What's your favorite running animation?

[TB100]

Now over the years, we have had many different running animations for Sonic as a whole, but throughout the last 25 years, there has primarily been three so far.

Classic Running Animation (1991-1994, 2010-Current)

Ahhhhhh the classic, now this animation is very iconic to many people, for many reasons,

Now this animation is very different from most deciptions of Sonic running, the obivous thing is the curled up arms, which is a sign that Sonic is ready to roll at any time.

this was obivously his primarily running animation all throughout the classic era, but it soon made a return in both Sonic 4 EP 1 & 2, and is now Classic Sonic's running animation in all of his appearances to date. now i love this animation, it's such a classic animation. but while it does look fine in a 2D space, it does look a little awkward in 3D admittedly. (According to that Classic Mod in Generations.) which is probably why they changed it to the

Adventure Running Animation (1995-2008, Current)

This is without a doubt his most iconic animation to date. and it's pretty much a icon of Sonic as a whole. with his arms behind him, and him leaning just a bit. 

Now Sonic has had his arms behind him in the classic games before, (Sonic CD,) but it wasn't until the Saturn era where it became his main running animation. starting with the Special stages in 3D Blast, and it would soon became his primarily running animation in the games until Sonic 06 came around. but even in todays media, it still tends to pop up a lot. This is personally my favorite of the 3 honestly. it's such an iconic animation for him, and when i think of Sonic running, this is the animation i typically think of. hell it was even in the Advance games. (Though Advance 1 had this weird hybrid between his classic and his adventure running animation which looked awkward as hell in my opinion.) but when Colors came around and signaled a new era in Sonic, a new animation came as well.

Modern/Boost Running Animation (2010-Current)

This is the animation he uses today. now as the games became more speed oriented and less platforming oriented, his overall animation while not too different from his Adventure animation became more steamlined compared to the Adventure animation, his body leans far more then it did before, and his hands are now completely open as opposed to previous games, where he had them closed before, now this animation compared to his adventure animation, is much more aerodynamic and steamlined then previous games, obivously to suit the faster pace of the newer Sonic games better, now admittedly i'm not too big on this animation. I don't hate it, but i don't know, it looks slightly unnatural to me. maybe it's the fact that he leans his body a bit too much, or the fact that his hands are wide open as opposed to the fists, I don't know, I just don't imagine Sonic with this animation as opposed to his Adventure animation. Maybe it's that the previous animation has lasted so long, that i'm more used to it? I don't know really, But now i want to know, what's your favorite running animation out of the three?

 

 

 

[Sparky]

Arms back, hands open, figure-eight peelout, is the fastest-looking running animation. 

[Osmium]

Yeah my favourite is definitely the classic running animation, with like how you said his arms are curled forwards so he looks like he can curl up at any moment. I also like his quite cartoony spinny legs too, and how his shoes curve to make it look like a circle without having to make the whole area look like just a big blur. It's a real treat to watch at full speed.

I also like how Sonic keeps his head down and forward too, around the same height as his hands, so it makes him look more compact and makes him look like he could go into rolling attack at any second. I just love how dedicated everything was to making Sonic's rolling form his most integral feature. 

 

Speaking of classic running animation, peelout is quite cool too, by far the best looking peelout comes from the CD pencil test where you can see his legs wank all around super smoothly. 

 

[TheOcelot]

Classic Sonic's normal running animation (with him arms bent and forward) looks fine. However, I absolutely adore Sonic CD's 2d running animation with his arms behind him. Visually it really stands out and makes Sonic look fast and incredibly badass. I was pleased to see the super peel-out figure of 8 animation brought back in SLW and I hope it will appear in Project 2017.

 

 Adventure 1&2 animation also looks pretty good, especially when running towards screen.

[PaulyBFromDa303]

It's a tough call. After reading through this thread I have no choice but to say Adventure/Modern

 

But to be completely honest my favorite running animations come from the show itself, Sonic X. But then, there's more options with shows as opposed to video games, coming from an animators standpoint

[Diogenes]

The best running animations are always the ones where they get crazy with his feet. Once you see some swirling red blurs under him, you know he's really kicked into gear, hitting speeds so fast you can't even track his movements with the naked eye. Then, and only then, should his arms be held behind him; any slower than that and it just looks awkward.

[NikoS]

I really can't decide, it would be a tie between the classic and adventure animations, both are really good and stand out in their respective ways.

[blueblur98]

the advance trilogy had some cool ones.

[FantasticMrRobb]

I think my favorite, despite the fact that I've never played them, is the way Sonic runs in the Advance series. That is, assuming they're all the same way.

Looks like this:

Far as non-portable games go, I'd have to say probably Sonic Adventure off the top of my head. However, it's not the full on running animation, but like the jogging before he runs at full-speed. You know, where he kinda bounces a bit. Not too sure why, it's always been my favorite though.

[Darth InVaders]

On 1/23/2017 at 4:11 PM, BlueBlur91 said:

Now over the years, we have had many different running animations for Sonic as a whole, but throughout the last 25 years, there has primarily been three so far.

...

Modern/Boost Running Animation (2010-Current)

This is the animation he uses today. now as the games became more speed oriented and less platforming oriented, his overall animation while not too different from his Adventure animation became more steamlined compared to the Adventure animation, his body leans far more then it did before, and his hands are now completely open as opposed to previous games, where he had them closed before, now this animation compared to his adventure animation, is much more aerodynamic and steamlined then previous games, obivously to suit the faster pace of the newer Sonic games better, now admittedly i'm not too big on this animation. I don't hate it, but i don't know, it looks slightly unnatural to me. maybe it's the fact that he leans his body a bit too much, or the fact that his hands are wide open as opposed to the fists, I don't know, I just don't imagine Sonic with this animation as opposed to his Adventure animation. Maybe it's that the previous animation has lasted so long, that i'm more used to it? I don't know really, But now i want to know, what's your favorite running animation out of the three?

 

 

 

You are partially incorrect in his modern Boost running animation. In Unleashed, Colors and Generations, when Modern Sonic is running fast without Boost, his hands are open - but when he starts using Boost he closes his hands into fists. It is most noticeable when in the white space choosing a level in Gen. I kind of like this detail.

Also you forgot the Lost World running animation...

 

As for my opinions about the animations...

I feel like the classic animation is best suited to be Classic Sonic's running animation, it differentiates him from Modern Sonic

For Modern Sonic, I actually like the modern/Boost version now. That little hands open/closed detail is pretty cool and overall it is not that different from the Adventure animation.

As for SLW's animation. I like the idea of bringing back the Sonic CD animation of the Peel Out figure 8 look - especially if it is used to help differentiate Boost more, but I don't like how they did it in SLW. The original SCD version was not so smooth as it would have wild changes in its proportions and it was on more of a diagonal compared to SLW which is horizontal, and I preferred the SCD version to that.