It wasn't until the third short that I noticed this was 3D. As someone who played most of the 3D games, I can tell that making these characters look cool in cinematics and cutscenes has been a journey for everyone working on Sonic. The mouths are a good example. Taking inspiration from 2D animation works so well as Sonic is obviously a 90s mascot character, and Shadow has the same kind of vibe. I hope these shorts will inspire any future work done for Sonic.
I mean yeah... but you have to admit it's night and day how his old vids don't really compare in engagement with the new ones. I was just saying this because Geo's my fav content creator, and I want him to succeed in both his first and second channel.
When this released my friends and I 100% thought it was 2D. It wasn't until later when I saw posts commenting that Emerl (the robot) had was a 3D model (a point people are hoping points to him being playable). After I really took a look I started to see how the majority of the animation was 3D which made it so much crazier. Also a neat detail more on the choreography and storytelling side of things. In the short fight of Shadow and Emerl, Emerl is actually learning and copying from shadow's attacks.
5:13 It’s actually a common trait with modern Sonic games to move the mouth in the position of specific characters (Like Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Silver, etc.) It started with Sonic Unleashed and carried over throughout of the mainline games.
When they said that it was made on blender I couldn't believe it, I am a 2d animator but this genuinely made me interested in 3d a little more 😂 also if you want to bless you eyes more these are 3 episodes in total so have a good watch :>
@@kaistudios5536 uuh idk how to link it, if I remember correctly it was a post on the official account for blender, maybe on x or instagram? I don't remember 🤔
Dark Beginnings is so special to me. Ever since Rise of the TMNT and later LEGO Monkie Kid came out, I have wanted a Sonic tv show made by Flying Bark Studio more than anything. I've always felt their brand of snappy, heavy, impactful fight scenes and overall fast-paced storyboarding would fit this franchise perfectly. Who would've thought that, after years of praying and hoping for my pipe dream to one day come true, several of my favorite talent from Flying Bark would form their own Studio GIGGEX and debut WITH A SONIC THE HEDGEHOG MINISERIES?? AND IT WAS EXACTLY AS GOOD AS--NO, EVEN _BETTER_ THAN I IMAGINED IT WOULD BE? This series will always hold a special place in my heart. I wish all the best for Studio GIGGEX and everyone involved and PRAY that SEGA brings them back on for a full-length animated series featuring my blue boi someday.
YOOO A LEGO MONKIE KID MENTION? thats awesome, I've noticed as of reccently LMK is gaining popularity (still so sad flying bark studio isnt animating for it anymore :< ) Honestly agreed, this was an absolute masterpiece of a blessing XD
Saw this animation when it came out and immediately thought of you! Great breakdown! Btw The final episode of Sonic x Shadow Dark Awakenings drops today
Honestly, I knew it was 3D from the beginning, but that didn’t make it any less impressive to me. I could tell which parts were 2D too, which made it all the more better! What’s funny though is that when watching the final episode, I actually thought it was 2D animated! It just looks that good! The animators did such a fantastic job bringing these awesome characters to life in all three episodes. Seriously. Thank you for analyzing this episode and for breaking down all the super important frames. It’s so cool to see the process behind such fantastic work! (And it was so fun seeing you geek out over Sonic stuff lol)
Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I remember seeing the ripped version of Sonic Gens model. They have two versions of the mouth model, one for left and another for right. No center ones tho. That being said, it's not easy to animate them smoothly. You can see some shots looking weird at times (Sonic Unleashed scene with Sonic playing with the drained Chaos Emeralds were the most obvious one for me), plus it's definitely not easy to make contour like they did with Maria's mouth from the side.
@@SlothfulArcher Oh, yeah. I know that the side-mouths are not always there (outside of pre-rendered cutscenes at least). I think it started in the ingame models around Unleashed era and stayed that way since. Except for Boom? I think?
Have you checked the animations from ARK SYSTEMS WORK? Since they made GUILTY GEAR XRD, they perfected 3D ANIME WORK! This Shadow short reminds me of their style!
ArcSys were the pioneers of much of what people know today about making anime models: anybody who’s looked at modeling techniques for anime models knows about their GDC talk from one eternity ago. So of course the team knows about those guys. The techniques used for making anime models were literally *invented* by ArcSys
As a massive 3d user, I noticed is 3d immediately. And I was amazed that at the same time, the art kept the life that is typical of traditional animation. It makes me think to 'Land of the Lustrous'.
Can't believe Sonic went from an industry wide punching bag, to something that has professional animators stopping up to take notes. Incredibly validating as a fan. A huge thanks to you for taking a look at it, and of course, everyone that helped make it.
