What’s good?  These desktop wallpapers.  While searching for something new and interesting to adorn my desktop, I found these 3D renderings of classic Sonic moments.  Turns out that they were created by Compsense, a regular member at other Sonic forums that I frequent.  Check them out and visit his profile for more of his work!

Sonic 2 Special Stage:

Sonic & Tails Bliss:

This picture looks like Sonic & Tails hopped into the default background for Windows XP!

Green Hill Zone Boss:

Spring Stadium Zone

Oh, 3D Blast, you’d be so much better without Flickies.  At least your music rules.  Mad props to you, Compsense.

Visit Compsense’s profile on Deviant Art!

With the news of Ben Hurst’s passing today, we thought we would honor him with some fan tributes to one of his most-loved creations, Sonic SatAM.  Please enjoy our gallery below and visit the artists’ DeviantArt pages for more great work.

SatAM DVD Box Art Contest Entry by yuski:

Fin by CozmikSummoner:

Robotnik Bead Sprite by SerenaAzureth:

Sonic and Tails SatAM by Chistopher-Jones:

SatAM Dr. Robotnick by IceBlazer17:

Share us more SatAM/Sonic Underground love in the comments.  Be respectful.

]]> http://www.sonicstadium.org/blog/2010/09/01/in-honor-of-ben-hurst-satam-fan-art/feed/ 15 http://www.sonicstadium.org/blog/2010/08/31/knuckles-is-a-smooth-criminal/ http://www.sonicstadium.org/blog/2010/08/31/knuckles-is-a-smooth-criminal/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:03:11 +0000 Nuckles87 http://www.sonicstadium.org/?p=18408

Archie’s Sonic creators Ian Flynn and Tracy Yardley! both made an appearance at Toronto’s FanExpo con. Naturally, their presence attracted some Sonic fans to the show, including the person pictured below. The Archie people got a picture of one of them and posted it up on their facebook wall.

Prepare yourself for the most epic cosplay ever!

Engage over-sensitivity.  Power down sense of humor.  Commence fight over this joke.  Good game, Stadium commenters.

For the rest of us normal people, here’s a quick chuckle to start your Tuesday.

Visit thweatted’s profile on DeviantArt!

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you asked me to name a popular British recording artist, I would only be able to name Dizzee Rascal.  He is amazing.  So is the Sonic Rush soundtrack.  There’s something about vocalizations in Sonic music that elevates it to another level.  Enjoy this week’s mash-up between Dizzee’s “Stand Up Tall” and Sonic Rush‘s “Back to Back.”

ECC’s Summer of Yardley continues this week with another page. This page is a perfect example of why Tracy Yardley! is one of my favorite people on the Archie Sonic book: the character interaction. For a single page, a lot is conveyed here, through facial expressions, movement, and stuff happening in the background. Despite Tracy’s simple style, he’s able to put a lot into his pages. He is probably one of the few comic book artists I know of who understand how much plot and story can be conveyed through how the characters act and move, not just what they say.

This  page was colored by Kichi, and lettered by the Illustrious Q. Sonic Eggs is an Emerald Coast Comics series.

HI THIS IS NOT BRAD THIS IS MARCUS.  i stole his password .  HEY DO YOU LIKE SONIC I DO.  they added a few like marine she is cool and makes me feel good in weird places.  then they added silver and he is cool because he uses his mind to solve things and make things glow.  SOMETIMES I DON’T LIKE THE OTHER CHARACTERS THOUGH.   HeRe is ur question this week OKAY:

WHICH SONIC CHARACTER WOULD YOU PUNCH IN THE FACE IF U HAD THE CHANCE. TeLl Me WhY u WoUlD.  Uz detailz.

this is marcus and that wuz my sunday poll!!!  im playing Sonic 06 right now!!

]]> http://www.sonicstadium.org/blog/2010/08/29/sunday-poll-a-pawnch-to-the-face/feed/ 57 http://www.sonicstadium.org/blog/2010/08/28/behind-the-mushroom-hill-video/ http://www.sonicstadium.org/blog/2010/08/28/behind-the-mushroom-hill-video/#comments Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:42:17 +0000 Brad Flick http://www.sonicstadium.org/?p=18337

Click here to view the embedded video.

Robert Medina (“BlobVanDam”) is an incredibly talented 3D artist.  His video has quickly skyrocketed to near 300,000 views as of this posting after only 5 days of being online.  It has clearly struck a chord with gamers and I’m sure everybody, including ourselves, expressed interest for an interview this week.  He finally broke his silence and spoke to PlayStation LifeStyle yesterday to talk about his incredible Mushroom Hill video.  How did he manage to capture Sonic’s magic and our undivided attention in such a short time?

I really am surprised by the response from this video.Had I known it would get this much attention, I’d probably have put some more time into finishing the level, and polishing the animation and effects further. This was actually just a quick project I did for fun over a couple of weeks so I could see how well a classic style Sonic game would adapt to 2.5D/3D graphics. It wasn’t meant to draw any comparisons to Sonic 4, and wasn’t intended to make any major design changes to the game or introduce any new elements, hence the fact it sticks quite close to the original design of the level and Sonic. I know one of the main criticisms of my video is the Sonic model and animations, so I perhaps stuck too close to the original game in that regard.

