Sonic X animation styles

[Dejablue]

Yeah Naruto is one of those animes that have different teams work on different episodes. Depending on the importance of the episode you may get near movie quality animation. Less important episodes characters can look like cardboard. Or on the other extreme, look like they are made out of silly puddy.

I think it's prevalent in anime that have crap tons of episodes. You just can't expect a small number of people to constantly produce dozens upon dozens of episodes all by themselves. But some studios are just BETTER at keeping the style consistent. Apparently the studio that did Sonic X ain't one of them.

Edited October 25, 2011 by Dejablue

[Ferno]

I got destroyed on an anime-based forum for saying this but like, I liked how that episode was animated, mostly. ._. Especially that running part, would've killed to see something like that used on any of Sonic's run cycles, being cartoony an' all..

Edited October 25, 2011 by Inferno

[Sonaos]

I knew there was something I hated about Sonic X aside from Chris. It's been so long that I've seen it, I've never noticed how terribly inconsistent it was. I knew it looked pretty bad at times, but still..

Great topic!

[Dejablue]

I can see some good merits to that episode. But... I dunno. I think it contorted too much. Especially when you compare it to the Confession episode that happened just before. It also had a loose n smooth animation style but it did a slightly better job at keeping people on model. Same with the Valley of the End fight in Part 1.

I learned from watching Samurai Champloo that some shows purposefully create characters that don't have much detail. So that when its time for them to run around and do acrobatic stuff, the animators don't have to worry about details like belt buckeles and zippers or hair strands. It's almost like they become moving silhouettes. And shows where characters do have high level of detail, when a big fight is about to happen that requires a ton of body movement, you can expect the quality of the characters on screen to lessen to some degree.

Edited October 25, 2011 by Dejablue

[azoo]

What? Naruto isn't as bad an offender?

TBH, these two videos show much worse animation then what I ever saw throughout 78 episodes of Sonic X. Not even episodes 18, 36 and 47 got anywhere near as bad as that in-motion 0_o;;

Nah, the second video has far superior art and animation (animation by a LONG SHOT) than the entirety of Sonic X. It's fast, fluid, and crazy expressive; even going to cartoony exaggeration at times. Sonic shows should take LOADS of inspiration from that video, so I'm not too sure what you're getting at with that.

The first video? Urm.. yeah okay you got me there.

Edited October 25, 2011 by Azukara

[Sonic the Hedgehog in 3D]

Also, Eggman likes to shave, or so I've heard....

The thing with this scene is you can see Eggman's moustache is drawn on they just mis-coloureded

[mclaren6]

The thing with this scene is you can see Eggman's moustache is drawn on they just mis-coloureded

Well, Now we know that there colour blind!

[Nepenthe]

I disagree completely, that second video is pretty pants if we're comparing it to the entirety of X. That show may have had some lows, but it certainly had some real commendable highs, namely the keystone episodes. Not only was the animation there fluid and believable, but every single drawing was both on model, expressive, and had significant detail. In that video, lot of the facial animation was just horrible. The drawings were amateurish and not all that expressive, almost like bad Flash. The actual motion is fluid as far as anime goes, but I was once told if your actual drawing is bad, then the foundation of your animation is pretty much in shambles already. Following from that, a lot of the movements and blows felt floaty and without any significant impact, which I think is both a drawing and timing issue. That video is the last thing the franchise in general needs to take inspiration from.

[Dark Qiviut]

Here's something interesting:

SONIC 06 SONIC CONFIRMED FOR X.

This was not the only spot in Episode 27 where the Sonic characters were poorly drawn. There was another spot where it was very poorly drawn.

Since I'm having issues posting the image, I'll post the link to it.

http://www.teamartail.com/sonicx/viewimage.php/27/images/159sonicknux.jpg

Edited October 25, 2011 by Dark Qiviut

[Vertekins]

Not to mention that Ep 27 had the infamous "panty-less Cream", not that she has anything to show. People claim that she's panty-less but I think it must be a colouring error;

[Dark Qiviut]

Not to mention that Ep 27 had the infamous "panty-less Cream", not that she has anything to show. People claim that she's panty-less but I think it must be a colouring error;

I knew Episode 27 had really bad animation, but this is the first time I saw this! I can excuse some style inconsistencies, but how come no one caught the coloring error before it was published?

Now I can see why people joke about Cream not wearing underwear on here!

Edited October 25, 2011 by Dark Qiviut

[DaBatGuy]

Really? because this is the only time I've seen such inconsistent art direction from any anime. :V

You think Sonic X or even Naruto had the worst dives in animation quality?

