[akirahedgehog]

I received an email from the Smithsonian American Art Musuemthis morning about an upcoming exhibit on game art that will include concept art from popular games and I found this image included as example. It's labeled as being from "Sonic and Knuckles". Has anyone seen this before?

[Dark Sonic]

That looks more like Metropolis Zone concept art, but the interior of a blimp has me suspicious.

However I don't think Sonic & Knuckles had any concept art because I'm sure most, if not all the designs for the levels and such were completed before they decided to split Sonic 3 into 2 different games.

[akirahedgehog]

It was also labeled as from 1993 so it could have been made before the split up of Sonic 3.

[0r4ng3]

Someone must go there with a hidden camera.

[Sonic Boom]

This is concept art for Metropolis Zone. The image I've linked here was taken directy from the wiki. Although the piece you've posted there has better coloring, oddly enough.

[Spindash54]

0r4ng3, on 30 September 2011 - 11:05 AM, said:

Someone must go there with a hidden camera.

I'll be headed there sometime next year after it opens (March).

[McAleeCh]

Haha, if nobody else had posted it, I was going to point out that I've had a signed print of this hanging on my wall ever since that Badnik Design contest in, what, 2005? 2006? Though of course, mine's the version on the Wiki. I wonder who the original source for this alternative colouring is?

[Lanzer]

So what is it an interior of a blimp or Metropolis Zone? maybe the Metropolis Zone one is a fake or a re-creation?

[Sparks]

Based on the "Interior of Blimp" font covering "Metropolis," I'm gonna call out that the Blimp picture is the fake here.

[Lanzer]

Is it? shame, cause it looks more well detailed then the Metropolis Zone one.

This post has been edited by Lanzer: 30 September 2011 - 01:44 PM

[Roller]

It looks more detailed, but the colours look like they're made with crayon. I'd say the Blimp one is a hoax.

Actually, why would they be publishing hoaxes? Seems to me that the Smithsonian just want something unique to get people to come to their exhibit and theirs alone.

[akirahedgehog]

Is it possible that Sega had created a bunch of generic theme templates that they would color in for concept art? Therefore it could be art for both Flying Battery and Metropolis?

[Roller]

It could be entirely possible that this image was in some sort of colouring book, which led to this dual intepretation.

Looks more Metropolis to me, though.

[Black Squirrel]

I think the "blimp" and "Sonic & Knuckles" parts are just mis-labelings.

This is likely from Sonic 2, and likely stems from the same source as the one Mr. Boom re-posted. It's not completely ouside the realms of possibility that two people had the same black and white copy and coloured them in differently.

[McAleeCh]

Black Squirrel, on 30 September 2011 - 02:34 PM, said:

I think the "blimp" and "Sonic & Knuckles" parts are just mis-labelings.

This is likely from Sonic 2, and likely stems from the same source as the one Mr. Boom re-posted. It's not completely ouside the realms of possibility that two people had the same black and white copy and coloured them in differently.

Indeed; I always took it that the already-known image was a rough colour-test for the level using a black and white concept piece as a base. If you were doing a colour-test on paper, wouldn't you use a photocopy of the original image to allow for more than one colour-test? It's not inconceivable that two different people produced colour tests based on the original concept image to see what possible colour schemes could work for the level - as the colouring technique and style is very different, I'd be inclined to say that this is probably the case.

Also, the source of the originally-found version was Tom Payne, the level artist for Metropolis. No idea where the new version is from. The sketch is labelled on my print as being from Yasushi Yamaguchi, though I'm pretty sure this was misattributed when the caption was added for the signed print, as I seem to remember it being mentioned later that Hirokazu Yasuhara was the original artist of the concept piece. Can't remember the source for the latter bit of information, though - any ideas? = S

This post has been edited by McAleeCh: 30 September 2011 - 02:45 PM