I'm actually really divided on the Sonic one, I don't like the drawing itself- it's not bad, but it's blandish and boring, and feels incomplete and in need of tightening up in a lot of things like Knuckles' face- on the other hand, it feels so great to see someone do a "pixelart print!" AND IT'S ACTUALLY GOOD PIXELART! There's some jaggies in the outlines and they could use some AA but MAN IT FEELS SO GOOD
It should be noted that Paul told me the version used for the preview was actually an older take, and that he had to make slight last-minute modifications to it to get it approved (eg: giving everyone their eye colors back - although not having to modify proportions to the Modern ones, Sega was surprisingly cool with that).
SEGA do suck sometimes. I mean, these are highly stylised prints. The ones already shown don't come close to 1:1ing artstyles and official designs. What does this matter?
Lol, Sega demanded green eyes. They collect money on the Classic Sonic style licenses, so what was the difference on this?
They generally treat them as separate licenses for marketing, so since this one clearly represents modern-day Sonic franchise, they probably demanded an alteration. And going by Archie, seems they've concluded the ultimate distinguisher are the eyes.
That was the reasoning I was given, yeah; Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic are two different franchises to Sega, and must be strictly depicted as separate. This image was intended to be Modern Sonic, so the eye colors had to change. ...and yet they're still allowed to be short and pudgy like Classic Sonic, so who tf knows
Because again, they seem to have decided the main indicator is the eyes. Probably since Modern Sonic had a ton of different proportions before 2008 and in licensed stuff like the comics still has different proportions depending on the artist.
He didn't have to change anything else of the art, just the eye colours. It's basically the main thing differentiating classic and modern Sonic. He did say that the coloured eyes are more subtle than in other official Sonic art though. You can read the Twitter conversation Shadow Hog had here (start from the top): https://twitter.com/pietepiet/status/638737177334128640
I know he didn't change anything else. It's merely the tight grip SEGA hold on the branding side of things that rubs me the wrong way. Eye colours on a piece of pixel art, stylised print...
Clearly they don't actually have such a tight grip on it when the only thing they wanted changed was the eye colour.
Which in itself is a huge (and pleasant) surprise. Still, that one thing bothers me, however slightly.
And the fact you're placing such an importance in the eye colours is exactly why they seem to have decided eye colours are all that's needed to distinguish classic and modern. After all, green eyes sux, etc etc.
Although the Twitter convo also pointed out that "The preview image is actually outdated and the final one does have coloured eyes, but in a way that's more subtle than the official art nowadays". So, I dunno, I'm expecting something akin to how Super Sonic's eyes are green in the icon for an all-emeralds Sonic 3 save (or an all-Chaos-Emeralds-but-no-Super-Emeralds Sonic 3 & Knuckles save). (Man, we are getting dangerously close to going full-on HUELEN)
Something like giving them coloured anti-aliasing instead of an outright iris? I could see that working.
Well, I was more imagining all-iris-no-pupil - so basically, they'd be like if they were the old black eyes, except they're green/blue/indigo/red/whatever now. Also, I can't help but think it's a little weird how Sega insists Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic must be kept totally separate, and yet it was Modern Sonic whose designs they used for Sonic 4, ostensibly a direct sequel to Classic Sonic's games. I can only assume this is a policy that was instated after that title - probably around Generations, if I had to guess an exact period.
Except, I'm not making it out to be hugely important at all. Or at least, not as much as it sounds. Like I said; "that one thing bothers me, however slightly". To me the difference itself is negligible, so its like SEGA are being stubborn about it. But hey whatever, the print looks gorgeous and that's what actually matters.