I'm not going to lie, the animation series made me really happy. Granted I'm a huge Shadow fan so it's not that hard to make me happy, but man was this good.
i think Dark beginnings is a great show of how mixing 3D and 2D animation done right can lead to outstanding results, if they went full 2d, the sonic characters (Shadow, Rouge and Omega, mainly) would have looked off model in a few shots (Like in sonic X), if they went full 3D the human characters would have looked weird if they didn't take more time into it (So far I think the only ones that they modeled in 3D were Maria and the GUN Soldier piloting Heavy Dog [i Think] on short 3)
It took episode 3 for me to notice the characters were 3D characters. And it took the first 50 seconds of this video for me to notice they've been 3D from the start!
I've worked with cel shading in games for several years now so I could tell from frame one that it was 3D. The shadows where a dead giveaway. But I could definitely see how those not as used to it would be fooled.
I figured out it was 3D in that scene with Shadow and Maria in front of the window. It just felt like there were too many different angles of the characters for them to be 2D animated, but I was impressed with how good it looked.
Trigun Stampede anime does the face morphing similar to how they do Maria’s face from front to profile and definitely a show I’d love to see you analyze too. This one was a great watch as always!!
I am very curious on your input of part 3 of this. Specifically Shadows facial animations in a certain part of the video (which I will not spoil, but you'll know what I'm talking about). I want to know how they managed to put so much emotion onto his face, if it was 2D or 3D animated. I'm pretty sure it was 3D, but I can't be sure.
I figured the whole thing was 3D, so I was surprised when you pointed out Maria and the professor being 2D. Now I have to go back and rewatch the other parts to see if I can find more 2D.
in sonic games they made two different mouths one for straight and one for side view maybe they are using the same system. cause you can have a simple mesh that billboards and flipbooks to show human mouths but shadow has consistent enough to be two mouth system.
I dont think I ever seen something animated that conbinds 2D and 3D in a way like this, its done in such unique way that I would love to learn myself if I end up making something like this in blender one day
We NEED a Sonic movie written by the IDW team and done in this animation style. The money they would make. I'd wish for a series but the money they'd have to dunk into it is a not-sega price.
it took me like three watchthroughs to realize this is mostly 3D. Which is impressive because normally I hate 3D pretending to be 2D. Too many studios use it as a cop-out rather than a stylistic choice. Also there is a full 14 minute video with all three parts of this series already up that you should definitely check out. Its so good.
Wow! I had noticed all the moments it looked 3d and kept trying to figure out if it was 2d that looks 3d or 3d that looks 2d. But you’re saying it’s both, being primarily 3d. That’s so cool! P.s. I know nothing about animation really except what I’ve observed so 😅 Thanks for this knowledge!
Loved the video @professorGoo! Can't wait for the next video man! Bro, Shadow is Faster than Sonic Confirmed LMAO! We need to see the whole story at this point because this is too good to just be a One time thing! Also, if you want some more Animations to check out, I'd Recommend No Tables' "Genshin Ranked" and "Ranked Daycare" as well as Subutai's "Fight at the Museum". No Tables and Subutai do amazing Animations for Genshin Impact and occasionally will work together on some Animations. Let me know what you think about this and I'll catch you in your next video man!
I could tell by looking at it closely that it was 3D, but I don’t care, because IT LOOKS SO FREAKING GOOD!!!…OMG, I LOVE IT SO MUCH! I swear, this is inspiring me to make something look as cool as this, it’s so beautiful!!
3:49 it might be using a similar system to Sonic Unleashed's Side mouth system where the game (or in this case animation software) tracks the cameras position and automatically switches the mouth from one side of sonics face to the other to maintain the "side mouth" look.
I have come across a bunch of 3D MMD models that actually can replicate the 2D mouth placement almost 1:1 by having the mouth be its own object from the head and just a very very tiny bit shifted forward to avoid clipping, the mouth gets positioned and shaped using it’s own shapekey group. It is less useful for realtime use but insanely great with 3D models replicating 2D looks.
What person was confused about this being 3D? 🤨 It is 3d, and it's obvious. It still looks amazing, that doesn't take away from the quality and sheer ability they had in terms of making it look amazing, but it is still extremely clearly 3D. It's touched up with 2D and other such stylistic material I'm sure, but they clearly use 3D models as a base at the very least. Personally, I think people have too much hate for 3D art in terms of animations that are trying to look like they have a 2d style. You hear about this complaint quite a bit with anime, but it doesn't look bad, people are just piggy because they want it to look more 2D than it actually is. It's called a different style, it still works, and they proved here it can work amazingly.
I would believe you. (Only at intro rn) I believe it’s 3D and 2D because of this one method. I once saw an MLP movie (unofficial/fanmade) on TH-cam and which has BOTH 3D AND 2D, definitely cooooool!!! But if that’s not the case, then it’s still flippin’ cool and pretty.
I had an idea for how to potentially adjust an anime face for a side view using a rig, but haven't experimented with it enough to make it work in practice. But the idea would be to bind one entire side of their face to a floating handle bone, and bind that handle bone to the head bone as an intermediate controller and parent to the eye, cheek helpers, side of the mouth, etc. and repeat the same on the other side. So you kind of have both sides of the face weighted and rigged to open outwards from the middle like a book, and when you turn the camera, you can adjust the entire side of the face plus the eye and lips to get a better angle. The issue is that it would cause lots of potential weirdness with the hairline and jaw/neck area, but perhaps it could work with sharp and simple characters.
