SRB2 Sprites/Animations

This forum is to talk about the sprites in SRB2, maybe leave some thoughts and criticisms of the animations or sprites and how they could be better. Made this thread because I wanted to criticize the sprites or whatever. And you can talk about your thoughts about them as well.

If you feel you have anything worth saying, that's what you'd do in your opening post, not later, silly!

So first... Metal Sonic is weird. We know that his jet is a seperate sprite like Tails' tails... I was just thinking about how static Metal Sonic looks. I'm not asking for Metal Sonic to do a walking animation like Sonic, but if he had more sprites (and animation) for stuff like floating he'd look much cooler imo. And no, adding sprites will NOT make him look or feel "less like a robot.", that's just an excuse to disregard my criticism if you think that. I think the spriter has done a great job on the sprites (i believe Motor Roach mightve been the sprite artist?).

Edit: I sound a bit too un-praising in this forum. Just wanted to reiterate I love the sprites in this game and the animations. I just want a little extra for my boi metal sonic, and he might look cooler with more animations and it wouldnt make him less robotic either im pretty sure. Models would also look better I think because models are based on sprites.

---------- Post added at 12:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------

Charybdizs said:

If you feel you have anything worth saying, that's what you'd do in your opening post, not later, silly!

Click to expand...

Well I was just thinking that it'd make more sense to have it as an alternate comment as "my thoughts on the metal sonic sprite" isn't the thread topic. The thread topic is "comments about srb2 sprites" and i think my comments should be in the same place as everyone else's comments.

I absolutely love SRB2's sprites! Every character feels so expressive and lively, with unique reactions to every scenario characters might encounter: running, jumping, using their unique ability, bouncing off a spring, falling, teetering on an edge, idle animations, and even continue screens. Though I can certainly appreciate the hard work put into the 3D models, I prefer using sprites because I find them much more expressive. Metal Sonic is of course the only character who isn't expressive, but it's obvious why that is—he's a stone cold robot created to rival Sonic's speed.

Not standard, but okay! It looked to me like you were starting a conversation without putting your input in on the topic you created. Carry on! :p

I honestly really love the sprites. They look mad good and perfectly captures all of the character's personality (Fang being a notable example). I also just enjoy the art style the game has. The only thing I don't like about the sprites is that Amy's life icon looks strange, it's hard to say it's just something looks... off.

The new sprites for 2.2 are absolutely beautiful. They look good enough to be official Sonic game sprites. Too bad they came at the same time that OpenGL made it easier to use 3D models. Now I generally use models instead, because it's a lot easier to judge depth when you're working with 3D objects instead of flat sprites.

As much as I love SRB2's sprite work, part of me feels like the sprite-based visuals have become a tad antiquated over the years, and can serve as an odd barrier to entry with modding. Then again, I actually prefer how the game looks in software renderer compared to OpenGL, so maybe I'm a hypocrite in that regard.

Pyrakid Wolfo said:

So first... Metal Sonic is weird. We know that his jet is a seperate sprite like Tails' tails... I was just thinking about how static Metal Sonic looks. I'm not asking for Metal Sonic to do a walking animation like Sonic, but if he had more sprites (and animation) for stuff like floating he'd look much cooler imo.

Click to expand...

Can you explain what you mean by more sprites? Like, more animations or more frames in his animations? I don't really think he needs either, since he's a robot created to destroy Sonic and nothing else; he's intentionally designed with as little character as possible to make him seem more cold.
Anywhom, I love v2.2's new spritework, it's amazing on all fronts. The only thing I would change would be to give some of the character animations more frames to make them smoother.

PencilVoid said:

Can you explain what you mean by more sprites? Like, more animations or more frames in his animations? I don't really think he needs either, since he's a robot created to destroy Sonic and nothing else; he's intentionally designed with as little character as possible to make him seem more cold. [...]

Click to expand...

Having Metal Sonic bob a little bit up and down when moving would help make Metal Sonic seem less stiff/unanimated. SRB2 v2.1 did that for him, in fact.
(But the glowing exhaust orb when he moves in v2.2 helps make him not look completely unanimated, so I'm indifferent about if he'd be given bobbing motion again now.)

I actually like how Metal just floats completely still, hovering in the air while walking. There's a menacing, ghostly quality to it that I personally enjoy while I play as him.

Talking about the rest of 2.2's new sprites, the badniks are some of the best, especially the ones that inhabit Red Volcano! I had this stupid grin on my face the first time I played the map and seeing the new badnik designs, particularly Pyre Flies and their big ol' glassy dilated-pupil googly eyes. Not to mention Buzz's compound eyes being really accurate, the personalities of Crushstacean, Canarivore (it's a bird cage with bad breath??) and Spincushion being my favorites, and Hive Elemental's grimace and underbite. There's a lot to appreciate with the spritework for everything new on offer this version of SRB2. I also can't help but crack a smirk knowing they have names like Spinbobert and Buggle

2.2 Sprites are alright

Since Tails uses seperate sprites for his tails (Who decided to do that, and whoever decided to do that is crazy), if you use a P_SKIN for Tails, then if there is no Tail sprites, then his default Tails will overlap the sprites

Are you an artist too? Could you do better?


Anyway I still have nostalgia for the original SSNTails artworks.

i personally think the 2.2 artwork and sprites are great and full of life where they need to be, and will age extremely well.

that's it, go home, and send my thanks to motoroach and the rest of the artists on the team.

SIG7 said:

2.2 Sprites are alright

Since Tails uses seperate sprites for his tails (Who decided to do that, and whoever decided to do that is crazy), if you use a P_SKIN for Tails, then if there is no Tail sprites, then his default Tails will overlap the sprites

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the technical reasons are for having Tails' tails as separate sprites, but I know the same was done in Sonic 2 and 3, and most likely Mania as well. I'm thinking maybe it's so they move independently from the rest of the body, so they appear more lifelike and don't reset their position every time an animation starts. The tails also remain visible when Tails is spinning, and rotate their position based on gravity. Logically, that makes no sense, but this is a fox with a propeller on his butt. How do his tails even do a full 360 rotation without getting tangled?

GrayAngel said:

I'm not sure what the technical reasons are for having Tails' tails as separate sprites, but I know the same was done in Sonic 2 and 3, and most likely Mania as well. I'm thinking maybe it's so they move independently from the rest of the body, so they appear more lifelike and don't reset their position every time an animation starts. The tails also remain visible when Tails is spinning, and rotate their position based on gravity. Logically, that makes no sense, but this is a fox with a propeller on his butt. How do his tails even do a full 360 rotation without getting tangled?

Click to expand...

Giving his tails separate sprites allows for a lot of space to be saved in the sprite files, so that the same sprites of his tails could be used in multiple scenarios. Another advantage is that when Tails' tails are the only thing that's moving, only one sprite is needed aside from his tails. (god, "Tails' tails" is so weird to type)

Oh I was just saying I personally dislike how stiff Metal Sonic's walk and run and dash is, they're just 1 sprite per angle, no animation or anything. Not saying metal needs to be expressive, but I think he's just got the least effort or something and it looks odd how he doesn't have any animation.
I don't know if him bobbing up and down would make it look better per-say. But I do feel like there could be a bit more. I guess.
Personal preference.
Edit: No, I could not do better. Yes, I know the jet engine technically counts as an animation, metal 2.2 looks nice but there's something odd about it. Maybe it's how metal should be though.