New Sonic Cartoon

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Majestic Joey
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new sonic cartoon

Post by Majestic Joey »

http://blogs.sega.com/2013/10/02/sonic- ... -2014/?0=1

No word on if Chris will be in it.

The size of knuckles's shadow has me worried.

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Re: new sonic cartoon

Post by Radrappy »

any hope I had for this was dashed against the rocks with those silhouettes. Good christ what did they do to knuckles.

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Crowbar
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Re: new sonic cartoon

Post by Crowbar »

It looks like Sonic is wearing some kind of sleeveless denim jacket as well.

Yeah nah. Keep shit like that in farworks like Other M please.

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Crazy Penguin
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Re: new sonic cartoon

Post by Crazy Penguin »

What is this shit.

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Jingles
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Re: new sonic cartoon

Post by Jingles »

Looks like Crash Bandicoot to me.

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by G.Silver »

I'm happy to see that the comments on Sega's page are similarly skeptical.

(Also merged with the existing thread)

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Malchik
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Re: new sonic cartoon

Post by Malchik »

Radrappy wrote:Good christ what did they do to knuckles.
He's got fingers...

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Isuka
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Post by Isuka »

And got all 'roided up from his brief tenure at... err, Call of Duty... (?)

No, seriously, I can't possibly imagine what they could be up to with that.

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Esrever »

Making Knuckles larger and more distinctly muscular is something that feels perfectly logical to my inner character designer, yet completely sacrilegious and wrong to my inner Sonic nerd.

If you were developing an original show with an ensemble cast consisting of a fast guy, a strong guy, a kid sidekick and "the female character", you would never in a million years give them all nearly identical proportions. (Unless you were being forced to.) You'd design them with distinct builds that represent their personalities and emphasize their style of movement. You see this even within the Sonic franchise, with characters that were introduced collectively as groups... the Chaotix, the Deadly Six, the Babylon Birdos, etc. Only the classic characters, who arrived one at a time and needed to be depicted as relatively similarly-sized sprites, look so close to each other.

But on the other hand... THAT'S HOW THEY LOOK

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Radrappy »

Alright guys, took a stab at these silhouettes. Near as I can tell they're all wearing life jackets. If this is the best case scenario, it does not bode well.

Image

Image
Esrever wrote:Making Knuckles larger and more distinctly muscular is something that feels perfectly logical to my inner character designer, yet completely sacrilegious and wrong to my inner Sonic nerd.

If you were developing an original show with an ensemble cast consisting of a fast guy, a strong guy, a kid sidekick and "the female character", you would never in a million years give them all nearly identical proportions. (Unless you were being forced to.) You'd design them with distinct builds that represent their personalities and emphasize their style of movement. You see this even within the Sonic franchise, with characters that were introduced collectively as groups... the Chaotix, the Deadly Six, the Babylon Birdos, etc. Only the classic characters, who arrived one at a time and needed to be depicted as relatively similarly-sized sprites, look so close to each other.

But on the other hand... THAT'S HOW THEY LOOK
Be aware though that this is all strictly from a very western animation/cartooning point of view. American animation is all about utilizing visual cliche's in order to communicate. However there are plenty of successful designs that don't adhere to this philosophy at all. The sailor scouts and power rangers are some of the most iconic and recognizable characters ever created but consist of super hero squads with identical proportions/silhouettes for the most part. Similarly, sonic tails and knuckles all have the same proportions but are instantly recognizable due to their color and unique attributes. Knuckles' gloves, tails' tails, and sonics spines are symbols powerful enough not to need widely different proportions to work. Anyway, just a thought.

Also when knuckles was conceived he was less the dumb bruiser that he is today and more of a mischievous rascal.

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Jingles »

Esrever wrote: the Chaotix, the Deadly Six, the Babylon Birdos, etc.
New characters introduced in the Olympics crossovers?????????

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Crazy Penguin »

Image

Image

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Crowbar »

Esrever wrote:Making Knuckles larger and more distinctly muscular is something that feels perfectly logical to my inner character designer, yet completely sacrilegious and wrong to my inner Sonic nerd.

If you were developing an original show with an ensemble cast consisting of a fast guy, a strong guy, a kid sidekick and "the female character", you would never in a million years give them all nearly identical proportions. (Unless you were being forced to.) You'd design them with distinct builds that represent their personalities and emphasize their style of movement. You see this even within the Sonic franchise, with characters that were introduced collectively as groups... the Chaotix, the Deadly Six, the Babylon Birdos, etc. Only the classic characters, who arrived one at a time and needed to be depicted as relatively similarly-sized sprites, look so close to each other.

