PICTURE PREVIEW: Clones

Look at all these SONICS!!! What are they up to? I've obscured some context. I'll never let you figure it out. Hehehe...

Today I think I will talk a little bit about these clones.

Here's the actual official design sheet I did up for the multiple iterations of Sonic that appear in this series. This was done to help keep track of the visual style I wanted for the different tiers of Sonic clone present. You may have noticed some of these differences watching the original video! It was definitely an intentional choice.

If you've watched a lot of my videos or seen a lot of my art in general, you're probably aware of my fondness for textured, sketchy-looking brushes. For most of the characters in this video, however, I was generally more reserved on that front. That was all to make the Sonic clones stand out more! I wonder if it'd be fun examining the lineart differences between all of them. Hah, another reason for you to watch it again!

You might notice, however, this style is somewhat dropped in the last minute. That was just because those parts weren't animated by me, and the co-animator's program didn't support the same brush textures. Oh well! I think it still conveys the style pretty well.

THE BRACELET

This is the bracelet that appears in the short. I took a couple tries to figure out how exactly I wanted it to look and all the colors it should be. I think I landed on that teal color pretty quickly. It's close to Sonic's blue but still contrasts against his body, and it's just a good color to convey zappy, energetic power. Like the Cyan Laser of Sonic Colors. There was probably some subconscious influence from Chip's bracelet in Sonic Unleashed, too, which I've seen some to compare it to. Overall, the choice for it to be a bejeweled ring just sorta made sense for a Sonic cartoon. Rings and emeralds and that. I think at one point it was more of a nebulous ball of energy, but it worked better to make it a physical and visible object to interact with in the end.

Oh, this is a good time to answer the question: Why Sonic clones, anyway? Where did that idea come from?

INTRODUCING: THE ORIGINAL PITCH

When I was first approached by Mashed and told I could pitch an idea for a cartoon, I decided to pull into the deep banks of my memory for an idea that I once considered making but didn't really have the time for. The idea I managed to get a hold of was a little short where Sonic decides to start moving so fast that he makes copies of himself.

The original outline was actually WAY different than what ended up getting made. Basically, the plot was that Sonic has been bored ever since Eggman got arrested, so he starts using his super-speed to goof around. He shows it off to Tails, who is initially amazed, but progressively grows more annoyed at the blatant irresponsibility of moving at such speeds so constantly and for such an extended amount of time.

I'll probably share more of this iteration of the story once the second part releases, since there ARE similarities in the climaxes that I don't want to fully spoil quite yet. The escalation at play would have been Sonic trying to make the "clone" illusion more and more convincing, doing stuff like having them talk independent from one another and wearing different clothes, which makes it so that he has to multitask millions of times per second.

Ultimately, the people at Mashed found the idea to be too "dull," which I could respect. A lot of it was really just Sonic goofing off while following Tails around during a really mundane day. It starts out very slice-of-life, and I could imagine people getting bored since there really isn't any action (until the last minute).

I wonder what people will think once I show off more of this original pitch version! Will they think it's more boring? Will they like the more laid back approach? Maybe!! Maybe!! It also could be one of those things where explaining it all in an outline format doesn't do the humor justice. This version would definitely have been more driven by the humor and conversations as opposed to the actual story.

Also: I WROTE THIS A YEAR AGO APPARENTLY. Yeah, to the day! Last edit was February 13th, 2022. Geez!! I had NO IDEA I'd been working on this for THAT long. Granted, most of that time was spent on back-and-forth brainstorming before getting the ball rolling on actual production later on. But still! A year of thinking about this and hashing it out. Wow!

I think that's all I have for now. Stay tuned for more production updates! I should be done with the animatic by the end of this month. If I'm not, then I'm in big trouble! Uh oh!