You need a serious serving of Yashi gani then:

[azoo]

I disagree completely, that second video is pretty pants if we're comparing it to the entirety of X. That show may have had some lows, but it certainly had some real commendable highs, namely the keystone episodes. Not only was the animation there fluid and believable, but every single drawing was both on model, expressive, and had significant detail. In that video, lot of the facial animation was just horrible. The drawings were amateurish and not all that expressive, almost like bad Flash. The actual motion is fluid as far as anime goes, but I was once told if your actual drawing is bad, then the foundation of your animation is pretty much in shambles already. Following from that, a lot of the movements and blows felt floaty and without any significant impact, which I think is both a drawing and timing issue. That video is the last thing the franchise in general needs to take inspiration from.

I don't remember a single bit of Sonic X that had any complex animation that would properly imitate lively, realistic movement. Sticking 100% to the character models at all times mixed with the budget effort they had going, X was incredibly rigid, even at it's most fluid and top-notch moments. Neither did I see them pan with as intense of camera angles as any of those scenes.

And while those drawings of the characters' face were not too great, they were much more expressive than I've ever seen the characters in Sonic X, minus the 'cartoony' style that was briefly used in the beginning of the series.

[Nepenthe]

For what it's worth, I don't believe animation quality is dictated by how much it imitates real life. I've seen rotoscoping of human movement get absolutely destroyed by Looney Tunes animation from the same time period. I think the success of an animation from a technical perspective boils back down to a combination of the principles used and the artists' capabilities, and that's where X shines for me. When that character's face proceeded to contort, it struck of pathetically lazy clean-up and timing. I can understand how you see that character's emotions as being more expressive, and Naruto as a whole had more creative camera movement, but none of those inherently translate into better character animation.

[azoo]

If the 'realistic movement' remark came to interpretation that I meant to imitate real life and/or rotoscoping, then let me reiterate. Poor choice of words on my part, I must admit.

I was mostly just saying how fluid, expressive, and detailed the movements are compared to most of X's art. In fact, Sonic X would've highly benefited from more dynamic angles and extra emotion. The whole scene where that guy is moving his feet at such speeds to where they imitate Sonic's themselves looks much better than any of the attempts put in X, which were just as stiff and minimal on inbetween frames as the rest of the show.

[Your Vest Friend]

Huh, in seven years of trawling Team Artail, I have honestly never noticed the inconsistencies. Shows how much I pay attention.

Then again, Sonic X does have the ice cream lip stick, so maybe I was just placated by that.

[NintendoSoul]

I prefer positive animation, everything else looks either ugly or lazy.

Edited October 25, 2011 by NintendoSoul

[Agent York]

Not to mention that Ep 27 had the infamous "panty-less Cream", not that she has anything to show. People claim that she's panty-less but I think it must be a colouring error;

Pretty sure it's a coloring error, I recall something similarly happening in episode 12.

Hell, when I was looking through pictures for another animation error I recall I even accidentally ran into another one when typing this post.

On another note entirely, this show had some of the best facial reactions ever.

[Dejablue]

Amy should just wear something under her dress. Not panties because that's still perverted. But black shorts. or something.

[Milo]

Amy should just wear something under her dress. Not panties because that's still perverted. But black shorts. or something.

The Character Costume Redesign thread is still open BTW...regardless, as long as pantie shots aren't shown in CG/in-game cutscenes, I don't think it's anything that requires a costume change for Amy.

Not to mention that Ep 27 had the infamous "panty-less Cream", not that she has anything to show. People claim that she's panty-less but I think it must be a colouring error;

Yeah, I think it's a coloring error. Otherwise her legs would look like they were "attached" to her body. Same goes for the other two posted Amy pictures (speaking of the first, her legs are really out of proportion).

Edited October 26, 2011 by Zinos

[Nerfuffle]

[Tornado]

Also, Amy appears to be a giant wasp, with her arms and legs coming out of her midsection and the colossal bee stinger coming out of her ass.

[Blue Blood]

^^^ Love it.

A lot of these animation issues with X aren't particularly noticeable in motion. Yeah, that's not excuse because other shows do it fine, but I think the animation seems a lot worse when you look at random stills.

[Bria]

I haven't laughed so hard before. I can't believe I didn't notice some of these. Definitely noticed the weird proportions they gave the characters, though.

I didn't care much for the third season, but damn Sonic is completely stoned. Not to mention his back quill is completely flattened in the backside and Amy is apparently taller then him.

[Nerfuffle]

Also, Amy appears to be a giant wasp, with her arms and legs coming out of her midsection and the colossal bee stinger coming out of her ass.