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#i need to stop adding details and redrawing stuff
dragongirldg · 8 months
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Hellooo there how are you
anyways if you want you can use this post to infodump on whatever you want
Info dumping huh? Well then.
I have been the biggest fan of this one ship for as long as I remember. Back in high school, I developed an interest in Homestuck. I obsessed over John Egbert specifically.
As I read fanfiction and looked at fanart, no ship sparked. I didn’t really care. I would read and yeah it’s cute and blah blah blah not my OTP.
Then the worst thing could have happened.
I looked at a crack ship and then I was fxcked. The more I thought about it, the more I loved it. Karkat who? Dave who? Dirk who? Sollex and Eridan who? Literally everyone that’s a common ship WHO?
It didn’t stick with me.
Want to know what stuck?
Caliborn.
I had this idea of Calliope getting to John first and then breaking up for one reason or another.
Then Caliborn and John date or live together for other reasons.
Calliope doesn’t really come into the equation anymore or show up in my daydreams.
I don’t why, but I thought it was adorable if John just got bothered by Caliborn at every turn. They’d bother and fight and just it was cute how much they antagonized.
Then I started developing my trans Headcanon and June eventually makes her first appearance without her being June. It’s only recently (late 2022? - 2023) that I heard the name June and went from there.
I would draw and write fanfiction after fanfiction adding and subtracting details.
June stays 8ft tall and Caliborn is slightly shorter by a few feet or inches.
Caliborn gets rid of the half shaved hair look for short curly hair.
I couldn’t stop doodling John all over my school work to the point my science teacher recognized him when I gave her a little quiz. She had a bearded dragon in the classroom and I loved holding them during class :3
(Don’t ask about the things I did in highschool)
I had a ton of ideas and a lot of them were problematic tbh so I’m still curving them out of my head for far better ideas.
No matter what fandom I became a part of John/ June x Caliborn never left me. I didn’t want to really read fics anymore since no one writes my ship.
Does anyone actually do pixies and Crocker and Harley and Egbert family dynamics? Do they ever have them interacting like a big extended family?
If I had the urge, I’d write my AU ideas more. (I’m kinda stuck at the moment, work burns me out to much and too often that I don’t have motivation to get through the one? Shot I have)
I am going to attempt to redraw this political romance fancomic I drew a long time ago to update it with my newest version of John/ June. That means she will be June. If I could find the notebooks I had.
With my inability to write I’m stuck with lackluster chapters and get nothing done. I need some form of energy boost for my creativity. It’s at an all time low at the moment, being used for other fandoms.
Like this Transformers AU that got me in a chokehold.
Optimom AU (I have a whole blog on it if you want to send asks and stuff)
Optimus becomes the mother of Soundwave, Sari, and Bumblebee. The seeker teens think of Optimus as their mother and there are like 9 of them. Not to mention the others that kind of sees Optimus as a mother figure.
Basically Found Family Trope :3
It’s more complicated than that and I have several fanfics and fanart (which is now found in the Blog)
The messy Age thing with Sari, it’s because I plan of having her die at some point (trauma) and I can’t in good conscience do that to a 3-5 year old (it’s by electrocution).
Yeah it’s messed up, but the world of Transformers is equally if not more messed up and morally grey :3
At least Ariel (Black Arachnia) and Sari get to become extensions of Unicron and Primus!
Sentinel redemption and Ultra Magnus retiring to become Optimus’ father.
There’s a lot to the AU I’m not going in to in this post but yeah!!! That’s it!!!
Honestly I could go on, but then the post will never end.
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wastelandhell · 1 year
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Do you have any recommendations for life/figure drawing resources?
Oh I am probably the wrong person to ask haha. I've kinda approached art from a weird backwards way, admittedly I've only started taking drawing seriously very recently. I feel like figures are my weakest point, I used to mostly focus on faces/expressions and cartoons so this is new-ish to me. I'm also a huge hack, a lot of the stuff I draw for this blog is slapped together on sleepless nights and I sometimes just trace poses.
Social anxiety that has stopped me from doing any kind of art classes or life drawing, so I usually draw from photographs. I have a lot of books of vintage photography and pinup illustrations that I like to redraw in my sketchbooks. I'm a huge sucker for midcentury cheesecake, and that's a lot of what i draw lol.
I've never really bothered with posing 3D models like the ones in clip studio, they can help you lay down the base pose but don't reflect how muscles move under the skin. Which is i guess fine for anime, but not how I want to draw.
I think it's really important to learn how to 'see' things and translate them to paper. I remember "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" being very helpful for this when I was in high school. The left/right brain theory is pseudoscience junk but the drawing techniques were sound.
I'm making my way through "Dynamic Anatomy" right now, which I find very helpful, if a bit intimidating. In general I started by figuring out some of the bigger muscle groups, and I'm slowly learning the smaller details and working them into my drawings. Really a lot of my references are things I find through google images. I am currently looking into paid lessons, if anyone has some good ones let me know ha!
Always free and available, you have yourself and a mirror! If it's reasonable i try to make a lot of the poses and expressions I draw. I'm always referencing my own hands, and touching my face to see how things are spaced out.
If you find anything hard to draw, focus on it. Struggle with hands? You need to draw a lot more (realistic) hands. Expressions? Get a mirror out, it's time to learn how face muscles affect each other. It's important to always push yourself, art isn't always fun. If you want to improve you have to do the hard stuff.
Unrelated to your ask, but I think it's also really important to draw on paper. I've found that most skills you learn with physical media will translate well to digital, but it doesn't go the other way. I really like a heavy, coil-bound mixed-media sketchbook and Faber-Castell Polychromos.
Also adding the best piece of general life advice I've ever seen: There will always be someone better, younger, and hotter than you. Don't focus on what other people are doing/have done, you won't accomplish anything by being miserable. The only person you can compare yourself to is yourself.
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thevalleyisjolly · 3 years
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The hardest part of art has got to be knowing when to stop fiddling around with it
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magnhild · 2 years
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you don't have to post this publicly since I wanted to ask your process on lighting bc I genuinely love it! I still have trouble with it sometimes and usually just use filters. thanks in advance!
the short answer is- i wing it. i use different techniques a lot and it probably shows :')
for the screenshot redraw specifically though, i'll try to write up a rough process with examples.
first thing of note- i use photoshop (my mother pays for it and we share an account), so some of the stuff i do probably can't be done the same in other art programs.
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so here's our little unshaded character! one very important thing with lighting is to remember where your light source is coming from.
if we're doing a character lit by fire or similar orange light, i tend to choose a dark gray-blue or gray-purple for the shading, anywhere from 40-50% opacity. of course, this can vary depending on how dramatic you want your lighting to be.
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now you want to select around your base colour layer, then invert the selection so that your character is fully selected. i invert it so that i don't have to select each individual colour of a character (this one is just one colour, so i could have just selected it, be ah well).
once your character is completely selected, switch your selection tool to remove selections, rather than add them. then, switch to your shading layer, and click each shaded portion to de-select it.
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now, make your colour a bright orange, and create a new layer. set this one to around 60-60% opacity.
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at this point, you could stop here, but here's what i did in the screenshot redraw to make things a little more dynamic.
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(background added for emphasis) adding some weight to your lines in what would be the darkest parts can add some nice depth!
and so can adding a gradient over your shading layers! here, i used the same colour i shaded with, at 47% opacity.
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the next thing i did once i was sure i had nothing to change or fix on the characters- and this is a bit risky- is merge the layers and add the 'dark strokes' filter in photoshop. if you want to be careful, duplicate the layers before merging the duplicates, so you can go back and edit the originals if need be. it doesn't look great with this little doodle, but the more detail in your character, the cooler it looks- and don't hesitate to mess around with the filter settings!
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finally, and this is something i do just about every time i do a full piece, after i'm sure that everything else is done, i merge every layer (again, you can duplicate if you're hesitant). once this is done, i like to check with photoshop does with the 'auto tone', 'auto contrast', and 'auto colour' options. however, sometimes this can make it look awful, so use your eyes to figure out if using any one (or two or three) or the adjustments will improve your lighting, or if it's best to leave it as is. in this case, this little guy was best as is- again, more detail helps the program to figure these things out, as it gives it more to work with.
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the other highlighted settings are good if you want to adjust these things manually. just play around with each of them until you get something that feels good to you! i didn't use them for the screenshot redraw, but there are plenty of other pieces that i did use one or more of them for.
i hope that helped! again, keep in mind that this is just what i did with the screenshot redraw. listing every technique i use would take a very long time. honestly, the best advice i can give is to experiment as much as possible. try not to use pure black or white unless you feel it suits the piece, use contrasting colours and shades when it comes to dynamic lighting, and remember that filters and overlays are your friends 👍
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jennikkugoesoff · 5 years
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Jennikku goes off about a Sonic the Hedgehog Reboot.
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If you follow me at all or have read many of my other rants, you’ll know I love Sonic the Hedgehog. A lot, with all my heart. I met my friends through Sonic and it’s a franchise that’s changed a lot in my life, for better, for worse and everything in-between. It’s the reason I started to draw, to write and to really give creativity a chance.
It’s a series that has been through many twists, turns, up and down and all arounds over the course of it’s long, 28 (as of the time of writing) year lifespan, and has stood the test of time, being heralded either as one of the best video game franchises of all time, or, well, one of the worst out there, becoming more and more dated by each passing day.
But, it didn’t start out that way. Everyone’s told the long, terrible story now about Sonic’s massive rise to the top of 1990s American Iconography and his massive plummet into the depths of Hell, dragging his now-bitter fans down with him following the turn of the century and segwaying into the modern age, so I won’t bog you with the details you already know, but here’s the main point.
Sonic the Hedgehog... kinda sucks.
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And that’s because it’s a mess. An astronomically confused, tired, and beaten mess. In the 28 year lifespan of Sonic the Hedgehog, it’s canon has become massively tangled in knots. Inconsistent games, inconsistent comics, inconsistent cartoons, and so on and so forth. Anyone who’s a fan of Sonic comes from a place where they heard about Sonic, be it the games, the cartoons, the comics, and so on, and therefore, have a different mindset about what Sonic the Hedgehog should be, which is the cause for much of the heavy, almost unpleasable climate the fan community gives off.
Really? The only way I see the series being salvageable is to wipe the slate clean and begin... at least somewhat anew, and see how these scatted pieces of broken glass we call the ‘Sonic canon’ can fit together.
This has been tried once, with Sonic Boom, but it didn’t really end well, and I’d like to change that, so let’s have this hypothetical reboot take the same form as Sonic Boom, as a potential ‘new face’ for the entire series, rather than a spinoff continuity. (I feel like this was the original intention of Sonic Boom, but due to the backlash, was revoked.)
Are you comfortable? Let’s go. It’s gonna be a long-ass, tiring, winding post.
(Seriously I spent fucking 3 days just writing this post. For that reason, there may be a few gRaMatTcul eRors here and there, just bear with me, okay? I’m tired and I just wanna heave out this monster of an idea.)
Housecleaning and on wiping the slate clean
Ok, before we actually get into redoing the series, I wanna make this clear, when I say I want to ‘wipe the slate clean’, that’s sort of an exaggeration. I don’t think Sonic needs to be completely rewritten from scratch, and certain elements of the series DO work very well, so it’s more we’re gonna ‘wipe the slate clean, but immediately redraw things back on, except bigger and better than they were before.’
The reason why is, Sonic the Hedgehog has a kind of ‘hoarder complex’ when it comes to his franchise. As I established earlier, the main problem with rebooting Sonic the Hedgehog as compared to another franchise like, say, Ducktales, or Ghostbusters, is that Sonic the Hedgehog has a lot of lore. Too much lore. Think about the crazy amount of lore surrounding Solaris, Mephiles, Dark and Light Gaia, the Wisps, Chaos, and Tikal, Shadow and the Black Arms, Silver, the Sol Dimension and Blaze, Eggman Nega, the Nocturnus Clan, the list goes on and on and on. It’s head-spinning, it’s confusing, and most of all, obtrusive to what’s actually important in the Sonic Canon versus what seems important.
This isn’t helped by the fact that Sonic has never really had a consistent ground to stand on in terms of his world and where he lives because where he lives changes with every game or new thing Sonic is in. So, introducing these new, complicated gods and grand, sprawling history all of a sudden doesn’t give the world Sonic lives in any ground or any real meaning if it’s just going to be ignored later on when Sonic Forces completely rewrites the world map from Unleashed. (This is a problem I have with the Mario and Kirby series too.)
Even if you claim something like the Sonic Archie comics have consistency in their setting, think about how much the comic’s version of Mobius changed over the course of its lifespan after not only being completely rewritten (thanks Ken Penders. I’m sure your horrific 3d render children are proud.) and two crossovers, not to mention all the subtle shifts and changes the comic made from its debut comic to its cancellation.
So, if we’re going to do this, we need to get this straight right now.
A new Sonic reboot will NEED to cover EVERY base of the Sonic continuity. Games, Comics, Cartoons, Merchandising (with the exception of maybe some anniversary stuff), The Whole Echidna- er, Enchilada.
If the problem with Sonic as it is, is that the continuity is messy because it keeps adding new stuff? THEN STOP FUCKING ADDING NEW STUFF!!
NO ONE’S GONNA LIKE THE NEW STUFF ANYWAY!!
PEOPLE FUCKING HATE CHANGE!!
THIS FRANCHISE IS SO FUCKing MiSTReATED!- FUCK!!
Nah, but seriously. If this reboot is gonna work, then it needs to BE a proper reboot. Not a side-series like Sonic Boom, not an ‘alternate dimension’ to dip into for mainline games, not a one-off series of animated shorts, no quills, no pillows. If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna go all in. At least in terms of continuity.
So, you know what we’re gonna name this reboot?
Sonic the Hedgehog
Just, Sonic the Hedgehog. Yep. All in, indeed.
Audience, Tone, and Genre
I feel maybe I should’ve split these into multiple sections, but, they really all go hand-in-hand. 
If we’re gonna remake Sonic, we gotta first decide how Sonic should feel, and who he’s going to appeal to. So, let’s consider what we’re working with first, based on the history of who Sonic has appealed to.
The whole point of Sonic’s young, hip, snarky personality was to appeal to the American youth of the 1990s (kids, teenagers, and young adults), the young, hip, snarky and coolest people around. Sonic sought to identify with these kids by being a little bit ‘edgier’ and ‘cooler’ than most other cartoon characters of his era, but still with the capability to be as cute, wholesome and inherently charming as his competition. Like the perfect little blend of the sarcastic wit of Bugs Bunny and the lovable personability of Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat.
Many Sonic clones of the 1990s like Bubsy, Aero the Acrobat, and Zero the [CENSORED] Squirrel tried to piggyback off of Sonic in this manner by trying to play up Sonic’s edgy, snarky appeal, but what they lack is that more wholesome, laid back, simple, round and friendly aspects of his design. It’s why Sonic can look like this:
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but also like this
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like this
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but also like this.
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It’s why Sonic works so well as a cartoon character in animated shorts and cartoons, as well as an action character in high octane blood pumping action anime, and one of the reasons why I think his design is so appealing. It’s this, this perfect balance between cool superhero and cuddly, wholesome cartoon character that makes Sonic such the iconic character he is.
So what’s the point of me telling you that?
Well, lots of people disagree on what Sonic the Hedgehog’s tone should be, and what audience Sonic should appeal to. Many argue Sonic is a series strictly meant for children, and therefore shouldn’t take any risks and be cutesy, wholesome and bouncy. Others argue Sonic should market itself to teenagers and young adults by pushing its envelope with it’s material and turning itself into a giant melodrama with three-dimensional characters, intertwining relationships and giant, epic Dragon Ball Z style showdowns with blood, guts and the crunching of noses and teeth.
You know what’s popular right now though and seems to have been for a while? A blend of those exact two things.
It sounds dumb but, think about it. Video games and cartoons have been taking this turn toward being a little bit of the best of both worlds. Steven Universe, Undertale/Deltarune, Star Vs. The Forces of Evil, even stuff like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, that sort of thing.
So, I think a new Sonic reboot should be an Action/Adventure-Comedy. It’s a series about long, lengthy quests and the ongoing war between nature and machine, but it’s also about a quick-witted cartoon character having fun picking on an overconfident evil scientist and his lackeys.
And you know what? I think Sonic is and has shown that this is the environment he flourishes in. Think about why Sonic Mania Adventures and Team Sonic Racing: Overdrive work so well, or why OK KO: Let’s Meet Sonic! is so great! It places Sonic and co. in an environment in which they have the opportunity to be funny and cartoony, but also leaves itself open to lead into more strict action sequences or serious, emotional moments, should it feel the need to. It lets the characters be the characters, without being impeded by everything needed to be babyproofed, but also not interrupted by fanfic-tier melodramatics every 2 and a half minutes. And, considering how much any media featuring Sonic relies on its characters to garner appeal, this is important.
Besides that, this is also important for something I think is going to make this reboot go from good to great.
: ✧・゚: U N I F I C A T I O N ! :・゚✧ : 
I’ve said this before in my other essay on how I’d reboot Sonic, but I truly feel that bringing together a lot of different elements of Sonic’s history together for this reboot is a top-notch idea for not only bringing the series back together whilst maintaining a wide appeal but also broaden the scope of potential characters, settings, and plot points we can work with, rather than just limiting it to just the classic era, or just the modern era, it also might leave veteran fans wondering just who or what was going to show up in the next game, or next episode!
Why limit ourselves to just a classic-style series or just a modern-style series? Why not mix it up a little?
Let’s take the cute classic stuff and mix it with some of the cool modern stuff!
I mean of course there’s gonna be purists but, hey, if we have a little bit of both we might just start seeing eye to eye!
So, what does that mean for the audience? Well, I think in that sense, Sonic should be able to appeal to, about anyone, really. Adults, Kids, Teenagers, anyone. It’d be like going to see a Marvel Superhero movie in the theaters or watching Spongebob on TV, yeah, it’d be something kids enjoy, but also something young adults can appreciate too. Although if we absolutely have to stick to a demographic, I’d say the ideal targets for a Sonic the Hedgehog reboot are two groups of people specifically.
Older fans of the series who grew up with the Adventure and Classic games, and Younger people who are more familiar with the modern games. As far as drawing new people or embittered old fans in?... Well, we’ll get to that.
Plot synopsis
It may seem like a no-brainer what the plot of Sonic the Hedgehog is, right? Well, of course it is. It’s been the same for over 20 years, and, I think the premise? Is fine.
“Sonic the Hedgehog is the fastest thing alive and a protector of nature who loves adventure. He’s smarmy and mischevious, but with a heart of gold and an unshakable sense of justice with a can-do attitude. His archnemesis, Dr. Eggman, wants to take over his natural, sprawling home and begin building his planet-conquering empire in its place. It’s up to Sonic and his group of friends to defeat Dr. Eggman, and restore peace to the world, and the green back to the hills.”
