Animation in the Sonic Series

[- Eternal Paradox -]

Ive just been remembered of Big's gameplay in SA1 when tikal/light flies around his head and his tiny black pupils spin around to follow it. Its was the only time his pupils ever moved in that game and i remember as kid finding it very creepy. hah

I remember that. I think all of the characters did that. It was kinda a nice touch for me, like they're actually paying attention to what Tikal's saying.

Was that passed on for SA2 for Omachao? I honestly can't remember.

Oh no!

Our weapons are useless!

*moonwalks*

Heh. All the human characters in Adventure weren't animated all that well. But seeing that the police were only meant to be used for that one cutscene, they probably wouldn't have put too much effort into rigging/animating them.

Funnily enough, in english dilogue Sonic's all cocky, yet in Japanese voices he sounds slightly more concerned... That surprised me.

I feel, in terms of topics like this, that it's nice to see how far they've come.

You can see their progression quite visually actually.

Compare this:

With this:

See the difference? Generations is a vast improvement, yet it still retains all the character of the orginal...

With less of a flappy jaw...

[792Ashman]

This is one cool topic, I could talk about this stuff for hours. To address the original post, the issue with Sonic 06's animation and cut scenes was only partially due to the rag doll flopping around puppet style animation. While you do need firmness and crispness to compliment most movements like what Sonic Generations did, you have to have facial expressions and freedom with mouth movements. Sonic 06's lip syncing was truly no better than that of, say, Shadow the Hedgehog. It's all an up and down jawlike style no different than that singing bass trophy you hang on the wall:

Look at Sonic and Shadow here:

Now look at this

Eerily similar....

In terms of Sonic's animated design during cutscenes, my favorite thing I've watched progress over my lifetime is how SEGA has worked on Sonic's shading and textures. It's changed more times than I can count. From Sonic Adventure's reflective and shiny-ness to Sonic Heroes Plastic-ness. In fact, Sonic Adventure 2's clay-like 3D models were brought back in Shadow the Hedgehog as if Sonic Heroes never happened and Sonic Heroes skipped Shadow the Hedgehog and continued it's plastic style with Secret Rings! SEGA kept things updated but you could still see the stylistic directions they were going in. I thought they would finally settle with Sonic Unleashed, Colors, and Generations deep and hinted lighting but with Sonic 4 they jumped all the way back to Heroes! With Episode two they're slowly climbing back up, but it's remarkable to consider how many evolutions have taken place therefore making Sonic an ideal representative of how the shading and texture medium has changed over 3 dimensional gaming.

Heh heh, rambling.....

[- Eternal Paradox -]

BUMP!!!

Okay, sorry for doing this guys, but this thread's kinda starving and as the creator I can't help feeling partly responsible.

So far, we've talked quite a bit about animation, but mainly about cutscenes. How 'bout some of that good ol' in game animation? Does it shape up to the cutscenes, is the animation consistant? That sort of thing. Feel free to post sprites, gifs and youtube links.

First off I'm gonna give a big shout out to SONIC THE FIGHTERS/SONIC CHAMPIONSHIP, purely because the in game animation is gold (in comparison to the intro, which is a bit crap). Seriously, the first time I saw it, I was BLOWN AWAY. I wasn't expecting something of this quality for something of this age. The animation is pretty fluid, lots of squash and stretch, and nicely fitting for a Sonic game where you punch the snot out of each-other.

Anyone else got some ingame animations they like/dislike?

[Vertekins]

Ah, Sonic the Fighters Always thought that game had some incredibly funny animations. My favourite one is when characters are attacked by Sonic's Dizzy Spin. They keep stupidly watching Sonic as he spindashes circles around them, get spiral eyes, stumble about in dizziness then fall flat on their back XD Added funny if you KO them with Dizzy Spin as they'll keep their spiral eyes as they lie on the ground.

The Weapon Grab move is another cool one. If you use it on Amy, the character will snatch her Piko Piko Hammer, taunt her with it whilst she looks worried then smash her over the head with it. If it's used on Espio, the character will grab his tongue, stretch it then let go, making it smack him in the face. And possibly the funniest of all, using Weapon Grab on Bean. They'll snatch one of his bombs, put it in his mouth as Bean looks sheepish and then duck and cover their ears as it goes kaboom.

On another front, I thought that Sonic Unleashed had splendid animation in it's cutscenes and on both models in gameplay. The cutscene when Chip reveals his identity shows this off particularly well;

Subtlety. Honest to God subtlety.

