S02E05: Sisterhooves Social

[Scuderia FerrarityHaving a unicorn isn't quite as nice as wanting one.]

Yup, that's it. That little bit is everywhere. Listen for it around the rarity and trixie scene.
AJ has a banjo bit that's used often enough. The other ponies not so much.

Sent some of them OVER THE HORIZON.

Ole Mac put all his points into (STR) Strength, but none into (CHA) Charisma. INT is probably higher than you'd expect, fancy mathematics and all.

[PhoolCatKeep on Trottin']

...when she tells the diamond dogs to stop calling her "Pony" [link]

You have the good ears.

Also in that vid she's totally channelling mommy dearest at 16' 46" - I almost expected her to shout "How-WAAAARRRRRRRDD!!!"

[brakelessA pegasus will fly long and hard for a bit of gilded brass.]

Tattling to the brother is always the last refuge for a big sister after she's been miniaturized.

In my head, AJ and AB are the ones that clash in the family, while B Mac acts as a voice of reason and final authority.

So pretty much this, complete with Mac's "I'm so tired of this crap" look:

[Treehouse CensorI can never show my face in town again!!!Well, at least I have plenty to read here...]

Tattling to the brother is always the last refuge for a big sister after she's been miniaturized.

I assumed it was a subtle shot at the fact that AJ was tiny.

Sort of like tiny AJ was going to tell BIG Macintosh?

Maybe I overanalyzed the joke.

[Headless Horse]

I've been unsure of whether to interpret her being tiny as "ha ha, AJ is an actual My Little Pony now". It'd be so perfect, but even that seems like a bit of a reach.

[Pocketis she just gonna go booty booty]

AJ has a banjo bit that's used often enough. The other ponies not so much.

Dash sort of has one, but it really only plays when she's flying and doing stunts (her "ten seconds flat" cloud clearing and her stunt in "Boast Busters").

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

Somewhat random tangent, but does anyone know the location of the post where someone put several screenshots in reverse order so it looked like Sweetie Belle was being divested of her hat and bandanna and then she starts crying?

[IronHeart]

This one?

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

This one?

Yessssssssssss. Thanks!

[The great MPinke Torte das Pony.---]

Guess who finally found a good way to get frames from an mkv file and is back in the gif making business



The saddest gif

[IronHeart]

Hah, that's perfect, M.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

I now have crippling depression.

[MordjaLYRA is the cool pony who likes to hang out. You can find most of the cool ponies with her. LYRA can just chill and do whatever and totally relax. "Take it easy" is the LYRA motto, for example, that's how laid back she is.]

That gif single-handedly caused me to age ten years.

[Scuderia FerrarityHaving a unicorn isn't quite as nice as wanting one.]

Some days you can't get out of bed.

The saddest gif

Sorry kid, you've just been unsistered.

[numsOic]

Guess who finally found a good way to get frames from an mkv file and is back in the gif making business

Please tell me because using Handbrake to losslessly re-convert a portion of the video every time is kinda tedious.

[The great MPinke Torte das Pony.---]

Please tell me because using Handbrake to losslessly re-convert a portion of the video every time is kinda tedious.

I'm just manually getting screencaps using Media Player Classic. I used to do it in VLC, but for whatever reason, going frame-by-frame in .mkv files with VLC breaks the video. I guess the best way is still to import the whole video in Photoshop, but guess what I don't have

[Gruekinda magical]

Hey, over there in Gif-making tutorial thread I came up with frame extraction method that uses only free software and doesn't require using command line (on Windows, at least). It's still pretty complicated, but it's better than whatever you guys do.

[numsOic]

I'm just manually getting screencaps using Media Player Classic. I used to do it in VLC, but for whatever reason, going frame-by-frame in .mkv files with VLC breaks the video. I guess the best way is still to import the whole video in Photoshop, but guess what I don't have

Holy crap. It was a problem with VLC all along? I'm on Ubuntu so I don't have MPC, but Totem Media Player has frame-advance and it works with the mkv rips. Awesome tip, thanks!

Hey, over there in Gif-making tutorial thread I came up with frame extraction method that uses only free software and doesn't require using command line (on Windows, at least). It's still pretty complicated, but it's better than whatever you guys do.

Using a .bat file does count as using the command-line. Still, I tried this with ffmpeg and it fucks up with big enough timestamps. Going to the video and browsing to the appropriate section is more intuitive anyway, and you can get only the frames you want. The only drawback is doing this with tons of frames, but oh well.

