MUSIC & TIMES: 0:00 - Sonic: Before the Sequel - Circumstance - Opening 0:28 - Sonic: After the Sequel - Horizon Heights Act 2 1:12 - Sonic: Before the Sequel - Star Shores Act 2 2:33 - Alex Lee - Take It 3:08 - Sonic: Before the Sequel - Titanic Tower Act 1 5:21 - Sonic: After the Sequel - Storm Station Act 1 6:44 - Sonic: After the Sequel - Horizon Heights Special
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy No. The exact same song is used in the hack Sonic The Next Level. You're all about beautiful games and it's a beautiful hack with smooth Sonic sprites. It's the only other place I've heard the song, and since you showed some other fan games I assumed it was a reference to that hack. If there is some other connection between that Alex Lee song and Sonic The Hedgehog I don't know it.
Ah okay, well basically there's a missing level from Sonic CD referred to as "R2", and someone made a video of what it would have looked like, and they used Take It by Alex Lee as the song for the 'Present' theme and so on. So now it's widely known to Sonic fans as a potential Sonic CD theme (even though it's just an early 90s dance track)
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy I found it. That video came out in 2016 and Sonic The Next Level was in the 2015 Sonic Hacking Contest, so that's where the original connection of that Sonic and that song came from. It's interesting how that happened.
Sonic's... appearance on the title screen. He jumps and does all those twirls, and his finger has so many frames! It's quite mesmerising, looking at it for the first time
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy Yea, They really wanted to be like ''THIS is how intro animation is done, And yes I'm looking at you with that glare, Sonic 4''
Yep, independent animator. I mostly do weird music videos and tour visuals for bands: www.micahbuzan.com/portfolio/animation/ I'm looking forward to digging through more of your vids. Keep up the great work, this is a really fresh form of videogame related content.
It's weird going back to the Classics after playing Mania because you don't realise how much detail it added. One slight gripe with the video - the music is a bit too loud compared to your voice, if you reduced the volume of the music a bit it would make the video better to listen to.
Male agent 3 are you outside of your mind my friend ( also not trying to be rude just saying sonic mania is way more detailed and the colors jump out way more in mania then in sonic 3 and knuckles
A great analysis, Sonic Mania really improved upon the formula making it feel much more lively. The attention to detail in terms of speed for animation is a really nice touch. How would you feel about a more hand drawn Sonic like what has been recently released for their animation channel if they tried that style for a new game?
Great job breaking down all of the subtle details in the game's animations. I used to think I hated the animation smears, but they really do make the character animations more lively. I like the idea of replicating the Lost World bounce as well I still don't like smears on the robots, though. I really prefer the stiff, but ultra-smooth way they moved in S3K. Most of the badnicks recreated for Mania still retain this, but the newer badniks like the buzzsaw crabs from PGZ or the electric slinkies from TMZ still look off to me.
Ahh I forgot to do a close up of the buzz saw crabs in Press Garden! But yeah, agreed, sometimes it looks a little too rubbery on things that are a bit firmer.
I disagree on the Lost World stretchy jump, only because I like the impression the classic design gives that the ball he curls into is very rigid. It makes it feel more powerful as an attack, and gives more of an impression of a steel pinball bouncing around the stages rather than a rubber bouncy ball. This makes bouncing off enemies, bumpers etc. feel much more satisfying, to me.
The consistency of the jump attack sets it apart from other platfromers, the hitbox is very obvious and Sonic has no vulnerable area which means no infuriating situations where you take a hit because you're off by just a pixel, a stretch or transition frame would potentially ruin this dynamic.
One thing I love about sonic mania’s animation is how smooth it is,especially when compared to its predecessors. I believe it’s part of why the game feels smoother even though the control is nearly identical. The feedback you get as a result of moving is far smoother and that creates the image that the game it self is smoother.
