Sonic Boom's New Characters designs

[Blue Blood]

I wonder if giving Sonic blue arms was actually an effort by the design to make him look a little more clothed without putting him clothes as they have said they originally intended. Amy can keep her peach arms because she is wearing clothes. Sonic's blue arms however give the impression of sleeves.

[Vicki476]

I actually really like the new designs. The only issue I have is with Knuckles being too tall - way too tall! He looks more like Big the Cat or Vector - which worries me a bit...but other than that I think they look cool. I like Amy's design the most as I have never really been much of a fan of her modern design - she looks a lot more mature here and her accessories suit her more. Maybe we'll see a slight change in character too. I'd like to see a more independent Amy. Tails just looks super adorable and I have no issue with Sonic's blue arms! The scarf is a nice touch too  

[JaidynReiman]

I actually really like the new designs. The only issue I have is with Knuckles being too tall - way too tall! He looks more like Big the Cat or Vector - which worries me a bit...but other than that I think they look cool. I like Amy's design the most as I have never really been much of a fan of her modern design - she looks a lot more mature here and her accessories suit her more. Maybe we'll see a slight change in character too. I'd like to see a more independent Amy. Tails just looks super adorable and I have no issue with Sonic's blue arms! The scarf is a nice touch too

Don't worry, if Big or Vector appear they'll be made EVEN BIGGER.

[1991boy]

Somewhat of topic but: Oh god I just had this funny thought about Mariotehplumber's or Aknotholeresident's reaction to the Boom designs.

[Guest]

Don't worry guys, I have fixed Sonic's design.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Come to think, Sonic having blue arms now, technically makes a lot of those drawing errors you see when Sonic has blue arms... no longer errors, right?

[Blue Blood]

Come to think, Sonic having blue arms now, technically makes a lot of those drawing errors you see when Sonic has blue arms... no longer errors, right?

Uh, no. That's not the way it works.

As far as the SEGA Sonic design goes, it always was and still is an error. Boom Sonic may have blue arms, but other incarnations don't. So it's an error. By no technicality does it right previous errors.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Uh, no. That's not the way it works.

As far as the SEGA Sonic design goes, it always was and still is an error. Boom Sonic may have blue arms, but other incarnations don't. So it's an error. By no technicality does it right previous errors.

Meh, I guess I know. I was sort of more referring to my younger self, deviantart artists, and the like. It's like we were "predicting the future"!

[Mauro Fonseca]

I'd have preferred if since they're being so silly with sports tape they just covered the whole arm with it. So long as there's something to break all the blue.

[PatMac]

Wait, if Sonic has Blue Arms. 

 

Then… would that mean Super Sonic would have...

 

YELLOW ARMS?!

 

[Sparky]

Wait, if Sonic has Blue Arms. 

 

Then… would that mean Super Sonic would have...

 

YELLOW ARMS?!

 

No, of course not! Are you kidding me? That's ridiculous. 

 

He has gold arms. 

[PatMac]

No, of course not! Are you kidding me? That's ridiculous. 

 

He has gold arms. 

 

And don't even get me started on HYPER Sonic.

[Sean]

I love Tails's look, he resembles his much cuter classic design and I just wanna pinch his cheeks and squeeze him uwu

I also like Robotnik's aviator suit, but his body shape isn't doing wonders for me. Amy looks pretty much the same as before. Everyone else's designs are crap.

[Autosaver]

Sonic is wearing a blue coat.

[Linkabel]

Here's my two cents on the new designs: In a way I really don't mind them. I don't exactly like them but I don't hate them either. The thing that does bother me is that whoever the designers were took the easy way out.

 

How do we show Knuckles is strong? Let's make him taller and buffer. How do we make them look like they are ready for action? Let's add sport tape everywhere.

 

And again, it's not that it's bad doing that, but maybe I expect more from professional artists. Like Soniko, I used to do the same when I was younger and sport tape, scarfs, etc etc to my characters.

 

But I feel that there comes a point in an artist's career where you have to stop relying on those safe elements and use your style to reimagine something.