[The great MPinke Torte das Pony.---]

Hey, over there in Gif-making tutorial thread I came up with frame extraction method that uses only free software and doesn't require using command line (on Windows, at least). It's still pretty complicated, but it's better than whatever you guys do.

I tried that SMPlayer thingy, but couldn't get it to work. Grabbing frames manually for such short animations isn't a big deal anyway I can already sort out unnecessary frames that way too.

Holy crap. It was a problem with VLC all along? I'm on Ubuntu so I don't have MPC, but Totem Media Player has frame-advance and it works with the mkv rips. Awesome tip, thanks!

Did you have problems with VLC too? Playing mkv files seems fine, but frame skipping just doesn't work for whatever reason.

[numsOic]

Did you have problems with VLC too? Playing mkv files seems fine, but frame skipping just doesn't work for whatever reason.

Pretty much. It must be the way VLC deals with these particular rips, because VLC can do frame advance on other video formats without a problem.

...

No one was using this thread anyway, right?

[Adelor LyonYou little foals! These aren't even my final form!]

I was watching the episode while eating dinner and noticed this:

[Headless Horse]

Her sleeves don't even match. It's like a Discord dress.

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

She looks decidedly evil in that shot.

[WylieCIDER CIDER CIDER]

I was watching the episode while eating dinner and noticed this:

I kinda doubt it- if they give the CMCs cutie marks in the show, hers will be some sort of singing mark, not a tree or whatever that thing is.

Just look at that image, though. The entire episode is almost fractal- you could take one of hundreds of frames like that from this episode out of context, show it to a random person off the street, and ask them what's going on. They'd be almost guaranteed to say that they're sisters and the younger one is tormenting her older sister.

Which reminds me: I've got a pretty-good-sized collection of animation art, everything from Disney to Tiny Toons to Smurfs to Anamalympics to Daria. I must have pony in celluloid form. Yes, I know it's Flash. Just give me this, OK?

[MordjaLYRA is the cool pony who likes to hang out. You can find most of the cool ponies with her. LYRA can just chill and do whatever and totally relax. "Take it easy" is the LYRA motto, for example, that's how laid back she is.]

She looks decidedly evil in that shot.

She is planning crimes. Crimes against fashion!

[itinerant nomadSurprise Pedantry!]

I assumed it was a subtle shot at the fact that AJ was tiny.

Sort of like tiny AJ was going to tell BIG Macintosh?

Maybe I overanalyzed the joke.

It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to her being tiny, but additionally that being miniaturized is so commonplace that tattling to the brother is considered standard operating procedure.
In part, this disputes Big Mac's role as an authority figure, since it's merely a default action in such situations.

Besides, while it is true he is very strong, what brawn is a match for...this ?!!!

[WylieCIDER CIDER CIDER]

Someone asked earlier (and posted the frame, which I can't find right now) why Rarity reacted to the flowers on her kitchen table the way she did.

Not only were they put there by Sweetie Belle (apparently), but they're lavender flowers. You know, like Sweetie Belle's mane.

THIS SHOW

[Headless Horse]

By the way, this is totally how I read Rarity's reaction shot right after the closeup on SB's drawing.



Homestarity



E: VVV Nunno, H*R

[FightingDreamerBrony For Life]

Dagnabbit, Headless, you're a Homestuck fan too? I have no interest in it myself, but some of my friends are downright obsessed.

[londonarbuckleAND SOMEDAY YOU WILL BUCK LIKE I BUCK.]

This has probably been mentioned, but man I love the series of expressions on Sweetie Belle's face when she decides to disown Rarity as her sister. You can see all the subtle turns she goes through in her head to get to actually get to that point. After 30+ episodes I'm still in awe of how much this show makes these ponies so relatable just by not cheating and actually showing all those little expressions.

Hey, this is a good enough first post. What do you guys think of ? Personally, I'm in favor.

(p.s. really glad I'm not the only one who didn't see the twist coming.)

[VaultAggie"Shawty, you the best"]

I was watching the episode while eating dinner and noticed this:

It's clearly the White tree of Gondor.

[Headless Horse]

This has probably been mentioned, but man I love the series of expressions on Sweetie Belle's face when she decides to disown Rarity as her sister. You can see all the subtle turns she goes through in her head to get to actually get to that point. After 30+ episodes I'm still in awe of how much this show makes these ponies so relatable just by not cheating and actually showing all those little expressions.

You know what I was just noticing? As though I'd never noticed it before? The mouth animation during dialogue: it's all customized. To the extent that YOU CAN LIP READ.