Although the final video looks fairly good, it wasn’t really a complex or lengthy video to create. The level blocks are all pretty simple, and reused to create the larger level, and much of the animation consisted of small looping animations.

The reason it looks good (and why people have liked it) is because of how the 2D elements of Sonic were adapted to 3D, and because of the modern lighting and effects used to update the original look. And while it’s true that these effects weren’t achieved in realtime, with today’s modern consoles a similar game could easily get 95% of the way there with pre-rendered lighting and pixel shaders. The polygon counts are not very high due to the flatter depth of 2D gameplay, so that’s not a problem either.

I haven’t been contacted by Sega or anyone else concerning the video. I really don’t expect to, since it only showcases graphics, and doesn’t show a lot of new ideas aside from that. The video was posted on Sega’s blog, so I know someone has seen it, but I don’t expect anything to come of that. There have been hundreds of comments comparing my video to Sonic 4, but I don’t know that it will count for much in the long run. But if they were interested, I have plenty of ideas.

If interest keeps up, I may create another video, maybe even create a video showcasing some completely new ideas rather than remaking old ones, but since this is only for fun, I’m not sure if I will at this stage.

Robert has also made his rounds to Sonic Retro, where he is currently discussing the process with the members there.  As a “peace offering,” he posted high-res images of his Sonic model!

Medina: "After seeing the comments on YouTube and looking through the redesign Sonic thread here, and after attempting to animate those stumpy legs into walking, definitely not the design I'd use next time, but still not a bad classic Sonic 3D adaptation... I intentionally made the spines thin and spiky so they'd show up better in the predominantly side-on view (otherwise they tend to blur together a bit too much). My only real criticism of the model is that the face lacks character. The eyes are a bit dead, and he has no mouth, but I'd say it's far from terrible (I say that as objectively as I can as the guy who actually made it)."

Medina also elaborated as to why there’s not a high definition version of such a beautiful video:

The render times were quite short, as I don’t currently have my render farm set up, so this was all done on the one machine. Average of about 2 minutes per frame at 640×360 (sorry guys, no higher def render available!), and then about 1:30 a frame for the light rays pass. Anyone who’s worked with 3D graphics will tell you that 2 minutes a frame is a dang short render, so these renders aren’t too unrealistic for realtime. Most of the magic was in post effects.

Robert is currently fielding questions about the video in the Sonic Retro thread.  You don’t have a to be a member of the forum to see it, but you will if you want to ask any questions.  I’ve linked you guys to the page where he starts discussing.

I found myself in a Sonic Advance 2 mood today and was happily reminded that its soundtrack is phenomenal.  It’s one of the few soundtracks from recent Sonic games where the melody manages to land in my head and stay there.  Also, it suits the frenetic pace that the game sports.  Let’s share some remixes, because I feel like it.

GeckoYamori’s Genesis mixes have been featured before, but he has got plenty more.  Check out his Genesis cover of Leaf Forest Zone:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hot Crater’s melody is awesome.  I went looking for a remix that really ripped it up on guitar, but all I found were a bunch of synths.  Out of the ones I found, I liked this one the best:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Eventually, I did find one with a “guitar” lead at Newgrounds.  Check out this one by BeatDarkX.

Why this post exists in the first place is that I’ve only been able to find only three good remixes between places like OCRemix, VGMix, Newgrounds and YouTube.  I want some more!  Give me your Sonic Advance 2 remixes, knuckleheads.  A Music Plant Zone remix gets you bonus points on the imaginary Sonic Stadium ScoreTron 5000.

Hold right to win.

It must be 3D-Sonic engine season or something.  We’ve had that kickass video, Damizean’s “Egg Engine” and now this?!  What an awesome week!

One of the creators fangame Ashura: Dark Reign, Xaklse, has released the third preview build for his engine.  The “SonicGDK Engine” is standalone and built within the Unreal Development Kit, which is free to download and distribute.  What’s great about this engine, out of the stuff we’ve shown you recently, is that you can play it!  Xak is looking to make this engine the best it can be, so he wants your feedback.

Here are the controls:

Keyboard

WASD and arrow keys for character movement.
Mouse movement for looking and turning.
Left mouse button or left control to jump.
Right mouse button or C to crouch.
Space bar or left shift or right shift to perform special move.
Q to dodge left.
E to dodge right.
Mouse wheel to zoom the camera in/out.
F9 to take a screenshot.
Tab to open up console.

Gamepad

Left-Thumbstick for character movement.
Right-Thumbstick up or D-Pad up to look up.
Right-Thumbstick down or D-Pad down to look down.
A to jump.
B to crouch.
X or Y to perform special move.
Left-Shoulder to dodge left.
Right-Shoulder to dodge right.
Left-Trigger to strafe left.
Right-Trigger to strafe right.

One of the sweet new improvements to this third build is the ability to snap from 3D to 2.5D, a la Sonic Colors.  Cooooool…

Download the engine: Mirror 1 | Mirror 2 | Mirror 3

Make sure that you have the latest DirectX. A “D3DCOMPILER_43.DLL” error means that you need to upgrade your DirectX.

Play for yourself and leave some comments below.  Try not to start a fight (again).

[via Sonic Retro]