Jump to content
Awoo.

Sonic Character Design Definition Topic


The Deleter

Recommended Posts

Hey, sounds quite like Lyric, with that technological streak, and in that robotic armor of his.

 

I do hope you realize that there is a difference between a fifty-foot monster and a person, comrade? Chaos-0 and Perfect Chaos, despite both being made of a watery substance, are both designed substantially differently.

 

But a bit closer to the main topic, I would say the primary reason Lyric doesn't work as a design is that he's just a bit too complex to properly fit in. Eggman and Sonic may wear a bit of complicated clothing in Boom, but their core design is as simplistic as it has always been, if a bit stretched. Lyric's design is just too busy, akin to how old Archie would design characters, like a sort of uncanny valley for Sonic characters. Every character should aim to look distinct, of course, but there should be an underlying unity of art direction to tie the series together; simple shapes may be at the bottom of most Sonic characters, but ask any artist and you'll be told there's a lot you can do with simple shapes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chaos 0's design fits right in with Sonic and his friends. It's only his more powerful states that look more monster-like.

 

I agree, was merely referring to his monstrous forms.

 

Likewise, since Biolizard was mentioned as "an animal, like Lyric!" he gets monster status on the basis that he's friggin' grossly mutated c'mon.

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like it has been said here, for characters like Sonic and inc. the key is really simple shapes and design and lets not forget the Sonic-like eyes.

Biolizard and Black Doom... though the fact that they're monsters or aliens in black doom's case, I still think they stick out too much, they're too realistic and detailed in comparison to the rest of the Sonic gang so it really makes a lot of contrast, maybe if their realism and such was toned down it wouldnt be such a big constrat. Something like chaos for example, even though chaos looks out of place it also looks in place because he's not that detailed in his final form, it's just sort of a snake-like being with 2 tentacles, nothing too big, as for chaos 0 it blends in well really. Also take the wisps for example, theyre aliens but they don't seem out of place at all due to their simple and stylized design.

As for people... I don't know if this illustration is official or so, (though I think it is) but I think that humans would definately look like this in the Sonic universe, you can somehow tell its Sonic-ish and I think it fits really well in the Sonic universe.

 

card.jpg

 

Maybe its the eyes or so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I actually really liked the Unleashed humans. They were fun designs and varied at that. While I don't mind the more poppy, realistic designs like that picture, I don't think the Sonic Adventure 2-06 designs were good at all. All the same, I don't mind either the Sonic X or Unleashed designs.

  • Thumbs Up 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wearing armor doesn't fundamentally change your body structure. And again Lyric is a "person" not a "monster", so he should look like "people" do in the Sonic universe. That's not to say he has to look like a green limbless Sonic, but it should be clear he's a Sonic character just by looking at him.

Except for the fact, that the way "people" look in the Sonic universe is quite fickle. Granted you have the protagonists who share a similar/common frame for certain body parts, but others, villains included aren't confined to such. Why be so limiting anyway?

 

Now are you absolutely sure, you'd be able to tell that the likes of say, Erazor Djinn, Void, Merlina, and the Deadly Six are "Sonic(-looking)" characters on strictly on sight?

 

I dunno, I kind it a bit unnatural to have every person, let alone an entire rogue's gallery, who's not some giant monster, confined to a simple design and structure. And of all places to once-in-a-while shake things up in the design appearance department,a rogue's gallery is often the optimum place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unleashed's humans fit well with the Sonic characters. They all are also made of simple shapes, exaggerated proportions and the variation of cute and/or beady "cartoon" eyes rather than going for the more closer-to-realism anime look.

 

They're like a mixture of Pixar and Osamu Tezuka or Leiji Matsumoto's character designs, which goes well with how the Sonic characters also resemble a mix of rubberhose cartoon animals and Tezuka's works. Its more of that mentality to taking that western cartoon appearance and giving it the stylization and quirks of Japanese animation. Sonic's whole art style (for the most part) is built off that concept.

 

Also, about the way characters all have similar proportions, please remember what most of the characters are: preteen / teenaged / young adult characters, in which half are meant to at least look agile enough to work with Sonic's gameplay (the exceptions being characters like Big, Storm, or etc; whom have different methods or lifestyles).

 

Not all characters in that style have to have the exact same proportions, heck, most of them don't have 1:1 the same. They're all similar to make sense in suiting the gameplay Sonic offers, and otherwise it'd make sense for others to have varied builds (hence why there are some other characters with different bodies).

  • Thumbs Up 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now are you absolutely sure, you'd be able to tell that the likes of say, Erazor Djinn, Void, Merlina, and the Deadly Six are "Sonic(-looking)" characters on strictly on sight?

