Sonic X animation styles

[batson]

Sonic X's art style is so hilariously inconsistant. It's nice to have a topic that carefully organizes and shows just how much it fluctuates from episode to episode. I actually don't mind cartoony style too much but pretty much all the other ones are pretty bad most of the time. This is my favorite screenshot of course:

One of the many times throughout the series where Knuckles' gloves change and show off his fingers.

[Cola]

EVEN WITHOUT LEGS I CAN STILL FLYYYYYYY~

(THANKS FOR THE JOKE, SPY)

[Semi-colon e]

I've never watched Sonic X, and this is making me laugh.

Sonic X's art style is so hilariously inconsistant. It's nice to have a topic that carefully organizes and shows just how much it fluctuates from episode to episode. I actually don't mind cartoony style too much but pretty much all the other ones are pretty bad most of the time. This is my favorite screenshot of course:

One of the many times throughout the series where Knuckles' gloves change and show off his fingers.

[Ferno]

Different animators were in charge of different episodes, each with their own styles, like all anime and cartoons, though in general, it's more noticeable in animu because the more realistic character models are harder to keep looking the same from one animator to the next. I'm willing to bet that each of the different styles Verte posted is from 1 key animator each, each with their own in-betweeners working with them on their scenes. The problem here though is that the animators of Sonic X really didn't try hard enough to make sure their styles meshed together and looked like something coherent and consistent, and it turned out looking like crap most of the time.

The thing that baffles me though is that, unlike most anime, sonic characters shouldn't really be all that hard to keep looking good and consistent, I mean, they're made out of circles and whatnot from a drawing standpoint. O-O The humans I can understand but the Sonic characters? And these guys are professionals? Unless most of the animation was farmed out to other places that used lower-level animators to keep things cheap and stuff, maybe that's the reason, but still.

[Phos]

Remember that episode where they find that world underneath an island? Yeah, that episode doesn't make any sense, and it had this funny moment where a bunch of characters appear to slide across the deck of a boat in this really unnatural way. I think they also show a map of the world and it's just these three chunky continents in a row.

So what was with the way that they came to Chris's world, and it seemed as though SA 1 and 2 had already had happened (what with the Tornado doing that morphing thing), and then suddenly they decided to do those stories anyway?

Then they did that bait and switch when they teased sticking an engine to the outside of the Tornado, but then they were like nope! Vertex fighter ripoff.

[Kuzu]

Different animators were in charge of different episodes, each with their own styles, like all anime and cartoons, though in general, it's more noticeable in animu because the more realistic character models are harder to keep looking the same from one animator to the next. I'm willing to bet that each of the different styles Verte posted is from 1 key animator each, each with their own in-betweeners working with them on their scenes. The problem here though is that the animators of Sonic X really didn't try hard enough to make sure their styles meshed together and looked like something coherent and consistent, and it turned out looking like crap most of the time.

The thing that baffles me though is that, unlike most anime, sonic characters shouldn't really be all that hard to keep looking good and consistent, I mean, their made out of circles and whatnot from a drawing standpoint. O-O The humans I can understand but the Sonic characters? And these guys are professionals? Unless most of the animation was farmed out to other places that used lower-level animators to keep things cheap and stuff, maybe that's the reason, but still.

[lounge]

I always hated this about the show. What a bad animation company. Has anybody noticed how they always draw sonic and shadow with only 3 spines? I have the SA2 saga on DVD, and the quality of the animation is probably the worst I've ever seen in a cartoon. Are the animators that uninterested in the sonic characters. And what is it with them changing things from the games? I really hated that. I was expecting to see Radical Highway, Final Rush, etc. But they just got lazy and decided to put all this other boring shit in. What a letdown. They could've made the show cool, but no. There are some episodes that look really nice though. The first ep comes to mind. I'm glad they atleast kept Rouge and Shadow's muzzles that darker color. They don't do this anymore for some reason in the games ever since Heroes.

[Milo]

Yeah, that's an annoying animation flaw. It happened in episodes 24 and 58 as well;

That second pic reminds me of something...

[Nitwit_Speed]

I'm not very keen, so i never really noticed differences in styles, but moreso just "this episode > this episode." I actually skipped from Episode 3 to the start of the SA2 ARK (*slaps knee*) and almost cried because of how clunky the animation was.

Thanks for breaking it down like this!

[-Mark-]

SONIC X-TREME HANDICAPPED CHILDREN RACING, COMING 2012 FOR XBOX KINECT.

Naaah, you know that any Sonic game with a title containing anything that even remotely resembles the word 'extreme' is gonna get cancelled.

[Winston]

Tails is heavier and Knuckles is poking his claws into his flesh.

Way to go Sonic X.

[FoxTrax]

I think we can all agree that Season 3 was consistently the worst-animated of the three.

In that case, the animation actually matches the quality of that season.

[Jacky]

being sonikku is suffering............