You didn't mention Tails' ugly rotation animation in sonic 3 (His tails go all small and wiry) I thought that the one in sonic mania massively improved on that one
Ah, but there was a valid technical reason for that. You see, in normal gameplay Tails's tails are a separate object that animate on their own. Whenever you go on a rotating object however, the tails object vanishes and the tails are drawn directly on Tails's sprites. This means the tails cannot be drawn far outside of Tails's sprites due to the way the sprite is put together. It has a limited amount of pixel space for each character.
When I first played Sonic Mania I was a bit thrown off by the animation where sonic hits a spring and spirals up into the air. I didn't play Sonic CD much so I wasn't prepared for it but now I appreciate it. Funnily enough, I watched this video about a year ago and here I am again!
Yeah, it's surprising how the spin launch works seamlessly into the overall design of Mania, seeing it in places like Green Hill and Chemical Plant is definitely a novelty!
One touch to the animation I like is Tails' idle animation. Originally a stifled yawn as Gamepro described it when Sonic 2 first came out, he now starts to doze off, but snaps himself awake with a shudder.
One element of the animation I love is how expressive Ray is. The way they blended his more isometric sprites from SegaSonic, as well as the general amount of character he has in his animations, he's so cute! Like his big doofy smile and thumb waggling after he finishes an act. He's perfect. Overall, the animation was really improved, but I'd actually say Sonic's animation is a little less expressive than in 3 & Knux. Compared to 1, 2 and CD it's a huge improvement, but I kind of liked the slight redesign he had in that game? Either way, it's definetly a game which looks gorgeous in motion, and the sprites are some of my favourites in any game ever, next to the sprite animation in GBA Fire Emblem.
You're absolutely right. I've not actually played KC at any great length, had to watch some on YT, and it's totally the same! Furthermore, the transform effect from the Heavy Magician fight is taken from the intro of Chaotix! So many references!
You know, this really whet my appetite, as I skipped this game up until recently. But when I played it, it became apparent to me very quickly how much platforming in games has improved and that I don't want to go back to the mechanics of those "good old days". Jumps aren't always triggered when I press the jump button, running feels spongy. I'd rather go back to Hollow Knight, Celeste, etc. - if only I hadn't already played them for so long. There aren't enough great platformers and metroidvanias being released...
i dont agree with the idea of a transiction animation for a jump, i dont think i've seen a non-cinematic 2D platformer use one and it looking/feeling right (if you have any example, please tell me about them), and i specifically love how the jump in sonic games is snappy yet seemless, having him stay in the ground for two or even one frame could ruin that, not to mention that when going at high enough speeds, staying in the ground for two or one frame could potentially mean missing a jump, though maybe, if implemented correctly, it could prove me wrong, these guys are awesome at what they do, and have made so many great innovations that i wasnt a fan of at first.
I don't think it'd even notice, he could still be leaving the ground and have one or two frames transition, it wouldn't ruin the flow. I mean if you look at Mouse Man and Wonderboy in The Dragon's Trap by LizardCube (which I go into in another video) they have transitioning frames that you barely notice but don't hinder the gameplay whatsoever.
One thing I did notice is that the run seems to transition better into the sprint more than it did in the older games. I feel like it has a sense of rotation like the sprint. And he also leans forward similar to the sprint as well.
I liked how in Sonic Mania when the characters climb up/down the slope, the animation for the slope climbing improved by making it so it looks like the sprite rotated.
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy Fun Fact: the SEGA Genesis is capable of doing sprite rotation and there's already a Sonic ROM hack that does it and a seperate one by the same dude that makes everything else rotate
I love the concept of this channel. Applied specialization, having fun while learning and analyzing something. The kinda thing you just don't get with big channels.
Hey, thanks a lot! Yeah I have a bit of a problem that i get bored in doing the same thing too often, so my videos end up having, hopefully, a fresh feel each time.