No, not all of them. Void I'd say is pretty much spot-on to the Sonic animal design aesthetic even though he isn't an animal, and I already talked a bit about the Six in my first post. Erazor and Merlina arguably fail to look like "Sonic characters"...but that doesn't necessarily mean we have to expand our definition to include them. They are, like Black Doom or horseguy (though not to the same extent, I'd say), poorly-fitting designs.

I dunno, I kind it a bit unnatural to have every person, let alone an entire rogue's gallery, who's not some giant monster, confined to a simple design and structure.

Again, I'm not saying every character needs to follow a super-rigid template. But you should be able to recognize the series a character comes from, especially when it's one with such a strong stylized basis as Sonic. Even characters like Big and Vector, who have very different body types than Sonic, are still recognizable as Sonic characters. Lyric...isn't.
  • Thumbs Up 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a thought, do we even know if Lyric is from the same world as Sonic? If no, then he's on the same level as the Deadly Six and Black Arms. 

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That seems like some major straw-grasping. He looks on par with the other Boom NPCs, and his tech looks just like Eggman's badniks in that show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That seems like some major straw-grasping. He looks on par with the other Boom NPCs.

Then are we suggesting that the majority of Boom's population is un-fitting in looking "Sonic-y"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That seems like some major straw-grasping. He looks on par with the other Boom NPCs, and his tech looks just like Eggman's badniks in that show.

 

But that's not what I asked, is he a native to Sonic's world? If not, then I'll just drop this.

 

 

That said, don't really see much problem with Lyric's design, but then again I'm not really one to nitpick at minor details.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then are we suggesting that the majority of Boom's population is un-fitting in looking "Sonic-y"?

 

Sort of?

 

Not completely, since a few of them do look a bit fitting, but at the same time they do look like they came from something else. Sticks fits for the most part, the chef guy isn't too bad and the lady on the bottom as well as those miner guys don't look so far off from what I can see through the blurriness.

 

The lack of a muzzle and too much attention to regular animal detail instead of stylizing tends to make it ride outside the boundaries of a 'Sonic' look. Sonic characters tend to only stick to some of the details when making a character a certain animal. Whether that's viewed as a good or bad thing all depends on the viewer, but comparing a character that goes out of it's way to have realistic hippo or turtle traits while Knuckles only barely resembles an echidna (for the sake of stylizing) is a bit weird to have in the same place.

 

The amount of detail and extra shapes really makes the difference here, however. Too many of them loses the simple look, and that's what really puts the ordinary character designs on a different level to the Sonic character designs. Some sacrifices I suppose could be made for characters that aren't as important for the sake of making the main characters stand out more, but you got to have those boundaries at some point to make them seem like they come from the same place.

 

It's like if you put rubberhose classic Disney characters such as Mickey, Goofy, Donald, etc in a room with the main cast of Disney's take on Robin Hood. You get some that are somewhat close, but it's a quite different look going on and you can tell which ones stand out in comparison. Actually, the similarity in that comparison's kind of close to putting Sonic and co from Boom right beside Lyric, whom looks a bit like the snake from Robin Hood (or was it the Jungle Book? Maybe both?).

 

But that's not what I asked, is he a native to Sonic's world? If not, then I'll just drop this.

 

That was my point though. He looks really close to Boom's NPCs so it doesn't look like he's an alien, much more likely a native of Sonic's world in that canon. I could be wrong though, we really have no idea what they're doing with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Isn't Lyric supposed to be from an ancient civilization or something? That makes it sound like he's from the same world as the other characters. As for how much he looks like a Sonic character, I don't see why that should matter in the long run. As long as he's well written, he could look like something out of Metroid for all I care.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, it's not really an idea so much as the canon look, so take it up with Sonic Team. 

I meant more the idea of taking liberties of defying that and giving them toes somehow being a bad thing. :V

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I really want to see some fanart that attempts to "fix" Lyric's design.  ("Fix" in quotes because it's contentious as to whether he needs it.)  I too feel that Lyric's design is just a bit off, but it's hard to put my finger on just why.  Smooth out the scales on his belly and add some line edges to his markings, perhaps, and give his face a slightly less exaggerated structure...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unleashed's humans fit well with the Sonic characters. They all are also made of simple shapes, exaggerated proportions and the variation of cute and/or beady "cartoon" eyes rather than going for the more closer-to-realism anime look.

They're like a mixture of Pixar and Osamu Tezuka or Leiji Matsumoto's character designs, which goes well with how the Sonic characters also resemble a mix of rubberhose cartoon animals and Tezuka's works. Its more of that mentality to taking that western cartoon appearance and giving it the stylization and quirks of Japanese animation. Sonic's whole art style (for the most part) is built off that concept.

