Levels & Items Art

But then Sonic would look like the odd one out.

And what DW was meaning (or what I thought he meant) was that Sonic wasn't drawn to look flat, but when blown up and redrawn he looks flat(ish) because the pixels we can see the shapes in between the shades where as the original sprite has the shades closer together making it blend together giving a round-ish sprite.

 

Actually, Sonic's movements in Sonic 2, and especially in the Sonic 2 prototypes, look very three-dimensional and smooth. Sonic moves in every possible direction with very fluid and detailed frames that don't appear to be entirely hand-drawn, especially when Sonic is going through the Mobius Strip (corkscrews in EHZ) and off certain springs.

Speaking of those frames, they'll be extremely difficult to recreate in this style and still look good. There was a lot of rendered 3D art in Sonic 2—we'll have to take a different approach towards enhancing it.

 

Sonic's various spinning animations when in drums, on turning platforms, etc from Sonic 3 absolutely scream pre-renders converted into sprites. Now, there is less of that in Sonic 2, most of it being in Metropolis Zone, but I'd say its almost certain that Sonic was intended to look 3D in the exact same way that the scenery items were.

 

Which is why I am not saying that 3D shouldn't be used but it should not be used as the final product either. It should help but not take over.

 

I liked the CG Bee as well, and it would fit in with a CG background. The problem is that Sonic and everything else won't be CG (as far as I understand), so the Bee no longer fits in.

I personally like the idea of a CG background with everything else vector, I think it would look good while still keeping the feel of the original.

 

About the CG backgrounds+cartoony characters discussion, I've just noticed that "Man of the year" does just that...

And it doesn't look bad.

 

Well it's not great, but it's something.
It need maybe some upgrade.

 

Looks a bit... different, doesn't it?

Although I can't really make out the intended shape from the original pixel art.

 

I might be stepping on some toes here, but am I the only person who doesn't like how clean everything looks? I mean, so it can't exactly look like Sonic CD's intro (A game looking like that? IN MY DREAMS!), but I think there's something missing from the art that's being submitted. It sort of lacks character.

 

I Made some upgrades, but it still need something.

 

The green windows that you completely left out maybe?

 

Well those green windows are actually mirror image of grass.
When you check it closer, you can see it turning orange to yellow and yellow to green.


Well this is best, what I can currently do.

 

I'd say it just plain doesn't resemble the source material. Not to mention it doesn't fit with the artstyle needs that have already been discussed...

 

<!--quoteo(post=191552:date=Apr 28 2008, 03:20 PM:name=Thundertimi)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thundertimi @ Apr 28 2008, 03:20 PM)

Well this is best, what I can currently do.[/quote]

The trees look like pieces stuck together, like the Lego palm trees, yours looks like one piece. It doesn't feel like I could take it apart and put it back together to make it taller or shorter.

 

<!--quoteo(post=191552:date=Apr 28 2008, 02:20 PM:name=Thundertimi)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thundertimi @ Apr 28 2008, 02:20 PM) [/quote]
Hey, that looks more like it, but the shadows and colors are still a bit inaccurate...

 

Honestly guys... I don't see why so many of you want to turn this into Sonic 2 3D Blast. The current look we have established (cartoon-ish) captures the feel of the original game better. That's why the newer fully 3D Sonic games with the super high quality textures and stuff don't have the same magic as the Genesis games do.

 

Because backgrounds were intended to look CG-like since the beginning. Specifically since the polygonal Green Hill palmtrees.

 

Well yeah, but it's still possible to creat backgrounds like that using a more cartoony style of shading.

My point is that the current shading style Vincent has been using is perfect. I think making the backgrounds higher quality would be fine, but I just don't want to do that to the closer items such as badniks and stuff. It will clash.

 

Here is my latest updates to Flasher. Let me know what you think.

 

Needs lots of work still, Ripter. The bottom jaw does not match to original, as well as part of the shell/wings. Not bad, but not close enough.