Something I noticed was you get what feels like a full smooth 360 degrees of rotation when running a loop where you used to definitely notice the run angle transitions on the original series
I agree with your video! I would also like slight background motion blur and sonic to lean more forward while running to make the game seem more fast paced
actually the turning around animation from sonic 2 is where the extra frame of turning around in mania comes from but the animation was just use for when you turn while doing the ledge animation but in later releases of the game it was scrapped cybershell has a complete video talking about it.
now that there are massive hd tvs, they should add a zoom-out feature to shrink what you see, so more of the playfield could be viewed at once. then you could see big jumps and enemies in time to line up your jumps properly. they could make zoom in / zoom out customizable, or even a speed sensitive setting.
If you look in the file's of sonic mania green hill act one you can see that the first boss is actually five parts of a 3D model put together and flattened to make it look like a ball, same goes for the giant mech for titanic monarch zone act one in the background.
Great video about a great game! I only wish they had made the spinning animation when theyre launched off of springs less stiff in the posing. Would it have been hard to get even a little bit of overlap (like in the spines) or asymmetry in the posing or action as they accelerate, decelerate and then fall, with different parts of the body catching up with or overlapping each other as they react altogether to whats going on, instead of twinning it and making the characters body suddenly go stiff as a plank for the sake of a smooth 3D rotation, or was it done that way on purpose for a specific reason? IIRC, the Sonic Advance games (which also had some nice spriteart) tried to avoid straight inbetweening like that.
I'll have to study the Advance games more, but I guess it's sometimes to make modelling easier on all five characters, perhaps? It was referencing the Sonic CD jump pose, so I guess they were just sticking to that.
I also love the intro animation with the music before the game starts. Simple drawingd, but it just feels so great! Instantly puts me in the mood to play thr game and have fun.
this video is wonderful. character animation is very overlooked in my opinion and im glad this video can show the insane effort gone into manias characters specifically. also its great you go over some of the enemies/bosses too.
If you put the same areas from the originals and Mania next to each other you can see they improved the background tiles as well. It looks like how you remember the games not how they actually looked.
Totally. They did a really good job of incorporating that classic feel by using original stage layouts. For instance Mania Green Hill Act 1 is Original Green Hill Acts 1 + 2 mashed together with some extra bits, and Mania Act 2 is Original Act 3 but extended.
As someone who studied a little animarion in college (and loves Sonic), I appreciate this video. Sonic Mania did a lot to improve upon the classics, and I can see it going even further in another iteration. A few things I'd like to see are special animations for running backwards, walking underwater (also when low on air) and falling (currently just a walk/run cycle). Other than that, I do like the proof of concept you did with a squash-and-stretch for Sonic's jump. I think that would do wonders. Great video! Looking forward to more.
There is actually a separate set of animations for air walking where the character's feet are a bit more pointed/floaty (unless you mean something more like Knuckles dropping out of a glide, in which case there is a falling with style mod)
Thanks for watching! Yeah, a separate falling animation (instead of the pointy feet air walking) would be great actually. And different environments for moving in general would be cool!
Just binged a ton of your videos. Surprised I never heard of you before. You ever think on looking back to not-so-much older games. Like the Portal series. Particularly the second one?
Very nice run through! There were some differences that I didn't notice, but really make things nicer. Why hasn't Sega had these guys work on another totally new Sonic?! Why has it been almost 4 years?!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy I appreciate the info! It is good that they all stuck together. Hopefully, Sega will go through them (or is doing so now) to create the next Sonic game. (But knowing Sega, I have my doubts. They have a history of shooting themselves and their fans in the foot...) Thanks again!
I'd be curious if you'd want another Sonic game from Whitehead (And he has a studio now, so fingers crossed) to be another pseudo-32 bit title, or something with a more hand drawn aesthetic - I'm thinking more Hollow Knight than Cuphead here, nothing ridiculous, but I generally prefer that aesthetic approach to retro throwbacks, however gorgeous looking the retro throwback is.