But on the other hand... THAT'S HOW THEY LOOK
God yes this is almost literally everything I felt but didn't quite know how to put into words when I made my post above.
Jingles wrote:
Esrever wrote: the Chaotix, the Deadly Six, the Babylon Birdos, etc.
New characters introduced in the Olympics crossovers?????????
I don't know if that's a real question or you're being sarcastic but he's referring to the villains(?) from the Riders games.

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Malchik
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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Malchik »

Wow that's some bad artwork even for Archie standards.

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Esrever
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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Esrever »

I'm not really talking about visual cliches per se, I'm just talking about using visual design variation of any kind to convey character.

Stuff like the Sailor Scouts and the Power Rangers, or, like, the Care Bears and My Little Pony, use tweaks on a single design because they are prioritizing conveying a singular style/branding/iconography over conveying individual character. Case in point, everyone can recognize a sailor scout uniform. But if someone stole those uniforms and shaved their heads (like in my latest fanfic), you wouldn't know who you were looking at anymore and couldn't tell me anything about any of them.

That may be is appropriate in a superhero series or toy commercial, or any situation that is more about cool design than it is about nuanced character animation. (Like the original Sonic games!) But it's a rare choice for a character-driven comedy. Even in Japan, where style is prioritized over characterization more than basically anywhere else in the world, you'll see some silhouette variation (proportional to the relative realism of the art style) in character-driven comedies like, say, Azumanga Daioh.

Anyway, it's somewhat moot, since I like the regular Sonic designs and am not really looking forward to seeing them changed. (Although now I am going to be disappointed if they aren't all wearing matching lifejackets.) I just thought it was an interesting reminder that those designs weren't really intended for this kind of use, and if they had been, they probably wouldn't have been designed this way in the first place.

Here is my best guess for Sonic and Knuckles. Since Knuckles doesn't have any bulges to indicate gloves, I have arbitrarily decided that he is wearing a long-sleeved shirt. lol

Image

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Wombatwarlord777 »

I think what's more jarring than the fact that Knuckle's silhouette wouldn't look out of place on Loonatics is the fact that his spindly little legs manage to support his top-half. At least the bulkier Sonic characters tend to be designed somewhat more believably!

I'm actually more concerned that the overall art direction for this show is apparently photo-realistic. I'm a big fan of stylized design, especially in animation, and I think there could be so many interesting ways to convey different mainstays of the series in interesting ways... The varied locales Sonic and Company visit, badnik and machine designs, a sense of exhilaration and speed as we travel along with Sonic... I just don't want another show that plays it almost completely safe, like Sonic X!

EDIT: I guess Sonic could be wearing a backpack or something... It's something I occasionally see in fan art, and I guess it sort of makes sense for somebody who travels for extended periods of time.

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by G.Silver »

Everyone's talking about Knuckles but I'm really surprised by the direction they're taking with Sonic.

Image

A thing I don't get is why the dumb bruiser has to be 8 feet tall. It's "extreme," but what about the short stocky badass? Wolverine proper (not movie and cartoon Wolverine) is like that, and it makes him proportionally unique. Knuckles has his own fairly unique silhouette against Sonic as well, and they could have easily exaggerated it further without turning him into a giant.

I'm also not sure that this level of 3D detail is really conducive to "character-driven comedy."

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Radrappy »

Esrever wrote:I'm not really talking about visual cliches per se, I'm just talking about using visual design variation of any kind to convey character.

Stuff like the Sailor Scouts and the Power Rangers, or, like, the Care Bears and My Little Pony, use tweaks on a single design because they are prioritizing conveying a singular style/branding/iconography over conveying individual character. Case in point, everyone can recognize a sailor scout uniform. But if someone stole those uniforms and shaved their heads (like in my latest fanfic), you wouldn't know who you were looking at anymore and couldn't tell me anything about any of them.

That may be is appropriate in a superhero series or toy commercial, or any situation that is more about cool design than it is about nuanced character animation. (Like the original Sonic games!) But it's a rare choice for a character-driven comedy. Even in Japan, where style is prioritized over characterization more than basically anywhere else in the world, you'll see some silhouette variation (proportional to the relative realism of the art style) in character-driven comedies like, say, Azumanga Daioh.

Anyway, it's somewhat moot, since I like the regular Sonic designs and am not really looking forward to seeing them changed. (Although now I am going to be disappointed if they aren't all wearing matching lifejackets.) I just thought it was an interesting reminder that those designs weren't really intended for this kind of use, and if they had been, they probably wouldn't have been designed this way in the first place.
Totally agreed. I guess I've just seen too many character line ups these days where variety exists just for variety's sake. Case in point, Disney's upcoming action flick Big Hero 6(http://www.comingsoon.net/nextraimages/bh6-000.jpg) which ends up coming off looking like an animation school homework assignment with your standard bruiser character, female character, wacky dreadlocked comic relief character, and the ordinary normally proportioned protagonist.

