17 replies to this topic

[Felix]

Most Sonic games has it's own definitive art style & direction. Each to their own has varied in terms of art direction. Such as Sonic CD's anime style mixed with that of the previous Genesis games, Heroes' having a more in general cartoonish art direction, Unleashed's touch with realism, and so on. Which Sonic games have some of your favorite art directions, and why?

[Soniman]

Sonic Colors and Heroes.

Both these games ooze creativity and style with their general art direction. And shown in their stages, would really like to see more stuff like that.

[/_JXJ_\]

There's already a thread for favorite design style(s) of the series.

http://board.sonicst...-of-the-series/

Edited by ----------, 18 July 2012 - 12:45 AM.

[Vertekins]

Unleashed. Sachiko Kawamura had it nailed.

Both forms of Sonic had, without a shadow of a doubt, the best models in any Sonic game. Their rendering is simply superb, the animation top notch. They also have collision detection to the degree that if you placed normal form between two steps on some steps, his leg would bend to make it look realistic instead of clipping through the step.

The countries and levels were a perfect realisation of 'realism' in a Sonic game, something '06 so pitiably lacked. What contributed quite a bit to the world's gorgeousness was the amazing Global Illumination capabilities of the Hedgehog Engine, which made Sonic truly look like he belonged in that world and made the stages and hubs atmospheric whether they were played at night or during the day. Helping with this was the wonderfully appropriate designs of the NPC's, which clearly showed that they had adapted to Sonic's design instead of the other way around. This tremendously offsets any uncanny valley vibes because Sonic doesn't clash with anything.

I also loved the direction concerning the enemies. They look, dare I say?...Cute? And yet they were diabolical and inclined to attacking anything in their vicinity. They neon-coloured markings contrasting with their dark base colours make them look groovy and otherworldly.

My other favourite art direction was the surreal, more fantasy-ish feel that Sonic CD's and Chaotix's stages had. There tended to be much more intricate detail in level graphics and the pallette's were vibrant. I think this is especially cool when you consider that Little Planet and Newtrogic High Zone were themselves more surreal, more fastasy-esque locations. The variations in level visuals in CD going by timeframe were fascinating and I really liked how Past versions of stages had more 'natural', 'earthy' colours, Present versions of stages had more typical Sonic-esque pallette's as seen in other games, Good Future versions of stages were prettier and had more vibrant, 'cleaner' pallette's and Bad Future versions of stages had drab, boring and more unappealing pallette's to put across the way the technology had such a detrimental impact on everything in all of it's misuse and overuse.

Chaotix's Amazing Arena stage was great at epitomizing vibrance because you had to bring the stage "to life" by pressing a switch located somewhere in the level. Amazing Arena goes from pale and dark to lit and vibrantly colourful.

[Autosaver]

There's already a thread for favorite design style(s) of the series.

http://board.sonicst...-of-the-series/

This thread seems to be a little bit different actually. A huge focus is going on the actual ART for covers and artwork. There wasn't a single post about the graphic style.

[ArtFenix]

Ugly pixar humans aside, Unleashed looks beautiful. Same for Colors and Generations and Heroes if you forget about ugly character models. And I think that despite being quite aged, both adventures have amazing art direction as well.
S06 had just amazing bosses and enemies design.
Damn..I don't know what game to choose. I think almost every game has something special in it's art direction that appeals to me.

[Autosaver]

Ugly pixar humans aside, Unleashed looks beautiful. Same for Colors and Generations and Heroes if you forget about ugly character models. And I think that despite being quite aged, both adventures have amazing art direction as well.
S06 had just amazing bosses and enemies design.
Damn..I don't know what game to choose. I think almost every game has something special in it's art direction that appeals to me.

I can't be the only one that actually liked those models, can I?

[Semi-colon e]

Between Unleashed, Colours, and especially Generations, we're onto something good now.

I actually love Generations the most because of the way it mixes realistic stuff and makes it slightly more surreal. Like Speed Highway is all blue and stuff, Crisis City has amazing heat effects and a purple tint in the sky, Green Hill has it's surreal checkerboards in a reasonably realistic setting, and Seaside Hill does something similar, for example. Generations showed that you can have realistic and surreal levels in a game (don't forget stuff like Stardust Speedway Bad Future is here too), and that gritty does not equal bland in and of itself. Look at the bright oranges and the purple in Crisis City, or how Chemical Plant keeps it's trademark colour schemes of red, blue, yellow, and grey, yet has a dark and ominous sky and smoke everywhere.

[SiLeNtDo0m]

I can't be the only one that actually liked those models, can I?

Nah you're not. I'd take these any day over the butt ugly, soulless, over realistic and as a result unfitting humans from the Adventure games, Shadow and 06.

As far as art direction, honestly any of the approaches Unleashed, Colours or Generations took would make me more than happy. I guess it would depend on how exactly they approach the story. If they want to set it within a more "realistic" world with humans, Unleashed's aesthetic would fit perfectly. Although part of me would like it to be a little more vivid like Generations. Compared Rooftop Run in Generations to it in Unleashed. The colours are brighter and it's a lot more vivid but still retains the same general feel.

Honestly at this point in time the art design of the games is the least of my worries and its something that they pull of really well.

[Gabz Girl]

Unleashed started to make Sonic games look more cartoony and colourful, and this style is still present in Colours and Generations. I love the direction they're going in with the character models, human NPC's and the environments, which look like a mixture between realism and colourful surrealism. This is soooo much better than the drab, depressing environments and uncanny human NPC's in Sonic 06 and ShtH.

Anyway, all I can say is they should definitely keep the art direction like this for future games!