[SchemingMinor]

Oh, I was waiting for a fun topic like this to pop up. Browsing through my large folder of Eggman Sonic X images (why do I have a large folder for Eggman? Just...just...shut up! Reference! ) I can see how wildly the style swings from one screenshot to the next. Comparing some of the profile shots and the animation idea that I held from five years ago to now, many of the proportions and perspectives on the characters are just downright off center and terrible. It's amazing that practicing perspective in your drawing can help you spot major flaws that would be seen as "normal" in times past.

This is how you do Eggman's nose in a front-quarter profile:

Compare to how they mainly draw it in a flat side profile, stemming from laziness:

I swear episode 18 ( which our abstract Eggman above is from) has the absolute worst animation of any of the episodes, hands down. http://www.teamartail.com/sonicx/18/

Then there is just the downright sexually subliminal:

Ladies and gentlemen: Eggman molests a banana for your viewing pleasure.Leave your hats and personal belongings at the front desk. No minors allowed in the burlesque house.

I'll have to compose an Eggman style guide later.

[Xenos]

Oh dear God what the hell happened.

Sonic looks horrid, and everyone in the background looks like they got a polygonal makeover.

Here's a picture to get your mind off of that...thing above:

It's ironic how one of the better pictures...is of, Chris....

[JezMM]

^ I dunno, I think they drew his eyes a bit wide there. I always thought Chris had slightly more circular eyes (obviously very rounded-square circles but still). I know his eyes are half-closed but imagining them open in that proportion would make them anime girl huge.

Edited October 17, 2011 by JezMM

[Little T]

I definitely like the cartoony style best. It makes the character redesigns look friendly and lively instead of stiff and lifeless.

Also:

...is adorable

And while we're on this topic:

Wut?

[DarkLight]

^The latter one was from a drawing board from "To Catch a Hedgehog," when they were trying out stragedies on how to trap Sonic, I believe.

[batson]

Wut?

That is what season 4 would have looked like.

On another topic, i like that Chris image that Xenos posted. Sure, the characters eyes might look slightly of model, but i still like the design. Is a male, human character aged 12 to old for a 24-year old male to call, well, cute, without it sounding perverted? You know, even if one uses the term in the same perfectly innocent way that one would when refering to a small child or an animal? Hmm... yeah, i think it might be to old, so im not gonna call him that... But still, nice design.

Edited October 17, 2011 by batson

[Vertekins]

Oh, I was waiting for a fun topic like this to pop up. Browsing through my large folder of Eggman Sonic X images (why do I have a large folder for Eggman? Just...just...shut up! Reference! ) I can see how wildly the style swings from one screenshot to the next. Comparing some of the profile shots and the animation idea that I held from five years ago to now, many of the proportions and perspectives on the characters are just downright off center and terrible. It's amazing that practicing perspective in your drawing can help you spot major flaws that would be seen as "normal" in times past.

This is how you do Eggman's nose in a front-quarter profile:

Compare to how they mainly draw it in a flat side profile, stemming from laziness:

I swear episode 18 ( which our abstract Eggman above is from) has the absolute worst animation of any of the episodes, hands down. http://www.teamartail.com/sonicx/18/

Then there is just the downright sexually subliminal:

Ladies and gentlemen: Eggman molests a banana for your viewing pleasure.Leave your hats and personal belongings at the front desk. No minors allowed in the burlesque house.

I'll have to compose an Eggman style guide later.

[JezMM]

Wut?

Just to not cause confusion with non-Sonic X faithfuls, that's a kind of unfair "wut". That was from a deliberately simply animated chibi-fied imaginary sequence in which the characters were describing a plan before they performed it.

[BlazingTales]

I swear episode 18 ( which our abstract Eggman above is from) has the absolute worst animation of any of the episodes, hands down. http://www.teamartail.com/sonicx/18/

DERP DERP

I cannot even fathom why any animator thought that looked OK.

Edited October 17, 2011 by BlazingTales

[Semi-colon e]

This looks weird in so many ways I can't even begin to describe.

CHRIST ALMIGHTY

Yeah, this is just... terrible.

[Vertekins]

You want REALLY bad animation? Ep 18 is pretty bad, ep 47 is awful but the unquestionably worst drawing and animation style goes to episode 36 - http://www.teamartail.com/sonicx/36/

It's hideous, repulsive and absolutely disgusting. You know the budget and quality control was completely lost here. This one really sticks out;

My god Sonic! What an enormous swollen head you have!

I also discovered this a few years ago when I was screen-capping for a topic on good old SonicAnime forums. Does this remind you of anything?;

Hmmm, now what does that remind me of? Oh yeah!

[Ferno]

Just making sure that you guys realize that alot of animes have wonky looking inbetween frames that only look worse because they were meant to be seen in motion, heck there's a meme dedicated to it called "QUALITY" (in all caps.)

No I'm not defending Sonic X's subpar animation, but like, alot of these examples I remember being really quick scenes. Though the scenes where characters are just standing around for seconds on end and looking bad, yeah those definitely count. :V That's just plain bad art in general.

Edited October 17, 2011 by Inferno