Progress report for January 2022. Part 1
Hello all my favorite fans, this month was... interesting.
You notice that I did not publish any work in January, because this month I devote to work only on my super pony rig which can rotate 360 degrees and do any animation. Let's see how much progress I've made in the last month.
Note: that all the animations are DEMOS, I made them all in a day only to show what my rig can do.
Let's start with the head.

Now the head can rotate all 180 degrees. Which is basically 360 degrees, because if I nee turn head the other way, I just mirror the animation. Although the other side of the head would have different hair, but basically that's all is need.
it's a little boring. Let's add some facial animation. I called it one, RD saw something interesting.
Pretty good considering I did it in just an hour.  But I'm still not satisfied with the capabilities of rig head. The problem is that I made the head as one whole character (1 file) Which is good, because if I make any character changess on this file, like change colors or eye shape. These changes will be applied at once to all animations that the head has and ready to use. So i need to do the character modification 1 time, and the new character head is ready to go. 
But this led to the fact that this "head character" is overloaded with scripts and animations about how things are supposed to move when he turns, blinks, speaks, etc. Which led to problem when i working with it, program too much lags and crashes.
So I came to the conclusion that it is better to split the head into two characters (2 files). Head in profile view and head in straight.
Of course it would mean I have to make changes to both files (2x more work) if I want to make a new character, but it's worth it, besides I think not in all my animation need a character head who can turn all 360 degrees. But it also means that my rig head is only 50% complete and a lot of work is still needed.
Okay, let's move on to the main body part.
As you know, I want to make a rig where not only the head, but the whole body can fully rotate. And Uff... It's quite a challenge.
2D Character body is much more complex structure than the head. Each leg of the character is made of bones that define where the leg bends, and inside this bone also has an animation action script that tells how the vector shape of the leg should change shape when this bone bends. And these scripts need to be done for all the bones and make sure they work properly together.
Here is an example of what the bone structure of just 1 leg of the character looks like. Next to it, bone logistics which shows which bone is holding to which bone and determines which bone should move if the other bone moves.
And that's only 1 leg.
Which leads to the problem, when I turn the character, all the action scripts animation inside the bones made when the character at its default angle, and will still think the character didn't turn at all. which leads to broken animation and an unworkable bone structure when the character turns. 
But, I can still turn the character slightly, about 15 degrees in both directions, without breaking animation action script. Something like that.
So, after much testing, I came to the conclusion that the pony character body will be divided into 5 different characters (5 files.) Each has its own unique bone structure, and each can rotate slightly by 15 degrees in both directions. And together they will make a full 180 turn. Here all 5 files characters designs for a backward turn.
Of course this means one problem. I have to make a bones structure, action animation scripts, for all the bones, for each version of the character, separately. And add to each body part an animation that will rotate it a bit. And these 5 files are only for turning backwards, I didn't even make a version for turning forwards.
 But that's the price I'm willing to pay for the 2D animation!
Of course I will not be able to do all the animations needed in one month, I only had time to do the body structures and the turn from C1 to C2.
And that's what the C1 and C2 turn animation bodies can do together.
To do this for all 5 version bodies to turn backwards and for another 4-5 version bodies to turn forwards will take a long, long work time.
But it's worth it. Here's a little animation I made to show what my body rig can do.
It may seem simple, but this animation shows the possibility that I can move any parts as I wish and most importantly, they move in the right way. Hooves remain stationary on the ground, knees move separately from the hips and the hips move separately from the body chest, and the head just follows the neck. They all move right... They all... finally... move right... I've done a lot of work to simply achieve this...
But that's not all. This is part 1 report. go to the part 2 post here where all animations in NSFW And I added some NSFW stuff that my rig can do.
  • But wait, that's not all. I have one more GOOD NEWS!
You've probably heard of BGM. I used his music in my last animation and he is also the creator of pony-zone NSFW music tracks and makes a lot of funny videos of using pony voice simulators. He is a true master of his craft and achieved good skills in music and experience it the using pony voice simulator.
I'm a fan... of his work. And as it turns out, he's a fan of my work, too... So, we decided to do some projects together. 
In fact, my next Fluttershy+Twilight animation will be accompanied by his sound work, with music, dialogues, and all the sounds you couldn't dream of. It will be 3 minutes and 3 seconds long animation. And I assure you. NO ONE HAS EVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE!
For next month "February" I will hold off on all my rig project and I will only work on this new Fluttershy+Twilight animation. Maybe I'll finish in a month, maybe it'll take a couple more weeks, I don't know. But when I do the first half, you'll be the first to see. It's going to be AWESOME!
Thank you all for support me. Fan!