“My roommate’s name is Octavia, or “Tavi” for short. She likes vintage red wine, soft pillows, and long walks on the beach. But, more than anything, she loves music. She loves it with a passion that radiates with every burning color of the spectrum.
 
Each day I spend with her… or without her, I learn a little bit more about life, about the sick beat to which we all dance, whether we know it or not. I hope you don’t mind if I say a few things about her. Just a few things. One can learn a lot from Tavi.
 
After all, she saved my life.”
 
 
So for the past few days, I’ve been reading this fic on FimFiction called “The Things Tavi Says.” I mainly picked it up because I’ve been in a Vinyl mood as of late and I didn’t really expect much from this fic other than some good ol fashioned Vinyl/Tavi fun.
 
I ended up adding a new addition to my top 5 ponyfics.
 
Folks, I cannot stress this enough: this story is unbelieveable. Not only is the entire thing told in a realistic style that still meshes well with the cartoonish universe of FiM. Not only is the writing spot on, and the characters fully fleshed out. Not only does it seamlessly weave itself into the show’s canon. Not only does it have perhaps the most original explanation for why Vinyl wears her shades and never talks (I won’t dare mention what it is because it’s equal parts amazing and tragic).
 
But this story, told in a series of 1,000 word or less vignettes, takes you into the life of Vinyl Scratch. You experience, along with her, the unique way she sees the world, the triumphs and tragedies of the life of a musician, and of course, her undying adoration and loyalty of Octavia.
 
After all, she saved her life.
 
So this is meant to encompass the inner struggle of Vinyl that emerges about midway through the story. We have Vinyl looking at her shades while Octavia is off in the background. This is meant to symbolize Vinyl’s struggle to determine where she ends and “DJ PON3” begins, not to mention the circumstances that lead to her creation, hence her face which is meant to be a mix of sadness and anger. Tavi’s silhouetted form represents what keeps Vinyl going; her inspiration from and adoration of her roommate.
 
After all, she saved her life.
 
From a technical perspective, this picture was all at once simple and complicated. Because I’m just using ponies this time as opposed to anthros, it was a matter of spawning and posing the models. I tried to emulate the show’s pose for Tavi playing her cello the best I could, and I’m happy with how it came out. Of course she’s silhouetted so a lot of the finer details can’t be seen. Not to mention that upon retrospect, I accidentally made her pose resemble her cutie mark. Though given the context of the picture, it works out just fine.
 
Lighting was done through setting the camera’s tone scale to almost the lowest possible setting, amping up the light intensity and enabling volumetrics. I used the lighting override trick that I used for my last picture to negate the lighting thrown on by the map’s default lights. The end result is a much more seamless and dramatic look. The two contrasting spotlights were deliberately manipulated to not only give off dramatic volumetric shadows but also appear to mesh in the middle. Also the colors of the lights were specifically chosen for reasons that will become apparent upon reading the story.
 
So I think I’ve said all I need to say about this picture. Except of course the obvious:
 
Go read this story. You won’t be disappointed. This is probably the greatest exploration of the Vinyl/Octavia dynamic to ever be written.
 
After all, she saved her life.
 
Picture inspired by The Things Tavi Says by shortskirtsandexplosions
 
Music track: Namir - Michael McCann, Deus Ex: Human Revolution OST