How would you redesign Sonic the Hedgehog?

Reminds me of those Newgrounds games that got ported to multiple Gaming consoles.

 

Because of how hard it might be to animate? :/

What do you mean they have no form? I'm not an artist, but I took geometry class. Look at all the sharp angles, the large geometric objects formed by smaller irregular triangles, pentagons, rectangles, etc. There's hardly a curved circular shape in there, and it stands out. Reminds me of Samurai Jack.

Of course they have expressions. You don't need an eye with pupils and sclera to have character. That's something better communicated by the entire face: eyes, brows, mouth, nose (or lack thereof). It's all there.

 

I personally always thought Adventure 1 and 2s level layouts were for the most part pretty good. The only issue is that in just about any level, exploration was limited as the 3D levels were floating chunks over an abyss. Even Lost World had a section that was indoors, but over a giant pool of death (section with the mirrors and lights). A few level themes have this type of thing being acceptable (Final Rush, Sky Deck are on my mind), but levels like Windy Valley Act 1 and Green Forest/White Jungle shouldn't. Pits in 3D games should be pretty much to a minimum. Unleashed shows that making an environment around the actual levels path shouldn't be a problem in future games with 3D sections. There's also one act of Starlight Carnival that was one of the better 3D section levels in Colors.

Basically, Unleashed/Colors like environments, Adventure platforming, gimmicks, and pace (with 2D sections as a touch. I also don't mind quick step sections, but that's my personal preference).

 

There. Now that's thinking three-dimensionally.

EDIT: By the way, Ross. I actually like your Tails redesign. Lanky seems to work better in Tails' case, and I like the long pointed ears and shoes. Also, he doesn't look like spaghetti.



That being said, your artwork with Sonic is fantastic. It was never really bad, but not enough to "refute" the other drawings. Checking out your drawing thread now.

 

Not a fan of Ross's artwork for either character. Something about them looks so evil. They're pointed mostly, their eyes look like hawk slits, and they look like they're going to tear open someone's throat and lap up the blood. ._.

I think Tails should be more round-ish in terms of design. He's supposed to be cute. I'm trying not to fail at Illustrator right now, I guess I'll do a sketch. I don't think I've posted any designs I've tried in this thread before. (Other than that Sonic picture I was trolling with. :v

 

Sonic Adventure was also serious. You can have a serious plot without having a Shadow-esque plot. What I'm against in Sonic is shit like AoStH that's the other side of the spectrum of Shadow's game.

 

I think we can agree it's both. :v:

and a lot of people like AoStH

 

A lot of people like Shadow and Sonic X as well, even if they aren't usually on here.

 

Sure people like them, but how well do they hold up financially compared to other games?

Kinda hard to compare Sonic Xs financial success to AoStH and SatAM due to changes in society and norms, I guess.

 

Sonic reminds me of Beast Boy from Teen Titans in that picture. :v: But I really like this design. <3

 

Despite the fact that regardless of little screen time, his character is more endearing and charming instead of insanely irritating and acting like he's hyped up on sugar 24/7? Yeah, I think I'll stick with SatAM on the aspect of Tails's personality.

 

That... was the point of AoSTH, though. Overcaffeinated, loony madness.

 

I'd be tempted to go all-out Ub Iwerks if I were somehow hired to do a sonic game.

Also I doodled Sonic a la Pen Ward :P

 

Haha. I'm actually kind of surprised that I haven't seen more like the first one, since the cartoons of that era were such a big influence on Sonic's design.

 

Goddamn it, now I can see Sonic and Tails going on Finn and Jake-esque adventures...

 

I just have to reply to this. I completely understand why you'd think that, so I guess I should point out that even though Tails was painfully downplayed in SatAM, he wasn't doing weird things either like having his heart come out of his mouth or stretching his jaw until it looked manly with a huge dimple. I don't really find that very appealing on something that's supposed to be cute. In SatAM, he was adorable and innocent and didn't freak me out by contorting himself.

(Besides, part of the appeal of the character for me comes from the Archie series and the fact that he had a very interesting background, a personality and archetype I liked, and character development that made sense based on the formerly mentioned traits. AoStH's Tails was just... there, getting kidnapped, occasionally doing something interesting, and freaking me out with his weird bending. And his design looked more like a kid Banjo anyway.)

Just because it's the point of something doesn't mean we all have to like it. The rest of us will tilt to what we do like, and bitch about what we don't like on a forum thread where the goal is to discuss such things.

I thought of Flapjack and Noby Noby Boy for some reason.

And I never got around to doing that Tails drawing past a shitty outline I never inked, I got busy. Anyway, I think the characters' current style is too uniform, I think that each character should have more variance in their appearances while only being tied together by more subtle traces of a unified style. And by that, I mean a bloody echidna shouldn't look like a hedgehog and a fox shouldn't look entirely like either one. I came to this thought while playing Sly Cooper. Look at how differently all the characters are shaped, but they still have little common marks that give the idea the same person (or people) designed them.

 

I shall bestow the prize of one million internets to the man who does a Sonic cartoon ala Disney's Silly Symphonies series, because this picture looks too cool not to capitalize on it.