Character Art

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That was weird. It didn't work the first time. Oh well. Thanks!

 

I don't see what's the problem with Sonic not smiling. The fact that he wasn't depicted with a mouth in the original sprites already made his expression look more serious (focused?) than other videogame characters like Mickey in Castle of Illusion or Bubsy the Bobcat, for example.

At least in the first two games, he seemed to smile only when breaking the fourth wall, facing at the "camera" (intro, ending, game covers). Other than that, and if I remember correctly, he only really started to be shown smiling by default in Sonic 3, and then from the Sonic Adventure artwork onwards, with his new design.


Of course, I'm speaking of the games only.

 

The choice to make him not smile all the time was very deliberate. He's not trying to look angry, we didn't try to make him 'cool', he is determined. There are plenty of other instances where he does smile, but just having one smiling facial expression the whole game would get dull very quickly.

 

It's not as if he's forcefully smiling, that would make it look dull and awkward. This determined look your on about looks one dimensional for Sonic's casual look and is better off when Sonic is Super Sonic (like the one in Vincent's avatar which looks great). Not only that but it makes him look chubby in the cheeks. The smile makes Sonic look playful which is far from dull, and a good example of that is with the latest title screen wallpaper.

 

I like the determined look. That's how I interpreted Sonic with the lack of mouth in Sonic 2, so the current sprite is only about 3 cents shy of being right on the money for me. However, I am curious to see in what situations he is smiling.

 

Sonic smiles when he's standing around chilling out and when he's moving somewhere to get shit done he stops smiling. Simple as that.

 

He he, nice. This is the way I see it too. I actually prefer the generally more determined look.

 

You have made me happy. I like bullshit-free.

 

I think the same with the closest foot, but I guess it adds to the effect of 'flicking'...?
EDIT: Actually it's like it on both feet... I guess it's okay.

 

I love the new Tails model, better than I had. But why is he smiling? It seems weird to me to see him smiling. Maybe on the title screen, but in the actual game, he always looked more determined with a straight-mouth look, just my two cents.

I think I brought this up earlier actually, but that's the only problem I have with the new art. Maybe make the smile a bit weaker?

Edit: Also the muzzle looks a bit thick on the tip and the head looks a little bit wide, but both are minor complaints on my part.

 

This is how I feel about both Tails and Sonic. Whenever I play Sonic 2, I never see them as smiling. Sonic and Knuckles sorta look like they're smiling in Sonic 3, though.

Otherwise, newTails looks fantastic. I'm loving the detail and shading.

 

Some part of me thinks Tails should be smiling, I just have in in my head that he is just.... innocent. (Obviously not that innocent since he knows what's going on, but...)


I love it.

 

I think Tails has a lot of innocence about him, but that's actually why I think he should look more nervous than happy. That, and his confidence issues lead me to believe he wouldn't be as eager or cocky as Sonic.

 

Oh, I've just noticed
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/4971/so...comparioson.png
They're both smiling (I thought it was just Tails for a bit ), well I don't see the problem, then.

Anyway, they look very good together generally.

 

The more I look at the new look for Tails, the more I like it. I think I like it more than even Sonic's artwork which is probably because Tails required a lot more detail. Damn good job. I will say this though. In Sonic 2 and 3&K, I always imagined Tails having a neutral look to his face while standing and walking but with a smile while running. I also imagined Sonic with a neutral face in Sonic 1 and 2 but smiling in 3&K.

 

Really? I think the S3&K Sonic looks argressive/angry.

I'm really getting to love the whole "get darker... then lighter right at the edge" style shading from the original art. Is this style applied to any other objects other than characters?

 

Looks happy to me.