She's done at least one cover for IDW, thoughI have noticed we've seen a lot less of her since Archie got cancelled. Dunno what's up with that, but I guess the same is true of Diana Skelly, whom I'd forgotten even did any IDW work until I looked her up again.
Those are some really nice models, aside for Amy's eyelashes being a bit too short if you'll pardon my nitpicking. Did Sega lose them or something? According to RafaKnight, she should still have them. Maybe the Origins team could reach out to her?
Rafa made a variant cover recently for Sonic IDW 50. But yea I think they use these models to base merch off of. I wish they'd make that Ray to go along with Mighty. They're all adorable though I think
Is no one going to acknowledge the fact that Sonic and Tails probably killed the animal inside the Nebula badnik?
I mean, they've been making turtles plummet to their doom from their plane since 1992. (Unless you're talking about Sonic 2 Absolute, which finally gives the poor guys a parachute)
#50's 3d variant is a work by Nibroc.Rock. Rafa has done significantly less official Sonic work since IDW #1. (IDW removed her signiture off it, and it was a whole thing) Initially she started with works for Archie covers, she had some work on the Sonic Twitter every once in a while, she worked directly to make 3d resources used for the molds for figures and stuff (as others have mentioned) and I think now rather than being directly involved she's just doing work for First4Figures who happens to do Sonic statues.
I don't know the details of it, but apparently there was drama surrounding her online not too long ago and she stopped working for SEGA in 2018.
Yeah, the Tweets seem to largely be gone now but you can find screenshots and the sordid details here. Needless to say, I can see why they wouldn't use this models - whether they're the legal owners or not, it'd probably just end up stirring the old drama. I can't say I've seen these models used anyway though, myself (though this may just be because I'm a Brit, so I don't see loads of Sonic merch over here, though I'm also not really looking for it in the first place). What merchandise were they used on?
They were used on those spinball sets which had the Mania cast inside a bubble. I can't find them anymore, so I guess Jakks stopped production of them.
Thaaaat's pretty disappointing. I think we could have a really good conversation about how many businesses are hiring people as independent contractors instead of employees to avoid making certain concessions, but outright misrepresenting contract work as if it were a salaried position is just disingenuous. A shame. I liked her work, wish that ordeal would get un-fucked.
I actually did not know that went down. Saying that, the Sonic pose that's with the Classic Knuckles render was used as Joypolis figure and Neamedia used it this year for their figurines. Jakks definitely uses them, with previous mini figurines and most recently the Classic 2.5 and 4 inch figures that include Sonic, Tails, Mighty and Amy.
That's Nibroc's work, actually, I don't know why people keep attributing to Rafa (though given the quality of some of Nibroc's other renders, perhaps I can begin to see why).
Oh shoot that's Nibroc? There are like 2 notable Sonic modelers out there and Nibroc's work is starting to get to the level Rafa was at. Maybe that's why I mixed them up?
I'd say Gryz and Reckoman12 are fantastic up and comers whose work exceeds that of Rafa and Nibroc (though they branch out much more and have more of a portfolio beyond Sonic, though I'm sure Rafa does at this point too...) and I sincerely hope they get picked up to work on Sonic media one day, but I digress. Speaking of art, do we have any idea who did the key art for this collection? The style is of course the same as Mania's and that artwork was done by Tom Fry, art director of the game, but he's now working at Evening Star. He retweeted the trailer but hasn't given any explicit confirmation that he actually did the art.