I've lately had Boomerang on in the background with the sound off, and as much as I love Dexter and PPG and the rest of the late-90s awesomeness that they show there now, and as much as I know some of the dialogue by heart, I find I can't—or can barely—sync up the lines in my head with the way their lips are moving on screen. It's an anime-esque "three or five stock mouth shapes" technique, which every cartoon short of feature animation uses, and it works well enough if there's sound to go with it. But ponies, for whatever reason, have fluid enough mouth movements that you can tell what they're saying just by watching carefully.

Aptly illustrated by Fluttercussing: "girls" vs. "grillz"

Hey, this is a good enough first post. What do you guys think of ? Personally, I'm in favor.

Mm, I dunno, I'm still on the fence. I'll have to see a couple hundred more episodes to be sure. But welcome! We won't hold it against you!




^^ I thought the same thing, honest. Cutie Mark Crusaders Minas Tirith Palace Guards!

[Westy543]

Dunno if this has been posted, but someone posted this on reddit. WINTER WRAP UP WINTER WRAP UP!

[Super Karoru]

You know what I was just noticing? As though I'd never noticed it before? The mouth animation during dialogue: it's all customized. To the extent that YOU CAN LIP READ.

Another lip-readable bit is when Big Mac whispers to Granny Smith "starting line." Look at his mouth - you can totally read it.

Dunno if this has been posted, but someone posted this on reddit. WINTER WRAP UP WINTER WRAP UP!

Raindrops was in her winter wrap-up vest in "Luna Eclipsed" too. And Sparkler, you were in the contest! What are you doing there?!

[Doctor Wheeze]

They're all just too cheap to buy another outfit. Might as well get some more use out of that vest!

[numsOic]

Maybe it's like with sports fans, but it's Winter Wrap Up teams instead. Go earth team!

[In West FillydelphiaSCHWEIIIN]

Maybe ponies are like us, they wear their old clothes when they're about to do something messy.

[GlaziusHe finds himself through the martial arts discipline of Nokando, which he says hardens the body and turns the mind inward.]

Maybe it's like with sports fans, but it's Winter Wrap Up teams instead. Go earth team!

This makes too much sense to not be true.

Heck, maybe the big cross-pony sports are basically the Olympics of season-shifting.

[BouncyPonySo.... you better Watch Out!]

Rarity designed the vests. Ergo, they are the finest pieces of apparel in most Ponyvillian's closets.

[Headless Horse]

Having rewatched this episode now after Cutie Pox is out, I am really quite blown away with how god damned good it is. Cutie Pox is nice; but this one is just really stellar, especially for a true slice-of-life story. Gorgeous animation, wonderful Rarity and Sweetie Belle acting, and some of the most dead-honest emotionally rewarding moments in the whole series.

I also just watched it in HD right up close on an iPad, and that really is such an ideal way to watch this show, I'm realizing; I've noticed this all throughout S1, but I'm only just now really giving it its full due now that I'm pulling the episodes down properly and enjoying them on weekends instead of just in stolen 22-minute chunks at work on my phone (which is how I watched pretty much the entire show up till recently).

What I mean is that this show is designed for HD. It's among the first animated shows (if not the first) to be directed in such a way that presumes an HD resolution and screen size. There will often be scenes where a dozen or more characters are on screen, or the camera is pulled way back into an establishing shot, and someone in the middle—who is so tiny you could barely even make out their face on a SD screen—is delivering lines with perfect lip sync and detailed facial animation. One of the examples I notice every time I see it is in Winter Wrap Up, when the ponies are all arguing about the right order to do everything in; the camera zooms back so you see all the pegasi in the air, AJ and Fluttershy on the ground, Twi and Spike in the foreground, and RDash hovering in the middle going MAKE UP YOUR MINDS! In any show designed with "traditional" directing techniques in mind, you'd never even show a character delivering dialogue in a composition like that; either you'd leave her completely un-animated, or you'd zoom tight in on her face while she yells the line if you want to have her emoting. With this show, the resolution allows you to see every little detail of everyone's face (including all the pegasi, with a whole range of expressions), and Dash's emoting, while still showing all kinds of other stuff going on at the same time.

There's stuff like that in Sisterhooves Social too, like all the shots of the race from up above. All the details of layout would have been completely glided over in something like PPG or Dexter's Lab; the traditional 2D art made it harder to work all those details in coherently, but also the low resolution of the final medium made it pointless. Now, though, there's a huge stage to fill with wonderful little details. Doing it all digitally must just be so amazingly freeing for these artists, for them to be able to pull it off like this—without making glaring errors or cutting any corners—on such a tight schedule and budget. I just keep being stunned over and over at the quality of the production; it's got every reason in the world to suck, but it just flat out refuses to.