A more-expressive Unleashed Sonic could also be perceived as unprofitable. It's a stupid perception though since apparently most of the fandom wants a new model, which would mean a new model would be profitable.
I don't think they were intentionally forcing animators to do a worse job before Shadow Generations. That game isn't breaking with the model sheets Blue Blood posted or anything, it's literally just that that game had a smooth production and it looked really polished for it. If they can do that, then it makes even more sense to not take what is in their view a gamble based on something that's just a popular opinion. Have you ever decided whether or not to buy a Sonic game based on the model it's using? I haven't. In fact, I've never heard of anyone doing that. So why would they care? As far as they're concerned, they've got a perfectly functional set of designs. Why would they suddenly decide to start believing "what if this is losing us money" right after releasing them in one of the fastest-selling Sonic games ever?
Without trying to sound like I'm talking down about this, it's simply a matter of how much work that implies. First you have to settle on what Sonic actually looks like, okay great there we go, But then you have to make new renders to replace the hundreds of old ones that we're using for synergy and new model sheets and style guides showing ways you can and can't use the model and then, well Sonic can't be the only one that changed, we have a cast of 20 or more characters we regularly use that need their looks updated as well and renders to match, and then we have to send these out and make sure our licensors such as Jakks Pacific throw out their old toy molds that use any of these old designs and start over completely even though they have very successful ones they could keep selling. Do we also need to update our mobile games like Sonic Dash with these models? It's just kind of a snowballing issue of a project I don't think anyone has time to dedicate to.
Sonic Dash already uses its own distinct models so I don't think the issue is as dramatic as you're implying. They could just slowly change the main character designs over time, starting with a new in-game artstyle. Zelda changes its artstyle and main character designs all the time in spite of merch or whatever else. I don't buy it as an excuse.
...Every Sonic game has differences in its own model, we're talking about the character design. If you think that Sonic Dash's is a meaningfully distinct design from any of the other ones, what the fuck are you even expecting them to change about the rest of the art style? These aren't two meaningfully separate designs, they're two different models executing one design. It's the same one we've had since the Shadow the hedgehog CG renders 20 years ago.
I only ran with Sonic Dash as an example but sure I'd say all those small differences add up, especially in-game. It's a good contrast to show how completely rigid the official model has been the past 17~ years. SA1 Sonic is also technically just a different model executing Uekawa's design, same as Unleashed's. Still a distinct character design both in proportion and style.
Again, what are you actually trying to say? It's all the same base, and each game from Unleashed to now has had differences in how it models Sonic off of that base, including Dash. What specific trait are you arguing that Dash has that also does not consistently appear in every other game? You're not making sense here. ...That's not the same, then. Just because Uekawa is in both their DNA doesn't mean they're both adapting the same 2D art, both because Uekawa himself has changed over the years and because the 3D designs are based off of 2D work that is already adapted with the purpose of serving as a base for the 3D art. Like this:
I like the current look, it ain't broke so no need to fix it. Shadow Gens and the plethora of CGI cutscenes and promo stuff prove the look can animate very well anyways, so all this talk of "current models suck" just comes off to me as needing to complain about something because there's no obvious target to be negative about these days.
I was saying earlier I'd like the official model to be more in-line with SA1's and then you got defensive over a quote not attributed to you specifically. I don't know what to say if you're going to pretend that the differences between Unleashed and Frontiers' Sonic models are even close to the differences between Unleashed and Dash's models. Not sure why differences in proportion only matter in SA1's case but not Dash's.
What differences? At a glance it looks damn near identical to the Unleashed-Gens model Just want to see what you're talking about here, cuz I'm not seeing anything notably different beyond the poly count
Smaller limbs, thinner quills, bigger nose, bigger shinier eyes, different color palette... It's not that different but it all sticks out to me because of how boringly standardized the Unleashed model is by comparison.
I actually don't think a big problem is the model itself either, I think it's the rigging (the aforementioned issues with the mouth and brow) and in the 2D art, the compositing. that recent tweet was a bad photoshop with a bad pose, but made worse by how it didn't seem like any work was done to actually match the lighting on the model with the background, so it looks cheap. good lighting and compositing can make even simple models look fantastic (ray-traced Minecraft for instance). but also, promo art generally doesn't call for a wide range of expressions and poses in general. I bet you could find bucketfuls of Mario drawings and renders doing the "jumpman" pose for instance, and a lot of the interesting Mario renders tend to involve game-specific actions. Sonic doesn't really have that range outside of the Olympic Games (RIP), and there are only so many ways you can pose the guy mid-run with a cocky expression...
Considering it's a quote you made up that nobody actually said in the first place, yes, you should expect that someone could assume the strawman you're attacking refers to their position. Nobody is "pretending" anything, except maybe you when you're playing confused that someone might react negatively to all these sarcastic remarks. Half of this shit is down to the rigging and already does differ from Unleashed to Generations, Lost World, Forces etc. and the other half has nothing to do with the discussion surrounding the design's rigidity (I'm also pretty sure the quills are the same width accounting for polygons). The glint in Sonic's eye is handled by the lighting engine, and so is a good deal of his color palette. And on the contrary, it's really fucking easy to compare Forces' model to Unleashed, because people have been doing it for years bitching about the game. Just say "quill length" and watch as haters and glazers alike line up in droves to post that one chaomix video.
You can literally look between your and my posts and find people saying the Unleashed model is fine and it just depends on how it's animated. It's not a strawman just because you took the quote personally, along with this bizarre insistence that "everyone agrees the character designs need a refresh" (I wish that was the case but come on).
No, actually, you can't. What you'll find is some people saying the animation and rigging is more important, even if the design could use an update. Some of them using the language of "I personally think it's fine" is not the dismissal of design complaints that you keep trying to frame it as. Correct, it's a strawman because it's a strawman, the part I'm taking personally is your constant shit-stirring and pedantry because it's fucking annoying. The bizarre part is that it's not an "insistence", as I already explained to you. It is an extremely popular and pervasive opinion in the fandom, to the point that even the people who don't fully agree are not totally against it, and "basically everyone" is obvious hyperbole that already has a qualifier to begin with. Can you please fucking cool it with this attitude yet?
Roger Craig Smith's Sonic voice sounds like if Chuck E Cheese was voiced by Seth Rogen and I'm tired of pretending it doesn't. There. I sacrificed myself to change the subject
Look I found someone saying the Unleashed design is fine between our posts because of how common it is. I still disagree with it and have my own perspective which was the whole point. Roger's Sonic voice is bad yeah but I'm pretty sure that's not his fault especially wrt Frontiers. I've always thought Rino Romano's Spidey voice would work well as Sonic's and I think Roger could pull something close to this if they would just let him.
