That's alright, the fact that you're willing to engage (even if the scope of your answers is limited) is appreciated. Hope you're having a good day!
I must admit, although I was excited about Sonic Mania Adventures, I had low expectations, mainly due to Sega's whole 'Classic-Sonic-can't-speak' mandate. As much as I love Classic Sonic, his cutscenes in Generations and Forces were painfully awkward due to his silence. Hence, I'm really impressed by how Adventures handled it. Although it was a bit jarring not to hear Eggman boast about his newest machine, the episode nailed the personalities of both characters perfectly! And then whole video oozes with the love the team has from Sonic, - it's really moving to watch. I still think Sega should allow Sonic to talk, but this was still amazing. Great stuff! I know they only have a tight budget for animation, but I hope they can include a few more animated scenes in Mania Plus, or at least include all the Adventures episodes.
It works really well when either all the characters speak, or none of the characters speak, which is why Mania Adventures feels so natural. Generations/Forces having Classic Sonic not talk was bizarre, especially since classic Tails and Eggman still had dialogue. Sega wanted an endearing Shaun the Sheep situation, but all they ended up with was Mr. Bean.
Speaking of which, are there any plans to include all of the Mania Adventures shorts in Mania Plus; as some sort of video theater/cutscenes option? It would also be cool if we could also get the animated supporting Mania materials (the Pre-Order trailer, the Opening/Closing sequences) in something like that as well.
Seconding Yeow's post. Every piece of Mania art/animation is gold, and a Gallery option would be foooking fantastic.
I am curious about the same thing, actually. If you could, and are allowed to, share some of the process with the programs, that would be neat /> Thanks for having contact with us, nevertheless. It's cool to at least know you guys are reading this forum. PS: I think having Sonic Mania Adventures in an option in Plus is a MUST. Like, the better you get at playing, the more episodes you unlock!
The animation teams at Yotta (for the intro) and Neko (For Adventures) are all comprised of artist working remotely actually, so they have their choice of software. Some animators use ToonBoom Harmony, some use TV paint, and some (and I) use Flash. Basically it doesn't matter what program they animate on, because we're just doing frame-by-frame traditional work, so there's no need for programs to communicate. The rough frame-by-frame animation is exported into video to be cleaned up (Flash for the Intro, TVPaint I believe for Adventures) and then the clean footage is exported into After Effects for compositing. The reason we used Flash so heavily in the intro was because I was doing so much animation myself. Even the shots done primarily by other animators would need for me to open them up and put the drawings more on model. So in that instance the animators had to work around my needs because I touched literally every frame of it in one way or another. Adventures is a bigger production so I actually just can't be a part of the animation for time reasons. Pre-production and production overlap, so it's my duty to do tight pre-pro and leave the animating to the studio. I still give plenty of notes on animation and redlines on drawings, but I don't touch their actual footage myself. As for why I prefer Flash, there's no real reason. It's just what I learned to animate on and I can't afford a Harmony license right now.
Word. I still love using Flash for things like Animatics and roughing out frames. Even if the final frames/stills get done on other programs and exported elsewhere, it's still so easy to pen something out in Flash and get it moving. Other people tell me to move onto better stuff, but they'll have to pry Flash out of my cold dead hands before I give it up
I'm still amazed how seamlessly another group of animators can start on a project like this - and keep it consistent with another animators work with a consistent style, fantastic job directing this so well. So much talent on all ends. Not to mention the writing in general, the music... Ah, I'm a kid again.
Just posting to point out that the first episode of Sonic Mania Adventures has over 1 MILLION views. Feels good, man.
Realised I hadn't posted on here about this - just want to chime in echoing some of the love for the first short. Nicely executed with a charming visual style and a simple, fun plot which showcases Sonic and Eggman's personalities well. Particularly like that Sonic's somewhat of a cheeky little sod at various points in this one - the classic portrayal in Generations went for 'cute' over everything else, and although that's definitely part of his whole vibe it's nice to see Mania Adventures remembering there are other aspects to his personality too, striking a good balance between the cute stuff and the "attitude" SEGA were always going on about back in the '90s. = ) All in all, loving it so far - looking forward to the remaining four parts as we count down to the release of Mania Plus! ...Also, know a few people already mentioned that it'd be great if Mania Plus included a video gallery among the Extras menu, where you could unlock the opening/ending videos, the animated promo trailer and the Mania Adventures shorts. I know features for Mania Plus have probably been locked in for a while now, but even so you can definitely add my voice to those who'd like to see this feature - it'd be great to be able to watch any of the videos whenever you want from within the game (though presumably they'd have some sort of unlock criteria - e.g. since Mania Adventures is set after the end of the base game, it wouldn't be available until you'd beaten Mania Mode with Sonic at least once).
...I'm not really sure that including these episodes would be a good idea for those getting the downloadable version, as they may take a lot of space. =|
What about as free DLC [separately]? That way both arguments would be settled. People could download them if they want, but it wouldn't be mandatory.
I'm still kinda sceptical about anything that's online-streaming only lasting the tests of time. Granted Youtube has been a solid platform so far, but ya never know how things go these days. It'd nice to be able to watch it without an internet connection all the same. VHS RELEASE WHEN?
:v: I was actually going to suggest firing up your VCR and getting your VGA connection ready after reading your first sentence, but you took yourself to the punchline! Plus even VHS, DVD plastic will degrade over time.