Thread by @delaneykingrox

Looking at this is like torture to us character designers. I just cannot list all the bad decisions here, there is just so much going on. It feels like a committee stabbed this to death

I mean what the fuck happened?

What happened to his skull? Not even real hedgehogs have enormous, screen filling foreheads like that? The deadspace is ridonk.

He looks as aerodynamic is a logging truck going sideways

Compare acceleration of curves in original with dead, downwards dropping or flat lines in film version.
Original flicks, gets faster woth each line, it has snap and sass. The film is dead, energy less, heavy

Why is everything leading your eye down to his crotch?

Sonic has always had bare arms, which helped them stand out from his body in the game as he moved. His eyes where large and readable. His leg bulk didn't matter because they move so fast they blur.

To transition to drama, a game character must be able to emote a full range of human expressions- WITHOUT firing off any triggers that make us uneasy with a human.

For that reason changes are usually needed.

But none of these changes are for those reasons.

Let's look at head room in Cinematography. You need to be able to frame the eyes and not have too much or too little headroom. So...

Look at this big nogging- o
You are forced to frame his ears or cut off before those ears... the nose when side on shifts lead space dramatically as he turns... it's a cinamographers nightmare.

See? That ear comes in to spoil the composition

I have to frame he... oh fuck now the chest comes in and the brows are touching the top of frame. Fuuuuuuuuuccxcxxxkxkjdjdjs

To balance these elements I have to back the camera up this far... but his mane gets hacked off

This is a BAD design for cinema.

Ohhh boy

Eye proportion is relative to cuteness. These artists "correct" animted characters to adult proportions. Now look at sonic. Originally his eye proportions give him a cuteness that offsets his mean expression.

See?

Anyway, If you want a character designed or your projects concepts reviewed so you don't make this stonkingly big a mistake, DM me. It won't cost you many gold rings.

Look at his proud little belly you wanna rub, those dorky gloves, look how cute he is... but wait, he has a sparkle in his sharp eyes. Confident. He's got game. Challenging, and that smirk? cute little Han Solo.

These are his boots. You know what? You can sell these for joke slippers. You could incorporate the look into serious pumps too. Money, folks, is in IP

Or... uh... you could buy... uh... hmmm.

What merch would you buy? Some fat sonic gloves or pale white slender hands?

Whack a cool pattern on his film gloves so they are distinct from Mickey Mouse and voila! Another IP that can be merchandise

Silhouettes are vitally important. Wanna buy a cap with this on it? Or... this?

Sonic is not an easy character to bring to life. But this is not how you do it.

Also @kateleth has some excellent points.

https://twitter.com/kateleth/status/1102731115918323712?s=19

I wouldn't be too hasty to blame the artists. I have had to make some awful changes to strong stuff because of decisions by suits. To get something this incompetent out you really need a chain of people who don't know what they are doing.

Politics has killed a lot of great artist's work. That's why a good art director spends a lot of time butting heads with producers and directors. And good producers and directors know when to listen.

Character design is a very important, very skilled job requiring a firm grasp on many disciplines. An IP and it's profits can hang on the characters.

It takes a team working in respectful unison to make truley great characters.

This, sadly, is not one of them.

https://twitter.com/LadyGT_DA/status/1102805469796610048?s=19

I say @threadreaderapp bot? Will you be a sexy thing and unroll this for me?