Pear Butter Frolicking by TheRealDJTHED on DeviantArt (original) (raw)
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Watermarkless Version Here:
www.patreon.com/posts/20948334
And also available on the Redbubble Shop!:
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This is in collaboration with another MLP artist, TheDiscorded 
! Obviously, a 2D artist collabing with a 3D artist isn't too usual around here, so here's how it went!
I asked TheDiscorded to create a few sketches with poses of one of the characters I already have modeled out. In this case he chose Pear Butter, and this was one of the sketches he came up with!:
:origin()/pre00/25b6/th/pre/f/2018/235/6/3/thediscorded_s_sketch_by_therealdjthed-dckzaq4.png)
Then I got to work replicating this pose, with TheDiscorded's guidance, in 3D, and we eventually got to this point:
:origin()/pre00/3338/th/pre/f/2018/235/9/d/pearbuttertestrender16_by_therealdjthed-dckzasg.png)
After the pose was done, I wanted to actually create a more legitimate background setting for one of my renders for once, but I needed a really solid starting point for that, which I tended to be pretty bad at doing on my own. So I also asked TheDiscorded to create a rough background painting that would be a good fit for Pear Butter and for how she's posed. And this is what he came up with!:
:origin()/pre00/2fb0/th/pre/i/2018/235/4/c/the_discorded_s_rough_background_by_therealdjthed-dckzasy.png)
This was a great starting point for me. So I went to creating the primary background elements first and matched the composition to a point where I felt it to be the most comfortable. I also created a dynamic material system for the grass instead of using grass blade particles. I think it looks better from a cosmetic viewpoint despite there not really being any real grass blades. And the render times sure appreciated the lack of thousands of grass blades it had to render before in my previous renders of the past! (The dynamic material system is also being used on the picket fence in the background to show off chipping paint):
:origin()/pre00/a0b2/th/pre/i/2018/235/a/2/testrender2_by_therealdjthed-dckzatl.png)
And now from this point on, I mostly took some creative liberties and flooded the scene with trees (though it was something TheDiscorded did recommend), and reworked a few things while I was at it. I found out of a way to do mist where I don't really have to worry about weird limitations with how Blender would normally support mist. So overall mist for me is a lot more flexible to use, especially with color configuration and how it creates depth do a scene. The render below is almost identical to the final render, just a bit smaller, no composite settings applied, and other small tweaks I made before I made the final render:
:origin()/pre00/44b4/th/pre/f/2018/235/2/0/testrender4_by_therealdjthed-dckzauc.png)
And that's that! If I were to do another collab with another 2D artists, this is generally how I would see it going. First a sketch of a pose, then some rough background art to go along with it that I can then replicate in a 3D scene. It was fun working with TheDiscorded, and honestly I can't say I could've done something like this alone. I'm able to do a lot of things with Blender, but I lack the ability to create a strong starting point for a lot of what I do, or the ability to create something that can guide me the entire way to completion. Collaborating was a great way to cover those weaknesses I have, and I was able to innovate while I was working on this piece at the same time. It was a great experience and I'd like to do something like this again!