Good call on that popped collar vest for Sonic. I woudn't be surprised if it's what we end up getting. What amazes me about this project is that Sega allowed any mix-up in the designs at all, much less to this degree. From everything I've heard they're absolute nazis when it comes to Sonic's design being used by others(anecdotes from Smash Brothers and Wreck it Ralph indicate such anyway). Maybe it's to make absolutely clear that this show isn't directly affiliated with the games and is its own separate franchise. Who knows.

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Esrever
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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Esrever »

Yeah! I actually wonder if what we're seeing here is a preview at an upcoming franchise-wide redesign. (Or at least a spin on said redesign.) After all, the show doesn't air until late 2014... who knows what Sonic games are getting released after that! There have been rumours about SEGA playing around with Sonic redesigns internally for a year or two now.

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by cjmcray »

Knuckles Unleashed.

I'm actually okay with how Sonic looks. A sleeveless denim jacket or backpack would look good on him. His spikes look a tad different too. Almost like hair. I'll give it a chance.

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Pepperidge »

Esrever wrote:But if someone stole those uniforms and shaved their heads (like in my latest fanfic)
I just about spit out my tea reading that.

But yeah, looks like shit. A shame, since I was kind of looking forward to this.

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by big_smile »

Like Eserver, I also think these are the future designs for the Sonic games.

Consider:
1) Sega's paying for the cartoon, so presumably they want it to promote the game. In this context, it doesn't make sense for the games and cartoons to have different designs.

2) Takashi Iizuka is involved with the project and he's responsible for ensuring consistency. This would be quite hard to do if the cartoon had its own unique designs.
Also, after Generations, Iizuka talked about creating a new future Sonic (as a replacement for 'modern Sonic').

3) This press release is basically an open invitation to merchandising suitors. Sega wants to turn Sonic into a mixed media icon (like Hello Kitty). Again, it doesn't make sense to have competing designs.

The only flaw in this theory is that Lost World and (the Sonic cameo in Mario the Fighters) doesn't feature these designs (although the silhouettes do mirror the bendy, exaggerated style of the deadly six). However, like Eserver noted, they could be holding off until 2014. (We know there is one more Nintendo exclusive title, but I don't think it would be a main title so soon after Lost World, and you think they would want to save the debut of new designs for a main title).

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by cjmcray »

Pepperidge wrote: But yeah, looks like shit. A shame, since I was kind of looking forward to this.
I think you're kinda jumping the gun here. All we have right now are some shillouettes. Sure, Knuckles looks terrible, but I'm willing to give this show a chance.

No one has commented on the background. They put a lot of detail into it.

I'm relieved it isn't on Nick. Just imagine how ugly it would look on that network. All of their CGI cartoons look like garbage.

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Radrappy »

big_smile wrote:Like Eserver, I also think these are the future designs for the Sonic games.

Consider:
1) Sega's paying for the cartoon, so presumably they want it to promote the game. In this context, it doesn't make sense for the games and cartoons to have different designs.

2) Takashi Iizuka is involved with the project and he's responsible for ensuring consistency. This would be quite hard to do if the cartoon had its own unique designs.
Also, after Generations, Iizuka talked about creating a new future Sonic (as a replacement for 'modern Sonic').

3) This press release is basically an open invitation to merchandising suitors. Sega wants to turn Sonic into a mixed media icon (like Hello Kitty). Again, it doesn't make sense to have competing designs.

The only flaw in this theory is that Lost World and (the Sonic cameo in Mario the Fighters) doesn't feature these designs (although the silhouettes do mirror the bendy, exaggerated style of the deadly six). However, like Eserver noted, they could be holding off until 2014. (We know there is one more Nintendo exclusive title, but I don't think it would be a main title so soon after Lost World, and you think they would want to save the debut of new designs for a main title).
If a franchise reboot occurs featuring designs that look like this, that might be it for me.

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Re: New Sonic Cartoon

Post by Malchik »

big_smile wrote: 2) Takashi Iizuka is involved with the project and he's responsible for ensuring consistency. This would be quite hard to do if the cartoon had its own unique designs.
Also, after Generations, Iizuka talked about creating a new future Sonic (as a replacement for 'modern Sonic').
Now it's making sense. That man prides himself in being responsible for every [s]molestation[/s] change in the Sonic universe for the last decade. You know, to keep Sonic trendy.

Kind of like George Lucas.
Radrappy wrote: If a franchise reboot occurs featuring designs that look like this, that might be it for me.
I stopped at Heroes, what's your excuse?

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