Improve a Sonic character's design with subtle changes

[RedNether]

On 12/31/2018 at 11:30 PM, Mountaindewandsprite said:

Eh, true.

 

Also, the shorter spines for Sonic work in 2D because you're looking at him from the side.  but in 3D, you're looking at a character from the back. so the spines need to be longer to look better (and actually be visible, according to certain people).

As for me personally, yeah. I have to agree. the short spines don't look good in 3D (whenever a Boost game is in 3D camera-mode). 

[Phos]

I’ve seen some versions of Rouge that get rid of the bald spots and make up gun make up and it’s a pretty sizable improvement, seen in this, shall we say, teen rated video

Coincidentally the other example I can think of also deals with getting rid of the “bald” spots but in this case it’s on a few of the non mammals, Espio and Charmy. I’m actually not 100% on charmy because what do you put there instead?, but Espio has some reasonable options including just giving it a more scaley texture. 

[Your Vest Friend]

Espio has a scaly texture already, it's just smoother to contrast with Vector's more obvious texture. It's pretty accurate to actual chameleon scaling. 

The alternative would be to give patterned scales in some areas on there (ala Francis from SPM), which might actually be cool...but I can't think of a colour or pattern that would work well with Espio's design. 

[Diogenes]

On 12/31/2018 at 5:06 PM, RedNether said:

Also, the shorter spines for Sonic work in 2D because you're looking at him from the side.  but in 3D, you're looking at a character from the back. so the spines need to be longer to look better (and actually be visible, according to certain people).

I'm not really sure how much I buy this because...I mean, look at that Forces screenshot, despite being the Modern design his spikes still just meld together into a blob from that angle. The length doesn't make much of a difference when they're pointing almost straight back towards the camera anyway.

[StaticMania]

5 hours ago, Phos said:

I’m actually not 100% on charmy because what do you put there instead?,

You don't put anything there...he's wearing a helmet.

[DabigRG]

So in most modern era games, Shadows has gained more distinctly orange colored eyes. I think this probably could've been the case from day one, in part since his aura is already an amber.

One could potentially expand that to overwrite the crimson of his colorscheme in general, but one thing at a time.

[Your Vest Friend]

I think that varies from art to art. I know the generic stock art from circa 2007-2010 tinted the eye colour amber, but in recent art like the last couple of years of Sonic Channel and Sonic Forces, it's been shifted back to red. 

Contrast that to Vector who is still fighting between orange and gold in modern art that came out just last year. 

[DabigRG]

34 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

I think that varies from art to art. I know the generic stock art from circa 2007-2010 tinted the eye colour amber, but in recent art like the last couple of years of Sonic Channel and Sonic Forces, it's been shifted back to red. 

 

Really now? Interesting.

34 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

 

Contrast that to Vector who is still fighting between orange and gold in modern art that came out just last year. 

Oh yeah, what was the deal with that to begin with?

[DabigRG]

So how about that Boom-Boom Boom?

....

Anyway, those who frequented that part/topic of the board might remember a screenshot from the racing episode, which A couple of board members wondered if this was hint of a possible redesign for one of the "Bandicoot" sisters(Staci and Peric) to help distinguish them from the other. At the time, I proposed a bigger overall to the design:

.

On 9/25/2017 at 11:00 PM, SonicFlameFairy56 said:

So I just got finished watching the racing episode and notice something. I'm not sure which twin is it (Perci and Staci), but the top is white in the episode

.

On 9/27/2017 at 6:51 AM, DabigRG said:

Took em long enough. They did more than the same with Dixon and Gunter(who doesn't show up that much anyway, but it was still nice), so you'd think they'd have done the same with what was intended to be a major character originally and her twin who actually had a significant role in a previous episode for once. 

Still, looking up Perci's original design, all they really did there was remove her torn vest.

They should continue by doing things like inverting her headscarf's direction and maybe the color and removing the little sheath on her hip since it's unlikely Staci'll actually have use for it unless they give those two episode showing that they both know mechanics/combat. Maybe even change her quill/hairstyle a bit to resemble the unused concepts.

 

[DabigRG]

Humpity-Bump.

There'll be no image this time, at least for now, but I had a thought a couple of days ago regarding Zavok's design that would probably be better to ask here: Why does he not only have spike bracelets(like Zazz and Zomom), but Zeena and especially Zor don't?

[iambitter21]

On 1/6/2019 at 9:20 AM, Diogenes said:

I'm not really sure how much I buy this because...I mean, look at that Forces screenshot, despite being the Modern design his spikes still just meld together into a blob from that angle. The length doesn't make much of a difference when they're pointing almost straight back towards the camera anyway.

then again, Sonic's spines need to look long enough to make it look like he can roll, it is one of his many breads and butters you know. sonic adventure is a perfect example, his spine length does a good job visualizing his ability to roll, as they curl behind him a lot more. however in forces, while yes his spines do curl down like in adventure, even if shorter spines still look good on him in 3D, it's not as engaging and believable as it should be. as long as they don't curl down too much, like say, knuckles, longer spines are absolutely necessary for the modern design.

[DabigRG]

Hello again, Design Improvement thread. Thought about you a few weeks ago.

To briefly touch on my last comment about Zavok, I'm actually not sure what to replace his spiked cuffs with if anything. The only thing that comes to mind is DragonBall style weighted sweatbands, with maybe a Master Zik or generic Zeti emblem on them if they'd be plain otherwise.

Anyway, I actually wanted to revisit my change to Marine since I didn't provide a visual reference for it.

On 6/23/2018 at 1:49 PM, DabigRG said:

Oh yeah, I forgot about this thread! I suppose I can expand upon my already quoted post a bit.

So, for Marine, the one minor thing I was referring to was her eye color. Sonic is blue with green eyes, Tails is yellow with cyan-blue eyes, and Blaze is lavender-purple with yellow eyes.

There's something of a neat pattern or two here while both being distinct but not too obvious. Marine sorta got in on it by being a brown-orange(not sure about the exact shade), but then she falls into the Archie comic's habit of having blue eyes. A darker blue than Tails, sure, but still more or less the same color.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say she probably should've had violet-purple eyes instead, both falling into the pattern and giving her a semi-distinct eye color.

Zavok is...kind of a complicated judgement, never mind the revision.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I don't agree with Marine eyes thing.

{AAAAAH! Sonic fans arguing about eye color. Run, people! Run!}

I mean, i see the logic, but her name is MARINE. She's lives on island, makes boat, maybe has water powers. It makes sense for her to have ocean-blue eyes, just like Blaze has fiery-yellow.

[DabigRG]

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I don't agree with Marine eyes thing.

{AAAAAH! Sonic fans arguing about eye color. Run, people! Run!}

I mean, i see the logic, but her name is MARINE. She's lives on island, makes boat, maybe has water powers. It makes sense for her to have ocean-blue eyes, just like Blaze has fiery-yellow.

Huh. Never directly associated fire with yellow, though its sometimes the mantle of it. Red and/or rather orange are more that speed.

I went with purple in part because water is most often associated with blue, which opposite to yellow with orange has to combine to make it.

But perhaps you have a point.