General Character Art

Alright, I was FINALLY able to finish and upload Knuckles. Sorry for lying!



I can't even remember all the changes I made, but rarely anything remains untouched from the first draft.

After the inevitable corrections that you guys give me, I don't think I'll be focusing on Knuckles for a while, since there are much more important things to be worked on right now. I'll start on some badniks next.

 

<!--quoteo(post=191963:date=Apr 30 2008, 01:40 AM:name=SillyJonna)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SillyJonna @ Apr 30 2008, 01:40 AM)

I can't even remember all the changes I made, but rarely anything remains untouched from the first draft.

After the inevitable corrections that you guys give me, I don't think I'll be focusing on Knuckles for a while, since there are much more important things to be worked on right now. I'll start on some badniks next.[/quote]

One thing that I've been meaning to mention is that I always thought Knuckle's eyes were thinner... I really suck at explaining what I mean, so I'll use gimp to illustrate my point:



See the part on the original sprite with the circle around it? In your new sprite, the eye seems bigger, like the red part that outlines his lower eyelid is too thin. I always thought knuckles looked sneaky as hell because his eyes were in sort of a squinty expression (which added to what I perceived as his smirk) and I've included a small, poorly done example of how to fix it in the upper right corner.

Dunno if anyone agrees with me, but I've kept silent since I first saw your drawing.

Great work, though. Keep it up!

 

On the issue of Knuckles mouth, I think that the less smiley one is the one to go for, as I think that is more of the persona that is reflected in the comics (which should be a great reference!).

Also, I think his chest could do with a slight shadow where his necklace is, to impy that it isn't a part of his body.

 

It's a necklace? And it isn't apart of his body? I always thought it was just some weird fur patch or something.

 

I personally think his smile looks too... benevolent. Playing S3k, I always imagined him having more of a cocky badass smirk than a straight up smile. Otherwise, that looks spot on and nearly makes me want to weep at the thought of what the finished product of all these efforts would look like.

 

I'm pretty sure it's always been rendered metallic in Sonic the comic.
Aside from that, I think it would look more dynamic and would make better use of the HD room for extra detail.

 

Oh

As a rule, we tend to avoid using the comic as a reference. People here are big into Sega Sonic.

As far as I know, in Sega Sonic canon, it's always drawn as just a white swoop on his chest.

Also, are you the owner of UK: Resistance? I saw yall posted about us a few days ago (it's linked in the Kotaku article).

 

I think it would be silly to rule out the comic totally, it was endorsed by Sega so most of it must be canon.
Even if it isn't metal, it should be slightly raised I think.
I'm not anything to do with the uk: resistance, just liked the name uk_resistant.

 

to counter your point about the comic being canon - Sonic underground was officially endorsed by sega, yet Sonic's sister and brother sure as hell aren't canon. This is why you never see uncle chuck or sally acorn in the games. And personally, I like it that way... I've never been a fan of the comics (either the UK ones or the US one).

I disagree, and I think the patch is fine the way it is. It'd be odd for that one spot to be different from every other sonic game, you know? I mean, every game that Sega has put out with Knuckles has the swish flat and white on his body, so why would our fangame be any different?

Also, sorry for the confusion.

 

Well, techincally speaking some of those characters are canon, as they appear in Sonic Spinball, but I understand your point.
I just think that why recreate the sprites entriely as they were? Why not add a few minoir details, if they work why not, to quote Vincent earlier.
To me the flat patch looks unfinished, and I think it should at least be considered, to push the artwork.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, none of the characters from the comic appear in spinball, actually. Could you cite me an example?

In any case, the entire point of this project is to avoid, as you put it, "adding minor details." That's outside of the scope of the project. We're not trying to improve details, and that's subjective. We're trying to be as objective as possible in order to make everyone happy. I understand that's odd to say to someone who's pushing hard for a detail to get added, but where one person might like an addition another might detest it. By sticking to the original sprites, there's no real room for debate.

There was a long debate earlier in this topic about allowing people to use thier own custom graphics, and personally I'm all for that. What I imagine is that people will be able to replace the tileset with their own custom tile sets and have the graphics change in whatever way they want. But, for the purpose of the official project, I think most would agree that sticking with what is shown in the game, and nothing else, would be in our best interest.

 

So really it comes down to the case of that artists on this projects aren't artists at all, they are drones resizing and redrawing artwork?
The Sonic cartoon characters are in the bonus stages, when sonic is playing pinball, rather then when he is one.

 

you know, name calling really isn't going to help you get your opinion respected, especially considering that you're new and we're most certainly going to be overrun by people who stop by maybe once or twice before never coming back. You attract more flies with sugar than vinegar.

If you can call the artwork people have done bland and uninspired, then I certainly invite you to do better. There's quite a bit of artistic integrity involved in updating these sprites, and if you'd bothered to check the thread, people who do nothing more than trace old sprites are shoo'ed away very quickly. If you honestly can't understand that the point I'm making is that we're sticking to the in-game art because it leaves no room for debate, and can only resort to flames when someone disagrees with your opinion, then go the hell away and don't let the door hit you on your way out. We don't need people around like that.

Also, I'd forgotten about Sally, Rotor, and Bunny appearing in the bonus stages, but Sonic Spinball as a whole isn't viewed as Sega Sonic, largely because it was created by STI instead of the core Sonic team.

 

Jonna you have some real artistic talent, excellent work! I'm especially impressed how well your art style complements Vincent's.

The only feedback I have for now would be to reiterate Cooljerk's suggestion about the eyes, and also the smile being less curled. I'm looking forward to seeing your badniks.

 

Some time ago someone suggested to add more frames to the animations to make them smoother, and this is a
possible mid-frame I made in-between frame 1 and 2.

Vincent, if you like it, I can do more of them. I would be glad to join to this project.



Oh... and here's mid-frame between frame 2 and 3

Any comments?
What do you think?

 

Not Bad. =P
If we actually use midframes, those'd be quite useful.
Try adding midframes for the whole animation, then Animate it.
That way, we could compare Vincent's animation with your animation with Added midframes.

 

Thanks :lol:.
I'm working on mid-frame 3 and 4 right now. I hope to post them soon.

 

Am I the only one who noticed the severe pixelation on those in-between frames? If you want to add more frames, then you need to do it in vector, not in paint or whatever it seems like you did it in.