 

In fact, Sonic has done this before twice in it's history. Once with American Sonic (and later it's alternative counterpart, the one where you couldn't tell his head shape anymore) and Adventure Sonic.

 

Granted, Adventure Sonic was the one that said "this is a new era for the franchise now" but both Greg Martin and Yuji Uekawa managed to give new life to Sonic and make him look different while respecting the simplicity of Oshima's original design.

 

Heck, even the new art style for Mickey Mouse does wonder for the character by keeping the old school feel of the classic days and not taking the spotlight away from "current" Mickey Mouse we see everywhere.

 

I would've liked to see this from Sonic Boom and what makes me more sad is that after seeing some of the character sheets I know the designers could've done more because the talent is there.

 

(the heck with putting pants on them though, I can't believe it crossed their mind.)

[LunarEdge]

I like the new designs, especially Amy and Tails. I will agree with others though, Sonic is a bit too tall. His legs seem very lanky too and ready to break at any moment. The designs looked the weirdest in the trailer when they were surrounded by enemies and Knuckles had that weird baby face and Sonic had that weird face with his legs spread.

 

If they're going to make Sonic a bit taller and lankier in the legs, they should give him high-top sneakers or a boot/sneaker hybrid to hide his legs a bit but still give them that "bend." The leg warmers don't do his new design any justice if you ask me.

[iDEATH]

Come to think, Sonic having blue arms now, technically makes a lot of those drawing errors you see when Sonic has blue arms... no longer errors, right?

 

By that logic, the old images with blue arms don't have any wrist tape so they're still errors

[Blue Blood]

Here's my two cents on the new designs: In a way I really don't mind them. I don't exactly like them but I don't hate them either. The thing that does bother me is that whoever the designers were took the easy way out.

 

...

 

Granted, Adventure Sonic was the one that said "this is a new era for the franchise now" but both Greg Martin and Yuji Uekawa managed to give new life to Sonic and make him look different while respecting the simplicity of Oshima's original design.

 

I really wouldn't say they took the easy way out. While they went for what you might say are straightforward ideas, it's clear that a lot of effort went in to making them look instantly recognisable as the Sonic while while at the same time also looking very new and different. How do we know Knuckles is strong? He's tall and muscular. How do we know it's Knuckles? Through and through, he still looks like Knuckles with the majority of his regular features left intact.

 

The point a lot of people perhaps aren't understanding is that Sonic Boom is almost an entirely new brand, yet at the same time it's also still Sonic. It's quite a challenge to blend the simple designs of before with a universe that goes out of it's way to redesign everything for a new audience. I think if Sonic Boom was a reboot of the franchise I'd be livid. But as it is right now running alongside SEGA Sonic, I can really appreciate it, especially the character designs. That's one thing I never expected to say after we first saw the teaser last year.

[Linkabel]

I really wouldn't say they took the easy way out. While they went for what you might say are straightforward ideas, it's clear that a lot of effort went in to making them look instantly recognisable as the Sonic while while at the same time also looking very new and different. How do we know Knuckles is strong? He's tall and muscular. How do we know it's Knuckles? Through and through, he still looks like Knuckles with the majority of his regular features left intact.

 

The point a lot of people perhaps aren't understanding is that Sonic Boom is almost an entirely new brand, yet at the same time it's also still Sonic. It's quite a challenge to blend the simple designs of before with a universe that goes out of it's way to redesign everything for a new audience. I think if Sonic Boom was a reboot of the franchise I'd be livid. But as it is right now running alongside SEGA Sonic, I can really appreciate it, especially the character designs. That's one thing I never expected to say after we first saw the teaser last year.

You're right, maybe saying they took the easy way out does not give them enough credit for the work they did. It would be cool to see some of their earlier ideas and more detailed explanations on what went on in the designing process

[Mauro Fonseca]

http://www.avclub.com/article/famous-hedgehog-now-has-scarf-107603

 

AV Club gives the news.

