New to the Community!

[Coervidae]

Hello!
My name is Olliver (Olli), I'm a 19 year old trans man (he/him), from the Northern-Eastern US. I'm a CG Animation major in my second year of college going for a BFA in Animation. (You can see my artwork on instagram here but it's mostly just drawings, my CG Portfolio is still a huge work in progress since I have a lot to learn)!

I don't have a collection at all right now, but I had a ton of g3 dolls when I was a kid! (My step-mother took them all to be donated when she thought I'd lost interest and I've been feeling rather bummed out about that lately). I've been scanning ebay for the last few days looking for some toys I might be interested in within my budget, but my local flea market has some that I might head back for when I get the chance now that I've been doing research and know more about the topic.

I'm mostly interested in G1-2 Ponies, with a little interest in G3. I'm not super into the G4 style and artwork just because it's not my personal tastes, but I enjoy the characters and a lot designs from the gen. My interest is primarily in customization, but I enjoy seeing refurbishments so I'm potentially interested in doing that too.

One of my friends (who might be joining the forum soon too?) and I have been discussing this stuff lately so I've been feeling pretty hyped about it, just seems like this is a good place to get to understand everything more in depth and have better access to opinions and trades!

[achab1984]

Welcome to the arena!

[MerryAnvil]

Hi there, and welcome! Your artwork is lovely <3

I can definitely endorse looking for ponies 'in the wild' (aka out at thrift stores/antique stores/flea markets, etc). They're often really cheap and finding them yourself is, in my opinion, half the fun! I have a local antique shop I visit weekly and I've found quite a few G1s there.

To get you started, I'd recommend checking out both Strawberry Reef and My Little Wiki. They have an amazing amount of information that will help you in hunting and identifying ponies from all gens! It would also be good for you to check out the Arena's Nirvana gallery, as well ^u^ Nirvana are the (often more rare) international variations/versions of G1s.

If you have any questions about ponies, cleaning, customizing, or collecting in general, please feel free to ask me or post in the relevant section! Everyone here is super friendly and helpful. Glad to have you with us!

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

Welcome to the Arena! I really like your art!

[Safflower]

Welcome to the Arena! Your art is wonderful! Hunting in the wild for ponies is great. The customs board is a great place for customs as the tittle suggests Glad you joined, I look forward to seeing you around! Hope you have fun here!

[Coervidae]

@TheBeatlesPkmnFan42 @Safflower achab1984 (Assuming this is how pings work on this forum?)

Thank you so much!! I appreciate all the compliments!

@dakotadarkhooves
I have actually already gone through and looked at every single pony listed on the MLW lol (and made a presumably likely to change wishlist), it's what I did while I was waiting for my forum account to be approved! I kinda cannonball into new interests. Thanks for the other suggestions though, can't wait to check them out!!

EDIT: Woops apparently I do not know how to ping on this forum! Tips appreciated :,) 

[MerryAnvil]

@TheBeatlesPkmnFan42 @Safflower achab1984 (Assuming this is how pings work on this forum?)

Thank you so much!! I appreciate all the compliments!

@dakotadarkhooves
I have actually already gone through and looked at every single pony listed on the MLW lol (and made a presumably likely to change wishlist), it's what I did while I was waiting for my forum account to be approved! I kinda cannonball into new interests. Thanks for the other suggestions though, can't wait to check them out!!

EDIT: Woops apparently I do not know how to ping on this forum! Tips appreciated :,)

I don't think there's a way to ping on here unless I've totally missed it lol. But I usually just quote to respond.

Awesome, glad to hear that! Haha I'm the same way, I go into overdrive with new hobbies. I hope you're able to find some new info through those as well! Also (at the risk of overwhelming you oops) even though it hasn't been updated in awhile, Aikarin was where I first learned to customize and might be worth looking through. And if you want to look into cleaning techniques/restoration, MLP Preservation Project is the place to go!

[Mewtwofan1]

Welcome my fellow animator! Oh my gosh I’m not the only one here! Best day ever! Sorry. Got a little excited. Anyway, welcome to the arena. If you don’t mind me asking, where are you studying? I’m still in high school and looking for animation schools. And what software do you use? I’m partial to blender and animate myself, but those are the only 2 I’ve used.
     As for pinging people...I don’t think that’s a feature on this forum. Unless it’s hidden and none of us know about it. Secret arena features...

[Coervidae]

Welcome my fellow animator! Oh my gosh I’m not the only one here! Best day ever! Sorry. Got a little excited. Anyway, welcome to the arena. If you don’t mind me asking, where are you studying? I’m still in high school and looking for animation schools. And what software do you use? I’m partial to blender and animate myself, but those are the only 2 I’ve used.
     As for pinging people...I don’t think that’s a feature on this forum. Unless it’s hidden and none of us know about it. Secret arena features...

I use Autodesk Maya to animate (Blender is nice and good to practice in but it's worth learning Maya eventually because it's the industry standard for animation!), but I'm more interested in the sculpting/modeling/rendering pipeline! I primarily use Zbrush for everything else though and that's the program I'd prefer to base my career around if I can. I'm learning Houdini soon though for rendering, which is very exciting. Just because I'm more interested in creature/monster/animal animation but it's difficult to get a job doing exclusively that without humans. I don't mind doing humans and I can, but it's not something I find fun for the most part. (I love drawing them tho). I'm a student at the College for Creative Studies, which is fairly well known and easy to get a job out of, but our CG (non-game) department is lacking a little lol, I'm kind of pioneering it with a few others? One less than a dozen people in a major of like 200 people. It's been fun and we're definitely learning a lot.
I wish you luck with your path through the CG world!! It's a lot of work but a lot of fun too

[Spinky69er]

Welcome to the Arena

I hope you have a wonderful time rediscovering some of your past fave G3's and start an amazing new collection with new memories mixed with old