This? Right here? This is Sonic the Hedgehog. No matter who you ask, from any branch of the franchises thousand-foot tall family tree, this is Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s a couple of doodads and twists here and there depending on the specific game, but that’s really honestly it when you break it all down, that’s the plot of almost every Sonic game. But this can easily get lost and bogged down between all of the God-summoning and all that shit that other Sonic media does.
So, let’s keep the focus on this, and this alone. Just the ongoing misadventures, setbacks, leaps forward, threats and triumphs between Sonic and Co. and the forces of evil.
...(But let’s add the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald, I don’t think I can stand having a Sonic continuity without them and they make for good plot fodder, plus, I’ll be damned if I’m not seeing Super Sonic by the time a series finale or end-of-game hits.)
Setting + Background Lore
So, to set a location, let’s dumb down where Sonic actually lives. (Figuratively anyway, Sonic has no true home, just places he likes to be at any one time.)
In the Genesis days, Sonic lived on a tiny island called South Island, and the game’s settings often took place on South Island or on it’s neighboring islands Westside and Angel Island, and, given how important these old zones, like Green Hill and Chemical Plant Zone, are to the current Sonic Canon, I propose that maybe the setting for this potential reboot takes place on said islands, with one island for each of the cardinal directions on a compass, but also some of the other islands that are included in the Sonic series (as well as some adjusted ones!)
And, as a reference to the days of yore, we could even call it
The Mobius Archipelago
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Each of these islands would have their own unique areas (referred to as ‘Zones’ for both nostalgia and convenience’s sake) based on the different levels from Sonic games. I’m unsure of the exact geography of these islands in question, but, you get the idea if you’re at all familiar with the canon, South Island has all the zones from Sonic 1 (16 and 8 Bit), Sonic Chaos and Sonic 2 (8-bit), Westside Island has all the zones from Sonic 2 and a couple from Sonic Mania, Angel Island has all the Zones from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, North Island is essentially a fusion of all the different Eggman Zones (Crystal Egg, Sleeping Egg, Scrap Brain, Metropolis, Eggmanland, Robotropolis, Robotnik Winter, the zones from SegaSonic the Hedgehog, etc.), Flicky’s Island has all of the zones from Sonic 3D Blast, Cocoa Island has all the zones from Tails Skypatrol and Tails Adventure, Mirage Island has all the zones from Sonic 4 and also Never Lake, and Little Planet (and hence all the zones from Sonic CD) you get the idea.
I’m unsure what exactly Eastside Island would have on it, but I figured that Sonic games have so many zones and levels across so many games, surely something would find a nice home on that island, perhaps some of the zones from Sonic Mania, Sonic Blast, maybe even the Adventure games, who knows? But, inevitably, space is going to run out on those other islands and we’ll likely have zones or locations that’ll be good for the series to have.
And then, we also have a mainland sprinkled with City. This is where your Adventure/Modern style cities are, Station Square, City Escape, that sort of thing.
It may not seem like much, considering some Sonic games have settings that span entire planets, but when you think about how many zones are crammed into a few little islands in the genesis titles alone, it’s hardly a limited setting.
The natives of this island chain would be Mobians and Mobini. Mobians are your typical Sonic characters, your Sonics, your Tailses, your Knuckleses, and so on and so forth. They’re the more humanoid animals. Mobini, on the other hand would be all of the smaller animals, the kind that Sonic frees from badniks or are just knockin about doing little woodland creature things. For more information on Mobini, I’ve included a little blip about them in the ‘Side Protagonists’ part of this little shanty ‘pitch guide’.
Humans would live on the mainland, although some researchers and scientists would visit the Archipelago every so often because of it’s mysterious ‘new frontier’ kind of appeal, even if Mobians find their research a little weird.
Generally, Humans also keep to the mainland, and Mobians keep to their islands, but, make no mistake, Mobians and Humans don’t hate each other. Some Mobians and Mobini have taken to the urban lifestyle, whereas some humans have taken to the natural wonder of the Archipelago, starting environmentally friendly cities and towns in the sleepy groves and corners of this untamed wilderness.
This Archipelago would be the point of focus for our Main Characters because, well, it’s their native home, and it’d draw our Main Villains because this island is also home to the Seven Chaos Emeralds, and their Master Emerald.
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The Chaos Emeralds are the main MacGuffins of the Sonic series, and for good reason! Gathering all seven of these things grants their holder infinite access to chaos energy, a kind of force that will turn their thoughts into power, whether positive or negative. While most Mobians would prefer to leave the Chaos Emeralds alone, due to them causing, well, chaos, villains seek these gems out on purpose so that they can easier accomplish their goals. However, if a hero were to gather all seven chaos emeralds, and had enough purity, desire for good, and strength in their heart, the emeralds will grant them immense power, too.
Upon a vast amount of energy being used however, the Emeralds will scatter across the Archipelago, waiting for their next holders to come, and initiate chaos once more.
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And then, there’s the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald is very similar to the Chaos Emeralds, and contains tenfold the amount of energy of a full set of Chaos Emeralds, but also acts as an on/off switch for the Chaos Emeralds. The Master Emerald can completely drain the Chaos Emeralds of their power, or multiply their power exponentially if one knows how to control it, making the Master Emerald incredibly valuable too. However, villains usually tend to opt for the Chaos Emeralds instead, not only because legends of the Master Emerald are believed to be false, or even if it is real, no one knows how to control it, but the Master Emerald is also said to have a guardian. A very, very angry guardian.
There’s also the lesser-known Time Stones.
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The Time Stones reside on Little Planet, an anomalous celestial body that appears only once every year over Never Lake on Mirage Island. These stones seemed to have formed in a similar fashion to the Chaos Emeralds, but rather than bending SPACE to the will of their holders, the Time Stones will instead, bend Time. The Time Stones, for this reason, are even more dangerous than the Chaos Emeralds and are responsible for many of the temporal anomalies within the Archipelago. Due to their danger, the Time Stones see much more infrequent use than the Chaos Emeralds, and keeping them on Little Planet as opposed to bringing them to the surface of the Earth is much safer, as the Time Stones will only seemingly affect the time stream of Little Planet and not the Earth.
The Time Stones won’t matter until later in the series when Sonic and Co. start tampering with time, and for a while, the focus will remain on the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald.
But enough about where Sonic lives, let’s look at him and the rest of our colorful main cast, shall we?
Main Protagonists
Hooh, boy I am not gonna make many friends with this decision, am I?
This is kinda where my reboot starts to get a lot little tiny bit more personal, but, I have reasoning behind picking who I pick. The characters I’d pick to be the main protagonists, as in the characters that the viewers of the cartoon series, readers of the comic, or players of the games are going to be:
A) Playing as
B) Rooting for
C) Following throughout most of the adventures.
are as follows:
Sonic the Hedgehog
Miles “Tails” Prower
Knuckles the Echidna
Amy Rose
Mighty the Armadillo
Ray the Flying Squirrel
The first two seem obvious enough, Sonic and Tails are the two spotlight protagonists of most Sonic games and are the two chief playable characters in most games of the Genesis Era. Knuckles should come as no surprise either for the same reason, although I’ll touch on Knuckles later when I assess the protagonists on an individual level. 
I chose Amy as one of the leads because, well, Amy frankly hasn’t seen that much time in the sun as a true character, and I feel like that’s a shame given her longevity in the series, being with us ever since CD. Her most complex appearance was in Sonic Adventure 1 and even then, she’s kinda reduced to the same traits as her white-bread, palid, boring, Genesis counterpart. While I would like to have another female character so Amy isn’t a ‘token chick’, I don’t really want to shake up the formula too much.
Mighty and Ray are a little bit different. With the release of Sonic Mania Plus though, I feel that Mighty and Ray are more relevant now than they ever were, and considering their placement as main characters in Mania Plus, I think that we could really benefit from their addition to the main lineup of Sonic’s friends! Sure, Mighty and Ray don’t have much personality, but maybe this is where we can change that and give these lost stars a chance to sparkle as main characters after spending so long in the shadows of the past!
However, I do wanna state, that I understand if some people feel Mighty and Ray are irrelevant. I get that, really, I do. It’s one of the things in this projected reboot that I feel is much more personally appealing to me than it is ‘what I think is best for the Sonic franchise’. Put plain and simple, Mighty and Ray are just... not as popular as other Sonic characters. And, adding these two to the roster of main characters means that the main character count skyrockets from an easily manageable 4 to 6, which can seem like a bit much to some people I’ll agree, and means that they’ll likely see more screentime than other popular protagonist characters like Cream, Silver or even Blaze. But, at the same time, I also feel that if they’re popular enough to be included in Sonic Mania Plus, then there at least is some interest in the fan community of them being relevant, regular characters again. And, what better niche for them to fit into than being two of Sonic’s close friends again while going on adventures with him regularly?
(Side note, I also felt like including Sticks as a main character, and I may come back to that idea later if I end up making any content for this reboot, but as it stands I felt 7 main characters were just a bit too much, although it would’ve been cool to have a character for each Chaos Emerald, and I think there are a lot of real, genuine comedic possibilities, as well as some unique action choreography from her.)
I also don’t think Sonic’s design or the design of his friends need to be changed around too terribly much for a reboot? (Although there are some characters I think could benefit from a rework, but Sonic and MOST of the main characters are okay imo) There’s a lot of contention on Sonic’s design in any sense but, personally? I think Sonic’s designs can actually be pretty well unified, all things considered. I think Sonic could benefit from a few design ADJUSTMENTS, but maybe not a full-scale redesign like Sonic Boom.
For instance, these early concepts for Dreamcast Sonic are an excellent starting place, as I feel they capture the spirit of all three versions of Sonic pretty well all things considered, save for their quills being a little long. the proportions on them are a little off, however, with a couple of adjustments, I think this could actually be a really good idea.
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Nendoroid Sonic is also pretty close to what I think a unified Sonic design could look like, if someone held a gun to my head and told me to pick an ideal new design for Sonic, it’d probably be very close to this.
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(Credit to JaysonJeanChannel on DA for this render of Nendoroid Sonic.)
Or, even moving back a little bit, “Toei Sonic“, although kind of overrated in my opinion, is a really nice compromise between the cutesy, cartoony nature of the original versions of Sonic, while still updating Sonic to be more obviously sleek, sharp and spring-loaded for his modern audiences, and is full of personality. That’s not to say I think Toei Sonic should be the new face of Sonic the Hedgehog for years to come, but it’d be a great starting point to work from, given that Toei is a version of Sonic suited for intense, rubberhosy, slippery animations.
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In the end, the only thing that truly matters is that Sonic looks like Sonic, and not like a weird little blue goblin if the backlash on the first pass of the Sonic Movie is any indication? We shouldn’t try to fix what isn’t broken, I just think that maybe trying out a hybrid between classic and modern Sonic to see how people feel about it might be a nice compromise between those who prefer Classic Sonic vs. those who prefer Modern or Adventure Sonic, again, unification, the best of both worlds.
That being said, let’s have a look-see into each character individually, shall we? For this, I’ll give a name, my projected voice actor for them, and a little blurb about their personality, as well as a short list of their abilities.
I’ll also try to justify my reasons for some stuff that people may consider odd after all of the character bios.
Sonic the Hedgehog:
Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz/James Arnold Taylor
Sonic is heroic, ambitious, and a complete adrenaline junkie. He'll take on any challenge that's given to him in the history of forever, even if absolutely knows it's impossible or he could get hurt trying to do it or he's absolutely not skilled enough at what he's doing to do it. Hence, Sonic is extremely competitive and gets easily absorbed in things he does, even around friends. Sonic tends to not look before he leaps as he's able to get himself out of situations so easily, preferring to live on his feet without thinking too hard about anything, although he's not dumb by any stretch of the imagination and will slow down and strategize if he absolutely needs to, and will always be willing to slow down for someone in need. Sonic is cocky, snarky, and believes a little too much in himself, he has an ego the size of the sun and will do anything he has to protect his image, especially how he views himself. Sonic also has an incredible amount of attitude and makes fun of people he doesn't like or thinks deserve it with insulting nicknames or cruel jokes, often being sarcastic and witty even at the worst of times to be. Although Sonic tries as hard as he can to keep his cool a lot of the time and prefers to live without consequences or regrets on his mind, when he's angry, sometimes he can lash out at people and can become downright completely rude when upset. Sonic is also something of a juvenile delinquent, often breaking rules just because he can or he thinks it's fun or funny, which often gets him into trouble. Sonic EXTREMELY Dislikes being called 'slow' or things being faster than he is (often wanting to prove his mettle against whatever is faster than him even if it hurts him), and has even less patience for slowing down unless he absolutely has to. He hates to wait and hates to be kept waiting, oftentimes getting bored and leaving in mere seconds if a situation doesn't matter that much to him, although he's known to show much, much more patience when people are hurt, or upset, and has an affinity for relaxing for long periods of time with friends after lengthy expeditions and adventures. Sonic hates to see innocent people cry or have their feelings hurt and will often get  extremely upset at the cause depending on the person/situation, and believes that any situation he can tend to is important (as he often can do things so quickly it's often no trouble for him.) 
Abilities:
Insta-Shield (Allows Sonic to deflect incoming projectiles with precise timing. This also extends Sonic’s hitbox a bit so it can inflict damage, and gives him invincibility frames!)
Wall Jump (Sonic can wall jump, but they need to be timed properly, as when Sonic lands on a wall, he’ll begin to slide, sliding down a wall for too long will cause Sonic to slip and eventually fall.)
Super Spin Dash (Sonic can rev his spin dash up much faster and much more efficiently than other characters, Sonic’s spin dash also has higher maximum propulsion, and will break walls much quicker.)
Super Peel Out
Light Dash (Using the light dash on a trail of rings will allow Sonic to pick up vast amounts of speed instantly by traveling along a trail of rings, being slingshotted out of the trail at an intense speed, the longer the trail of rings is, the faster he’ll be when he comes out of the trail, but also the more vulnerable he’ll be when he’s flung out of the trail. Sonic can also easily reclaim his fallen rings by light dashing, but there’s no guarantee you won’t go flying into the hazard you just tried to avoid when you do.)
Can use the abilities of elemental shields
Miles "Tails" Prower: 
Voice Actor: Collen Villard 
Tails is Sonic's closest friend. Tails is very intelligent and is something of an amateur technician, roboticist and mechanic, although he specializes in work with aircrafts, small-scale robotics, and computer systems. Frequently he prefers a much slower, methodical approach to problems as opposed to rushing into everything headfirst like Sonic does. Often relies on his intuition over instinct. Tails feels he and Sonic hold a kind of 'mutual responsibility' over each other to keep each other safe, hence Tails keeps Sonic out of trouble or from doing things that are REALLY REALLY stupid, but most of the time, Tails likes to indulge in Sonic's antics with him and even enjoys being kind of silly or being a rebel with him. Tails really looks up to Sonic and wants to have the same kind of respect, cool and wit that he does, however, in doing this, because of his low self-esteem, Tails will often ignore a lot of his more positive traits and attempt to mimic Sonic instead in an effort to seem 'cool', which can really make him do some out-of-place or seemingly strange things at times when he doesn't mean it because he can be a little shy to be himself. Tails is a firmly humble inventor and often attributes his successes to the support of others more often than his own work, and he will not ever invent anything for the purpose of competing with someone or for the sake of jealousy, believing that his best work comes from his heart.
Abilities:
Flying (This would be nerfed significantly from Sonic Mania and S3&K so Tails couldn’t just fly over everything. Tails’ gameplay should encourage exploration in more ways than just one.)
Spin Dash
Tinkering (Allows Tails to reverse conveyor belts, turn off sawblades, and do other shit to help him get through mechanical levels.)
Ring Bomb (Short range projectile at the cost of rings, explodes in a small radius)
Remote Robot (Allows Tails to explore places he can’t otherwise get to at the cost of 1 ring per second)
Knuckles the Echidna: 
Voice Actor: Dan Green 
The key word to Knuckles is STRESS. Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, and boy does he take his job seriously, being the very last living Mobian Echidna, and being very in-tune with his family and extended tribe's history. He has an inherent connection with the Master Emerald that allows him to sense it's location, wherever it might be, if this feeling of his is tampered with only slightly, it sends Knuckles into an incredible, panicked rage that can only be quelled by returning the gem to where he left it, or by retrieving the gemstone from whoever stole or moved it. He will only leave the emerald alone for long periods of time once he is one-hundred percent confident no one will touch it or move it (and even then he oftentimes gets worried about it anyway) and hence, interacts with Team Sonic on a more infrequent basis because of this (although he still has plenty of moments dedicated to him.) However, when not guarding the Emerald and forced to loosen up and relax, one can find that Knuckles is rather stoic and full of quote en quote 'sage-advice' (or rather stuff that seems and can be profound but can also be kind of insane ramblings from someone who spends too much time alone with some rock.) He often doesn't understand Sonic's more urban lifestyle, preferring his more traditional, simple 'off the fat of the land' kind of life, but he's surprisingly receptive to new things (unless said new thing gets the emerald stolen of course.) Knuckles is also incredibly suspicious and paranoid of people, even believing people he's close to having the capability of turning on him, and because of this, he's incredibly gullible when it comes to people 'changing' or 'turning evil' or 'wanting to take the Master Emerald', although he's usually smart enough to not fall for the same trick twice... or at least, not for a while after it happens once. Because of his ability to be tricked so easily, and because tricking him often leads to bad things, Knuckles' temper and patience are very short, and very small things easily can make him very upset. Knuckles actually has a weakness for romance, being such a lonely soul, he often gets shy and acts noticeably different (read: Happier) around people that can charm him, but often won't admit it.
Abilities:
Gliding
Climbing
Spin Dash
Burrowing (works sort of like the burrow mechanic from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, except Knuckles can remain and move underground for a bit to be invincible, although this ability is very limited and cannot be done on metal or synthetic flooring.)
Melee Attacks (Knuckles can punch things in a short range, nuff said.)