[Phos]

I can't be sure which one came first, the blue arms or the sports tape, but if the sports tape wasn't there you'd see pretty quickly why blue arms is a bad idea. It's quite simple really: Blue arms have zero contrast against his body.  This was a bigger deal on the genesis but still holds true in 3D, his arms would just get lost in the shadow cast by his big giant head.  The tan on tan against his belly is much less of a problem, partly because the values of that color in bright light and shadowed are much different from one another so you get more contrast just across the arm itself which fuels good continuity and discernable edges, and also partly because you can see both ends of his arms beyond his belly (against his gloves and shoulders).  

 

It also causes its own set of issues to make the arms blue.  Funny thing, the on the model that debuted with Unleashed (I mean specific model, not design) his arms didn't actually connect to his body, they basically just carved out a detent in the side of his body and stuck the arm in.  This actually did a great job hiding the nasty edges you get at the ends of limbs, for an example of what they avoided, check out the end of the Meet the Spy trailer after the blue spy dies, his pant leg looks fine everywhere else, but then you see the end of it and it's an octagon.  

 

Now with blue arms, the arms have to be manifold with the body, making it a lot trickier to get his round body shape.  This version of Sonic has a very flat, almost signpost like quality to it.  This happens because now it's all one surface, now it needs to all be connected, so now he needs to have an actual shoulder instead of the suggestion of one.  That contrast of the tan arm made it pop, so it always looked like he had more of a shoulder than he did.  You got to have your cake (round body) and eat it to (shoulders).  

[Emmett L. Brown]

I can't be sure which one came first, the blue arms or the sports tape, but if the sports tape wasn't there you'd see pretty quickly why blue arms is a bad idea. It's quite simple really: Blue arms have zero contrast against his body.  This was a bigger deal on the genesis but still holds true in 3D, his arms would just get lost in the shadow cast by his big giant head.  The tan on tan against his belly is much less of a problem, partly because the values of that color in bright light and shadowed are much different from one another so you get more contrast just across the arm itself which fuels good continuity and discernable edges, and also partly because you can see both ends of his arms beyond his belly (against his gloves and shoulders).  

 

It also causes its own set of issues to make the arms blue.  Funny thing, the on the model that debuted with Unleashed (I mean specific model, not design) his arms didn't actually connect to his body, they basically just carved out a detent in the side of his body and stuck the arm in.  This actually did a great job hiding the nasty edges you get at the ends of limbs, for an example of what they avoided, check out the end of the Meet the Spy trailer after the blue spy dies, his pant leg looks fine everywhere else, but then you see the end of it and it's an octagon.  

 

Now with blue arms, the arms have to be manifold with the body, making it a lot trickier to get his round body shape.  This version of Sonic has a very flat, almost signpost like quality to it.  This happens because now it's all one surface, now it needs to all be connected, so now he needs to have an actual shoulder instead of the suggestion of one.  That contrast of the tan arm made it pop, so it always looked like he had more of a shoulder than he did.  You got to have your cake (round body) and eat it to (shoulders).  

 

Very good points. It reminds me of how Jumpman (Mario)'s mustache was originally added due to pixel and colour palette limitations. Both those problems are nonexistant today, but I couldn't picture Mario without a mustache.

[Gabz Girl]

But you can't really compare blue arms to removing Mario's mustache. The mustache is Mario's main trait, the one thing that makes him recognisable. Blue arms is just a colour change. Besides, I didn't notice it until someone actually said so. I'm so used to seeing Sonic erroneously depicted with blue arms in the anime and on the Sonic cartoon DVD covers. XD

[VO.SUPER]

Hmmm... Something about the way they are bending down at times feels weird. Sometimes it makes sense that their heels are grounded, but at certain times, it looks like they have another joint keeping their heels grounded, while the rest of the leg stretches forward.

[Marcello]

I noticed something last night. Here's a picture pointing it out with my totally reasonable and not exaggerated reaction to it:

 

But you can't really compare blue arms to removing Mario's mustache. The mustache is Mario's main trait, the one thing that makes him recognisable. Blue arms is just a colour change. Besides, I didn't notice it until someone actually said so. I'm so used to seeing Sonic erroneously depicted with blue arms in the anime and on the Sonic cartoon DVD covers. XD

On the other hand, my ten year old sister who doesn't really play Sonic outside of M&S noticed it right away ( At least after she was done yelling "EWWWW" about Knuckles).