@Gamer_Shy
As I pointed out, and as I proved with the comparison things, these are not references. They are traces. AJ is a trace of a piece of fanart, too, which goes past lazy and into the realms of scummy. Hasbro owns the rights to the character, obviously, but that doesn’t change the fact that the original picture was created by someone and they, by extension, have ownership over the picture itself, even if they don’t own the character within.

Now… do you honestly find this acceptable as a product? Why should you be happy to have something when it’s as low quality as this, especially given the fact that the comics already have a bad reputation as it is? Why accept it when the quality goes down instead of up over time? As we saw from the show itself, and plenty of other shows, kid’s shows and products don’t need to be low quality, so no, I’m not going to accept that excuse. Animation involves thousands of drawings so it makes sense to use the same model for each character to trim that number down, whereas a comic requires far, far less, so there’s no reason not to expect the quality to be a bit higher seeing as it doesn’t have to move.

The alternative of this page full of traced artwork not existing at all is a useless premise, seeing as none of it needed to be traced in the first place.

@Background Pony #8984
If ya don’t care… then mute the image notifications lmao

So… this is still getting attention?
This is just how art in this world works. References are used.
Fun fact, the show itself, while amazig, is absolutely lazy with its animation style. Every character uses a base model, and accessories/manestyles are just slapped on and recolored. The only truly unique ponies are either the mane 6, or some of the later important characters, but even then, said characters eventually ended up cloned as a recolored background pony at some point.
It’s a kid’s show, at the end of the day, even if it appeals to all ages. Creators of kid’s shows always cut corners whenever possible to keep a steady flow of episodes to keep kids (and by extension, impatient adults like most of us, myself included) interested in the show. Even the comics will suffer from this.
Be happy they’re even hand drawn, even if they reference, or sometimes trace, existing material from the show or promo material. It’s the content that matters, the story. Not the art.

Didn’t realise this was two months old when I started, but here’s the comparison that, for some reason, no one else bothered to make.

Rainbow Dash is indefensibly indentical:

This specific picture of RD is one you see all over merchandise, and for some reason they felt the need to use it here, too, if with an expression change.

AJ and the last Pinkie are definite traces as well:

The other three Pinkies look similar as well, but they aren’t quite as close as the examples I chose.

@Gamer_Shy
Are you making a distinction between referencing and tracing? Because referencing anything is perfectly fine, tracing as not. There is a obvious difference between the two, especially when it comes to supposedly professional work.

The OP ought to be ashamed of this pathetic reach and display of ignorance…

the photocopy based.

@Background Pony #FF0E
Ever heard of using artwork as a reference? Or that the “fanart” you show quite literally used official show artwork as a reference in the first place?
Seriously, people need to get their heads out of their asses with stuff like this. This is how art works in this world, always has, always will.

Disney does this in some of their OFFICIAL Star Wars content sometimes literally just copy pasting fan renderings of vehicles
Tl;dr your not alone

Pro-tip: you don’t need expensive professional artists when you can just take random fan-art for free and apply some freshman-level Photoshop.
>>59712

@Background Pony #1817
Assuming you were not trying to reply to someone else and replied to me by mistake, I really think you should re-read my post.

Whatever rod OP has up their butt about IDW using similar poses to the show is not only ridiculous (although clearly not beneath contempt), it is utterly uninformed of how the industry works.

@Background Pony #58FC
Dude, do you know how art works? It is perfect fine to use reference when you want to capture a particular pose. Are you going to tell me that every rendition of Pinkie Pie must be unique for you to enjoy a 22 page comic?

That’s a lil’ silly, m8.

Hey, quick question, OP– is English not your first language? Because you don’t seem to understand what the word “trace” means and I get the strong impression your native native tongue involves a lot of quacking.

I don’t mind. It’s look alright to me.

@Background Pony #1817
That shocking, burning sensation when you land your dream job at Disney but after weeks of carefully and dedicatedly creating each panel from scratch, you get yelled at for not reusing existing assets and not being 100% on model.

You’re right - none of them have any idea.

@Dustcan
Well, what ELSE are they going to do? Get a job and move out of their parent’s basement? At least THIS way they’re doing something USEFUL with their lives that benefits MILLIONS! /s

Nothing new, the recycled animation was normal in the G4, remember?

How do you guys not know how art works lol

@Joshua
Yes, it was sarcasm.

@Background Pony #9812
Tracing means the lines would be near identical. They aren’t evne CLOSE to identical in most of the examples shown.

Pencils is a legit artist who’s style is verifiably original, even without him sometimes livestreaming his drawing. It has nothing to do with how accurate something looks to the show.

@Dustcan
Even Pencils ponies look accurate and no one’s complaining. Besides I found this.

It’s the only drawing there is.

I can just see channers having like a full time team of no-lifes spending every waking second scouring every single frame of the show trying to find even remotely similar poses.

All so they can say it’s IDW who are lame.

Glad to see idw pulled all stops for ““quality”” on this.

@rannius
Never think I’ll see both together

Yeah, by the usually quality of the comic a final shitshow look like the best way to say goodbye to their G4 license