When I first look at the gameplay of sonic mania, I immediately fell in love how polished and smooth the animation goes (I want to be an animator in the future and looking at sonic mania really inspired me)
One thing that i love about Mania's animations is that they were specifically made so that frames could be deleted to reveal the original animation, for example, the spring, while now equipped with the faux-motion blur, still retains the original spring frames (Just with updated shading)
Not to do with animation, but your suggestion of improving the animals animation made me think of it - I'd love for a Sonic Mania 2 to have a chao garden in it. That would look so awesome in 2D and be so much fun. Of course I don't expect Sonic & co to suddenly go around collecting the animals freed from badniks, so maybe it'd just keep a counter of how many of a particular type you freed during a level, and that's how you could then 'borrow' one in a chao garden in order to give to your chao to play with. Hey, they could even have a different garden attached to each level and maybe you have to find it, like a hidden secret - and when inside that area (which wouldn't have any hazards to you in it so you couldn't die or lose rings or anything), you take a break from doing the level and can warp between other gardens you've found (but the only exit that works is in the level you were just in, and the timer and score and everything are kept in memory and begin again as soon as you leave, so it's a bit like a pause). omg how cute would the little sprites be tho, they'd have to be made on the fly by an actual input mechanism (so a hell of a lot of work getting them to look right, so a huge task in general), and auu what if you could even try to carry one through the level, protecting it? So cute. I loved the chao gardens in the original 3D games but of course the actual zones weren't as fun as in 2D because well, Sonic's just always worked way better as a 2D game plain and simple. But I miss the chaos. So adorable.
Ah man, that'd be quite cool, actually. It'd certainly give an extra reason for replayability. I think a secret, unlockable zone should be at the end, too. I'm all for special rewards!
Sonic was based off of American cartoons, particularly Disney’s Mickey Mouse. It would seem natural for the series to adopt a slightly rubber hose approach mixed with Disney style fluidity.
I disagree because even though the character designs were initially made that way, they never really continued in that direction. For example, the CD intro looks anime and nowhere near rubber hose. Maybe I'm showing that I was raised on the Adventure era Sonic games which had characters inspired by anime and graffiti on realistic environments, but even the classic games I wouldn't describe as "cartoony," Lost World is the only game in the series I'd describe as that, albeit with Unleashed, Colors, and Forces having some cartoony elements (that I mostly dislike.) I feel like the classic games' environments are better described as "surreal" than "cartoony."
@@KidPrarchord95 Nah. Whether it's better than 3K or Mania is down to personal preference, but it doesn't have the hold right to win issues of 2 or the downright slow, boring, and annoying level design Sonic 1 suffered from.
I think it'd be interesting if the first few frames of Sonic's jump started with him uncurled, and then you actually see him tuck and curl into a ball.
I think my only gripe with Sonic Mania's visuals is how the camera is smoothed out as compared to the original Genesis titles. It lost that super-smooth 60 FPS feel, ironically making the framerate feel _less_ consistent than they probably intended. Same with the characters' rolling animations; they don't feel as fast anymore since they were smoothed out with more frames in between. Doesn't change how much I still love the game though.
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy I recorded some gameplay of both, and made a comparison of the camera behavior. Sonic Mania applies smoothing to the camera's movements, especially when re-centering on the player. Here it is if you'd like to take a look. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tEGWpgcnNwE.html
I feel like I would like to see the jumps left as they are for retro sonic style games - I saw the animation and the projection feels too telegraphed for that era/style sonic. It suits the modern sonic much better. That said - we got retro sonic in 2.5D in sonic generations... how about modern sonic in a retro setting (almost like the sonic advance series... which... I dunno why they stopped with that - they were true blue successors to the megadrive IMHO)
I think the curling into a jump animation is intentional for nostalgia and also game design. If there were a whole animation of Sonic getting into that attack of a jump, Sonic would overall feel more clunky. I think the bounce animation, while not a bad idea, should be a little more subtle. Maybe it would have one or two frames of that stretch, then have almost a slight rotation that doesn't look like it moves Sonic, however shows more he is basically doing a lot of somersaults. (P.S. Love the BTS and ATS sound track used here. Absolutely gorgeous music from these guys.)
I can't not use that music all the time. Yeah, I see what you're saying, though I don't think an additional frame between standing and his buzzsaw would slow anything down or appear sluggish. They could work it into the first frame of the ball mode jump, I think.