Amy Rose: 
Voice Actor: Kristen Schaal 
Amy is positive, bubbly, loud and honestly kind of a silly airhead sometimes. Although at first, it seems there's very little to her, there's actually a lot more to her than her outward appearance would suggest. Amy tends to not judge people by their looks or by their behaviors, and is very open-minded and emotional, often getting choked up over things she really doesn't need to. Amy is also pretty selfless, willing to help people without any benefit to herself or any reason besides being a good person, although that's not to say she just lets people walk all over her. Amy is also something of a social butterfly, having connections with about everyone anyone else even remotely knows, and can easily tell you all about them and will want you to meet them upon even the mention of their name. Her inherent energy makes her a lot to deal with at once, even people like Sonic, Tails, and Mighty can get tired of her very quickly, even if it's very clear that she means well. She also makes for a great therapist and is willing to help anyone with problems they might be having, even if they push her away at first. However, Amy isn't all the girly girl she seems sometimes and has kind of a violent edge, anyone who pushes her around or says anything bad about her friends is gonna get walloped with her hammer, and believe me, you don't ever quite forget a feeling like being Piko'd by Amy Rose. On this note, Amy also kinda... doesn't know her own strength, and can seem stronger than Knuckles, or even Mighty at times because she just absolutely does not know her limits, expect lots of spine-crushing hugs.
Abilities:
Triple Jump (Amy can jump three times in succession, however, each jump significantly degrades in height boost. Her normal jump will go the highest and her third jump will go the lowest. Because of this ability, Amy also does not spin when she jumps, meaning she can’t defeat Badniks or damage enemies by jumping on them, she won’t take damage from bouncing on them, it just won’t destroy them.)
Hammer Smash (A mid-range melee attack that will destroy most enemies instantly.)
Hammer Spin (Both an Aerial attack to make up for the fact Amy can’t spin jump and a dash attack to make up for the fact Amy can’t spin dash.)
Peel Out (Functions similarly to the peel out in Sonic Advance or Sonic 2: Pink Edition, replaces the Spin Dash.)
Mighty the Armadillo: 
Voice Actor: Beck Bennett/Travis Willingham 
Mighty is one of Sonic's oldest friends and is his foil in a lot of ways. He prefers to take his time with a lot of things and doesn't really mind going slow. Mighty is something of a 'meathead', he's naive, and kinda absentminded at times, even if he doesn't mean to be. Mighty is very strong and takes incredible pride in his abilities much like Sonic. He adores his own strength and quote en quote 'manliness' and will do anything to keep his ego inflated and his muscles bigger than everyone else's' (as opposed to Knuckles who views his strength as a humble reward for his years of training). Despite this, he has a very brotherly (read: dudebro) sense of personality though and likes to call people 'bro' and 'sis', and has a habit of saying 'not cool' when things don't go right or when people wrong him. Most of the time, Mighty's slow and naive ways can make him easily influenced into believing things (like conspiracies and the idea protein powder actually does things), and he's not afraid to speak his mind, often coming off as insensitive (which is how he got kicked out of Team Chaotix), when really, he just doesn't happen to know any better, although most of the time he really does mean well. Mighty also really likes to hear himself talk, oftentimes telling long-winded stories or going on long-winded rants or explanations. He tends to butt heads with Sonic and Knuckles, who get annoyed sometimes by his easygoing, borderline dim-witted nature, oftentimes reminding him of obvious things that are happening/have happened. However, Mighty greatly cares for his friends, and the one thing he absolutely will never bend on is he will not ever hurt someone who didn't do him wrong, and despite his naivety, Mighty's incredible sense of justice always triumphs over his unassuming nature. He's also Ray's best friend and will defend Ray over any other person.
Abilities:
Natural Armor (Allows Mighty to take one free hit from spikes, and defeat spiked enemies without being harmed. If a projectile hits Mighty while he’s spinning or jumping, the projectile will bounce off of his armor. This is only while Mighty is spinning, attacks from the back or while Mighty is running will still land.)
Hammer Drop (A ‘stomp’ attack that allows Mighty to crush most Badniks instantly, and will also instantly crush breakable objects and solid blocks much faster than other characters.)
Spin Dash
Mighty Arm (If Mighty presses an action button near an enemy, monitor or breakable item, Mighty will pick it up. While picking something up, Mighty will move slower and his jump will be downgraded, but he can throw the item to deal heavy damage to whatever it hits! And, picking up certain enemies or items may just come with some surprises!)
Super Wall Jump (Mighty can wall-jump much like Sonic, but upon sticking to the wall, Mighty will hang there, and will only slide down at the player’s discretion.)
Ray the Flying Squirrel: 
Voice Actor: Debi Derryberry 
Ray is neat, quiet, shy, easily disturbed and has a bit of a stutter to his voice. Ray tends to be sort of asocial compared to other members of Team Sonic and prefers not to get in the way if he thinks he's being a bother. However, despite this, Ray is much smarter than he might seem and has a level of resourcefulness to a point that even trumps Tails (who is much more intelligent) at times. Despite being so shy and cowardly, when he gets the chance, Ray is more than willing to do whatever it takes for the greater good, even if he's afraid to do so. Mighty is his best friend, and he gets obsessively worried about Mighty when he's not around, often worrying that he's wandered off or might have been hurt, kidnapped, etc. this often leads to Ray trying to find his friend or panicking that he's 'gone missing', even if Mighty was right under his nose the whole time, ironic, given his intuition and incredibly eagle-eyed nature. Much like Mighty as well, Ray can also be a little bit naive, although usually less so than Mighty himself.
Abilities:
Soaring (Ray will glide and can sweep upwards to gain height at a cost of speed, but also dip downwards to gain speed at a cost of height.)
Lite-Climbing (Ray can climb, and he can climb much faster than Knuckles, but players will need to position themselves carefully, as Ray can’t climb forever, and will eventually slip and fall, the more speed Ray has when Ray collides with the wall, the faster and longer he can climb it.)
Scout-Sense (Ray is able to detect hidden items nearby like Giant Rings, 1up Monitors, and power-ups, once Ray moves close enough to an item, an exclamation point will appear above his head, and the item he notices will be outlined in yellow.)
Dismantle (With similar timing to Sonic’s insta-shield, Ray can choose to land on a badnik instead of destroying it (even if he lands on something like a Shellcracker’s claw or Bubbles when spiked out), and he will begin to unscrew the badnik until it breaks. This rewards Ray with rings or more hidden items, and can make tricky badniks like Asteron and Shellcracker more bearable to deal with! This also works on bosses, except dismantling a boss will only cause a hit of damage to the boss, although Ray can stay latched on to deal multiple hits of damage if he isn’t knocked off!)
Hookay, if you’re not winded by all those character bios, let me try to explain some of my reasoning. I won’t be doing this with later characters because this post is already the size of a fucking dump truck, but, here we go anyway.
Yes. I chose Ben Schwartz over Roger Craig Smith and Jason Griffith for Sonic. No. I don’t hate Jason Griffith or Roger Craig Smith’s voices for Sonic. Yes, I realize Ben is going to play Sonic in the Movie. I know. But, you know what? I think Ben is the perfect person to play Sonic, he’s able to inflect a real smarmy teenager vibe and I DO like that a LOT. But Ben can also play a deeper or moodier teenager too, and I feel like that’s important for Sonic’s character just as much. Jason Griffith and Roger Craig Smith make a 15-year-old sound like he’s 24. Moving on.
I think Sonic needs to not be such a prep sometimes like he is in Colors, Generations, and Forces. Like, I get that Sonic is all about doing the right thing, but, Sonic is also a smarty-pants delinquent who disrespects authority because he can. There’s this great video on the design analysis of City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2 that shows just how much of a jerk Sonic is toward people he doesn’t care for, and how he feels about obeying rules and regulations. I feel being an asshole toward people he doesn’t like, is part of Sonic’s character, it’s just we need to make him an asshole in the right direction. Sonic can be a Bugs Bunny if we let him, it’s just that it shouldn’t be completely overblown... otherwise, we get STC Sonic.
Tails needs to do more things, and not sit on the sidelines like he does in Unleashed, Colors, and Forces. He does things in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Boom, hence this version of Tails is based more on those versions OF Tails. I don’t hate Unleashed and Colors Tails, but I feel the objectively superior version of Tails comes more from Boom (who I also feel captures all of the good things about Modern Tails ANYWAY) and Adventure (which is Tails at his most resourceful, intelligent and helpful.)
Knuckles needs to be not stupid. We can make other characters stupid, but Knuckles is not stupid, Mania made Knuckles stupid and I hate that because it’s never been who Knuckles is. Sure, he’s a bit of a dense knucklehead, but he’s not dumb, just dense, which is my problem with Boom Knuckles. There’s more to his reasons for why he does things the way he does than he doesn’t know better. He’s stubborn, he’s prone to anger, he’s traditional and very much centered on the past he never had, he worries, he panics. I don’t think Boom Knuckles is a bad character, I just think making KNUCKLES the character to get this personality was kind of a bad idea. 
Amy just needs a better-developed personality. Seriously, she’s, already kinda set in stone in terms of who she is, it just needs to be expanded upon. But, Amy kinda already has the groundwork laid out for her with Boom and Modern, it’s just it needs to be molded a little bit.
Mighty comes from the classic era, and he, therefore, has no real, defining personality traits besides being a wall-jumping armadillo. I think Mighty could easily inherit Boom Knux’s personality, (as I feel a character named ‘Mighty’ would have kind of a strongman, meathead personality) but maybe changed up a bit. Instead of being just, dumb, I think Mighty being more oblivious than just stupid is better, plus, at any one time, most of the characters in-game or onscreen are able to deduce what’s going on instantly, having Mighty be a contrast to that is interesting. I also think a slow, easygoing lifestyle is kinda befitting to the Mighty we’ve seen recently, given that he doesn’t seem to emote all that much when Ray finally finds him after he’s been missing for, well, a good while, and doesn’t seem to know his own strength all the time. The only other information I know about Mighty is that he doesn’t like to fight all that much and he’s similar to Sonic, so I tried to include aspects of Sonic in his personality, but also make him kind where he can be.
If Ray’s SegaSonic sprites are anything to go by, Ray just might be a little bit of a scaredy-cat. And, I think this would make for an interesting dynamic between Ray and the rest of the team, he’d make a nice Luigi to everyone’s Mario, a character who is afraid, but willing to set aside his fears for the greater good and even for himself. He’d also be #relatable to the stressed-out teenage and young adult audience he’d be appealing to. 
Side Protagonists
Here are my choices for side-protagonists in this reboot. These are ‘friendly characters’, characters that the main 6 characters regularly interact with, but are just not focused on as much. These characters would probably not be playable (except for Silver and Blaze MAYBE.)
The Mobini
Espio the Chameleon
Charmy Bee
Vector the Crocodile
Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese the Chao)
Big the Cat (and Froggy)
Silver the Hedgehog
Blaze the Cat
Now, I know what you’re thinking.
wHerE’s TeaM DaRK?!
Just, chill out..., okay? I’ll get to Team Dark in a minute.
I’d also like to clarify if this became a series, Silver and Blaze are probably not going to become relevant characters until much LATER in? I feel like Silver and Blaze should be saved for a very specific time in the reboot’s continuity and I’ll explain that later when we get into how I’d set this series’s continuity up, but there’s a very specific reason why I want to save Silver and Blaze for when the time is right, not because I hate Silver and Blaze, but because I think it’d make the most sense.
I also feel like the Chaotix should appear a lot more and play more of an active role in this new hypothetical reboot than they do in most modern Sonic games... and let’s make them a team of vigilantes instead of detectives. A team of vigilantes that uses TEAMWORK!... And combi-rings!
...Oh and while we’re here, let’s make Cheese a Hero Chao, mkay?
But enough talk about general things! Let’s dive into each of them individually!
The Mobini:
Voice Actor: Various, it’s likely mobini won’t need voices so much as varying sound effects.
The Mobini are the local, native, feral fauna of the world of this new Sonic reboot, all your normal birds, insects, lizards, fish, mammals, et cetera are all Mobini. Mobini, are mysterious creatures, as they harbor an inherent connection to the Chaos Emeralds, and are believed to contain small fractions of the Emeralds’ infinite energy. The Mobini are what first drew Dr. Eggman to the Archipelago in which South Island resides, as with this small portion of infinite energy within them, they can be used as organic batteries to power machines indefinitely!... Although this makes them very unhappy. Contrary to what you may think, Mobini are actually sentient, and remember friendly faces... and unfriendly ones too, so be kind! If you’re ever in trouble or lost in the sprawling forests of the Mobius Archipelago, Mobini may just be able to help you out. The most curious kind of Mobini are Flickies, small little birds native to Flicky’s Island and South Island (although they’ve seemed to branch out more recently), who are said to have an even closer connection to the Emeralds, and can even hold a super form! The phenomenon of Super Flickies is incredibly rare, but when it happens, Super Flickies will be more than willing to lend their power to someone who needs it.
Chao are a special type of genetically unstable Mobini that have no ‘Earthly’ counterpart. From the time a Chao is born to the time they pass away, a Chao will gain the traits of its parent, it’s friends, and or it’s caregiver. This makes Chao ideal pets, as their personality will adapt to suit their owner, this makes Chao not only incredibly diverse but surprisingly intelligent. Just be kind to Chao... you don’t want to know what kind of horror being unkind to these little creatures can lead to.
Espio the Chameleon:
Voice Actor: Phil LaMarr
The de-facto leader of the Chaotix, and the most responsible of the team, Espio is a lot quieter than most of the main cast, and much prefers the sound of a rushing, serene stream over loud, punchy rock music. With a powerful, free-flowing fighting style inspired by martial arts, Espio is an honorable fighter, believing only in fighting fair and straight and without exploiting an opponent’s extreme weaknesses. While he tends to be sort of reclusive and becomes easily annoyed by the antics of the Chaotix and Team Sonic, he’s a lot more unshakable than he looks, and actually kind of likes the excitement from time to time. He also has a long, sticky tongue which he happens to be embarrassed by, but sees more use as a tool than he’d like to admit. Espio will often dictate his mood or state of mind to people by changing his color.
Espio’s weapons of choice are giant shuriken, which he seems to be able to pull out of hammerspace.
Abilities:
Color changing
Partial Invisibility (Espio can cloak himself to appear invisible, as long as he stands still and isn’t connected to anything. This ability sees more frequent use when Espio is alone, as it doesn’t really apply much when he fights with his team.)
Combi-Ring Fighting Style
Tornado Spin (Similar to Sonic’s Spin Dash, except Espio spins horizontally instead of vertically, the tornado spin is very slow compared to the Spin Dash, but it’s just as deadly.)
Tongue (Much like Yoshi, Espio’s tongue can be used to grapple onto things with a surprising amount of force, either to pull them toward Espio, or Espio can ‘tongue punch’ things. He hates to do this.)
Charmy Bee:
Voice Actor: Sam Lavagnino (Ideally anyway, I understand if he’d be unable to, but imagine it! Catbug as Charmy Bee!)
A ‘junior member’ of the Chaotix, Charmy is a little bee in training to become a vigilante! However, he’s a little too excited about that fact sometimes. He’s meant to be cute and lovable, but also a realistic child fighting against things he probably shouldn’t be fighting against. It’s hard to hate him when he means so well though and tries his very best at anything he does. In this new reboot, Charmy also gains a small affliction toward electricity!
Abilities:
Flight (no duh.)
Combi-Ring Fighting Style (Charmy is surprisingly adept at carrying his fellow Chaotix members around with a Combi-Ring in hand, with Charmy around this can make for some high-octane, high-momentum fighting due to Charmy being so lightweight and quick.)
Volt Sting (Charmy can use his stinger, and believe me, it hurts. Fortunately, Charmy can sting more than once! and his sting will deliver an electric shock to anything it touches, this is bad news for anything mechanical, or wet!)
Thunder Shoot (Charmy can instantly ground any flying enemy by electrifying an ally and tossing them at the flying enemy!)
Vector the Crocodile:
Voice Actor: Keith Silverstein (Although I’m open to someone else if everyone else if sick of FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM!)
The Chaotix’s greedy, but fiercely defensive ‘leader’ (he’s able to make tough decisions a lot better than Espio, but he isn’t very responsible in many ways). Vector got into the whole vigilante business because of the money he could gain from it, but after meeting Charmy and Espio, his whole world changed, and the rough-and-tough reptile has found a new calling, being a leader. Although Vector is often harsh, blunt, and dismissive, he’s also incredibly resourceful and has an eye for small details, so if he does push you away, it’s likely because he has a hunch on something related to it.
Abilities:
Air Dash (Vector can dash in any direction while in the air. This does not protect him from harm.)
Death Roll (Vector’s trademark donut-like Spin Dash, it’s a bit less controllable than a traditional Spin Dash but it’s immensely powerful because of Vector’s spiked back.)
Combi-Ring Fighting Style (Vector specializes in a ‘wrecking ball’ sort of display with his fighting style, performing a Death Roll followed by his opponents flinging him into something by way of Thunder Shoot or Espio’s speed.) Vector can also achieve the same effect by flinging Charmy or Espio into an opponent, or by ‘holding’ (think Knuckles Chaotix) them.
Fire Combination + Volcanic Dunk* (While Espio is tornado spinning and Charmy is spinning as well, Vector can grab the both of them to make ‘fighting gloves’ of sorts. With this, Vector can perform the Volcanic Dunk, in which he turns Espio and Charmy into powerful fireballs which can smash into enemies to deal tremendous damage!)
*Yes I know this is what Team Sonic uses in Sonic Heroes but do you honestly want Vector Breath to be something that’s regularly used?
Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese the Chao):
Voice Actor: Michelle Ruff (I’d list a voice actor for Cheese too but... do I HAVE to? Chao can be easily voiced with stock squeaks or Chao sounds from SA2.)
A pleasant little girl who seems to get caught up in the ongoing war between Sonic and the forces of evil. Like Charmy, she’s a kid, although Cream is much more patient and polite than Charmy. Cream in this reboot would sorta fill the niche that Tails filled in SatAM, rarely going on adventures, but looking up to the main cast and always being ready to support them in times of need.
Abilities:
Flapping (Cream can flap her ears to gain a little extra height, although it’s made very clear this isn’t exactly equal to Tails’ flight and is very limited.)
Cheese (Cream can sic Cheese on anything she wants, although Cheese isn’t very tough, he’ll do his best until he’s knocked away!)
Big the Cat (and Froggy):
Voice Actor: Jon St. John
Big is large, and not very bright, even less so than Mighty. But he’s terrifyingly strong, he may just be one of the strongest characters in this new reboot in terms of raw damage output, probably second only to Omega actually. But, Big’s not a fighter and prefers to spend his days by the lakeside, fishing with his companion Froggy.
Unbeknownst to him, though, Froggy harbors a dark secret, and, in fact, is the current owner of the tail of the ancient God of Destruction, Chaos. How Froggy exactly came upon Chaos’ tail is unknown, but it’s gotten Big and Froggy into trouble before.
Abilities:
Super Strength
Fishing Sense (Big can sense what kind of fish or how many fish, or even foreign objects or other animals are in bodies of water. It’s unknown how he does or knows this, but he does.)
