The Topic of Designs and Re-designs

[Clouder]

Yay! My First official topic!

 

So as we all know, Sonic has gone through several redesigns. Some loved, some hated. But which designs do you like the most? and if you could redesign Sonic, how would you do it?

 

                     

My favorite design is the beta Sonic Adventure concepts because it has the perfect mix of Classic and Modern. I honestly wish they went with this one.

 

Oh and Mods, please merge this if it already exists.

 

[Jaden]

I'm fine with his current design honestly. Modern Sonic has been around the longest and it would just seem weird to change him now.

[The Pit of Mystic Cave]

I liked when Sonic was chubby, but I love every one of his many looks, even when he was tricked out at the end on Adventure 2. His character design has always been really enjoyable to me.

[Chaos Incarnate]

His current design is my favorite. He's a little taller than adventure Sonic, but still looks like a hedgehog. This design looked fantastic in Unleashed, due to blending in with the Pixar esque humans perfectly. Hopefully, Sonic Team thinks they've struck gold with this design, and won't alter it in a very long time.

[Sarah Jane Smith]

Remove the buttbrow, make him more expressive and we're good.

 

Oh and some more stylized shading would be nice too...

 

Edit: AND BRING BACK THE NIKE SMILE!

Edited January 31, 2013 by cosmictruffle

[Animatedmusic]

I like how Sonic right now.

Not to tall or too fat, just right.

I do wish his spines were a bit shorter,

but other than that I think it is the best one

[Naysu]

I love all of the designs, I'm glad Knuckles got an overhaul from his old 'tiny feet massive head' syndrome that made him lok unstable to stand haha, much better now-a-days.

[iDEATH]

The current model (unleashed/generations) is just brilliant, really no need for a change, though i don't doubt it'll be different in the next game.

 

I agree with OP though, that mixed design is awesome I kinda wish they'd used it in Sonic 4 as akind of explaination for the radical design change sonic went through, like Sonic 1-3 sonic's a kid, Sonic 4 sonic's a teenager and a little taller then ADV he's fully grown.

[Dr. Homem]

I'd have to pick the Secret Rings/Unleashed onwards Sonic:

First and noticeably, the quills are not too curved, unlike the 2006 design, yet just of balanced length to his previous concepts; the eye ridges aren't as prominent as the Dreamcast era design, making his face look more natural. The limbs, well, he is no longer Popeye - in the SA1 and SA2 art showed them getting thicker near the ankles/hands, which was pretty abnormal. In color, he is the correct shade of blue, which isn't as dark has the classic design but not as light as in Heroes. The shoes are composed of a suave, darkened shade of red, ending up with a visual that is more appealing to the eyes; not to mention the shape which is basically the classic form with only a bit of the curve from Adventure.

[Clouder]

I'd have to pick the Secret Rings/Unleashed onwards Sonic:

First and noticeably, the quills are not too curved, unlike the 2006 design, yet just of balanced length to his previous concepts; the eye ridges aren't as prominent as the Dreamcast era design, making his face look more natural. The limbs, well, he is no longer Popeye - in the SA1 and SA2 art showed them getting thicker near the ankles/hands, which was pretty abnormal. In color, he is the correct shade of blue, which isn't as dark has the classic design but not as light as in Heroes. The shoes are composed of a suave, darkened shade of red, ending up with a visual that is more appealing to the eyes; not to mention the shape which is basically the classic form with only a bit of the curve from Adventure.

Yeah, but it just seems off. Like I said, beta Sonic Adventure was better because it had the modern quills, classic fatness and the legs aren't too long. 

[Spin Attaxx]

I like Eggman's classic design (partly because it's the only character I can accurately draw from memory).

 

His Adventure-onwards design is pretty cool as well.

 

But the greatest design of all is THIS beast:

 

 

IM FUNNEH

[Clouder]

I like Eggman's classic design (partly because it's the only character I can accurately draw from memory).

 

His Adventure-onwards design is pretty cool as well.

 

But the greatest design of all is THIS beast:

 

 

IM FUNNEH

You need serious help.

[Spin Attaxx]

'parently some people can't take a joke...

[Clouder]

Yes and remember guys, this is not only the Sonic design topic, this is the Sonic and his Friends design topic.

You need serious help.

 

 

'parently some people can't take a joke...

Yeah...

[Chili Dawg]

 

The one, the only.

 

(All seriousness I prefer the timeless Mickey Mouse/Felix the Cat look of classic Sonic, and think there's never been a better model than Generations classic. That said, Modern ain't a bad look at all.)

[sonfan1984]

Classic design: Doesn't matter. American or Japanese design they all look fine to me.

 

Modern Sonic: I really like the design from Unleashed onwards. I think he looks great the way he is and happy that Sega finally kept a consistent look for Sonic now unless they're planning to change his design yet again for the future games.

[Clouder]

 

The one, the only.

 

(All seriousness I prefer the timeless Mickey Mouse/Felix the Cat look of classic Sonic, and think there's never been a better model than Generations classic. That said, Modern ain't a bad look at all.)

Yeah, herp that derp!

