What art style do you prefer for human Sonic characters?

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time gear

time gear

Eternity in an hour
There's been a number of different art styles used to depict human characters in Sonic over the years. The more anime styled look of Adventure and Adventure 2's humans, the more realistic inspired look of Sonic 06, and even the more Mario-like cartoon style in Unleashed. Of all the different styles used, which do you like best?

Personally, I prefer the Adventure series anime style designs. They feel like a nice middle ground; more realistic proportions, but without being too strict while still having the freedom to more easily depict a wide range of facial expressions and emotions. I don't particularly dislike Unleashed's style, I just don't personally find it as appealing as the Adventure style. The heavily realistic look of the humans in 06 just looks uncanny and disgusting most of the time to me, and doesn't feel like it fits in a world with characters such as Sonic and Tails running around.
 
How about no humans and making them Mobians instead?

The SA1 are like Pokémon characters, 2006 has GTA ones and Unleashed had Pixar... but I feel like none fits the Sonic series.
 
The topic is about art style, not about whether or not humans should return in the series. Please don't derail the thread.
 
time gear said:
The topic is about art style, not about whether or not humans should return in the series. Please don't derail the thread.
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It's not derailing it because human style analysis implies that they could return.

But let's make them cartoony in a japanese way (not anime, I mean a cartoon made by japanese artists because mixing both would be weird, especially since the current design of Sonic is japanese-looking in a way)
 
Icarus said:
It's not derailing it because human style analysis implies that they could return.
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No, it doesn't. At all. The topic is about what art style is anyone's favorite. This has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not they return in the future.
 
I always liked the Sonic Unleashed designs.

I know it's just stock Disney, but it seems like it would pair well with the classic Sonic artstyle.
 
The Unleashed humans remind me of the Sonic Jam Bonus Video, I feel humans fit the best in this cartoony style:

 
CobaltBW said:
I always liked the Sonic Unleashed designs.

I know it's just stock Disney, but it seems like it would pair well with the classic Sonic artstyle.
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It's more like stock Pixar over Disney (because let's be honest modern 3D Disney's style is bland and soulless compared to 2D Disney and 3D Pixar).

LonelyFoxz said:
The Unleashed humans remind me of the Sonic Jam Bonus Video, I feel humans fit the best in this cartoony style:

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This makes me think about one thing:

One of the few series to feature both humans and anthropomorphic animals in a good way was the Animaniacs.
 
Ditching humans entirely makes Eggman stand out like a sore thumb. Not to mention the continuity issues it would spawn, but this franchise never had problems with taking continuity to the guillotine, so I digress.

On the note of the topic, full realism has no place in a franchise with colorful critters. Sonic '06 was just a gaping uncanny valley. The anime approach works potentially, even if it still makes the noodle-limbed animals look a bit off. In which case I'd hands down take the cartoony Unleashed designs. They're basic, comparable to Disney Pixar, but alongside Sonic and co. they work perfectly.
 
Icarus said:
It's more like stock Pixar over Disney (because let's be honest modern 3D Disney's style is bland and soulless compared to 2D Disney and 3D Pixar).
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I'm not sure, how would you measure something like that?
 
Icarus said:
It's more like stock Pixar over Disney (because let's be honest modern 3D Disney's style is bland and soulless compared to 2D Disney and 3D Pixar).
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It’s really hard to say that 3D Disney is bland and soulless when several of those movies have actually touched people’s hearts emotionally and comically with Frozen, Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph being three really good examples
 
Honestly, I have no problem with '06's realistic human characters, as long as they're actually animated like humans and not whatever '06 was trying to do. Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I actually really like '06 Eggman's design. The Pixar-esque humans in Sonic Unleashed were neat, but they're not anything to write home about since they look like background characters out of any Pixar movie. If they could be more fleshed out and uniquely designed than in Unleashed, maybe I could warm up to them. The Adventure-era humans were okay, but I don't really want them back since the anime style has been overused as all hell nowadays. Overall, I agree with Steelie's points that humans should not be axed entirely like in Forces, but I can't think of a good way of designing them that would satisfy most of the fanbase.
 
I'm surprised no one's mentioned the Storybook series. Shahra, Erazor Djinn not to be confused with the Sonic romhack and Merlina all look great and keep consistent both in 2D and 3D cutscenes! They're also a natural mesh of 06's realistic style and a more anime look, but not to the point of Sonic X's style. I just with they did more characters in the style and kept the side series going, but I digress. Still on the topic of anime style looks, Adventure 1's style looks very Pokemon and that's ironic knowing Game Freak used to make SEGA games like Pulseman, but I wouldn't want the SA1 style back too too much. Adventure 2 and Shadow push more toward what Unleashed was doing I'd say, with cartoony proportions like the President's long face. Gerald and Maria Robotnik are exceptions oddly enough, I can't put them in any one style.

Moving on to Unleashed fully... It's character designs are not half bad. They look nice, they all fit their regions and wouldn't look bad in a Classic Sonic setting either, but overall are pretty bland. I just wish they went more in a direction like that new Lupin III: The First movie which is super expressive and stylish, compared to a more basic Disney style. That kind of crazy expressiveness was also in Sonic: Man of the Year! Madonna would look great in Lupin III and Man of the Year's styles now I think of it, if anyone remembers her from Sonic 1 beta content.

Sonic X's style all blended together great, I really enjoyed it! That being said, looking back it feels generic in comparison to other human styles in the Sonic series... Sonic X had the same kinda designs as a lot of anime in the 2000s, I've mixed characters from X up with other series a bunch, and a bunch of the main humans could be plopped into the background of a number of a different shows at the time like Bakugan or B-Daman and it'd take a moment to notice them. I'd just want something more expressive!!

On Radicalicious' note, 06's humans weren't actually that bad. I actually kinda like them and 06 Eggman too, though I admit they could have made his coat less skintight. It's just they're all animated so... stiffly in engine? The prerendered cutscenes look great, but then we got in-game chicken legged Elise moving around so awkwardly. With todays CGI tech and the Sonic movie's designs, they would actually look pretty good together!

Overall? I can't really decide on a favorite look. They all got their pros and cons and all look good in one way or another!
 
I've always been fond of the more Anime styled humans from the Adventure era.

Since for me personally, this style just seems to gel the best with Sonic's general art style and appeal.
 
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