Silver the Hedgehog:
Voice Actor: Scott Menville
Silver is from an alternate future, a long-forgotten timeline in which Robotnik succeeded in conquering the world, But his massive cities and factories were later laid waste to by the sands of time, and ancient forces of nature, throwing the future Silver resides within into complete Crisis. And now, filled with a sense of vengeance and justice, Silver has come back to the past, determined to find the one responsible for whoever did this to his future, but... there’s just a couple problems. 
He’s only fourteen years old.
Silver is also rather bright-eyed and gullible, and him messing with the streams of time might have a bigger domino effect than he realizes, even if he has no intention of messing anything up.
Abilities:
Psychokinesis (Silver can move, and throw objects with his mind. Silver’s telekinesis is limited only by his focus and stress, as if Silver gets too stressed, he may release some of the objects he’s holding, the same goes for if he becomes unfocused. Using said telekinesis can make Silver very physically exhausted though, especially if Silver moves HIMSELF with his mind, which he can do to hover in the air for a while. Objects held by Silver will freeze, suspended in whatever state they were in when Silver grabbed them, and the objects Silver holds are denoted by a cyan aura.)
Psychic Knives (Silver can condense his energy into crescent-shaped blades of energy, which he can fire off at his discretion, again, only limited by his physical exhaustion)
Teleportation (Silver has the limited ability to teleport short distances, although he doesn’t seem to have a very good handle on it, as he often messes up his positioning and seems to almost... forget he can do it?)
Blaze the Cat:
Voice Actor: Tara Strong
Like Silver, Blaze is from an alternate future. Blaze is Silver’s best friend, but also kind of a sisterly figure to him. Blaze is older than Silver, and is much more reserved, mature and wary than Silver is, although she’s still more than happy to help Silver, and ensure a good future for both him and herself. Blaze is proud, trying to make the best out of her situation by trying and believing herself to be the best around, in a way, she sort of views Silver more like a sidekick, even if Silver does tend to pull his weight.
Abilities:
Pyrokinesis (Blaze can summon, control and is immune to fire. Her ability to do so is limited, although her fires are known to become more intense whenever Blaze is enraged. Blaze can use her fire either for offense by spraying jets of flame from her hands, or defensively by cloaking her entire body in flame, or using the power of fire to float for short periods of time.)
Tornado Spin (Like Espio, Blaze tends to spin horizontally rather than vertical, this, combined with her pyrokinesis, makes her incredibly fearsome to deal with.)
Main Antagonists
You know what the fuck’s going on already. These are all my picks for Major Villains in the reboot. The big bads. The guys who are gonna come in and try to take all those Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones and shit I was talking about and wreak havoc on the peaceful Mobius Archipelago.
They are as follows:
Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik
Orbot and Cubot
Metal Sonic
Heavy King (And the Hard-Boiled Heavies)
Great Battle Bird Kukku XV
Chaos
Emerl
Mephiles, Iblis, and Solaris
In the end, it was hard to decide on what villains to choose to be big bads, Sonic has so many good ones, but this is what it all bled down to eventually. I feel kinda like Dragon Ball Z or... like, any fucking action anime or cartoon ever tbh. I wanted to give some more underrated villains a chance to shine like Kukku and Emerl, while also bringing back some old favorites like Chaos and Mephiles.
...ALSO, I’M GONNA GET TO TEAM DARK DON’T WORRY!
Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik:
Voice Actor: Mike Pollock (as if there were any other choice.)
Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik is the biggest bad in this reboot, as he should be. Robotnik was formerly a young, gentleman scientist, who arrived on South Island with his colleague, Dr. Madonna to study the Mobini that lived there, however, using the grant money meant for his research, and not much caring about nature himself, Robotnik instead betrayed Dr. Madonna to begin forging an empire with his own two hands, an Empire he believed would eventually be able to conquer the world. And he would’ve gotten away with it, too... if all not for a meddlesome blue hedgehog child, who REALLY liked to compare the doctor to an egg. Since his first outing against the blue blur, Dr. Robotnik tried tirelessly, day and night, to get his empire up and into the air, coming back with bigger, and better firepower each time, even succeeding in conquering South Island and collecting six of the seven chaos emeralds at one point, but he was thwarted by this blue hedgehog, and later, his friends each time. This war has gone on for over 5 years now chronologically and maybe more in the actual scheme of things, and all those years of trying have really quite nipped at the doctor, who had gained a significant amount of weight, became a social pariah and had torn all his hair out, save for his mustache, which has overgrown and has become frayed, and the doctor had taken the name ‘Eggman’ as a shallow attempt to mock the blue blur. It’s not to say that Eggman hasn’t succeeded, his conquest and lust for power had bled everywhere, his Badniks, a series of small robots built by him, are an epidemic across the archipelago, he has factories, operations, and eyes everywhere, and Robotnik eventually succeeded in taking one of the Archipelago's many islands for his own, renaming what was once ‘North Island’ into ‘Eggmanland’, this little island is only a twisted glimpse into the madness of what a world under the doctor’s control could look like, his own personal carnival of evil, smog and dust, celebrating him, and only him. It’s these little successes, as well as his never-ending stubbornness and undying believe that man can and will always triumph over nature, that has warped Dr. Eggman from a nefarious, dashing gentleman, into a balding, crazed, nasty old coot. If trouble’s brewing on the islands, and you smell smog wafting by, you can be assured Dr. Eggman isn’t very far behind. To call him a ‘mad scientist’ is an understatement, but even through his delusions and megalomania, he really is a genius.
Orbot and Cubot:
Voice Actors: Kirk Thornton, Wally Wingert
Orbot and Cubot are the Doctor’s trusted aides and second-in-lines, and... probably the Doctor’s only friends as of current. Orbot and Cubot have special AI hand-crafted by the doctor and are arguably his most advanced and most sentient creations crafted by his own two hands. Orbot is serious, intelligent, and bitingly sarcastic, as he was meant to relay information about factories, schemes, and developments back to Eggman, whereas Cubot is dim-witted, slow, and lazy, as he was more meant to perform basic duties like keeping Robotnik’s living space neat and tidy (although he doesn’t always do the best job at this.) However, Orbot and Cubot have become more than that as time has gone on. Unlike the Modern games, Orbot and Cubot can actually hold their own in combat... well, sort of. They have their own unique ‘Scratch and Grounder’ style of dealing with Sonic and Co. and they don’t usually make much progress or get much done in this regard. In this reboot I want Orbot and Cubot’s designs to be updated besides being just ‘ball’ and ‘cube’ so that they can fight alongside Eggman and just look a lot more interesting in general.
Metal Sonic:
Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz (with an intense, robotic filter) if we HAVE to give him a voice. I’d really just prefer Metal to be silent or voiced by music cues and sound effects.
Metal Sonic is Dr. Eggman’s greatest creation. Designed and built by a Dr. Eggman from the future, Metal was sent back in time to aid the Eggman of the past, this, however, proved to be a mistake, as with Metal under his belt, the Doctor became easily overconfident in his victory, thinking now that he had his supposed greatest creation to aid him, nothing could possibly stop him. 
Which made it all the more disappointing when Metal Sonic inevitably failed and was defeated by Sonic.
However, that wasn’t the end of it for Metal Sonic, after being recovered from the future on Little Planet, Metal was repaired, and sent to do reconnaissance on Sonic and Tails during their visit to Mirage Island. In the process of getting there, however, Metal absorbed an artifact while patrolling around the Lost Labyrinth Zone, which superseded the limits of Metal’s hardware, and not only restored Metal to his former greatness but gave Metal something that few of Eggman’s creations can ever claim to have. True sentience. 
Now fully aware of who he was, and what he was doing, Metal easily made it to Sonic and Tails, and upon seeing his organic counterpart for the first time in so long ever since their duel on Stardust Speedway, Metal was filled with rage. Rage, unlike anything The Mobius Archepeligo had ever seen.
The artifact has given Metal all sorts of mysterious abilities, like the ability to manifest a near-indestructible shield, the power to harness the electricity flowing through his circuits to send himself into overdrive and utilize his own overloading as a weapon, and along with being a creation of a Dr. Eggman who has seen the fall of the Earth...
Who knows what kind of sadistic, inhuman thoughts lie behind those synthetic, glowing eyes?
Abilities:
Hyperspeed Thrusters (Metal’s thrusters easily make him as fast as Sonic, and, like Sonic, Metal can still spin, although Metal can also fly with his thrusters.)
Black Shield (Metal can form a defense matrix around him using the power of the artifact he absorbed in Lost Labyrinth, the Black Shield is completely indestructible. Nothing can break through it. Not even something as powerful as Super Sonic could even crack it.) The only caveat is, using the Black Shield renders Metal completely immobile, and unable to attack, and it has a slight warmup and cooldown period.)
Overdrive (Metal can use the artifact he absorbed to utilize the electricity flowing through his circuits to send himself into Overdrive. While in overdrive, Metal Sonic’s entire body sparks with electricity, and Metal can manipulate how he uses that electricity, whether it’s to cloak himself in sparks to beef up his physical attacks or create pillars of sparks and arcs of electricity to attack foes from a distance. The only thing is, Metal cannot do this too much, as doing this can easily cause Metal to overheat, or completely overload and have a ‘blowout’... in other words, explode.)
Heavy King:
Voice Actor: Jim Cummings (Yes, I know Jim did SATAM Robotnik but that’s not the voice I’m imagining for Heavy King. Jim can do more than just Robotnik you know, even though my decision was partially influenced by it being a nice callback. Again, these voice actors are only projections.)/Barry Humphries
Heavy King used to be EggRobo, a robot (which later became a line of Robots) built in the image of Dr. Eggman himself and meant to serve as a decoy for him, and as a stand-in to carry out his own ends.
But the energy of the Phantom Ruby changed that.
Now, Heavy King is the leader of an elite squadron of his EggRobo brethren known as the Hard-Boiled Heavies. They used to serve Robotnik, before breaking free of his control and serving their own ends, beginning a new (albeit, much, much smaller) empire under their own names. He and the other heavies are a force to be reckoned with, few are able to match the ruthless, cold, metallic hand of Heavy King. Despite this, however, Heavy King is known to be much more diplomatic and reasonable than Robotnik, ironically enough, because he believes himself to be vastly superior in every way to organic life. However, his inflated ego pays a steep price if you catch him at the wrong time. However, Heavy King is the current holder of the Phantom Ruby, and that alone should scare you.
(Also I won’t go over each of the Heavies individually because I don’t feel like it, but, I will list their voice actors.)
Heavy Gunner: Patrick Warburton... or at least a cheap impression of him.
Heavy Rider: Eliza Schneider
Heavy Magician: Alexia Khadime
Heavy Shinobi: Seth Green (I picture Shinobi having much more of a nerdy weeb voice than having a serious Japanese accent like Espio.)
Great Battle Bird Kukku XV
Voice Actor: Tom Kenny
A lesser-known big bad, or rather, big bird, Great Battle Bird Kukku XV (he gets upset if you don’t say the full name), is the leader of the Battle Bird Empire, a battalion of birds who, at one point, sought to take over the archipelago in a similar manner to Dr. Eggman, however, Great Kukku XV was thwarted by Tails. Tails, funnily enough, doesn’t remember him at all, in fact, no one does. As a villain, hardly anyone takes Great Kukku XV very seriously, even with his massive armies and capability. Fact is, Great Kukku XV is just a little too immature to be a leader, and hence, he’s not very dangerous. However, his battalion did give rise to a certain, screwy, trigger happy, fellow green bomb-throwing bird who happens to be a defector of his...
In this reboot, there would probably be a lot of jokes about people not knowing who Great Kukku even is, or how dangerous he is, but don’t worry, he’ll get his time in the sun eventually. 
Chaos
Voice Actor: N/A, Chaos only speaks in water sloshes.
Chaos is one of the many original forces of nature that populated the Archipelago many years ago. Legend has it that Chaos was responsible for the mass extinction of the Echidna on Angel Island, and was the one responsible for flooding Hydrocity Zone, and the former Hidden Palace Zone. Chaos was formed when a Chao, who happened to be very old and unhappy due to the Echidna tribes of the day treating his people very unfairly, mutated due to the exposure of Chaos Energy to the Chao’s genetically unstable body. Chaos is a being of pure hate and pure destruction. It’s almost entirely composed of a thick, water-like substance that can take on liquid or solid properties at Chaos’ discretion. His body hungers for Chaos Energy, and he is willing to destroy anything that stands in his way to have it, specifically by absorbing the Chaos Emerald. With each emerald Chaos absorbs, Chaos only becomes bigger, and stronger, becoming harder and harder to defeat. And if Chaos gathers all Seven of the Emeralds? You’d better hope you can find some way to calm this Great Old One down, otherwise, your world may just end up underwater. Luckily, Chaos was sealed inside of the Master Emerald by its former guardian, Tikal, and there he shall remain... for now, at least.
Emerl
Voice Actor: Various (copies the voices of others. To speak it splices lines that it’s heard together.)
Originally created directly to counter Chaos whilst the Echidna tribes were facing extinction, Emerl is a Gizoid, a kind of Robot created to copy the physical data of others. Although one can initially defeat Emerl pretty easily, it’s advised not to vary your tactics too much, as Emerl’s original purpose, and his ultimate capability, is to copy any behavior he’s seen, in order to not only replicate it, but replicate it better, and hence, conquer its original user. Terrifyingly, Emerl can even copy phenomenon that he otherwise wouldn’t, or shouldn’t be able to use, such as Chaos Control, Sonic’s Maximum Speed, or Tails’ intellect. The only thing truly limiting Emerl... is the kind of opponents he faces. And, if you give Emerl to someone who understands him and knows how he works, you may just be dealing with one of the most fearsome fighters the Mobius Archepeligo has ever known.
Mephiles, Iblis and Solaris
Voice Actor: Dan Green (Mephiles only) (This is just because Dan also voices Knuckles ideally but, again, if Dan doesn’t wanna come back to Sonic after being replaced, I understand that.)
If Chaos was the patron saint of water, Solaris is the patron saint of fire. Born from a sacred flame created by the Echidna, Solaris was worshipped by the surviving Echidna as a force that could potentially vanquish Chaos, as the ‘’sun’ to dry the rain. However, the tribes’ malicious intents caused their newly formed ‘God’ to become more of a beast, and it only helped Chaos in driving the Echidna extinct. Solaris later retreated to the bottom of the ocean after all was said and done, slumbering beneath the surface in an underground cave, in a damaged, unstable state.
Solaris has re-awoken twice since this has happened, and both times, his unstable shell split and formed two halves, it’s raw power, known as Iblis, and it’s mind, and spirit, known as Mephiles. The two halves of Solaris first re-awoke in an Alternate Timeline where Robotnik had conquered the world, re-awakening as the folly of the dictator had driven the Sun God’s split soul to awaken when the intense greenhouse heat began to boil the ocean. Mephiles’ primordial form simply died off in the intense heat, but Iblis remained awake, laying waste to the already horrible wasteland that was Robotnik’s Bad Future. Many survivors who reside within this future came to blame Iblis for their problems, even though Robotnik was what had destroyed it centuries earlier.
As for the other time The soul and body of Solaris re-awoke?...
Well... we’ll get to that. Let’s come back to someone I’m sure you’re all waiting for.
Antiheroes
HERE HE IS, OKAY? YOU HAPPY? I was saving him for a good reason! I actually want Shadow (and Rouge, to an extent, she kinda keeps her evil side tbh) to start out as a big bad! After Shadow’s done BEING a big bad though, he’ll become similar to his post-adventure 2 self, specifically how he behaves in Sonic 06 and Sonic Heroes, except with a bit more sympathy. Modern Shadow has a lot of brooding, edgy bite to him, and while that’s cool and all, I feel like there should be more to Shadow than just brooding and standing around crossing his arms and saying ‘tch’ all the time.
Shadow the Hedgehog
Shadow the Hedgehog:
Voice Actor: Anyone that’s not Kirk Thornton. I actually don’t have a good answer for who Shadow’s voice actor should be but, honestly, anything would be better than his current one in my honest opinion.
Shadow was synthesized fifty years ago on a small, man-made satellite called the Space Colony ARK by the brilliant scientist Dr. Gerald Robotnik. He was born from a desire to find a cure for the seemingly incurable disease for his granddaughter, Maria. However, due to an accident when splicing the genes of the quill of a Mobian Hedgehog, and experimental biomaterial found on the fragments of an asteroid that collided with the Earth millions of years ago, the doctor accidentally created something he absolutely didn’t intend, Life. And thus, Project Shadow was born. Gerald felt attached to his creation, viewing the resulting creation, which he called ‘Shadow’ as one of his own. Shadow developed rapidly, quickly maturing into an infant, and then juvenile, yet seemingly normal Mobian Hedgehog. Shadow’s equivalent age later capped once Shadow was done growing, and he remained that way, immortally perfect. The Ultimate Lifeform. Tests with Shadow later showed his destructive capabilities, as it seemed the asteroid’s DNA had morphed Shadow to be far beyond the capabilities of any normal Hedgehog, even in peak physical condition at that age, capable of creating explosions, firing bolts of energy, and even freezing time, appearing to ‘teleport’ in the process. Despite these curiosities, Shadow grew fond of Maria in his stay at the ARK, although Shadow couldn’t help her recover, he did make her much happier. However, a raid on the Space Colony by the mainland’s military led to a massive capsizing of the project, with the intention to destroy Shadow, who was viewed as a dangerous, alien, unholy abomination. Before he could be killed though, Maria shot Shadow down to Earth in an escape pod, where he subsequently landed deep in the jungles of Cocoa Island... but, Maria was murdered in the process of doing so. Shadow was later recovered by Gerald’s other grandson, Ivo Robotnik, 50 years after the tragedy. Hesitant to release Shadow immediately, it’s known that Robotnik has spoken to Shadow in his pod, although about what matters is unknown. For now, Shadow slumbers deep within the confines of Eggmanland, waiting for his proper, strategic time to be unleashed and to wreak his horrible vengeance upon the Earth.
I’ll bring up Shadow again later when we talk about how I project the series to actually go, for now, just sit tight and let’s talk about the rest of Team Dark... and some familiar faces.
Abilities:
Spin Dash
Homing Attack (Shadow can automatically home in on opponents while also performing an Air Dash.)
Burning Rollout (Inspired by the flame ring of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow can cloak his spinning form in fire by turning on his shoes when rolling, doing this will significantly up the strength of his spin, and make a nice little ring of fire around his spinning form.)
Chaos Control (Can be used as short-distance teleportation, as a way to buff Shadow’s speed immensely, or as a way to freeze or dramatically slow Shadow’s relative perspective of time by dramatically increasing his speed.)