Also, about the way characters all have similar proportions, please remember what most of the characters are: preteen / teenaged / young adult characters, in which half are meant to at least look agile enough to work with Sonic's gameplay (the exceptions being characters like Big, Storm, or etc; whom have different methods or lifestyles).

Not all characters in that style have to have the exact same proportions, heck, most of them don't have 1:1 the same. They're all similar to make sense in suiting the gameplay Sonic offers, and otherwise it'd make sense for others to have varied builds (hence why there are some other characters with different bodies).

Azookara, they look incredibly similar. Yes, they're not 1:1 the same, but they look similar enough to seem like they were cut from the same mold. It's very samey and boring.

At first the design of characters was varied for what was being asked. Sonic was very round with his first appearance. Tails was a little squarer and shorter to match his youth, and his head wasn't coin round as Sonic's. Knuckles was broader, had big pronounced fists, and an ovalish head. Out of the classic cast, Amy was the only unoriginal one. For the time though, the cast stood out against one another very easily wth the same concept of simple shapes.

But as the series went, and the cast was redesigned, ever new character seemed to take the same mold as Sonic when they didn't need to be. And to say that they needed to match the gameplay is bull since none of them are supposed to play like Sonic aside from Shadow and Blaze. And at least Shadow and Blaze were birthed from the concept of an alternate Sonic. Yet you have characters like Silver, who looks like Sonic with a leaf on his head, but runs so slow, he probably needs to be dragged to catch up.

So what if they're teenagers? Not all teenagers look the same. Some are tall and lanky, some are big and bulk, some are square and chunky. There are multiple body parts that can be done for Sonic characters that don't have to be so similar to Sonic's to work.

Hey I give a character like sticks credit, she has a little bit of an alternate head design that let's her stand out. I give Boom knuckles being made to stand out more. (Since I find his modern design resembles Sonic more and more each time he comes on. )

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't deny the heads of the characters (specifically Tails and Knuckles) were once much more unique, and I actually bring it up a lot when the moment comes to say that Tails and Knuckles strangely don't have snouts anymore and have much rounder, bulbous heads that they used to. XD I really miss how Tails and Knuckles looked in the classic era and the Adventure games. Their facial traits were much more recognizable than they are today.

But their design ideas aren't bad for what they are. It's not good that every one of them that fit a certain mold fit to it completely, and sure they should be shaken up, but I don't see a problem with a lot of them as-is. If I do, then it's probably because Sega tamed them over time.. such as Rouge's feminine traits being minimized a tad too much (making them less provocative is great, but when you turn Rouge into a peanut with stick limbs... ookkaaayyy..), and the over-simplification of some of Tails and Knuckles traits, for example.

Sure, variety can be done, and it should be done. But a lot of the characters look fine the way they are to me, so I don't really know what to say on that matter besides me being okay with it for the most part. As long as Sega will make some of the more unique traits amongst characters stand out and give a little more variety then I think we're okay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't deny the heads of the characters (specifically Tails and Knuckles) were once much more unique, and I actually bring it up a lot when the moment comes to say that Tails and Knuckles strangely don't have snouts anymore and have much rounder, bulbous heads that they used to. XD I really miss how Tails and Knuckles looked in the classic era and the Adventure games. Their facial traits were much more recognizable than they are today.

But their design ideas aren't bad for what they are. It's not good that every one of them that fit a certain mold fit to it completely, and sure they should be shaken up, but I don't see a problem with a lot of them as-is. If I do, then it's probably because Sega tamed them over time.. such as Rouge's feminine traits being minimized a tad too much (making them less provocative is great, but when you turn Rouge into a peanut with stick limbs... ookkaaayyy..), and the over-simplification of some of Tails and Knuckles traits, for example.

Sure, variety can be done, and it should be done. But a lot of the characters look fine the way they are to me, so I don't really know what to say on that matter besides me being okay with it for the most part. As long as Sega will make some of the more unique traits amongst characters stand out and give a little more variety then I think we're okay.

 

Oh no, it isn't bad. If it was bad, I'd gag the second I looked at them. Sonic easily has one of the most genius and recognizable designs in the world, and one of the simplest; therin lies the genius of his design. To this day, Sonic and his cast are very recognizable from each other, it's just that it's just boring that they look so close to one another when they are differing species.

 

I feel like SEGA is just being too conservative with their designs these days, and I look forward to Boom for providing us some different designs that work with Sonic's design philosophy. And in the future, I want new characters to have more unique appearances to them, instead of just recycling Sonic's mold again. I don't want a continuation of this similar design mold again, and again, and again.