Also, anyone else find it really cool how Sonic's models in-game have awesome collision detection and this aids in the realism of the animation? For instance, if you walk as the Werehog, his lower cranial spines get moved about by his thick arms instead of clipping through them.

[- Eternal Paradox -]

On another front, I thought that Sonic Unleashed had splendid animation in it's cutscenes and on both models in gameplay. The cutscene when Chip reveals his identity shows this off particularly well;

Not only is that scene well animated, but it's beautiful too. Visually appealing.

Body language is great in this scene, Chip is disant, and sad, Sonic is somewhat curious of what it is that Chip's saying.

Also, anyone else find it really cool how Sonic's models in-game have awesome collision detection and this aids in the realism of the animation? For instance, if you walk as the Werehog, his lower cranial spines get moved about by his thick arms instead of clipping through them.

I completely missed that. I'll have to look into that. Been awhile since I've played Unleashed. I do remember games where the backspines would go through parts of his body though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaYajiZuWDs

Sonic Generation's ingame animations! For all to enjoy!

[Indigo Rush]

Animation is something important to me. My freshman year at college, I would have killed to be in the Film and Animation major. Unfortunately, the requirements were top notch, but I was able to take a few classes by asking the professors. While I don't think animation is something I want to do, I have developed a reverent appreciation for it. To be able to capture human (or hedgehog, in this case) emotion and action is not as easy as you think, but when it's pulled off, it really immerses you.

That being said, I care a lot about animation and expression in Sonic games. Sonic is a video game, yes, but he is also a cartoon character. As such, it's important to perfectly capture and relay what he may be feeling, how he moves, how he talks, and even how he stands around. From cut-scenes to gameplay, fluid and smooth animation is a must. As such, I can say that as of Sonic Unleashed, the animation has been top quality. While the voice acting hasn't been the most consistent, the expressions, the action, everything about how the characters move and interact with one another is believable. It can be really fun to watch some cut-scenes from an animator's perspective. I appreciate how Sonic and friends move and talk more than I ever have before. Not only that, but how they move during regular gameplay. You'd think that wouldn't matter much, but seeing how Sonic runs, slides, rolls, hops, and so on, helps keep you immersed in the experience... never forgetting his iconic idle animations!

I sincerely hope that they pay special attention to animation and expression as well as they have already. It's an important detail that I would not want to be forgotten.

[Amomynous]

BUMP!!!

Okay, sorry for doing this guys, but this thread's kinda starving and as the creator I can't help feeling partly responsible.

So far, we've talked quite a bit about animation, but mainly about cutscenes. How 'bout some of that good ol' in game animation? Does it shape up to the cutscenes, is the animation consistant? That sort of thing. Feel free to post sprites, gifs and youtube links.

First off I'm gonna give a big shout out to SONIC THE FIGHTERS/SONIC CHAMPIONSHIP, purely because the in game animation is gold (in comparison to the intro, which is a bit crap). Seriously, the first time I saw it, I was BLOWN AWAY. I wasn't expecting something of this quality for something of this age. The animation is pretty fluid, lots of squash and stretch, and nicely fitting for a Sonic game where you punch the snot out of each-other.

Anyone else got some ingame animations they like/dislike?

Oh yes I love the animation in Sonic the fighters, great use of stretch and squash.

I found especially since Unleashed, hand gestures and weight shifts can take my attention away from the characters faces, and the topic at hand momentarily, it's mostly the scale of them, they are too large and too exerting a movement, hand gestures involve swinging arms, and pretty much the rest of the body moving as well,but what's really distracting is complexity; when a character looks like it's making a sign.

Sonic's gesture at 0:47 is exactly what I'm on about.

An unspoken rule about animation is that the main focus of a talking character is the face.

However, characterisation is important in gestures, I find Eggman's hand arm full-body gestures to be more believable.

Otherwise, the animation in this game is fantastic.

Cool!

I ask this because I thought that SatSR had some really great and expressive...ahem, expressions despite most of it's cutscenes having minimal animation. As I'm such a fangirl and because of the reason I just stated, I'll start with this game These are, IMO, really good expressions in accordance to the script and character actions/behaviour;

*in depth analysis here*

You pretty much just spoke my mind, this reminds me why I liked Satsr's portrayal of Sonic.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Mysterics