Chaos Spear (These are green bolts of pure, chaos energy. The energy used to form these bolts is so unstable that once hurled at something, the ‘spear’ will likely explode, although, if it doesn’t, it will easily pierce through whatever it hits. Shadow likes to shout ‘DISAPPEAR!’ before hurling these at things for some reason.)
Chaos Blast (Shadow’s Chaos Blast can be considered his ‘ultimate’ attack, Chaos Blast sees Shadow creating a kind of ‘mini-singularity’ with chaos energy that will detonate after a short time, easily eradicating anything caught in the explosion’s radius, even the ground around Shadow. The only problem with this is, doing this is a huge strain on Shadow’s natural supply of Chaos Energy, so a lengthy cooldown period is inevitable.)
and of course, we can’t forget
The Roundhouse Kick
Minor Antagonists
These are characters who are villains but are also more likely to show up in arcs that are only a couple episodes long or are side or off-boss fights. 
I’ll be honest, most of you know these characters already, so I’m just gonna run through them super quickly and give my suggested changes and my justifications for them.
Rouge the Bat
E-123 OMEGA
Dave the Intern
Fang the Sniper (Nack the Weasel)
Bean the Dynamite
Bark the Polar Bear
Rouge the Bat:
Voice Actor: Karen Strassman
Rouge is a thief and a treasure hunter but is also working for the military agency of the mainland, G.U.N. Rouge is sly, sneaky and has a silver tongue, easily able to manipulate people into what she wants by pure wordplay alone. Rouge is a lot less active of a fighter than Sonic and Co. as she prefers to stalk quietly in the shadows, and strike when the time is right. In this reboot, Rouge is gonna wear something a bit more modest. I’m sorry, I hate Rouges’ clothes in canon. That fucking catsuit? has gotta go. She can still look cool and... *gag* “”sexy”” but, I’d rather her not wear... THAT? But, I do want her personality to remain mostly intact because in full honesty? She’s not a bad character on paper. Like Shadow, though I do kinda want Rouge to be a straight-up antagonist at first, and a very greedy one at that.
E-123 OMEGA:
Voice Actor: Vic Mignogna
What can I say? Omega doesn’t need to change much at all, really. He works in about any Sonic setting tbh. He’s loud, and he likes to blow things up, and he doesn’t emote very well, what else is there? In this reboot though, Omega will be the only E-Series Robot, or rather the only... surviving one. And, yeah, like Rouge and Shadow too, I think Omega should start out as an antagonist.
Dave the Intern:
Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz (What? We gotta keep up the tradition of Dave sharing a voice with Sonic!)
An odd choice for a minor antagonist I know, but Dave the Intern is REALLY funny? And I love the idea of a character just hating Sonic for no discernable reason other than ‘he’s popular and cool and I’m not.’ I also thought it’d be cool if Dave frequently got way in over his head with the shit he does, and put himself into trouble that Sonic (reluctantly) had to get him out of. Plus, I really wanted to include some representation of Sonic Boom in this reboot because Sonic Boom as a show is really funny and really good, and I think taking a page from it might be good, plus, Boom is a part of Sonic’s history too!
Fang the Sniper (Nack the Weasel):
Voice Actor: Dwight Schultz
Fang is the leader of Team Hooligan, and in a similar vein to Great Kukku XV I think he’d take himself way too seriously, but would play off of other characters. In Fang’s mind, he’s a trained assassin, like an evil Aussie-accent Batman or something of that stretch. But, really? He’s just a sleazy conman with a popgun. I feel like a good joke to make in this series would be Fang reaching for what he thinks is his actual pistol, but then he’d pull it out and fire it and it’d be one of his fake popguns. And, do I even need to make a joke about the comedic possibilities between him and Shadow using guns? Also, his real name being Nack the Weasel but he wants everyone to call him Fang the Sniper is funny. I’m sorry but ‘Fang the Sniper’ is just a silly name and I like the idea of Fang being the equivalent of one of those nice guys with Otaku Katanas who think they’re WAY cooler than they actually are. I wanted to choose Fang as a minor antagonist in the reboot just because of the kind of character I think he is, he thinks he has everything under control and has all the cards laid out in front of him when in reality, this setup of his just fails dramatically. The kind of interactions between him and Sonic this could spell out are amazing.
Bean the Dynamite:
Voice Actor: Eric Bauza
What do you get when you throw Daffy Duck and Woody Woodpecker in a blender and make him an unstable arsonist? Bean the Dynamite, that’s what. I’d want Bean in this reboot to be an off-the-wall, screwy, but surprisingly resourceful and clever, explosion-crazed maniac. He wouldn’t be... *gag* ‘insane’, so much as he would be just hyper and unable to calm down, again, like Woody Woodpecker or Daffy Duck. He’d be quick-witted, fast-talking and zippy, even more than Sonic himself is. (In the end, Sonic would always outpace him, but the reflexes on THIS bird are crazy.) Also, I feel like the idea of Bean being a defector of the Battle Kukku Armada is just... great, considering they’re all bomb-throwing birds, but THIS one was a little too off-the-handle for even them? He’d be a real character and a surprisingly dangerous threat for Sonic and Co.
Bark the Polar Bear:
Voice Actor: I’m... actually not too sure who to cast Bark as tbh. Mostly because I see him being very quiet and not... speaking, much at all?
Bark is a quiet tough guy. He’s smarter than he looks, but he’s big, he’s mean, he’s tough, and he will Hulk slam at least one character in the length of this reboot. I don’t really have much idea on where to take Bark, I just think he deserves a place as a minor villain.
Projected direction for canon
So, we have all the pieces of the puzzle, let’s see how they all fit together! I’ll be going through these with the assumption that one game can be made to represent each season of the show in its entirety.
For this, I honestly think it would be best if we split this reboot up based upon Sonic the Hedgehog’s current history with its elements. Think, almost, the way Sonic Generations told its story. We’ll start with something with a more Classic Vibe to it, then move into something more Adventure-like, and then, finally, we do something a bit more Modern! It’ll be a little less linear, and we’ll double dip here and there, but it’ll all line up!
Because of this, I’d like to establish what games have already PASSED before going into this series. This is what all has happened going in, in roughly the chronological order they happened in.
Sonic the Hedgehog 1 (16-bit)
Sonic the Hedgehog 1 (8-bit)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)
SegaSonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-Bit)
Sonic CD
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
Sonic Chaos
Sonic Triple Trouble
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episodes 1, 2, and Metal.
Sonic Mania
The intention is to begin sort of... around the time JUST before Sonic Adventure 1 happened in the old rudimentary timeline before Sonic Forces came out and clarified Classic and Modern Sonic were different beings.
Season 1/Game 1: Genesis
The first few episodes of the series will be more dedicated to introducing the characters and Sonic’s new home. We’ll see the new Sonic, the new Tails, the new Knuckles, Amy, Mighty, and Ray for the very first time, and we’ll also get to see some of the characters’ new capabilities as they take on some minor villains or assaults led by Orbot and Cubot for the first couple episodes; but not at all subtly tease at something bigger and better coming, although we’re also shown how frequent scuffles between Sonic and Eggman exactly are, as we see plenty of mention of the Doctor, but he never physically appears.
Then, I’d say at about Episode 5 or 6 out of say, 22-24? Eggman steps in and introduces us to his new Master Plan, as he does. To build a new Death Egg (which, Sonic obviously chides him on doing the same thing a THIRD time.), but, as Robotnik does, he turns out to be serious, and the episodes from there on out are a race against time for Sonic and co. to gather all the Chaos Emeralds from various different zones of various different challenging geographies, fight off villains and giant robots, learn valuable morals, run into some familiar faces, and have a couple laughs along the way.
The climax of the season would come with a few episodes left, where Sonic and Co. finally have all the Emeralds, and they chase Eggman down to the New Death Egg, maybe there could be an encounter with Metal Sonic along the way because nostalgia and to introduce Metal into the continuity, and of course things’ll play out from there, Robotnik gets the upper hand and shows his shit, gets in a giant robot, dukes it out with Super Sonic, and BAM! End of Season/Game!
At the very end of season 1/Game 1 though, I’d like to include a little teaser for Season 2/Game 2 in the form of a familiar-looking escape pod in the middle of a jungle, full of green bubbling fluid, and a flash of red eyes.
Season 2/Game 2: Chaos Emerald Chaos
Right out of the gate in Season 2/Game 2, we’re back in the game as Sonic and Eggman are seen duking it out a while after the first game/season has ended, but in a much different area than we’d seen in Season 1/Game 1. This fight would lead up to the pod in the teaser after Eggman lures Sonic into a dark room with the green glow in sight. By one way or another, maybe on purpose or on accident, this pod breaks open, and something is released from it. Sonic is understandably confused, but then, is knocked down, and a panning shot reveals one of three of our major antagonists for the season/game, Shadow the Hedgehog.
Shadow fucking wipes the floor with Sonic in this first encounter, but instead of finishing him off, Eggman instructs Shadow to leave him be and search for the rest of the Chaos Emeralds instead. Shadow nods and simply leaves via Chaos Control. Eggman, on the meanwhile, begins transporting Sonic back to North Island via dropship, revealing by surprise that this isn’t on North Island, but rather a much smaller place Eggman was using as a trap.
Meanwhile, Sonic’s friends (with Knux noticeably absent) are confused to learn that Sonic has been... committing crimes, upon his return back from a scuffle back with Eggman, and seeming very much unlike himself, always hiding away in the dark and staying away from everyone. When they go to confront him, it turns out that this was actually Shadow, disguised as Sonic, who was simply searching for the emeralds for Dr. Eggman.
Sonic’s friends demand to know where Sonic is, but Shadow kicks all their asses instead, and something about the Master Emerald is mentioned after the fight. We then cut away to Knuckles, who is soon confronted by Shadow.
Shadow puts up a hard fight, but, with the help of the chaos emerald he already had, defeats Knuckles, and goes to take the Master Emerald. But, in a last ditch effort to save the gem, Knuckles shatters the Master Emerald, causing the shards to scatter all across the islands. Shadow, understandably frustrated by this, scoffs and leaves, seemingly fooled into thinking the Master Emerald WAS destroyed. Unknowingly, however, shattering the Master Emerald caused Chaos, slumbering within the Emerald, to awaken.
Knuckles, obviously horrified by what he’s done, abandons Angel Island and sets to work on finding both the pieces of the Master Emerald, and any Chaos Emeralds he can, to stop Chaos before anything goes wrong.
At this point, we go back to Sonic, who finally escapes as the dropship taking him to EggmanLand and, by extension, escapes from the city as he hurries to try to reunite with his friends and tell them what happened.
From there, a combination of the events of Adventure 1 and 2 (with the addition of Metal Sonic and some other characters of course.) would transpire, with Rouge the Bat getting involved with Knuckles due to her finding the shards of the Master Emerald, and the Chaos Emeralds trading hands several times, all up until the Season/Game’s climax.
It would all build with Robotnik planning to use Chaos to terraform the Earth by transforming him into Perfect Chaos, who, once he takes form, begins wreaking havoc on a coastal city on the mainland. At this point, the Chaos Emeralds seem shut off, and even though the Master Emerald is restored, it seems like there’s nothing that can be done. Shadow, having already begun to go through a change of heart when he sees the kind of destruction the doctor’s plans have wrought, and after some choice words from Amy, decides instead to join Sonic and Co. in what seems like their darkest hour. And, Shadow mentions that Chaos only absorbed the negative energy of the emeralds, being in-tune with Chaos Energy himself, he’d know this.
And so, Super Sonic and Super Shadow defeat Perfect Chaos together, Knuckles and the spirit of Tikal work together to seal Chaos back inside the Master Emerald, and the city begins to drain.
Shadow, having felt satisfied with this, then decides to go off on his own for a while, and mentions something about ‘wanting to discover himself’, and ‘trying to decide what Maria would have wanted me to be.’ 
Oh, and Eggman is finally thrown in prison for literally capsizing an entire city. But don’t worry, he’ll be back.
End of Season 2/Game 2.
Season 3/Game 3: Triple Trouble!
This Eggmanless Season/Game would feature a ‘Triple Threat’, in the form of 3 major villains! And all three of them brand new to the series! We’re introduced to Emerl in this season, as well as Great Kukku XV, and Heavy King.
The entire season would be intense, Team Sonic rushing to get the Chaos Emeralds once again, while the Battle Birds (frequently interrupted by Bean the Dynamite, calling out to his ‘brothers’) and Heavies scramble to get them before the team does.
All the while... Emerl grows stronger and stronger by the minute.
And, in a surprise twist, Emerl, having copied the data of Great Kukku XV and the Heavies, among many others, grows the strongest he ever has, and, like Mecha Sonic in Sonic 3, uses the Master Emerald (likely stolen by Heavy King or Kukku at this point) to attain a Super form, and Emerl becomes a terrifying conglomerate of everything that has led up to this point, Perfect Emerl, the thing originally meant to take down PERFECT CHAOS.
But, luckily, Kukku and King realize when they’ve been beaten, and decide to help Super Sonic take down Perfect Emerl. 
End of Season 3/Game 3. But like Season 1, let’s end off on a teaser. How about a small, flickering flame, with a visible shadow?
Season 4/Game 4: Return of Solaris
This is the final season/game I have planned out, although that’s not to say more couldn’t be done with this concept, it’s just about as far as I got. Essentially I was thinking this season could be a retelling and retooling of Sonic 06 with some details omitted or changed up like, for instance:
The romance between Sonic and Elise being outright axed! Matter of fact, while we’re at it, let’s just NOT make Elise a focus character so she doesn’t eat up screentime?
The weird time shit in this season/game being altered with Time Stones instead of Chaos Emeralds!
Less plotholes!
Focus on NONLINEAR timelines with LINEAR storytelling.
Silver is less silly!
Metal Sonic!
The Chaotix! AND THEY’RE HERE TO ACTUALLY BE HELPFUL!
Important Sonic characters being important!
Hey guess what? Eggman’s back and busted out of jail and he’s kicking ass! And he’s totally gonna release Solaris even though that didn’t work out so well for him last time!
Mephiles is still a cool villain! And he gets cool new designs for this series too that don’t stray too far from his original form!
I feel like this season/game would be kind of a hard fusion of Sonic CD and Sonic 06, with elements of Sonic CD being changing the past to ensure the future, and the future/present changing as a result. 
The climax of this series would be, well, you know by now. Sonic getting shot in the back, but then revived using the Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones together. But, even with Super Sonic, all seems hopeless, but, Sonic and Knuckles seem to have an idea, and it leads up, to our grand finale:
Solaris, the extra-dimensional being of ultimate power.
Versus
Hyper Sonic, Super Shadow, Super Silver, Super Tails, Super Knuckles, Super Amy, Super Mighty, and Super Ray.
With Solaris finally felled, Sonic and Co. use the last of the energy of their super forms to do two more things. 
Vanquish the flame of Solaris and Mephiles, and ensure that Solaris may never return to any Time Stream.
Silver’s future, although still broken, now looks much brighter, and the world is saved for the final time.
End of Season 4/Game 4.
I’m sure these ideas could be tweaked or changed around to span more seasons/games if certain characters or aspects of the series become popular, or if demand for certain characters appearing gets to be enough. Sonic has an immense library of games to do over or retell in this reboot, why not? 
And, this is just my idea for it, it doesn’t have to go this way explicitly. My only goal with this was to try to unify the Sonic lore in an interesting, unique manner, but also in such a way that it was new, fresh, and it made sense, most of all!
Opening
This really applies more toward the cartoon part of this reboot, that’s not to say the video game COULDN’T utilize the cartoon’s opening or something, it’s just that the opening is more for the show than it is for the games.
There’s a number of ways to go here, but in my mind, the best way to open a Sonic cartoon? Is the way you’d open a Sonic game. How about a condensed ‘remake’ of Sonic CD’s opening, with a few short clips from the first few episodes thrown in there to get people curious and excited about the show when it first airs?
There’s a cover of Sonic Boom by Crush 40 and Cash Cash just waiting to be used for this very thing!
I also think a condensed (that is to say, censored. I hate to censor a great song but ‘kicking-ass fast’ is a bit much for a show that’s likely gonna be PG-rated.) version of the Zebrahead (aka the BEST) version of His World would make for a GREAT opening.
Or if we wanna piggyback off of the recent success of Mania, how about a condensed version of Friends? Maybe we could even end the intro off on a remake of Sonic Mania’s title theme if we wanna have like, a classic Sonic emblem at the end of the opening.
I’d say the opening should be about... 60% new animation with Sonic platforming around and parkouring like he does or whatever, and about 40% old animation of various clips from the show or maybe even the games if we’re feeling kinda frisky to show off the series we’re about to watch, but also for budgetary reasons and to, again, get people interested in what’s actually IN the show, or maybe we could even do it like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s part 1 opening or something where a couple of important scenes from the very beginning of the show or games are re-animated in a flashy way to achieve the same effect, but also wow the audience. That'd be a huge budget sink though and going a classic clip-show-and-new-shit route may just be the ideal compromise.
Marketing
This next part is also a lot more cartoon oriented, and kinda heavily depends on who’s gonna be sponsoring the show and who’s gonna be running it, but, hear me out.
Part of Sonic’s rise to popularity in the 90s was controversial, competitive advertising. And you know what? I haven’t seen anything really quite like this in a long time (except maybe for cleaner commercials), but, lots of people remember how pushy and in your face these commercials were, and how much they really pushed the superiority of the product they were advertising. So you know what? Let’s bring this back. Let’s bring back Sonic’s violent guerilla marketing campaigns.
It’d be a great throwback as well as a statement about Sonic REALLY comin’ back and comin’ back hot; which might get some new people interested to at least watch a few episodes, and in the process of that, they may find they like the new show/games a lot!
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(NOTE: I DON’T HATE NICKELODEON, AND THIS ISN’T EXACTLY WHAT I THINK THE SHOW’S SONIC SHOULD LOOK LIKE, THIS IS JUST A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT OF WHAT I THINK THIS SHOW’S ADVERTISING COULD LOOK LIKE)
Or, if we want to opt for more positive, passive marketing strategies, why don’t we revisit an idea that was misused and make it better?
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Idk about anyone else but I actually really like the ‘blue streaks to show where Sonic’s been’ idea that the movie posters did, and I think it has potential to make a really memorable-looking advertisement.
Or, why not opt for a more nostalgic passive approach and recreate some of Sonic’s old box art?
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Again, it’d be a great throwback as well as a way to get people interested in the show. Although, if we go this route I WOULD say maybe we should make it a little more interesting than just ‘Sonic 1 pose on a black grid or popart background’? Maybe we should combine these box arts and add the pop-art details for little pops of color while Sonic bursts out of this black-grid frame with a richly detailed drawing of Green Hill in the background? I dunno.