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do like the body variety Boom is giving us, but the way they're styled is going more down a non-Sonic-y route with it. Of course, this is a different canon and art style altogether so whatever, but I guess I do wish they'd do a bit more with the designs in SegaSonic canon.

Maybe the next time we get a hubworld (like that would ever happen haha ;_; ), we'll get animal people too and not just humans? Someday..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do like the body variety Boom is giving us, but the way they're styled is going more down a non-Sonic-y route with it. Of course, this is a different canon and art style altogether so whatever, but I guess I do wish they'd do a bit more with the designs in SegaSonic canon.

Maybe the next time we get a hubworld (like that would ever happen haha ;_; ), we'll get animal people too and not just humans? Someday..

 

They look very SEGA Sonic to me. The beaver man looks like a simplistic box. The turtle guy is just a square with a hat. The hippos have simple round design. The miner looks like two ovals and some sticks. They all look good for what they're going for.

 

Of course, they are designed by different artists, so if they did go with differing designs, they'd have to have a touch of difference to them. (Yuck; how's that for redundancy. XD)

 

And when you think of it, when has been the last time we've seen a Sonic character that doesn't take from the mold of Sonic. Yuji Uekawa hasn't really stepped out of his comfort zone of design if you ask me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uekawa isn't exactly the most fresh artist Sega and Sonic Team has at the moment. When he started work at Sonic Team he was doing illustrations for Ristar and the Saturn Sonic releases (Jam, 3D Blast, and R) and had a very heavily stylized and strong technique to his work.

 

During Adventure and Adventure 2, he shook up the style and made it all crazy weird, but somehow around Sonic X he started drawing everyone as if they were strictly following a reference sheet. He then progressively let his works stagnate more and more to what they are today. His current style keeps in the box far too much and doesn't take as many creative turns as it used to, which sort of blows. :\

 

He generally draws his characters in very stiff poses nowadays. They used to be really dynamic but I'm not sure how he lost grip of that in a series where most if not all the characters are very squash and stretchy. It's kind of disappointing. Maybe if we had someone who worked a bit more out-of-the-box but still had grips on what Sonic is like, then we'd start seeing more variety and good design.

 

Not saying he's bad or anything, but maybe being given a break on it would be a help. Sure it doesn't seem like he does much nowadays, but.. he actually does. He's been at Sonic Team HQ as the art director and character designer forever, right? Or at least the character designer.

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe it's just the stress of the job, and the fact he's been at designing Sonic characters for ages now. When Sonic Adventure came out, it was aiming to shake up the world with how radically different it was, and it sure did. I'm honestly surprised at how much 2D artwork there is of Sonic Adventure, featuring the cast in many different dynamic poses, but now, he doesn't seem to do much. 

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Azookara, they look incredibly similar. Yes, they're not 1:1 the same, but they look similar enough to seem like they were cut from the same mold. It's very samey and boring.

At first the design of characters was varied for what was being asked. Sonic was very round with his first appearance. Tails was a little squarer and shorter to match his youth, and his head wasn't coin round as Sonic's. Knuckles was broader, had big pronounced fists, and an ovalish head. Out of the classic cast, Amy was the only unoriginal one. For the time though, the cast stood out against one another very easily wth the same concept of simple shapes.

But as the series went, and the cast was redesigned, ever new character seemed to take the same mold as Sonic when they didn't need to be. And to say that they needed to match the gameplay is bull since none of them are supposed to play like Sonic aside from Shadow and Blaze. And at least Shadow and Blaze were birthed from the concept of an alternate Sonic. Yet you have characters like Silver, who looks like Sonic with a leaf on his head, but runs so slow, he probably needs to be dragged to catch up.

So what if they're teenagers? Not all teenagers look the same. Some are tall and lanky, some are big and bulk, some are square and chunky. There are multiple body parts that can be done for Sonic characters that don't have to be so similar to Sonic's to work.

Hey I give a character like sticks credit, she has a little bit of an alternate head design that let's her stand out. I give Boom knuckles being made to stand out more. (Since I find his modern design resembles Sonic more and more each time he comes on. )

I'm pretty sure that Silver looking like Sonic was intentional, and Sonic '06 would just look kinda off or weird if that wasn't the case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm pretty sure that Silver looking like Sonic was intentional, and Sonic '06 would just look kinda off or weird if that wasn't the case.

 

Would it look weird because you have the image of Silver ingrained in your mind, or because his final design was that good?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, considering the emphasis '06 puts on its trio of hedgehogs, it probably would be a bit odd to have Sonic, black Sonic, and then something else entirely.

Though I'm sure they still could've made him look a bit more unique than they did...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

You must read and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to continue using this website. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.