually done from scratch, but I do the digital version of buying a bunch of stuff at a thrift store, cutting it up, and re-assembling it into costumes, usually with a lot of re-texturing also done by me. And I also make some parts from scratch when needed. So stuff like the Siren’s boots are totally done from scratch, and stuff like Smoothie’s shirt is just an existing asset that I re-textured.
The shaders (the things that determine how the skin/fur, eyes, etc look) are all done by me.
So…kind of? I make them myself, instead of downloading them somewhere, but I make them out of a lot of parts from different sources, some of which I made from scratch and some of which I don’t.
So there’s an excessively long answer to your seemingly simple question. Sorry. XD
This has been an awesome comic so far!, I have been wondering tho, did you also made the models? because they are really good!~ Specially the skin of the characters!~
It’s the model for the clothes, not the pony, but yeah, basically. It’s really hard to do cloth stuff and have it look like cloth, instead of just looking like you’re stretching a 3d model. Just using a jump-cut to get her shirt off is kind of lame though. I should probably find a way to improve that.
@Background Pony #6B73
Omg, right? When I think about it now, it’s true the whole series, although dealing with some pretty grim stuff at times, is overall super heartwarming and happy. The quirkiness of Sonata, kindness and openness of Smoothie, the slow change in Adagio and Aria… I always look to new strips coming out <3
Stellarator, I love how open and happy everyone is in your comics it really brightens up my day, kinda like an adult version of MLP actually now that I think about it.
I look forward to the next installment with great anticipation!
@Delly
Like Stellarator explained to me in one of the previous comics with Trixie, Her model ain’t the same as Sonata so manipulating her clothes would be a chore. I think it requires a remodel or something to be able to do that I think.
Sonata is so experienced, that she manages to take her partner from “fully clothed” to “fully naked” in a single panel. Wow she fast~ Guess the speed of gay is faster than the speed of light~ Love it <3
Merry Christmas to you too! I wasn’t waiting for a reply or anything, don’t worry :) And hurrah for new comics! As far as I’m concerned you’ve hit the perfect balance of compelling story and sexy sex.
Eep…I somehow never saw this comment until now. XD
Edited
Those late 60s/early 70s Beach Boys records are my favourite incarnation of them! Wild Honey, Sunflower, Surf’s Up, Holland, I love them all.
Thanks! I try to always remember that the series is still fluffy porn, even if I’ve (I hope!) grown beyond being JUST that.
After all, it really sucks as a reader/viewer/whatever when you start a series and it ends up turning into something entirely else. I want to steer clear of full-on Cerebus Syndrome.
:D
Oh woah!, It looks like even tho some parts are not made from scratch you have made a lot of work to them, thanks for making the effort necessary to make such a wonderful comic series!~
Thanks!
Omg, right? When I think about it now, it’s true the whole series, although dealing with some pretty grim stuff at times, is overall super heartwarming and happy. The quirkiness of Sonata, kindness and openness of Smoothie, the slow change in Adagio and Aria… I always look to new strips coming out <3
I look forward to the next installment with great anticipation!
Like Stellarator explained to me in one of the previous comics with Trixie, Her model ain’t the same as Sonata so manipulating her clothes would be a chore. I think it requires a remodel or something to be able to do that I think.
Stay tuned for A Morning With The Night 5 to find out. :)
She just edited Trixie’s clothes off. :P