[Vertekins]

I'd have to pick the Secret Rings/Unleashed onwards Sonic:

First and noticeably, the quills are not too curved, unlike the 2006 design, yet just of balanced length to his previous concepts; the eye ridges aren't as prominent as the Dreamcast era design, making his face look more natural. The limbs, well, he is no longer Popeye - in the SA1 and SA2 art showed them getting thicker near the ankles/hands, which was pretty abnormal. In color, he is the correct shade of blue, which isn't as dark has the classic design but not as light as in Heroes. The shoes are composed of a suave, darkened shade of red, ending up with a visual that is more appealing to the eyes; not to mention the shape which is basically the classic form with only a bit of the curve from Adventure.

 

THIS.

 

I'll just have to copy paste one of my previous posts to explain why I love this particular iteration of Sonic's design in particular;

 

All of these design aspects coalesce to form the best design of Sonic ever IMO.

- The eye ridges are not too prominent

- He's not too fat yet not too thin; His belly has an extremely slight bulge to it and it's in no way exaggerated

- The luminous quality to his emerald green irises just portrays his vivid energy to me. Of interesting note is that at least in Werehog form, they do glow slightly in darkness i.e when he is first turned into a Werehog and as he turns to look at Eggman, his eye in the shade of his thick arm actually glows

- The spines/quills are of perfect length and have the perfect curvature.

- What I like about the legs is that they're not excessively thickened nearer the ankles like SA2 Sonic. Seriously, SA2 Sonic looks like his legs are severely atrophied at the 'thighs' which is not so much in this Sonic

- I kinda like the extremely slight curve at the 'toe' of his shoe

- And of course, the mouth being on only one side of the face. This depends on camera angle in the actual game i.e his mouth will switch sides on his muzzle to face the camera in Unleashed

- Nose isn't too long

- I think the hands are perfectly rendered too. Broad with somewhat thick, stubby fingers.

- Oh, and I think he's the perfect shade of blue. He certainly looks a lighter blue than previous Sonic's, who definately had darker blue fur

 

IMO, this design doesn't need to be changed at all. It's just so good.

[Diogenes]

I like Sonic's current design, but he could really stand to be...spikier. This is perhaps more a matter of posing and animation than the design/model, but too often his spikes don't actually look spiky. Especially from behind, when he's boosting; they point more or less at the camera, so you don't get any impression of spikiness, just some blobby things on his head.

[Willsy]

I think his current design is the best. If Sega were to stick with this design, I'd be happy.

[Nix]

 

I don't have anything against Sonic's current design, but good god do I love Classic Sonic, especially how he's depicted in Sonic Generations.  I often like to compare him to the likes of Kirby, in that he pulls off badass... ery, adorableness, and everything in-between all at the same time.  Short and simple, smooth looking but at the same time spiky and edgy.  I honestly wouldn't mind seeing Classic Sonic (or something similar to it) making a return in some way, shape, or form later on, he was easily one of my favorite things about Generations (his gameplay on the other hand is a different story entirely).

Edited January 31, 2013 by Pinkamina

[Milo]

I believe we've already have existing topics separately covering both character designs and character redesigns:

 

 

There are also two topics concerning both classic and modern designs for Sonic, but I can't find them as of the moment.

[Clouder]

I believe we've already have existing topics separately covering both character designs and character redesigns:

 

 

There are also two topics concerning both classic and modern designs for Sonic, but I can't find them as of the moment.

Please merge then.

[Amomynous]

I'd have to pick the Secret Rings/Unleashed onwards Sonic:

First and noticeably, the quills are not too curved, unlike the 2006 design, yet just of balanced length to his previous concepts; the eye ridges aren't as prominent as the Dreamcast era design, making his face look more natural. The limbs, well, he is no longer Popeye - in the SA1 and SA2 art showed them getting thicker near the ankles/hands, which was pretty abnormal. In color, he is the correct shade of blue, which isn't as dark has the classic design but not as light as in Heroes. The shoes are composed of a suave, darkened shade of red, ending up with a visual that is more appealing to the eyes; not to mention the shape which is basically the classic form with only a bit of the curve from Adventure.

 

That particular image is a tad pale actually, there's a brighter version which is more in-line with what he looks like in the CGI cutscenes.

 

Full version here.

 

But as you were saying, I have always loved the designs of the characters since SatSR, especially come Sonic Unleashed, in which the CGI models seem to even have a couple of things over the more recent ones, like fully rendered eyes, and nicer textures.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Mysterics

[Tara]

I love all of Sonic's designs, but the illustrations in the manual of Sonic Spinball really strike me as interesting.  The cover features the North American chubby Sonic we're all well aware of, while the manual favors a different approach.  I would say it more so resembles the "Japanese" interpretation of Sonic, but it's different.

 

This one is more sleek, with a more edgy sort of look.  It's like it has the build of classic Sonic with the attitude of SA1-SA2 Sonic. Although it's not as detailed, due to the limitations of printers at the time, as a concept, I think it looks really cool.

 

As for other Sonic characters, I love all their designs too, and I must say that the only one--literally, the only one--that I despise is the Eggman from Sonic '06.  When that game first came out and I saw the footage of Eggman, I was really disappointed to say the least.