Hey! It looks like you're new here. You might want to check out the introduction.

Rising From the Ashes · FiM Short Story ·
Organised by RogerDodger
Word limit 2000–8000
Show rules for this event
Pinkie Pile of Ashes
Fics
« Prev   13   Next »
#1 · 1
· · >>The_Letter_J
I'M A PINKIE PILE! I'M A PINKIE PILE! I'M A PINKIE PILE! LOOK AT MY PUUUUUN!!!!

I laughed but my comedy standards are very low. Still a good job.
#2 · 1
· · >>The_Letter_J
Pinkie is rendered decently here; the pile of ashes is just barely a symbol. Still, it communicates a funny take on the prompt, so I will give it some credit. It’s not likely to be a top contender, with the other competition.
#3 · 1
· · >>TitaniumDragon >>The_Letter_J
That looks more like an oddly shaped rock than a pile of ashes.

This is, I'm guessing, someone pulling vectors out of the Deviantart pony vector group, or using screencaps or something? I swear I've seen that exact same pose on Pinkie before, and I really hope you didn't totally re-create her just for a simple joke. :P

On the one hand, I'm fine with people doing that; resources exist for a reason, and they're being shared with that intent. Efficiency is clever and good. On the other hand, this feels like really low effort to me, so although you get points for clean execution of a cute idea, I don't think I can really consider this as highly as I would if it was carefully drawn.
#4 ·
· · >>The_Letter_J
Ashes? Nope. Instead, it's me! Pinkie Pie!

Simple and effective. It doesn't catch the eye in any particular way, and it doesn't really put that much imagination in my mind, at least for me, but it does what it does and it does it quite well.

That's an oddly-shaped rock and you know it. Just kidding.
#5 ·
· · >>The_Letter_J
Pinkie no! When somebody wants you burned away and dead you stay dead! No Pinkie no nooooo!

Makes sense she could just go "Look at me rise from my ashes!" Nero Pinkie Pie already jeez. This would be pretty funny if it wasn't morbid to begin with. Death is not cool, resurrection eh kinda midway. An overpowered cutie reconstructing her booty? Go on you have my attention.

Simple piece and easy to work with. Not at all mind blowing but a well done entry.
#6 · 2
· · >>The_Letter_J
I'm with >>Not_A_Hat here to some extent, but I think my biggest problem with this is that it just feels kind of lazy. It isn't really evocative, it's just sort of a simple gag that didn't really do anything for me.
#7 ·
· · >>The_Letter_J
I suppose this gets a few points for being mostly show-accurate, but that oddly-shaped rock pile of ashes could use some work.
#8 · 1
· · >>The_Letter_J
@caption_rates
Artists, please stop submitting non-captions. We only rate captions, not Self-Deprecating Witticisms. 12/10
#9 · 2
· · >>Not_A_Hat >>horizon >>TitaniumDragon
I suppose I should say something about this before all the fic retrospectives start.

I know this didn't do very well in the rankings, but I'm fairly happy with how this turned out. This was the first art thing I've done in a few years, and I think it's the first vector thing I've ever actually finished.

The ashes didn't turn out very well, but I also didn't have very much time to work on them.

I considered adding in a knocked-over urn labeled "Pinkie Pie's Ashes," but I thought it would be better to leave the picture more ambiguous for writers.

Now, there are some comments I'd like to address: >>Not_A_Hat >>TitaniumDragon
I used a screenshot, but created the vectors myself. I did some searching around around Derpibooru, but I couldn't find this pose anywhere, in vectors or screenshots. If I had found a vector of it available, I probably wouldn't have bothered.
(And for the record, I got the screenshot I based this on from the Equestria Girls music video. As in the original one, back before "Equestria Girls" meant "humans in high school." I know it was probably in an episode before that, but I have no idea which one.)
To be honest, the "low effort"/"lazy" accusations kind of hurt. I'm assuming that they were made with the assumption that all I did was download a vector someone else had made and add some crappy ashes, because I can can understand that. But I strongly object to the possible insinuation that drawing is somehow automatically superior to vectoring.

And thank you to everyone else who commented as well:
>>Fenton
>>GroaningGreyAgony
>>Kritten
>>Remedyfortheheart
>>horizon

(Except this guy. I give him zero thanks.)
>>The_Letter_J
#10 ·
· · >>The_Letter_J
>>The_Letter_J I apologize for hurting your feelings. Vectoring isn't at all inferior to drawing; I simply assumed that you hadn't vectored it yourself. It can be hard to tell how much work someone puts in, and I drew the wrong conclusion here.
#11 · 2
· · >>The_Letter_J
>>The_Letter_J
As a voter, it looks like I also owe you an apology. I never said anything in the thread, but I also made the assumption that the vector was not original, and that made a dramatic difference in my scoring. And anonymity prevented you from providing the correction anyhow.