Conclusion
Okay, so. I didn’t get to everything I wanted to explain (like other marketing stuff, merchandising, the new actual GAMEPLAY for these new games, how to write the characters and humor, how I think the general ART STYLE of these new cartoons and games should look, etc.) as a matter of fact, I still have a ton more ideas for this reboot, but, here’s the main point:
Sonic the Hedgehog, right now? Sucks. Because it’s such a mess. It has too many ideas that are going off in too many different directions. The best way to change that, in my eyes, is to start over and try to unify all these broken-up ideas into one. I believe this is possible, while still maintaining a pretty widespread appeal and giving broken, old ideas a second chance to shine, but still being fresh and new enough to have a lasting impact and leave the door open for new content later.
I’m really bad at ending posts like this, but, if you went into this post thinking that Sonic can’t or shouldn’t change, I hope I’ve at least provoked thought on the matter. And, maybe, all those hardworking people at SEGA will decide one day that things need to change, whether by a reboot, rewrite or just... doing something a little bit different.
Maybe then, just maybe.
Our blue blur will really shine again.
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- Jenny, of @jennikkugoesoff and @jennikku
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washipuppy · 6 years
Text
Looking back and Self Projection
So, I've been looking over some of my old art, with the intention of redrawing something as a 'then-and-now' kind of comparison, so that I can pretend like I've gotten better. And I noticed a weird trend.
First, I should start by saying I have noticed certain trends in what I like in my character designs. For example, I like pretty men and I like scars and injuries. They just kind of show up a lot in my character design and when I build backstories for characters. There are just some design elements that tend to get repeated because I like them and like adding them to things.
Anyway, I was looking over a bunch of the pre-prep work I'd done for an old comic idea, and I noticed something when looking at the character reference sheet for the main antagonist. Specifically, she looked like me. Now to be fair, my style is fairly generic so a lot of the fine details don't transfer over (I have a tiny square head with a hawks-beak nose, and I'm pretty sure I've never drawn anyone with that), so a lot of people will look at any character I draw with brown hair, glasses and grey eyes and say 'is that you?', so the resemblence is broad. But it's still there. Of the three female characters who got reference sheets drawn up, one has my eye shape, glasses the same shape as mine were, and her hair cut the way mine was (She's not in colour, but I'm fairly sure her hair was a dark dirty blonde, which mine also was at the time). And she was the main villain of the story.
Which got me thinking about the characters I'd created that were explicitly based off of myself.
The first major project where I actually got my act together and wrote some stuff was a kind of alternate Digimon setting. A team of characters and Digimon I'd created going through the digital world, having adventures and trying to stop the breakdown or corruption of the world, all the usual tropes. Except the villain was... well, me. The antagonist of the story, that the characters were specifically up against, was me. There was some planned plot twist where I was playing with the more troubling ideas behind a "digi-destiny" (Or any kind of destiny in general, which I found existentially uncomfortable even when I was 13/ 14), but the main antagonist of the series was still meant to be me.
Later, I created a character that was explicitly a riff on the 'me' I'd constructed in my head to interact with the characters in the books I was reading. Those self-insert fantasies we all build for ourselves but don't usually write down or share with anyone, where we get involved in our own soap-opera plots with the cannon. The only thing she ended up really having in common with me was that we both had short (at the time) brown hair - she had a prettier and more heart-shaped face, large dark/black eyes that didn't need glasses, she actually had lips, and she had larger breasts than me (Because of course in the fantasies I was more attractive, but I didn't really have the best grasp on what makes a woman more desireable to boys beyond "well, I guess they like boobs, right? That seems like a thing"). Oh, and she was a witch, because I was a teenager and Witches and Wicca in general were a source of endless facination. So I had this character, who was made up of all the scraps of fake-me's that I decided to throw together to see what came out the other end, and she still looked pretty plain compared to other characters, but whatever. I needed to do something with her now. So I made her a rival for the character I wrote about and played around with most. I built her from all the features I only dared to give myself in my head, and made her an annoyance in someone else's story.
This was my best case self construction.
I've created other versions of myself, of course. The icon for this tumblr is a creature I use to represent myself, which has gone through several itterations. But those characters don't get integrated into stories - they exist entirely to represent me, free of any context beyond the real world. I've explicitly created two characters based off of myself, and apparently subconciously created a third, and they're all antagonists in someone else's story. Has anyone else done this?
I don't know what that says about me or my perceived role in writing about them, but it feels like it has some kind of ontological weight.
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aqua-harry · 7 years
Text
She’s Just Not That Into You » Part VI (A Harry Styles Miniseries)
Miss the previous parts? Part One » Part Two » Part Three » Part Four » Part Five
Check out the inspiration behind Harry’s home here! The amazing @graceak​ made a phenomenal playlist to go along with Harry’s story, and I could not recommend it more. You can find that here!
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“But it’s like…” Harry stops and starts again. “I met with Carly, her replacement, and she’s nice enough. So nice. Lovely girl, really. But every time I talk with her about the plans, I jus...I can’t smile. I can’t get excited about it. ‘m not supposed t’ be talkin’ with Carly about them. She’s not the one who made ‘em. She’s not the one who...well, y’know.”
“If I’m being honest,” Gemma sighs on the other end of the phone, “I would’ve done the same thing, had I been put in that situation.”
“I know,” he mumbles. “I would’ve, too. And I wouldn’t’ve been as nice.”
Harry didn’t need his sister to tell him he was in the wrong, but he did need her advice. So, he bucked up the strength to call her in his time of need, explaining everything, starting with the night he’d met you at Nick’s house. He spared no detail - it wasn’t worth lying to his sister just to make himself look better, as he knew she would see right through it. She let him tell the entire story, never interrupting, but offering an affirming “mm-hmm” every now and again.
“Well,” she chirps. “What’re you going to do now?”
“Dunno,” he shrugs, picking at the loose string on his t-shirt. “‘s why ‘m calling you.”
“Full disclosure?” Gemma questions.
“Course.”
“When Mum told me you’d be getting your new place designed by her, I did my research,” she chuckles. “Not t’ scope her out as a person, because I wasn’t aware of your infatuation, but just t’ see what her work looked like. She’s really cool, Harry.”
“I know this,” he smiles.
“Like really cool. And gorgeous. Her eyebrows are incredible. I know ‘ve got great brows, but hers are just...phenomenal.”
Harry rolls his eyes, but he can’t help but laugh.
“And if what you say is true about her, then she seems even cooler. Y’know I’m not one to be jealous because I think it’s a waste of time, but I kinda am,” she says. “More of you, really. Jealous that y’get to spend time with her!”
“Gem!”
“But really,” she scoffs. “In all my years of knowin’ you - what is it, almost 23 now? You’ve never been this way over a girl. Over anyone, really.”
“‘cept when I was 15, maybe…”
“No, not even then. At least she was your girlfriend then. This one...this one is different from the others,” she sniffs, her voice contemplative. “All of ‘em.”
“How do you know?” Harry asks. “I ‘aven’t told you about all of ‘em.”
“That’s exactly why she’s different, Harry.”
The siblings are quiet for a moment, the weight of Gemma’s statement settling atop both of them, a wool blanket that was appreciated, yet uncomfortable to the point of removal.
“So what do I do?” Harry bites the skin around his thumb nail. “Did I fuck it up for good?”
“Probably,” Gemma laughs, hoping to lighten the mood.
“Didn’t call y’for a laugh, Gemma,” he groans, resting a hand over his brow. “Coulda called ten other people if I wanted t’ be made fun of for being a fuckin’ idiot.”
“Hey,” her voice is curt. “You’re not an idiot, alright? Not even close.”
“Feel a bit like one.”
“Which you’re allowed,” she goes on. “But just because y’did something stupid doesn’t mean you’re an idiot overall. We’ve all done stuff we regret. Like the time I got a fringe because I thought it’d look good…”
“Wouldja ju-”
“Calm down, yeah?” Gemma laughs, getting back to the point. “What ‘m tryin’ to say is that we all make mistakes. If she’s as good of a person as y’ve made her up to be in your mind, she’ll at least be willing to hear you out.”
“‘ve already apologized excessively. Like to the point of it probably not even meanin’ anythin’...”
“Doesn’t matter,” she clears her throat. “Do it again. Do it with flowers - y’ said you brought her a bouquet of peonies?”
“Yeah.”
“Send her another. This time with some added shit to make it fancy - make sure it’s got a vase to go along with it. Nothing says “I’m sorry for calling you drunk and making you so uncomfortable that you had to give my account to your employee” like a bouquet of her favorite flowers.”
“Okay but th-”
“Not finished,” Gemma stops her younger brother. “Don’t just order them online. Go to a shop, make sure the arrangement is just as you want it to be, ‘n then hand write a note that goes along with it. Somethin’ that’ll make her smile. One of your stupid jokes or summat.”
“They’re not stu-”
“Still not finished,” she grunts. “She’ll have to call to say thank you. Or at least text.You’ve made her feel awkward, but she’s still professional, otherwise she wouldn’t’ve told you to sod off in the first place.”
“Well I think ‘sod off’ is a bit har-”
“Harry!”
“Okay, okay. ‘m sorry. Please continue…”
“Thank you,” she sighs. “When she calls, or texts, or whatever, ask her for dinner. And before you say no,” she quickly says as she hears Harry taking in a breath to interrupt his older sister yet again, “ask her as a friend. Say you know you’ve apologized plenty, but y’ feel really bad for what you’ve done and y’ wanna thank her for being nice and everythin’ she’s done for you. Promise her it won’t be awkward and that if she does feel weird about it, y’ won’t be hurt if she declines.”
“And what if she does decline?”
“She doesn’t hate you, kiddo,” Gemma tuts, her voice soft. “I don’t think she will. I think she was probably plannin’ on being your friend anyway, ‘specially because she’s so close with Nick. You just kinda freaked her out with the call.”
“Rightfully so,” Harry chimes.
“Yes, rightfully so,” she agrees. “If y’ don’t ask her, she can’t say no. But she also can’t say yes…”
“If I ask her to go as a friend, wouldn’t that just be lying?” he questions. “Because I don’t want t’ be her friend. I don’ want to be just her friend.”
“Think that’s all y’ can ask for at the moment. Rather have her as a friend than not in your life at all, right?”
“Guess so.”
“Harry…”
“No, you’re right,” he sighs, combing his free hand through his hair.
“Know I am.”
---
The day after calling Gemma, the flowers Harry ordered are delivered to your shop. Megan receives them, glancing at the card in the holder as she signs her name on the delivery slip. She runs to your office, squealing as quietly as she can in the industrial space.
“Oh my gosh!” she wiggles in your doorway, a wide-eyed toddler with a new toy. “Harry sent you flowers! Please tell me it’s Harry Styles. They’re peonies. They must be from Harry Styles!”
“Can I read the card, Meg?” you laugh, coming around your desk to take the vase from her. You pluck the small note from its holder, your mouth turning upward when you see the handwritten message.
I’M STILL VERY, VERY SORRY. FOR THE RECORD, VINTAGE VELVET WAS THE RIGHT (SEXIEST) CHOICE. X HARRY
“Yeah,” you nod. “It’s from him, all right.”
“What’s he sorry for?!” Megan can’t help herself - she’s braced against your desk, her face stuck straight into the beautiful pink and white blooms where you’d set them, her eyes wild as she tried to catch her breath.
“Nosy, nosy,” you shake your head, taking a smell of the flowers for yourself. “I gave his account t’ Carly after he called me on my personal number in the middle of the night,” you sit down again. “He was drunk and said he was calling because he wanted to hear my voice.”
“Wait,” Megan scoffs. “You gave Carly Harry Styles’ account because he called you in the middle of the night because he wanted to hear your voice?!”
“Yes.”
“I love you, but that is literally insane,” she huffs, plopping down into the chair opposite your desk. “Harry Styles personally delivers a bouquet of your favorite flowers to you, misses your voice and tells you so, then sends you flowers for telling you so, and then you give his account to Carly?! The job was almost done! Two weeks and it’d’ve been finished! And you give it to Carly?!”
“To be fair,” you smirk. “He sent the flowers after I gave the account to Carly.”
Megan looks at you, blinking slowly.
“What?” you laugh.
“Like that matters!” she throws her hands up in the air. “It’s Harry fuckin’ Styles!”
“I know it is,” you shake your head. “But that doesn’t mean he can call me whenever he’s drunk and wants a lay.”
“D’ya really think that’s why he was calling?” Megan asks, grabbing the card from the holder. “He said he wanted to hear your voice, right? Doesn’t sound like he was looking to boink you.”
“I’ve never gotten a drunken call at midnight with innocent intentions behind it,” you raise an eyebrow. “Have you?”
“Okay,” Megan considers your point. “Touche. But maybe he’s different! Everything ‘ve ever read about him points towards him be-”
“We’re not talking about what you’ve read,” you explain, taking the note from her hand and placing it underneath the desk calendar between the two of you. “He’s a good guy. He really is. But when that line is blurred or crossed or whatever, I have to redraw it, and you know that,” you look pointedly at Megan, willing her to understand your position. “So the account went to Carly.”
“Are you at least going to thank him for the flowers?”
“Of course!” you scoff, delicately running your fingertips over the petals. “I did what I had to do, but I’m not that mean.”
After eyeing the flowers for a bit longer, you shoo Megan back to work, reminding her that she still had to price the new pieces that had arrived earlier in the morning. You answer some emails while you decide on how to thank him.
Emailing seemed too professional.
A text seemed cruel - what string of emojis could you put together that conveyed how absolutely beautiful the flowers were, and that yes, you’d certainly forgiven him at this point?
You decide to call him, clearing your throat before clicking on his name.
“Hello?” Harry’s voice on the other line is unsure when he answers.
“Hey,” you chirp, hoping to set a positive tone. “Just calling because I wanted to hear your voice.”
Harry laughs then, a hearty chuckle that causes you to laugh as well.
“Suppose I deserve that one.”
“Maybe a little,” you smile. “I’m looking at a very lovely arrangement of peonies right now,” you glance over at the vase at the corner of your desk, the flowers pluming out of the sides. “Thank you for sending them. You didn’t have to.”
“Know I didn’t,” he shrugs, feeling a bit more confident at your positive tone. “Just wanted to.”
“Well, thank you,” you smile, slipping the note card from underneath the calendar that had just been flipped to February the day before. “Things with Carly are good, then?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he affirms. “She’s great. You’ve taught her well.”
“I hope so. She’s a great part of our team.”
It’s silent for a few moments, but you’re unsure of where to take it from here.
“Listen, I-”
“Would y-”
You both begin speaking at the same time.
“Go ahead,” you say.
“No, it’s alright,” he clears his throat. “You go ahead.”
“I don’t even know what I was going to say,” you admit with a laugh. “So you go.”
“Okay,” he takes a breath. “Can I take you out to dinner?” his voice his nervous. “One last apology. Jus’ so it’s not weird if we ever see each other again. ‘n I promise not to make any advances,” he chuckles. “Jus’ two people goin’ out to dinner. As friends.”
You thumb the corner of the card, running your finger over his handwriting.
“I would really like that, Harry.”
---
The two of you plan to meet outside of the city in a small, quiet restaurant where you won’t be bothered. He feels wholly at ease when you greet him, your cheek warm against his when you offer it to him. The response was much more settling than the one you’d given him the last time he’d met up with you - this time, at least, you weren’t cowering away from him.
He decides on the same glass of wine you’d ordered - a dry red that warms him from the inside out - and tries not to let his imagination get carried away when you smile at him in the dim candlelight of the bistro.
“Remember that magazine I was doing a shoot with?” you inquire, your hands clasped neatly in front of you after you’d both ordered your meals.
“Course,” he nods, placing his wine glass down on the table. “HGTV, was it?”
“That’s the one,” you smile. “Well - and you’re the first person I’m tellin’ this to, so don’t get any wild ideas about spreading this information to anyone else,” you point at him with an exaggerated eyebrow raise like you’d done after telling him about the initial photoshoot. “They’ve asked me to fly out to LA in early March. Preliminary meetings, I think, but they wanna talk about a collaboration of some sort.”
“That’s amazin’,” Harry grins, his smile genuine. “That’s...wow. Congratulations!”
“Thanks,” you sigh. “Not gonna get my hopes up or anythin’, but I’m pretty excited about it.”
“As you should be!” his eyebrows raise with the corners of his mouth as he grabs onto the stem of his wine glass. “Cheers to you, yeah? What a massive bit of good news!”
“Thank you, Harry,” you laugh, shaking your head as you lift your glass to his, clinking the rim of it to his. “Thought ‘d tell you the news, ‘cause you’re still the only one who knows about the magazine.”
His heart leaps in his chest at your confession, but he remains collected on the outside, changing the subject to something he’s more comfortable with.
“Have you ever been to LA?” he asks.
“Yeah,” you nod, nibbling at the complimentary bread. “Flight’s a killer, but ‘m more than happy to make it.”
“Especially at this time of year. Early March in Los Angeles is a lot different than early March in London.”
“That’s very true,” you dip the crusty piece of bread into olive oil. “However, I will say I tend to miss dreary ol’ London if ‘m away for too long. LA is such a different world. Everyone is so nice - it boggles the mind, if I’m honest,” you smile when Harry lets out a laugh that could be qualified as a giggle. “What! It’s true! Always sayin’ thank you for this or that. I held the door open for y’ because it’s the proper thing t’ do, not because I wanted uncomfortable eye contact and a shoulder squeeze in return. A nod of the head’ll do, as far as that goes…”
The two of you keep easy conversation throughout your meal, speaking about your favorite places to travel to. Harry’s pulse skyrockets when you frown in response to him saying he’d been to so many cities, yet never had the time to really explore them all. He wishes - with more willpower than he’d ever mustered for anything else, he’s sure of it - that one day, he’d get to visit those places again. The next time, with more places to explore. The next time, with you.
You exchange stories about Nick and Harry makes you laugh so hard, you shed a tear or two at his anecdotes. He’s got an eerily accurate impression of his best friend, and he’s glad he got to use it on you. With the pressure of not reading into everything you say or do, Harry finds it effortless to be himself.
And, if he’s reading you correctly, you seem to enjoy this version of Harry.
A version he hadn’t allowed himself to show, up until now.
“Any travel plans for you, then?” you ask, steering the conversation away from your shared contact in Nick.
“Actually,” he moves his plate away from him. “‘m goin’ to Jamaica next week.”
“Are you really?” you sip on your water, tucking the straw between your teeth. “You lucky bastard.”
“Well,” he rubs his nose with a smile. “It’s for work, but it probably won’t feel like it.”
“What work, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Recording. Gonna do this whole solo thing, I guess.”
“Recording your album? The first one?”
“The first one,” he nods, tapping his knuckles against the table. “Got everythin’ in place, so now’s all I have to do is record.”
