I just did that so you could see it easier. Edit: Oh, I thought you meant the white image. anyway, same thing.
Well, the shading on the sprite looks neat, but the pallete, ugh... I dunno why but I still feel that Sonic's head is too square-ish. I guess it's because of his forehead being large at the sprite and the lack of bright spots like the original sprites. Yeah. I guess some bright areas changes everything. (also made Sonic more brighter, like on the original sprites) The title screen looks decent, not sure if I like it very much, but decent. Sonic always found a way of making a pose with the number of the game, but without missing the "I'm radical" feeling. There were always signals to that, like this (I guess that skaters use this signal) on Sonic 3 box art: Or the "V" of Victory on the Sonic 2 box: I guess you could find a way of saying "4" without missing the "yeahhh I'm radical, uhhhh" that Sonic had in the 90's. Perhaps each hand with the "V" thing. Or maybe, since nowadays "nerd" is the new "cool": Right of the beat, say 4 and make a Star Trekk reference. How can a game like this go any wrong?
Ahh... It's too late to be thinking about things that deeply, but I love the palette you did for Sonic there, I might even use a variation of it. So the animation will go something like this: It's got a hell of a lot to go through before I colour it, though.
I think the second dip in that animation shouldn't be there, I know he does it in Sonic 1's title screen, but in this case I think it'd be better if he just turned up to it, maybe synchronising with a musical hit.
I know it probably doesn't but the time it takes him before he turns around, it looks like he is doing up his zip. And as for colour wise I don't know what it is but he doesn't look blue enough it almost looks like his colour has been run through a CYMK colour mode just a bit dull but that's my opinion.
I personally like Sonica's sprite better. This edit feels kinda washed out in my opinion. Or Sonic and Tails (if he's in here) could both be doing a "V" hand-sign? =P
Maybe instead of him popping up and then turning around, have him pop up and turn at the same time. It would flow better I think, and be a bit quicker too.
Surely to fit in with the styles of the mid-90s, it should be pre-rendered 3D! with the correct model, it might look cool. Title screens don't have to look like the stuff you see in-game. emphasis on that "correct model" point. The stuff they actually had in the 90s was horrible
That title screen concept looks fucking awesome! If I could offer anything, you could tweak the eyes and mouth a bit to give him that cocky, cheeky and cool attitude to maintain the balance between cute and cool. If you just coloured it as is, I'd still love it.
The brightening done here makes the back of the head's shading almost none as it takes a bit too much of space. I honestly prefer the original sprite better.
IMHO, nothing was wrong with your original palette, and the new suggestion is not an improvement. Sonic just isn't that colour!
Keep that, and stop fucking with it now. Move away from the bikeshed. I'm loving the other stuff you've got going on, don't let your work grind to a halt because people are submitting their own unsolicited edits to your work. It's good now, use it.
You shut your mouth. Back then they were obviously chasing technology which led to some... horrible things. But now that the tech is as advanced as it is, we look back on the 2D games of yore and appreciate them for what they were. There is a certain appeal to 2D art, which for a while I thought they were going to abandon, but then they realized there is potential with this stuff. So to your pre-rendered art, I say no.
This looks perfect to me, really. I'm no pro at pre-rendered game art but I can't see anything in this render that needs improvement in any major way.
I believe that Sonica is trying to go with the flow in Sonic 1 and 2 title screens. Can't blame him, I never really liked the 3D titlecards in the 2D games. In Sonic & Knuckles it just seemed offplace and I remembered how Sonic looked dull in comparison with that badass look that he had in the previous title screens. I don't even know why we're discussing it, anyways... Sonica, quick question... About the levels, are you planning on doing a reimagination of S4's original levels or thinking on creating new ones? And any idea on the story? It would be nice seeing the game telling us what happens after Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Spoiler Also... Sonic 1 = No Super Sonic, Sonic 2 = Super Sonic, Sonic 3 = Hyper Sonic... I demand we having in Sonic 4 the Mega Sonic! (His spikes would be like Goku SSJ3 hair and he would be strong as Hulk. Spoiler I'm joking, please don't even consider that
To be fair I don't like Sonic 1's title screen much. I think it's worse than 3 and Knuckles but that might just be memories. Sonic 2's is alright though. It's never wise to completely deny 3D a place in Sonic. Even the first game with its low polygon grees was pushing for a pseudo-3D look, and it's amplified in the games which follow. 2D art arguably hasn't changed much in 20 years - people drew things in two dimensions then, and they draw things in two dimensions now, but in 1994 nobody in the video game industry had the foggiest idea how to model in 3D (at least not compared to now). The models used in Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were really, really bad - I would hope we can do much better now. Most of the title screens are dodgy in their own ways, but you have to remember part of the reason they're expressionless and goofy-looking is because the sophisticated technology of today just wasn't there. Granted, Sega couldn't really get it right with their Sonic 4 either, but surely the Sonic fan community could have a decent stab at it. It might not even "look" 3D once it's done. even if it's not implmeneted in this project it would be an interesting experiment I think. Sonic fangames often struggle with title screens.
I don't disagree with you, I mean, nowadays the technology allow us to have more awesome and acurated models, and it's not hard as hell as it was back in the day. But you do realize that you're suggesting that Sonica (or someone else) model a entire character, that it won't be used in the game more than once perhaps, rig the model (so it can be animated), texturize it, fix the light so it won't look odd with the background on the titlescreen and render it. Not saying that the idea is bad, but it's too much of a work for something so little, for a game with a small team (there is a team?) working on it. Also Sonica haz tah skillz in drawing, look how georgeous the sprite is, I believe that a hand-drawn title card will look more suberb in here than any 3D model could (not to say how easier it is to fix anything odd in a drawning more than a 3D model).
