Character Art

Everything we do on this project is vector. Sonic is no exception

 

I was about to point this out, seeing how Sonic's legs in the artwork weren't perfectly parallel.


Anyway, if the newest version is trying to recreate the original artwork's look, it's quite odd that it's taking even the in-game colors from the original sprite. While it looks good, and even better in motion, there's still room for a lot of improvement.

This pic might help a little figuring out what to keep improving:

 

When making the sprites, you have to choose colors that will blend well with the rest of the game's assets. The OA's colors are too saturated for a sprite, and would make him stand out a little too much when used in the game.

 

Haha, well over-saturated Sonic would definitely fit into an Angel Island Zone remake I suppose.

 

Any chance we get to see sonic on a light background? I can't tell how long his spikes are, they look a little short, but I cant tell properly on the dark background. It'll help perception.

(load of tripe (ish), but I still want to see Sonic on a light BG)

 

Thank you for toning down the noodle arm and making his hands a bit bigger. That bugs the crap out of me on the original sprites and the older variations of the remake.

 

Then pleeeease clue us in sometime as to how you do it, because it looks beautiful. The palm tree and Sonic have both stood out to me. I couldn't work out for myself whether either was really vector (and that's a very good thing).

Exactly, cartoons tend to be exaggerated, so it makes perfect sense .

 

Interesting seeing the difference. In almost every respect, it's an improvement. The colours seem right, the shape of the body, the arms... The only thing that doesn't seem like a step forward are the spines. The 'softness' may reflect the artwork, but the old ones reflected the tagline on DCT's advertisements: "For a cute guy, he has spines." They felt sharp, and seemed to have more weight. Might just be me, mind. This nitpicking aside, it really is great, a neat compromise between the artwork and the sprites.

 

The blog seems to have a cleaner version of that Sonic sheet thing, and I did this:

Yaay.

 

I'm going to be the first person to poop on the party and say I prefer the Uber version. It's mainly the longer spikes that seal the deal, but other things factor in too, such as the new one's parallel legs looking quite odd.

 

Strangley, the more I look at the spikes, the more I accept them. They look fine to me now, I got used to them.

And I still think the legs are great for showing Sonic's want for momentum.

 

I'm really growing on the new version of the Sonic sprite. It was a bit of a shocker at first, as the spikes are considerably shorter than the original sprite and the previous versions, but after comparing it to the official art, it really is more accurate, and I'm actually starting to prefer it.

Apart from that, excellent work. The bigger gloves did wonder, and I like the softer shading. The belly and shoe shapes are much improved as well. This new sprite reminds me of the Sonic CD intro movie.

 

This new sprite is great, but to me it would be perfect with the same shining effect on the side of the head as the last sprite. On the original Sonic 2 sprite, the white part of the shining effect is really visible, and I think it's important to keep it.

The use of that effect also helped a lot to give to the Sonic & Knuckles game more personality to the characters and an improved quality of finition in my opinion, so I think it's a good feature to have on S2HD Sonic sprite. But good work anyway.

 

One of the things I'm concerned about is the lack of volume in the belly, as seen in that pic I posted earlier:


Also, there's something about the face that looks a bit odd compared to the artwork, but I'm not sure what it is. Something about the height of the eyes, perhaps?

 

That, or the fact that it's based on the classic artwork but is still pronouncing the circular shape to his head that implies that he has a mohawk.

Not saying I don't like the current Sonic, btw. I think it's really nice and better the previous attempts.

 

You pretty much said everything I thought about the new sprite look.

I can't wait to see it in motion, though.

 

I do not like the new sprite. The shading is much too soft (especially the shine, which should be more of a solid spot), the shorter middle spike is annoying and even inaccurate compared to the example artwork, and his overall anatomy/posture make him look shorter/pudgier, unlike the subtly tall and lean look he normally has in the classic series. Also the coloring is too bright and saturated, whereas the older versions of coloring more closely match that cool, offbeat color style that Genesis visuals have. In general the new sprite looks more like a lame SNES style sprite than Genesis style.
The new sprite did improve some shape details and some aspects of shading, but Uber sprite still wins much more for me. Certainly the best of both can be combined.

 

"On his fourth and final design iteration"... I think everyone is being a bit picky about their own personal preferences. Changing even one small detail means changing the whole frameset. I don't think that's very likely to happen. And at this point there are more productive things to do than try to satisfy everyone.