“Well that’s not nearly as big of a deal as me going to LA for a meeting, but I’m sure you’ll get to that level someday,” you jeer, winking at him. When he scoffs, you laugh, shaking your head. “Really, Harry, that’s incredible. Y’must be so ready to get started. Must’ve been waiting for years to do this, yeah?”
“Guess so,” he rubs his palms on his thighs. “Bit scared, if ‘m tellin’ the truth.”
“You’d be mad not to be scared, I think.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” you agree, setting your glass of water down. “You’re scared because it means something. If you weren’t, that’d be more telling than anything, I think. It’s good of you to be nervous. Means you’re doin’ it right.”
He smiles at you in response, a closed-mouth symbol of gratitude. Everyone had told him not to be nervous - not to be scared. You’d been the first to make him feel like it was okay to fret over it. Relief floods over him and it’s the calmest he’s felt in months, all because you’d reassured him with a simple shrug and a flit of your hand.
“Excuse me,” the hostess who’d sat you approaches the table.  The two of you look up, and she takes a step back, obviously intruding on a moment that was only meant for two. “I really hate to bother you but...if you are who I think you are…” she trails off, her voice shaking.
“Think I probably am,” Harry chuckles, running a finger down his chin. “‘m Harry,” he sticks out his hand, standing up as he does so. “What’s your name again?”
“Vanessa,” she nearly whispers, her fingers unable to quit fumbling at her sides.
“Vanessa,” Harry nods, as if he’d known it all along. “Nice to meet you, Vanessa.”
He glances at you in apology, but you shake your head and encourage him to continue. You must’ve figured that this was a part of being around Harry - how could you not have known that this was bound to happen at some point? You let him chat with the trembling girl who was nearly ready to combust, smiling at how gentle Harry was being with her. He’d likely comforted his fair share of girls just like Vanessa, you were willing to bet.
“Would you like me to take a picture?” you chime in.
“Oh, God!” the hostess laughs, grabbing onto your bicep when you stand up. “Yes, please. If that’s okay with…” she looks at Harry, who is intently focused on you.
“Of course,” he glances back at his fan, tucking his arm around her while you stand in front of them, taking a couple of snapshots before handing Vanessa’s phone back to her.
“Thank you so much,” she says to the both of you before tucking her phone in her pocket. “Enjoy the rest of your date.”
Harry thanks her, wishing her a good evening, before glancing back at you.
“A date,” you run your fingertip underneath your bottom lip. “She must’ve not heard about our agreement…”
“Must not’ve,” he clears his throat, sliding his finger down the condensation of his water glass. “Didn’t have to do that, y’know. Take that picture…”
“Know I didn’t,” you shrug, mimicking his words from your earlier phone conversation. “Just wanted to.”
Harry keeps good on his promise, and when he walks you to your car, he gives you a hug. You kiss him on the cheek, thanking him for the meal and conversation.
“I had a great time,” you admit.
“I did, too.”
You grip the handle to your driver’s side door, turning back to him before opening it.
“Thanks again, Har-”
“My birthday was yesterday,” he blurts out.
“What?” you release the handle, facing him fully. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“t’s not a big deal,” he shakes his head, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “But the new house is almost done, and it was m’birthday, and ‘m leavin’ for Jamaica for a whole month, so ‘m havin’ a party.”
“At the new place?”
“Yeah,” he bites his lower lip. “Kind of a housewarming slash birthday slash see-you-in-a-month kind of deal.”
“Quite a few slashes,” you note.
“I want you t’ come.”
“Okay,” you nod, sniffling due to the cold winter’s air.
“Carly said she’d come when I asked ‘er today, ‘cause she’s put together everything so nicely, but you’re the one who designed it all. Nick’s comin’, so’s basically my whole family. Y’don’t have t’ come if y’ don’t want to, but it’s your party too because you had such a big part in everythin’. But don’t feel pressured into it, because I don’t want y’ to feel like it’s something you have to do,” he bounces on his heels, looking up at the dark February sky.
“Harry,” you place a gloved hand onto his forearm. “I said I’d come.”
“Oh,” he stops bouncing, looking at you. “Oh. Okay. Great. Good!”
“I’d love to,” you smile. “Thank you for thinking of me.”
He resists rolling his eyes.
As if he’d spent any moment - waking or otherwise - in the past two months not thinking of you.
“Course,” he leans in for another hug, pleased when you accept it, your nose cold against the exposed skin on his neck. “Tomorrow at seven. You know the address,” he smirks at his own joke as he pulls away.
“I’ll be there,” you squeeze his arm before stepping to your car again.
“Text me when you get home?” Harry questions. “Just so I know you’re safe?”
“Yeah,” you nod. “See you tomorrow, Harry. Thank you for dinner.”
He tips his head to you, waving your car off as you drive away. On his walk back to his own car, he pulls out his phone, clicking on his sister’s name in the recent messages.
You know how much I hate saying this, he types. But I’ll always give credit where credit is due. You were right. About everything. xx
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simsontherope · 7 years
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What kind of sorcery is this ?
Okay, people usually don't say it that way, but while posting my pictures for the TS4 Edit Challenge, a received some messages asking me how I do that.. Every picture is different, but most of the time, the first steps are really similar. For the moment, we will focus on that !
I use Photoshop, so some of the tools I use can be specific to this software. But most of my tips can be done on other programs.I will try my best to explain everything, but if you are not familiar with a graphic editor software, this may be too complicated.
For each complex function in Photoshop, I will try to give you a link to the official help page, in case you need more informations.
But as you can imagine, before editing something, you need some screenshots from your game ! I will begin with this, but before that, I need to explain some of the technics I use, so you can understand why I take my screens in this way.
For this tutorial, I will only focus on technical stuff.
Photomerging
Something usefull if you want to create a illustration in portrait format. The pictures you take in game are in landscape format, and usually big enough if you keep this orientation.
It’s easier to work on a bigger base picture : when you scale it down, the imperfections will be less visible, the result will be sharper. But when you want to create a picture in portrait format, you may be limited by your computer screen height, when you take your screen in game. 
Fortunately, le Photomerge tool in photoshop allow you to merge two pictures automatically. It works this way :
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To access the tool, go to  File > Automate > Photomerge. More informations on the Adobe official page. 
As you see, to use this tool, you will need to take more screens in game.
Separated layers
And... it’s not the only reason why I take lots of screens when working on a picture ! The title says it all : I work with different layers in photoshop : for exemple my background and my character are not on the same layer, allowing me to edit them separately, more easely. So I need to take screens of the different elements separately in game.
Nothing more to explain, for the moment, just keep that in mind for the next step.
In Game.
For this step, there is three essential mods I will use :
Pose Player, and poses I created/downloaded. Have a look at the topic for more explanation.
Teleport Any Sims, to place my sims precisely.
MasteController, with the Dresser module, to change my sims outfit while she will be posing. 
For this tutorial, I will create a simple picture : a not too complex background, a single sims, wearing a dress. To explain a trick I often use, this dress will be composed of two different dresses from the game. 
To begin with, I just lay the foundations of the decor, and then, I place a teleporter statue to define where my sims will be. I need define the location of my camera before finishing the setting. When you will go in buy/build mode to finish the background, the sims posing will be reseted and you will need to place another statue, so don't forget where you placed it at the first place (you can place a small object on floor to mark the location).
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Now it's time to teleport my sims, and make her pose (I won't detail how to use the mods here).
Press TAB to go in camera mode, and choose your view. To save your camera setting, simply press Ctrl and one number between 5 and 9 (not on the numeric keypad). Then, if you press the number you chosen (without Ctrl), the camera will return to the saved state.
As I will use the photomerging tool for this exemple, you need to save two camera states, like this :
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You can already take two screenshots, to test the photomerging (you need to have enough common areas between the two screenshots for the tool to work). If it doesn’t work fine, redefine your camera states.
These screenshots will also help you determine the zones you need to fill in you background. Time to finish your setting, and don't forget to place a teleporter statue again. 
When it’s done, you can take your final screenshots. Quick note, you can move your objects in the background, if some areas still seem too empty. Your sims will be reseted again, and you will need a new statue to replace her.
The scene now takes place later in the evening, as I wanted to use candles. Don't forget to choose the color and intensity of each of your light sources, it can help creating an atmosphere.
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When all is ready, save your game, in case you need to make some changes, or take some new screenshots. The camera states are automatically saved when you quit the game.
I take two screenshots with the first dress. Then, I use the Master Controler (click on your sims, MC Command Cender > MC Dresser > Change Outfit) to change her outfit, and screen her with the second dress. When it’s done, I make my sims stop posing and go away, to take a screen of my background without the sims. 
I now have 6 screenshots to work with :
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Working with layers.
At first, I use the Photomerge tool to combine my differents screens (I checked perspective, for my exemple). I now have three different pictures. I Put the in the same Photoshop file. If I try to superpose them, the landscape may not match perfectly, as Photoshop never assemble your pictures exactly the same way. 
But it’s not a problem : I’m going to separate my sims from the background. I will only keep the middle part of the second dress, to mask the belt, so I put this on aside for the moment !
You can already crop your screen at this step, to keep only the zone you want. I won't speak about composition rules this time, but they are the same as in photography.
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I added a solid color below my sims layer, to see the result when I will cut her out of the background.
For this step, I use... the polygonal lasso tool (1) ! Using the pen tool would be more precise, but it can takes more time, especially if you are not familiar with this tool.
When I’m done selecting my sims with the lasso, I create a mask using the selection, by cliquing on this icon, in the layer panel (2). 
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If you need to edit your selection, simply click on the mask (3), and paint in black (to erase) and white (to show) to make corrections. More informations about how to use layer masks here.
After that, I did the same thing with the middle of the dress (I didn't bother with the face and shoulders this time, as I won't keep them on this layer). Then, I edited the mask to create a nice transition between the two dresses. 
I use this trick quite often, if I need to combine to clothes or hairstyles, add a jacket on a specific top, or make the skin visible on some areas. For exemple, in my FULL BODY picture, I use this tip to make the legs and the ear visible.
When I'm satisfied with the result, I duplicate the two layers (my sims, and the bottom of the dress) and combine them. Select the two layers in the layer panel, right click on them, and use Duplicate Layers. Then, select the copies, right click on them again, and select Merge Layers. I keep the original ones just in case I need to edit my mask (you will have to do all this again), I simply hide them.
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Some random tips.
I'm now ready to work on my picture, in the best conditions. These steps are common to all my pictures, but the following ones are differents for each picture. But I still have some useful tips to share !
Most of them concern nondestructive editing : it allows you to revert or modify the effects you apply on your picture at every moment.
Convert to smart object
As I want to focus the picture on my sims (like in my LIGHT picture), I will blur the background layer a bit. If you simply apply a Gaussian Blur filter, and then continue your work, it will be impossible to revert or change the intensity later.
Except if your layer is a smart object. Select your layer, right click on it and select Convert to smart object. The original state of your layer will be saved, and you will be able to edit or delete each filter you applyied on it, at every moment, by double clicking on the filter name.
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Ajustement Layer
If you go in the Image > Adjustments menu, there is many way to adjust the contrast and colors of your pictures. But these modifications are destructive, as the directly change your image, and can't be edited/deleted later.
Thats the reason why I use adjustment layer instead. In the Layer panel, click here (1) to create an adjustment layer. And place this newly created layer at the top (2), above all your layers, to make it affect the whole picture.
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You can even change the blending mode of these layers (3), to obtain different effects. In a previous tips post, I already talk about the Gradient Map layer, in Soft Light mode, to add contrast and change the atmosphere of my picture. Try, experiment, there is a large variety of effects you can create that way ;)
You can also try to add a Color Lookup layer, and try the different options !
You can edit your adjustment layer parameters in the Properties panel (4). If you can find it, in the menu, go to Window, find Properties in the list, and click.
One last thing : as you can see, adjustment layer come with a mask. It's completely white by default (it affect the whole picture), but you can adjust where and with which intensity it is applied, by painting on the mask.
Create Clipping Mask
If you want to apply your layer adjustment layer only on one precise layer, instead of the whole picture, move it above this layer, right click on it, and select Create Clipping Mask.
This tips also work with a classic layer. On my pictures, I always correct or redraw some parts of my sims face, not on the original layer (as I avoid any destructive modicitaion), but on a new layer, applyed only on the base layer.
On a previous tips post, I spoke about my basic editing process, including how I manually adjust the shadows on my sims (I'm not going to rexplain the whole precess here, have a look at the post). I paint my shadows and light on a grey layer on Soft Light mode. If I don't use the clipping mask, it will also affect the background. 
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Without and with clipping mask
Another use of the clipping mask, to conclude with this. Afterwards, I decided to add some transparency to the dress. I reopened my game, take two screens of my sims without clothing (and photomeged them), and added this new layer just above my Sims layer, using the clipping mask. Then, I added a mask on this layer, turned it black, and paint some areas with a white brush with low opacity to make the skin visible.
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The Final Picture.
And here is the result ! Again, I won't explain everything, as I already spoke about some of these things in this previous tutorial post. If you are curious to see my layer panel at the end, click here.
Here is the final picture.
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Base Picture - Final picture in full size
Voilà ! I think it's the first time a post this long in english. I hope everything is understandable. ;)
Don’t hesitate to tag me if you create pictures using these tips ! The same goes for my Sims Creation Tips, you can tag me too if you create sims using it.
If you are looking on more tips (not only about photoshop), don't forget to have a look at my Tips tag. To see my other illustrations created with the sims, simply click here !
And if you like this tutorial, or my creations for the Sims, feel free to buy me a coffee (and a croissant if you want :D)
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maiji · 6 years
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Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs
You can read the pages for part 1 here (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post whenever it’s done.)
Every so often I get questions about how I work, and I also enjoy reading about how other creators make things, so perhaps this might be interesting and useful to somebody out there too. I’ve talked about my process before but never really documented and shared it WHILE working on a project, so here you can see some of my thinking and decision-making (and poor habits lol) a bit more immediately, alongside screenshots, photos and scans.
Very long, everything is below the cut, and apologies to people on mobile and anywhere else this goofs up.
One question I get a lot is “do you start with words or pictures when creating a comic?” I jump between both a lot. That said, I tend to lean more heavily on words when documenting ideas in the early stages of a project. This is because, for me:
Words pack a lot of punch in conveying detail quickly. They work better when I need to quickly communicate something extremely specific to future me. I’m a sloppy drawer, so my sketches tend to make future me squint and go, “What the hell was this supposed to be?!”
A great deal of my thinking and planning is done during crowded commutes. It’s more convenient to jot notes on my phone than to whip out my sketchbook and a pen.
(For a while I thought it’d be awesome to have some sort of app where I can type notes AND have an accompanying thumbnail sketch, and be able to drag them around or break them out into more or fewer pages. At one point years ago I thought about creating a custom app... but ultimately too lazy/busy and my current process works well enough. If anyone wants to take this idea and run with it, please feel free to do so and just let me know about it so I can try it haha.)
I usually start with a few lines summarizing the gist of the idea, enough that’s recognizable and I don’t forget the important things to build off from. From there, I start point-form outlining the stuff that needs to happen, structuring them into key scenes/parts. These scenes are not always fleshed out in order - I just add to them whenever I have ideas for that part. 
Long Limbs, for example, had a progression like this:
Overall story idea: “horror story with rokurokubi, key plot point(s) happens, the end.” (There was a bit more detail than this, obviously, but we’re avoiding spoilers here.)
Initial description for Part 1 of the story: “Hokushin lured to go to somewhere. Separated from Raizen. HOW??????”
After letting it simmer for while, a solution: “Hokushin annoyed at Raizen. Opportunity for him to get away and go do his own thing.”
Gradually more detail: “Stranger invites him to go to this place to look into something/maybe has a paid job that needs to be done and Raizen is busy goofing off or whatever.”
Problem. I couldn’t resolve this chain of thought to my satisfaction. What kind of task/job can someone convince Hokushin to do on his own when he doesn’t know this person/it seems questionable? And how long will the conversation need to run to establish this as believable?
This was starting to get convoluted and I was getting annoyed because it was turning into a burden in being able to continue the story AND IT WASN’T EVEN THAT IMPORTANT. I decided to abandon this path of thinking, and left the entire story for a while.
Much later (like months?), I had an idea: “Mysterious person drops something, piques Hokushin’s curiosity.” Aha! Hokushin’s own initiative. Simple and plausible enough. HOORAY NO MORE THINKING. LET’S DRAW.
Then I realized, oh shoot, I need to figure out who this mysterious person is and what they dropped. More time passes. And so on… in between I’m always working on other things, so there’s no real creator’s block - at some point I start thinking about this comic again, and ideas work themselves out to some decent level of satisfaction and link together. Thanks subconscious!
Eventually, enough key scenes are fleshed out that I feel confident enough to turn this into a real thing. At present, for example, not all scenes in Long Limbs are totally worked out, but I’ve got enough that I ran ahead with Part 1.
Screenshot of the Google Docs notes/script for Part 1: 
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This is a close-to-final version. The === on top is just to separate this from notes on other stories or ideas. This is the beginning of the document, but this document actually includes many other notes and stories for North Bound. I delete them as I finish and post the pages. Every so often I wonder if I should bother keeping them, but they’ve been refined throughout the process and usually don’t bear much resemblance to the original jotted notes anymore. Long Limbs was originally planned to be a later story in North Bound, but I got especially excited about it and fleshed it out further than the others. When I reviewed the earlier stories, I didn’t think there’d be a big continuity or reader experience issue if this was finished and posted first. So I moved the messy notes for this story to the top of the document. 
The page breakdown for the script is done by me generally picturing in my head how I might want the scene to go and how much action I might be able to fit on the page for good effect. I’ll sometimes start paginating without thumbnails, and sometimes will do both side by side (thumbnail and update pagination in tandem).
As you might imagine, pagination frequently changes. For example, you’ll see the script above is 9 pages instead of 10.
The original script for this section was broken up into maybe 4-6 pages, with 5-7 being more condensed.
When I started thumbnailing, I found it felt too cluttered and moved too fast.
So I stretched out the part of Hokushin and the mystery girl exchanging glances, and added pages to be able to create a (hopefully) more cinematic feel and really focus on the reason they catch each other’s eye - the bandages on their necks.
I then went back to the Google Doc and updated the script to line it up better.
I was also tweaking the dialogue at the same time and didn’t want to forget any key phrasing I liked. Dialogue is another thing I get really hung up over, often changing words up to the last second. (Sometimes this is because I messed up the size of the speech bubble, if I’m lettering on the computer...)
Thumbnails:
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Pretty close to the final in this case - mainly because the sequence is pretty simple and straightforward and not many people are involved. I keep my thumbnails very crappy and rough so that I don’t get upset later when I can’t redraw something as good as the thumbnail. Bottom right was a quick attempt at designing the mystery girl.