Edited by Gabz Girl, 18 July 2012 - 10:13 AM.

[ArtFenix]

I can't be the only one that actually liked those models, can I?

Can I just hate something without someone saying something as if he's trying to make my opinion wrong?

Of course I'm aware that lots and lots of people here like pixarysh humans, no need to mention that every time I mention that I don't like them.

[Scar]

Can I just hate something without someone saying something as if he's trying to make my opinion wrong?

You're taking offense for no reason whatsoever. That comment has nothing in it that implies that your opinion is wrong.

As for me, it has to be Unleashed. Its beauty was so breathtaking that it murdered the game's framerate.
The artistic direction with regards to the humans, each bubbling with personality and individuality (As far as I can see, no two human NPC model is alike - they're all different). Then there are the main characters, which are a lot more rounded and less sharp than previous games, which gives them a cool, but cute edge which in turn broadens their appeal. The actual environments are absolutely popping with creativity and absolute beauty. This was continued with both Colours and Generations - though the latter two sacrificed visual fidelity, one being made for a weaker console and the other to maintain a stable framerate, they still looked fantastic.

Edited by Scar, 18 July 2012 - 11:59 AM.

[PerfectChaos]

They also have collision detection to the degree that if you placed normal form between two steps on some steps, his leg would bend to make it look realistic instead of clipping through the step.

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That's nothing special. This happened in OOT on the N64.Not hating on Unleashed, though! The graphics were INSANE.

[lounge]

I really love SA2's art direction. I prefer more moody, beautiful, atmospheric art compared to the overly bright art of Heroes, Unleashed, Generations etc. Pixar themselves said they rarely use global illumination because it takes away control on possibilites of mood and emotion of a scene.
Sonic CD is also beautiful.

[JezMM]

Pixar themselves said they rarely use global illumination because it takes away control on possibilites of mood and emotion of a scene.

Bare in mind that Pixar make films with literally zero limitations on what they can do, whereas Sonic Team make games which can't have any kind of expensive they like.


Plus... Unleashed doesn't have "moody, beautiful, atmospheric art"?






Psssh.

[lounge]

Bare in mind that Pixar make films with literally zero limitations on what they can do, whereas Sonic Team make games which can't have any kind of expensive they like.

Unleashed was probably the most expensive sonic game they made. Creating an in house team to do all that massive CG stuff, hiring a bunch of companies to design storyboards and characters, creating a brand new powerful graphics engine.
Nobody can make something as expensive as they like. And it's different for games and movies. Even pixar has limitations. Video games of course have many more limitations than a pure CG movie. I was bringing a point on the fundamentals of lighting and mood of a scene. Good lighting takes time. Not that the hedgehog engine isn't impressive. But it isn't my ideal art direction. I guess you could say global illumination fits the cartoony universe of sonic, but I'm not really interested in that. There's a many variations to mood and atmosphere and i'd like to see them do something beyond the hedgehog engine for next generation for a different look.

[Blue Blood]

Sonic 4 Episode 1. They must have worked really hard to make everything look like glazed plastic.

More seriously, Unleashed was the best. The only place where it didn't totally succeed was the design of the environments themselves due to the intentionally realistic style. But thanks to the saturated colours and smooth textures, even that can't be faulted. After the Adventures and '06, Unleashed went out to prove that with the right styling Sonic would even work in realistic settings. And to top it off Generations went and threw a whole myriad of different style environments int one game and made them work. Perfection? I think so!

Colours art style isn't as good as Unleashed's or Generations, but it's hard to say why specifically. I think it has something to do with a less saturated palette in some of the stages, like the grass and trees in Planet Wisp and Tropical Resort, and the overall graininess of the textures. They were realistic while the environments weren't, so the end result was like a wackier SA2.

[Scar]

Unleashed was probably the most expensive sonic game they made. Creating an in house team to do all that massive CG stuff, hiring a bunch of companies to design storyboards and characters, creating a brand new powerful graphics engine.
Nobody can make something as expensive as they like. And it's different for games and movies. Even pixar has limitations. Video games of course have many more limitations than a pure CG movie. I was bringing a point on the fundamentals of lighting and mood of a scene. Good lighting takes time. Not that the hedgehog engine isn't impressive. But it isn't my ideal art direction. I guess you could say global illumination fits the cartoony universe of sonic, but I'm not really interested in that. There's a many variations to mood and atmosphere and i'd like to see them do something beyond the hedgehog engine for next generation for a different look.

Realistic can also make fantastic use of Global Illumination and such. For example Battlefeild 3, any Crysis game, newer Call of Duty games, Uncharted games, most graphically intensive PC games. They ALL use Global Illumination, or something similar to it.

The Hedgehog Engine has nothing to do with the artistic style of Unleashed through to Generations. The beauty of the "modern" art-style that it is capable of accomodating both bright, cheery stages (like Apotos/Green Hill) as well as more mellow looks (Skyscraper Scamper), even darker atmospheres (like Eggmanland). Besides, according to Iizuka, the current artistic direction is here to stay for a while, even on new consoles.

EDIT:

I really love SA2's art direction. I prefer more moody, beautiful, atmospheric art compared to the overly bright art of Heroes, Unleashed, Generations etc.

There is no reason why the Hedgehog Engine couldn't do that. All it does is stream textures rapidly. As I understand it the GI is baked onto the stage graphics, its not even close to real-time. They could just create moodier lighting for a given stage, bake it on and there you go, instant moody feel.

Pixar themselves said they rarely use global illumination because it takes away control on possibilites of mood and emotion of a scene.

They do something else entirely and they make movies, not games.

Edited by Scar, 18 July 2012 - 09:39 PM.