Sonic art assets DVD

Shadow's smiling... that so unique and freak. =P

And Silver was actually Silver! He looks made with metal! O_o

 

Holy mother fucking shit on a stick. Excuse the profanity, but my jaw has dropped. It's been a while since that's happened too.

I remember reading at some point they were planning on making Sonic look more 'realistic' and furry for Sonic '06, but wow, I didn't expect the above model (I expected worse actually, it's quite cool). It's amazing the things you can find when you know what to look for. Thanks a lot, this is making my day.

EDIT: I've seen this line of text on a few sites and wiki pages but I'm not sure where it originated from.

Anyone know where it came from first?

 

Thanks, SonicWarrior TJ. I can put up some more really nice still frames later today (this computer isn't cooperating). They make nice desktops. By the way, the studio that made these is called, of all things, Blur!

 

You've got more still frames of Sonic with that texture or stills of cutscenes? Either way, looking forward to it!

 

I'm curious what the physical CD itself looks like. Does it have a printed label, or just a handwritten label on it?

 

Cool! It's amazing to see such a furry Sonic. I wish his final model in the cutscenes looked more like that! Also it is very odd to see Shadow smiling, but it suits him!

Silver's name would have made much more sense if he had looked like that! Maybe that was how he was meant to look originally. I suppose the reason for him not looking like that in the end may be because, even though it wouldn't be a problem in pre-rendered cutscenes, making the ingame model reflective too would have taken too much processing power, slowing down Sonic 06 even more!

Just a thought...

 

I found a few other cool things on Blur's website:

The Shadow the Hedgehog Opening Cutscene with full Sound Effects and different music (Instead of "I Am... All of Me")
The Opening of Sonic 06 (I don't think this is anything special though)

 

That's interesting! Is it just me, or is that Shadow opening different? I don't remember seeing the Commander or Black Doom, and when Shadow is driving the motorcycle into the Black Arms, didn't the camera cut to Shadow's face twice in the final? Looks like quite a few discoveries are coming out of this. And also, SonicWarriorTJ, the only ones I haven't posted yet are stills of cutscenes. I've already posted all the model pictures I could find. I personally don't like furry Sonic. He's supposed to have quills, not fur. I do like Shadow's little smirk, it looks like he's up to something!

 

I find it weird how Sonic has a furry belly, but his muzzle is smooth. I always thought both were skin...

 

It's quite similar to the Werehog actually, who also had a smooth muzzle and furry belly.

If Sonic were indeed more realistic, I'd bet his quills are actually hundreds of quills gelled into one lock of hair.

 

That almost looks like a creepy cosplayer.




But anyway... Topic hijack much?

I couldn't be less interested in this next-gen stuff when there's that DVD with Classic Sonic vectors.

 

I dunno, it's basically an official Sonic art topic, and personally it has the potential to tide me over(along with all the Sonic 2 art) until the DVD's files are publicly released.

 

That's just something Blur there together to show off, it's been on their website for months.

 

I'll stop posting these pictures soon, there's not a whole lot left to show anyways. Regardless, if you want to know what programs were used to make those models, an interview I found with one of the lead animators of the Sonic Next-Gen cutscenes had this to say:

"We use Morph-o-Matic as the morphing tool on all our 3DS Max based character rigs.” reveals Leo Santos, lead animator at Blur Studio. “Morph-O-Matic is simple and flexible enough so we can combine it with custom rig solutions very easily. One particular challenge we had on the Sonic opening cinematic (and the Shadow the Hedgehog cinematics) is the fact that Sonic's mouth is sometimes on the side, sometimes on the middle. We did a special setup with Morph-O-Matic that allowed us to "reset" the neutral pose to the side or to the center using one Morph-O-Matic modifier, then apply the shape animation on top of that with another Morph-O-Matic, and it worked well, we could start the scene with the mouth on the side and then slide it to the middle without much trouble." According to the person who posted the Black Arms, textures were made with Photoshop and BodyPaint. The Egg Gunner "was modeled in 3dsmax. Parts are just poly modeling, other parts (some of the white) is sub-d modeling. Textures were painted in Photoshop, three big maps - I had a TON of fun painting them, after tediously unwrapping him. Rendered with Brazil. I used a bit of sub-surface scattering on the white plastic bits as well as some transparency."


And now for more pictures! I know Shadow isn't exactly loved around here, but some of these pictures would make excellent desktop backgrounds or icons, IMO. This first set is from Shadow the Hedgehog. Blur did all of the cinematics for this one, and according to them, had a lot of fun doing it.



These two pictures were made for a TV promo. Apparently, two versions were made, one without the guns and explosions (so it would be more kid-friendly).








Look really close at the newsprint. See if you can read any text! I could read "Friend or Foe?" under a picture of the comet. And who is the person in the picture?

The last two from the Shadow set were made to be posters for E3.

The artist has a comment regarding this one:
"I think Shadow's pose could have been a lot stronger, more leering over Sonic to be a bit more powerful and menacing, but the client (Sega) wanted him in this specific pose. It's odd to me that the main character your promoting would be upstaged and have less screen space. Oh well, sometimes clients just don't agree with us.
We also tried talking them out of the gun. Just feels weird to see a Sonic character with a realistic weapon. (Aren't they suppose to have like super powers. Chaos control type of stuff, super speed, etc.) I guess guns are part of the game though. Very odd since it's for kids."

Here's the second poster.




Now it's time for Sonic Next-Gen! I like the pictures where Sonic is looking at the moon. Very nice. There are more than these, but I'm only posting the nicest ones here for now. (Unless anyone actually wants to see the ones featuring Eggman or Elise).





This is my favorite picture, hands down. It looks like Sonic is looking at the moon, pondering his future, and wondering what Sega will make him do next. I'm making this my desktop now.



Hmm... Sonic looks furry in this one, like that model I posted pictures of earlier. Did he end up looking like that in the final cutscene?

I'm currently archiving everything I've found from these websites in a nice .zip folder. Gotta save stuff like this for posterity, so expect a download link once I find them all again.

 

Awesome, looking forward to it.

 

Count me in. I always liked the Next-Gen Eggman a whole lot and don't see a single thing wrong with him whatsoever.

 

Alright then, here's Eggy.



By the way, If it's not too much trouble, could someone rip that alternate Shadow opening?