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Nerfuffle — Sonic Redesign- Blaze
Published: 2012-09-19 21:46:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 35836; Favourites: 956; Downloads: 314
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Description
I really wanted to learn more about character design. The idea of re-imagining the Sonic cast intrigued me because it seemed to present a lot of fun and interesting challenges.Not only did I find that the franchise had a lot of cool, weird concepts to work with, like “ purple kitty pyro queen” or “evil shape shifter”, but there was the issue of creating a sense balance and diversity between the characters as a whole.
For reasons unknown to my self I kept adding to the project. Earlier drawings were more zany, illustrative and experimental and later versions were softer and three dimensional.
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Blaze the cat
Pretty straight forward- She’s a no nonsense pyrokinetic Queen from.... some sort of alternate reality. Her eyes, ears, and general shape are made to look like flames and her Cat “claws” are five-foot blades heated by her powers.
For the sake of experimentation I decided to try and exploit the eye searing fuzziness that appears when you let fully saturated hues of red and blue make contact, making the blades purposefully disorienting while swinging around.
I figure the sword-claw things have such loose fasteners so she can immediately detach and reattach them should any of them gets snagged on something during battle.
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Comments: 23
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Unique and interesting, cool! C ; 🔥💜🧡💛💙🥰😍
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I look at this and think of Desna and Eska from The Legend of Korra. Those designs and this one are on that intersection of royal and mysterious. The long, oversized robes really convey both importance and a shroud of mystery, similarly the sharp, squinty eyes convey the same kind of mystery. I also like how purple and red contrast, it's a great design element to this character and you really took advantage of it by using a bolder purple than the actual design.
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Holy god I wish you had made the anime instead
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I love it but the claws, I ain't so hot on how they're done here. The concept is neat and the rest of the design is great. More magical and mystic
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The claws make me think of Captain Kuro from One Piece?
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Looks like Sonic's dimensional sister has gotten quite change....Pirates beware, a fiesty feline is on the prowl with disastrous flames.
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Hmmm, this seems rather interesting. Something I would love to see in Sonic.
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Wow, I'm so stunned by all your redesigns by t his might be my favorite. I love her long, narrow eyes and those claw weapons! The colors are so wonderful. You did such a super job with this whole series!
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this one is really interesting and my favourit! Your redesigns are really distincts and unique!
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I think this might be my favorite out of all these redesigns. Nice!
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I gonna just say those claws are awesome. they go so well with her fighting style. As for the rest, I think she's cute but threatening. Like she's saying "Take what's mine and I will end you."
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i like the way you draw the charakters and your style is cool too^^
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Oh my goodness, I'm gushing over these redesigns of yours so very much, and this is coming from someone who's been bitterly estranged from the sonic franchise for most of his life.
I don't know much about the series at this point, outside of the fact that it's still apparently profitable enough to stay alive, and ergo must be doing something right for itself; but I still can't help but yearningly imagine how much richer the games could have been had the creators been brave enough to take some creative leaps, such as with their character designs.
But as it were, your designs are a breath of fresh air and are making me imagine the series much differently.
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Wow... I have to say, I've fallen in love with these designs. They have sort of a Genndy Tartakovsky-eque kind of feel to them. Not to say these aren't very original, but the lineless features, brush stroke background, and saturated hues remind me immediately of Samurai Jack. If memory serves me right, that show probably had the best art direction of action among any western animation.
This style would work great for a new Sonic animated series or a XLBA title. Like you said before, there has always been an issue with the Sonic series trying to achieve balance in between the characters. I might do the Sonic franchise a world of good to give the characters good old fashioned character development (ie strengths, weaknesses, and quirks among the cast). I don't think the series as a whole has to many characters, but I think it is time to explore the ones we have now opposed to adding more.
This design in particular sticks out to me in particular. While I thought Blaze's character design was fairly decent, yours seems to build off her characterization much better.
ART THEORY TIME
The complementary colors you used just makes Blaze much more vibrant. Blueish-indigo and orange pops. Compare that to the canon character, and it looks as if sonic team missed an opportunity when designing her. Seems strange now that I think about it since color theory is so common (At least in western art philosophies). The little details you gave her, like making her eyes look like flames, gives her character design purpose. The old Blaze design was cool as a princess warrior, but you gave her much more depth as princess warrior of FIRE.
Besides that, I am really digging the whole Eastern theme dress and menacing demeanor. It helps her stand out among the Sonic cast much better. Even the blades are a little bit creepy. I still don't know how I feel about them, but they have definitely grown on me. Sort of like Sorcerer's wands.
Here is a pretty good video on the Sonic franchise. I think you might want to take a look sometime now that we are talking about balance.
[link]
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Thank you so much for all the detailed responses.
It's true my stuff tends to sway between menacing and cute.
I didn’t know Roger created a retrospective thing. I gotta check that out.
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