Once I think the thumbnails are good enough - translation: I get impatient and just want to start drawing - I proceed to pencils for the actual page.
Throughout all this, I’m repeatedly reviewing script and thumbnail and playing sequences out in my head and then trying to figure out how to better direct the “camera” and the action. I may go back to the script and the thumbnails even as I’m finetuning the actual page if I encounter issues. You can see in both the script and the thumbnails that there are still deviations in the dialogue and the art from the final. Here are a few examples:
Page 3: The panels were originally 1) the setting, 2) Hokushin with his arms folded, 3) Raizen laughing, 4) we see that Hokushin is watching Raizen. After reviewing the thumbnail, I felt it’d be a better setup to flow into the scene if I switched panels 2 and 3. That’s closer to how you’d experience it in real life, or how it might be directed in a shot sequence: you enter an area/place, you hear the sound of some guy’s loud laughter filling the air, then the camera zooms up to the annoyed expression of this one particular dude and you see he’s staring at the laughing guy. Moving from bigger ambience to smaller details around the room.
Page 7: The girl was originally turning in the other direction (hard to tell because I redrew it right on top of the original sketch lol). However, this meant all the directional action would be pointing to the right - Hokushin is facing the right, and when he leaves the bar he’s angling towards the right side of the page. Facing the direction that readers will read in gives a sense of driving the action forward, while facing the opposite direction provides a bit of a mental stop. (This is something from Scott McCloud that always stuck with me.) So, I flipped the girl around.
Page 8: Script has Hokushin going “What’s this?”. When thumbnailing, I thought, “obviously it’s self-evident he’s wondering what this is when he picks it up”. It added nothing to the panel, and the speech or thought bubble would have interrupted the smooth action of him picking up the paper. So, axed.
The damn friggin’ bar and gambling: You’ll see the script mention this, and at one point I actually had the guy standing across from Raizen saying “Is this guy drunk?” I’m actually not sure if they’re in a bar or if Raizen is drinking, but neither were important to the actual story because I just needed Raizen and Hokushin to be in a place where Raizen could hang out with humans and be stupid. So I dropped these details. This is mainly because I ran into historical research problems about bars and alcohol during the Kamakura period (more on that near the end of this post), and this was the only way to stop myself from getting hung up on trying to make it “perfect” and “correct” and just get it done. 
Drawing the actual pages. This part is fun!
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Inking the actual pages. THIS PART IS NOT FUN :( 
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I don’t have very steady hands and I get very anxious about messing things up, so inking always takes me the longest. (I also get distracted easily, e.g., ink two lines and then surf tumblr for ten minutes lol). I’ve improved a lot since I started drawing comics much more frequently a couple years ago, and my choice of tools and style has helped a lot (I lean to variable lines and sketchy style, which is more forgiving than, say, a very precise art style with fixed-width pens) but I still get nervous at this stage.
I’m very lazy so I usually stick with one tool for inking. For Long Limbs I tried to effort more and actually used three. Right to left: Sailor fude de mannen for panel borders and text, Muji pen for artwork (0.4 because that was the only size available at the store when I went to get my refill), Pentel pocket brush for filling in blacks. I refill the fude de mannen and the pocket brush with fountain pen inks.
I usually ink panel borders first, then speech bubbles, then everything else. I hop all over the place and pages are generally in varying stages of completion. I also sometimes add in some more text lines because it seems like a good idea at the time - Hokushin’s complaint on page 3 about how he should have left Raizen when he got into a fight with a fish-seller in a previous story, for example. Sometimes these work, sometimes I regret it later and edit it on the computer.
Cover thumbnails and pencil sketch:
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The one in the page thumbnails was the original idea, but then I thought, “seems kinda cliched. Can I get a more interesting angle where he’s not looking straight at the viewer?” (OK, his eyes are covered, but you know what I mean.) I quickly tried a few other angles and compositions, didn’t like them and ended up going with pretty much the original idea, but more zoomed in.
In the thumbnails, you can see all my little x’s indicating “ehhhh I don’t like this”. I wanted something with a particular mood/atmosphere especially with all the hands and arms, and I was conflicted between zooming out (for more environment and more arms, and the focus on the “long limbs” part of the title) or having a tighter, more close up shot. Ultimately I think the latter works better as it conveys a sense of claustrophobia, and it’s more intimate which supports the idea of psychological horror. ALSO IT’S SEXY (maybe???). The end.
Other random thoughts:
I took a lot of heart/inspiration/motivation from Togashi’s last few volumes of Yu Yu Hakusho to keep the backgrounds as lazy - I mean sparse - as possible and also speech bubbles over plain backgrounds lmao. I think it takes a lot of confidence (or maybe laziness) to be so minimalist and restrained, and it’s an impressive and economical way of working. I was always impressed that when reading those pages of his for the first time, the lack of detail never really bothered me - you had everything you needed for your brain to comfortably fill in the gaps and complete the sense of narrative and story progression, and there are still visual flourishes when the situation calls for it. So I’m trying to bring a bit of that tighter philosophy in.
Research. I struggle a LOT with not getting bogged down by details, especially when it’s something “just” for fun or “just” a fancomic. I have very lovely and helpful friends and family who every so often patiently allow me to whine and bounce things off of them, help me look things up, and/or tell me when I’m getting myopic about stuff. For all the North Bound comics, finding quick and useful historical references for the time period has been a challenge. There’s a ton about aristocracy and warriors but very little about the ordinary/common people, not surprisingly. I frequently question my instincts about what makes sense because I tend to automatically draw on similar/equivalent Chinese culture (there was certainly lots of cross-over, but not always appropriate/relevant) or Edo period references (wrong time frame! Too far in the future). I often end up losing a ton of time trying to find something with roundabout searches, and then give up and look at other comics I have close enough to the time period. And then referencing those and compounding whatever historical errors they have in them. (e.g., “Well if it was good enough for Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix it’s good enough for this rando fancomic!”) I just would like historical/subject matter experts to know I did try...
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c7thetumbler · 7 years
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Monthly Project: January, Week 1
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OH BOY HERE WE GO
I suspect at least one person who was slightly interested in my projects was thinking I’d do something vidya related since, well, that was basically my defining interest for the past.... holy fuck, it’s been a decade. hm.
Well, sorry to say, it’s not this month. It might be next month’s, but not January. January belongs to worldbuilding for me; New year, new starts, and whole new worlds to create and explore. So what did I make?
I made a world in high fantasy.
But C, just what is a “Lunos”?
So for a long time I’ve been doing worldbuilding stuff on and off in my free time, and it’s turned into a pile of ideas I’ll never be able to do justice, nor would I want to given how some of them are “babby’s first design” But what a waste of potential that would be! 
I’ve also toyed around with the idea of wanting to GM a D&D campaign, but that’d be very all or nothing for me. I wouldn’t want my players to be able to look up every aspect of the campaign online, and I certainly would want them to be curious about most aspects of the world. So that means creating an entirely new setting, with lore and map included. That’s a fuckload of work, which is why I was like “fuck GMing”
But fuck “fuck GMing.” It’s a new year, and while this may or may not help me and only me, it’s a thing I can do. So let’s pick up some of that old stuff I did, and throw it into a place that can be used for a setting. Lunos is what came out of taking a crucial part of the lore that I made up for another thing that I’ll never be able to use, and putting D&D style design constraints on it.
I love design constraints. No, really; they’re a great way to get you to focus down. Let’s see where it took me:
Making the Map
So for the longest time this is what was holding me back. I have shaky hands. Very shaky hands. It’s why I can’t aim in a lot of games, and it’s also why I can’t draw. For the longest time, this prevented me from making any sort of visual aspect for things save for stuff you can directly control in vector programs like Illustrator, and some very tiny spritework which requires you to pick which details you want to shine through.
But there is a thing or two I’ve learned I can do in the past few years: I can Google, and I can generate.
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I rendered some clouds in Photoshop CS5, used a filter to flatten them, and then took the shapes I liked and turned them into this. Obviously this can’t be a whole planet; this doesn’t work on a globe, but honestly I don’t need the whole planet right now, so this will do just fine.
Looking back at might notes for things I’m keeping from the lore, I need a round faultline which creates a mountain range which blocks rainfall from both sides, a few tactically advantageous places to put cities, some islands, 2 giant mountains in the middle of no where, and a few forests in sensible places in between.
I can do that. 
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That’ll wor- wait shit, where are the deserts? Rivers?
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There we go. The scale of this isn’t really clear, so there’s a lot of big empty space. Let’s put in the places that need to be there. But how do I determine the scale? Unfortunately, the tutorial I was following to help me with this wasn’t as explicit with how it would look at this resolution, so when I got the brushes I used for mountains and forests and settlements etc., it was clear to me that this map wasn’t big enough in terms of pixels to get the detail I was looking for. SO what this means is I need to put major cities, towns, and landmarks in, and then later if I actually do end up using this map, I have to go into finer detail and redraw portions from it with some more added in, as well as better populate it with smaller towns and interesting things. This is fine, but it lacks any really objective standard for scale. But I do have something up my sleeve, but first let’s add in those important places.
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By the way kids; never be stingy with your layers. I had to redo large portions of this like 3 times before I got something I liked because of it.
But there we go. And there’s a line you can use for scale. But how did I get that scale? Well in my notes, there is an event for this city and this port town to be 1 day’s travel away due to an annual festival that parades down the road to this city’s front gate.
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Yeah, It really doesn’t scale well; I’ll definitely have to redraw on a better scale if I go about using it. But then again, I’m sure I’m not the first.
Regardless, now we have a visual reference for a distance that needs to be traveled in a day’s worth of doing so. That’s ~ 30 miles, and from there we can draw and expand that line.
Now we have ourselves a fault-line which curves from the North Wast where it separates a desert and forest, goes down South, then around East before curving down again. It’s not an accurate line to normal physics I’m sure, but it’s good enough for my needs. This portion of the planet is pretty far south, so lower portions are cold, leading to a different style of forest to the East on that island there than the one up north. That desert is of course just a desert due to lack of rainfall, which is collected further north by that semicircle of mountains there, creating that swamp. 
As for the anomalies on the map: the oasis in the northern desert is an artificial one since this is a fantasy world and terra-forming isn’t out of the question when it comes to powerful wizards and sorcerers, and you can’t have an area that big with a potential trade route without a stopping point.
That Volcanic island is similarly not entirely natural, though the reason for that volcano emerging there is a bit more wobbly; haven’t quite fleshed that out as much yet, but I have a few ideas. Sure, I might have some stuff that is fleshed out, but not all of it; This hasn’t hit public eye, and it’s my world so as long as I’m consistent with my reasons when I do make them it could be whatever I want. It is a fantasy setting, after all.
If you’re curious what tutorial I used, it’s this one. Give it a shot yourself if you’re interested!
So what’s for next week now that you have a map?
Lore for starters. There’s a bunch there already, but a lot of my older and even newer stuff stems from a single design idea, and Lunos is included. Just to tease a little bit, while this is a campaign setting for D&D and therefore has all the typical races and plane-related stuff, it has it’s own history independent of all that. In fact, Lunos is actually this lush and active because of an apocalyptic event; it was actually barren, Mars-like, and rather simple before that. This mythical setting stuff is the result of a terrible accident which led to the radical changes that made it “high fantasy”, which most of it’s residents aren’t aware of, and those who are are trying to square the conflicting history of its past with its modern-day appearance and gods.
At the very minimum, I need to go more into depth about 8 gods, several lesser deities, and an entirely new race in the D&D 5e format. There’s still quite a lot of work to be done, and the order’s very specific:
I need to explain the idea behind Lunos, then explain its history, then explain its ideologies before I can even flesh out some of the gods, so that’ll be next week.
Depending on how that goes, I might get started on fleshing out new, actual homebrew content for a campaign that could be run in the setting.
But yeah, that’s for next week; thoughts? Too convoluted already? Map looks weird in places? This whole thing is silly?
What do you think so far?
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altermidgard · 7 years
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Star Wars Custom Playmat 100+ Characters
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Just make it look cool.
Right. Anything specific you wanted?
Not really...Just get as many characters on thee as you can.
Challenge Accepted.
Yes today on the blog, one slightly vague choice of words leads to the most characters ever on one of my mats. Not by a small margin either, especially if you include vehicles (Which I do, objects are objects in programming) I'll be going over the phases of the mats design from concept to colouring telling stories as I go. We've got a lot to get through, so lets jump right in to my latest Star Wars mat.
0 To 30
Thirty is a nice number, I've done mats with around that before, there should be enough space for everyone and more importantly it should be enough slots to cover all the main hero's and villains.
Step 1: Lets make a list.  
If your playing along at home it's at this point you realise there might be a few more than thirty people in the Star Wars universe. It's Ok we can deal with this, we just have to organise everyone into some sort of hierarchy, most popular to least well known. OK, wow,  yeah still quite a few people in category one.
This is where I was at. Making lists. I've been making mats a while now, you get an instinct for how many and how large the components of the design need to be. Thirty wasn’t an arbitrary number, it's what I considered the upper limit for readable characters to be.  In first panel bellow that's how many names I finally settled on. There were many brave souls that fell by the wayside though and to be honest I wasn’t happy about it.
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31 To 60
Writing the names on a scrap piece of A4 set the trend for the majority of the sketching phase. Usually I would draw thumbnails, four to eight images on one piece of paper but in this instance I needed to go bigger sooner. The second panel shows the most readable of my early sketches. All the previously names characters are there plus I'm starting to think that if I can get them all in at this size with extra space to spare there might be room to add a few more. Circles for heads is all they get right now but it might work. It just goes to show though. Until you actually start on something properly you cant know how its going to turn out.
The next panel is a more comprehensive redraw, more thought gets given to the layout and how the eye will flow around the image. While the rest of the design process is one of refinement and addition it.s here where the design mostly comes together. That's actuality one of the nice things about doing these blog posts. Looking back and trying to explain your thoughts and processed to others gives you insights on your own work you might never have noticed, I recommend people try it  
Next up. Working on a light-box in pen gives me the opportunity to add even more detail. For some people this might not be the case but having that extra contrast and a finer point than most pencils really helps me out. The other nice thing about changing medium is that it alters the art style slightly. I'm making quicker more precise marks and it leads to a more dynamic atmosphere. The real trick will be trying to preserve that feel though the rest of the production
60 To 80
A different style again as I go digital. I'm using the airbrush tool and am less interested in line than I am the shape and weight of each object. It's also an early chance to test where the light should be coming fom. Where I've placed the vanishing point is causing a few hiccups. Triangular spaceships are especially hard to get right and a lot of their final placement has to do with that.
The silly thing is I could add more elements to the design. There's still plenty of room, think of the final total!. But no, at some point you have to take a step back and say 'this is a silly amount of work already and adding to it is going to do more harm to the design than good.
80 To,.. Who the heck knows.
I stopped counting at this point, didn't really want to know. We are almost there though. Most lines are either vertical, horizontal, or pointing at the vanishing point, I've got piles of spirals, and grievous's arms finally look right. Although Obi-Wan needs some work if they are going to duel. There are still questions to answer though. Things like what colour Lightsaber should Starkiller have and why is Luke's head not attached to his body. Enough sketching though, lets get started on the colouring,
Balancing the Force
I say colouring. What I mean is 'lets use a light grey to work out the lighting'. The grey will be easily overwritten so we have a bit of room to experiment and it keep me from doing the outlines first. Another option would be to use yellow, it just comes down to what tone you want your image to take on. There's a lot of ships and metallic in this piece so I went with the grey.
Notice how the left half of the image is always darker? Tha'ts intentional. By loading up on characters there's just going to be more dark there. Why have I done this? Because it offsets the big blob of dark on the right that is the Emperor and Darth. Basically I'm looking to balance the force. Its also why Luke and Leia are in white. That and so they are the main focus of the image I want the ye to start or end thee.
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It's a Trap
I don’t want to be using that many colours on this piece. With all the different people and objects here the composition could easily start to break up if everything got its own pallet. This stage then is about making sure that doesn’t happen, all the blues are the same blue, all the browns likewise. I think I even managed to stick with this rule all the way though which is good because it can be so tempting to just think, hmm what if I just add a smidge of this colour here?
I should really have added the ships at this stage though. You can already see how areas of the image I'm less sure about are falling behind the others in terms of how far along they are. (keep an eye on Darth for example)
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This is the Droid I was Looking for
I was tempted to stop here.
.
.
.
I don’t normally do pastel shades but this was working, all I had to do was come up with a background and...
… Yeah, no, space is dark, I've designed myself into a comer so we will have to keep going.    
If you have been wondering about why characters are where they are, beyond the timeline aspect, there were three other considerations.
1. Are you a bad-guy? If yes your probably a big floaty head the rest of the cast can anchor around.
2. Are you a hero? If yes, you probably have most or all of a body, good job you.
3. Are you someone I like? I'm colouring I don’t know how many people and have free reign, naturally your going to find that my preferences bleed into the design.
Yes that is why chopper is font and center.
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Space is Big, Like Really Big.
I found these glitter gel pens. No idea if they would wok on this material but if they did it would make colouring stars way easier. Not particularly economical, I used them up just on the background but the nice thing about them is that the glitter breaks up the colours and gives a sense of depth to areas that would otherwise be large and flat. Time will tell if the stars stay on the mat, But you have to experiment right, how else do you learn new things?  
I gave it an extra few layers of sealant just for go measure.
Back on topic. I might have gone a little hard on the quantity of red in Maul's face, it's started to spread. Luckily Thawn has darker hair so it's an easy fix but it's still a reminder not to get carried away.
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Mostly Harmless
Hey Darth finally has arms, The pose took some time to get right to be honest. It had to fit the existing upper chest and head and align with the vanishing point since its so close. In the end I fond a one that had the Lightsaber out horizontal and after that it was just a case of getting the other arm right. I went back and forth on the city scene, easing the buildings then adding them back in. something needed to be there to contrast with the stuff in front but I just wasn’t feeling it. turns out they just hadn’t been dark enough and making them practically black with little window lights was the way forward.
Almost everything is in now, but as usual I still have the eyes on most of these people to add. I also need to do something with the Emperor. He's the biggest thing on the mat, he needs a little more respect/detail than I have given him so far.
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The Final Frontier.
Add clouds to the planets atmosphere, make the stars and Lightsabers glow in the dark (glow under UV light actually) and just generally go around tiding up. I'm just about done here. OK applying the sealant and taking pictures comes last but close enough.
I guess I should actually count the number of things on the mat then. Just a sec...
110ish! Give or take. That's quite a big number, and not something I think I'm going to be beating anytime soon. Probably...
Next time, lets simplify things a bit huh.
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