I wish I could offer a way to avoid that next time. It's not an easy problem, especially since restricting the ability of would-be artists to use existing resources is unfair to a different style of art. Preemptive labeling, maybe? As much as I hate to say it, a little inconspicuous note in the corner saying "This vector was hand-drawn" might have given you the higher ranking you deserved.

... Or putting it in the caption, maybe? I don't know if everyone would have noticed that, but at least one person would have (*raises claw*), and the people who did could have corrected others in the thread.

At any rate, congratulations for finishing it!
#12 ·
· · >>The_Letter_J
>>The_Letter_J
I used a screenshot, but created the vectors myself. I did some searching around around Derpibooru, but I couldn't find this pose anywhere, in vectors or screenshots. If I had found a vector of it available, I probably wouldn't have bothered.


It is from the 20:13 mark of the second episode of season 1, as it cuts from Pinkie Pie crying after Luna and Celestia reunite to her saying "You know what this calls for? A PARTY!" and as it cuts back to Ponyville.

To be honest, the "low effort"/"lazy" accusations kind of hurt. I'm assuming that they were made with the assumption that all I did was download a vector someone else had made and add some crappy ashes, because I can can understand that. But I strongly object to the possible insinuation that drawing is somehow automatically superior to vectoring.


My real question is why you bothered to spend the time creating a vector of this in the first place. You clearly based it on a pose from a video. You could have simply screencapped the video, then taken that screencap and used the magic wand tool to cut out the background and be left with Pinkie Pie (or magic wanded Pinkie Pie and cut her out of the background). Vectoring is only really useful if you're planning on upscaling something; this image, as it is displayed on the site, puts Pinkie at basically an identical size to what she is in 1080p. It would have been a lot less work and you would have ended up with about the same result.

That being said, I don't think you quite got what I meant by "lazy" here. It doesn't really matter how much work goes into a piece, what matters is the outcome. And the outcome here was something that looked like a vector trace (you can tell it isn't a screenshot becuse the lines are of a different thickness than they are on the flash models) stuck on top of some ashes. It wasn't a very visually appealing piece, and it didn't really do anything particularly interesting with it - there's no transition between the pieces, it's just kind of pasted together.

And frankly, there's nothing wrong with just sticking a couple things together in a few minutes for a silly little visual joke, but it sounds like you spent a great deal of effort assembling this. If you're going to spend a lot of time doing something, it is best to make something which is more visually interesting.
#13 · 1
· · >>TitaniumDragon
Unfortunately, I've been busy and out of town for the past week and a half, so I haven't had much of an opportunity to reply around here.

>>Not_A_Hat
>>horizon
No worries; all is forgiven. I actually feel a bit proud that think this could have come from a decent vector source.
Though I think that there might need to be some sort of conversation about trusting artists if we're going to continue to do art rounds. Is it fair to dock someone for just copy-pasting a few preexisting images together? Possibly. *cough*Donut Steel*cough* Is it fair to assume that someone did so simply because it kinda looks like it? Maybe not.
Clearly I have some bias in this situation, and it doesn't help that, as TD clearly demonstrated, anyone sufficiently familiar with the show's vectors will be able to tell that this one is far from perfect (hint: look at the eyelashes), and would never be found in the typical sources of vectors.
But just as we assume that authors have not copied another story they like and just changed some names and turned people into ponies, shouldn't we assume that artists put more work and creativity into their pieces? Admittedly, the analogy is not perfect, as art seems to be more accepting of clearly derivative works than writing. But if anything, that should just make my case stronger.
Anyway, even if I am completely wrong, I think this is a conversation that will need to be had at some point.

>>TitaniumDragon
It is from the 20:13 mark of the second episode of season 1, as it cuts from Pinkie Pie crying after Luna and Celestia reunite to her saying "You know what this calls for? A PARTY!" and as it cuts back to Ponyville.

Ahhhh. That's where it's from. I don't know why I didn't think to check that scene.

Now the rest of your post, I have problems with. It might not have been your intended message, but it seems to me that it basically boils down to "some artistic mediums are inherently inferior to others," which I think is a load of garbage. If I had sketched out the same picture with pencil and paper, would it have automatically have been better?
#14 ·
·
>>The_Letter_J
I had two points, and neither of them had anything to do with one medium being inherently better than another.

1) You did a vector trace when an edited screenshot would have worked just as well and saved you a bunch of time and gotten the same result.

2) The piece wasn't very aesthetically pleasing - it was just a couple of elements pasted together with no transition or anything. It's just kind of there.

Freehand drawing does indeed take more skill than tracing/copying, but that is neither here nor there; if the piece had been aesthetically pleasing, I wouldn't have cared how it was put together.