Virtual Pwnies

Virtual Pwnies
Delving into the overlooked world of horses in media and video games.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

In Production 2

I had a comic planned for this week that didn't get done in time. It will be a continuation of VP IRL including more horse apparel craziness. Next week!

So instead I've decided to do a behind the scenes of eventual future randomness. I really don't have planned release dates for anything as you may have noticed and some of this stuff may not be out for awhile. Still getting the hang of making videos (like the 7 months for the Mary King vid, yeahhhh) and hopefully with practice things will come out quicker and better.


I'm planning on doing one more review of a video game before delving into a movie or TV show. So what other projects does VP have in store for the future? And what the heck is a Mo puppet?


Well Mo is the faithful, non existent, generic vectorized demonstration horse. He's in the logo.

Our hero.


Mo gets manipulated, prodded, tweaked, and rotated into different positions. His limbs are also detachable and your average model has 17 separate parts.


If you tilt your head and squint your eyes it spells FWOSH... sorta.

And like GLaDOS from Portal, I keep stockpiles of 'test subjects' for various purposes.

This is one section of a much larger example of the madness.

Mo is fairly versetile in that a few modifications can make him appropriate for representing various characters and actions in the videos and posts.


Shh. It's Heather on Beauty.
She has orange tack and green everything.


So in regular Guess That Pokemon fashion we have a sneak peak of some future projects in silhouette from.
See how many you can guess.

And officially the next video is going to be Equestriad. I'd like to thank Dreamflite from Blab!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Mary King's Riding Star vid is up! (Finally)


Alrighty, so about 7 months after wanting to make this video it is finished. This is the first video that includes in-game play, and is the first official VirtualPwnies game review. Yay, streamers, and cake! The cake might be a lie though. SPACE! (Alright, that is a sign that I need to play Portal...)





I'm going to be looking into different formats and editing software for future videos. But I'm glad it's finally done. ^_^

I'm currently limited to PC games since I don't yet have a way of recording console games. The short list for future game episodes is:

Equestriad - Another old-school 3 day event game
The Secret of the Magic Crystals - See HERE
Willowbrook Stables Saddle Club Adventure - Crashes a lot, so it's going to be on the back burner
and Let's Ride Friends Forever - and ever, and ever, and ever...

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

My Little Realistically Colored Ponies

Ok, another MLP post. I've been doing some work on the eventual My Little Pony Friendship is Magic episode between the Riding Star work.

The infamous Riding Star episode is making progress although slowly. Windows Movie Maker Live sucks. Just throwing it out there. They reduced the program to a slide show maker with almost no options for further customization or editing. However, Windows Movie Maker the older version before Live, is nowhere near as frustrating to work with. I'm an Adobe Flash person, so WMM has a learning curve. With luck I might have the review done by next week's post. YAY!

Back to My Little Pony FIS. I've been watching the show, taking notes, making the Mo puppets, researching bronie culture... So dangitt I have MLP on the brain.

Also Kelpie and DemonicSymphony have gotten me to thinking about real life MLP colors. I affectionately blame you both this week.

So here is a personal take on possible coloration of the FIM ponies. WARNING: The following contains a horse genetics geek-out. I apologize if I sound like a raving lunatic who makes no sense. We sadly do not provide glowsticks for the rave.


Twilight Sparkle
Seal Brown Roan - E( ), At( ), Rn( )
Her body is lighter than her mane and tail, and she has too much warm in her tone to be a blue roan, but not enough to be a bay roan so seal brown is a happy medium. Even, Dr. Sponenburg a horse color genetics researcher calls Seal Brown with Roan 'Purple Corn'. (Please, Dr. Sponenburg. The names! The silly phenotype names!) Speaking of silly...


Pinky Pie
Chestnut Roan with minimal Frame or Splash - ee, Rn( ) with ON or SplN
Chestnut roans are pink. XD Frame and Splash can cause blue eyes and in minimal form don't always leave white markings.


Rarity
Grey with dark mane and tail, minimal Splash or Frame - E( ), A( ), G( ), with ON or SplN
Rarity is mostly white with a purple mane and tail. So a dilution for her wouldn't work since none of them would allow a body that pale with a mane and tail that dark. So she could be a grey with a black mane and tail that have yet to follow the rest of the body. A bay base would more easily allow the body to get lighter first because of the red pigment which often grays faster. And for the blue eyes she could have minimal Frame or Splash. Poor fashionista would get gray hair soon at this phase of grey progression.


Applejack
Gold Champagne - ee, Ch( )
I have to go with Kelpie on this. Flaxen sorrel was probably the color intended for her as DemonicSymphony stated. The light mane and tail, golden body and green eyes would all fit perfectly for a Gold Champagne (Chestnut + Champagne Dilute) As an added bonus the Champagne dilute exists in stock horses like this western gal.


Fluttershy
Perlino - E( ), A( ), CrN
Fluttershy had me wondering for awhile. Her mane is too dark for a palomino even though she is a pale yellow elsewhere. Her light colored eyes made me realize that Perlino would be a good possibility for her. 2 cream genes on a bay can create a light cream toned body and almost rust colored mane and tail. It also makes those light colored eyes. I guess you could also get a palomino with pinto blues and dye the hair pink. Someone has to do that for a costume class. :P


Rainbow Dash
No clue... ??, ??, ??
Nope, no idea. If you leave a blue roan under a rainbow you might get that color for awhile. Then again, she could be the mount of the Native American Thunder Spirit (pictured above) who has a rainbow for it's tail. It is strangely fitting since she can control rain clouds...

If you guys have your own theories share 'em. Speculate the madness!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

NY Ren Faire 2011 & IT'S A PONY!


So yesterday myself BeautyGirl1510 WSTopDeck and others went to the NY Renaissance Fair in the Sterling Forrest in Tuxedo NY. Im posting this to the blog since Ren Faire = horses.

I unfortunately don't bring cameras to these things but BeautyGirl1510 might be posting about it on her blog Blackthorne Studios with images of her crazy dress she made for it. It's the kind of dress that would make you want to twirl around the mountains via the way a Disney Princess would.

There was a joust, of course, and we had the brash Scottish knight who wore a kilt with his plate armor. A gaited chestnut amongst the jousting ponies wasn't happy that the humans were dawdling before he could do his job in the games.

There was Hey Nunny Nunny a comedy duo of two nuns making various religious jokes. There was Dextere Tripp the crazy stunt man who had fircrackers and explosives ductaped onto his body while balancing on a ladder. Ok that's not very renaissance-y but everyone got to put him out with water balloons.

I wish I did get a picture of this but there were two people who dressed as unicorn-girls to the faire. I possibly would have paid someone dressed as a fairy to recite the butterfly's monologue from the Last Unicorn to them if they knew it. XD

My beau also got me a Harmonic Way Epona Horse Heart Pendant. ^_^ The horses are doing a hoof bump.

"Affection for another kicks ass." "Yah bro."

And upon searching for Ren garb for said beau we found a shirt and went to pay for it. Upon handing my card over the owner of the shop (who appeared to be a relative of Professor Sybill Trelawny) they stared at the card and started sing-songing "I see a pony, I see a pony, it's a pony!" (woman after my own heart.) Apparently a pony was the secret item of the day at this shop and my American Quarter Horse Association card counted as a pony. Got a free shirt with my purchase. Yay for being an equine enthusiast!