If I were to be correct, Dark Beginnings is actually animated in a 2.5D Format, seeing how the Models look more Cartoonish in Style but has more Depths like a 3D Model
Honest to god, I didn’t know it was 3D until like the second part of the series. Obviously, there were some 3D assets like the background and some objects, but the characters almost never seems like 3D animation. It's insane how well they replicated 2D animation.
My guess for the mouth (at least how I've done it)is a driver that transitions between shape keys, a mouth that looks good from the front and a mouth that looks good from the side, depending on the angle difference between the head and the camera. So if the camera is in front you get one mouth, if the camera is at the side you get another.
honestly do really like the odd hint of 3D, sorta reminds me of those kids book adaptions dreamworks made like captain underpants, it has the smoothness of 3D but with the style and visual clarity of 2D, and unlike those movies where it's very obviously playing homage to the source materials style, this looks very much like a modern anime asthetic, it looks 2D but has so much more depth, it's a really nice effect.
Great video, just wanted to say that. I think you should react to the Knuckles Prologue animation to Sonic Frontiers next. The animation there is also BEAUTIFUL. And obviously watch the other 2 episodes of this dark beginnings prologue lol
Nah, I could tell since the trailers that it was 3D. A very well done 3D, but I noticed it right away. Maybe because I'm an 2D animator too, but who knows xD
I knew it was 3D from the beginning, but that's because I watched the series trailer which had some of the more obvious "tell" shots in it. They did a really good job though of blending those with 2D elements, the style is so close that when they swap to actual 2D it doesn't feel jarring, it all works together nicely.
About Shadow's mouth well, besides characters proportions and eyes, the mouth was and kinda still is a thing that can't considered stable even in games they shifting it according to camera movements in sonic frontiers or in dream team where the mouth moves al over the place during cutscenes The next two episodes are just as fire as this one so you won't be disappointed
i am glad you did this, I was really wowed by the 3d quality overall sonic animation came a long way. Haha yeah Marias hair is the first dead give away of this being mostly 3d animation. 😂 I am wondering if eyelight is post comp or a separated layer where you can change it. I have seen people morph the head entirely to give side view a 2d look I am wondering if they are doing that. Its a very heavy rig.
SEND ME MORE ANIMATIONS TO WATCH! EDIT: I'll be breaking down Episode 2 and 3 soon! Just watched them both on stream this past week. Incredible.
How can i send you some animations if i may ask?
you should check out the other 2 parts
definitely watch episode 2 and 3 of dark beginnings
If i could send you one, The World Ends With You: The Animation has a similar style to this
what to watch? WATCH THE LAST TWO EPISODES!!!!!
Both the second and third damn near double the quality from each previous one
It wasn't until the third short that I noticed this was 3D. As someone who played most of the 3D games, I can tell that making these characters look cool in cinematics and cutscenes has been a journey for everyone working on Sonic. The mouths are a good example. Taking inspiration from 2D animation works so well as Sonic is obviously a 90s mascot character, and Shadow has the same kind of vibe. I hope these shorts will inspire any future work done for Sonic.
i noticed right away it was 3d though, but it is insanely good regardless
SAME! I realized it because of the fight scenes, i don’t care if these animations are 3D or 2D i’ll still always love them
Blud has a point.
He finally realized giving his professional opinion instead of guides is a better way of utilizing an untapped content niche. Here before you blow up
Drama drama drama, just shut up. He was already professional in a different way before this.😑
I mean yeah... but you have to admit it's night and day how his old vids don't really compare in engagement with the new ones. I was just saying this because Geo's my fav content creator, and I want him to succeed in both his first and second channel.
@@ACatThatCantSing "Geo" as in GeoExe the animator? Or is it another Geo I'm unfamiliar with?
Oops typo haha
@@ACatThatCantSing Ah, you meant to type "Goo." Gotcha.
Are we just gonna pretend that 7:48 never happened?😭 That caught me so off guard😂😂
Edit: ok I just watched a little more and I'm pretty sure his reaction made his model freak out. Either way it's still really funny
DUDE FR IT WAS SO FUNNY 😭😭
I was so focused on analysing the animation until that part DESTROYED ME
He was blown away literally lmao. 💀
That got me too! LMAO 😂
When this released my friends and I 100% thought it was 2D. It wasn't until later when I saw posts commenting that Emerl (the robot) had was a 3D model (a point people are hoping points to him being playable). After I really took a look I started to see how the majority of the animation was 3D which made it so much crazier.
Also a neat detail more on the choreography and storytelling side of things. In the short fight of Shadow and Emerl, Emerl is actually learning and copying from shadow's attacks.
After watching a few times the 2D illusion starts to fade, but, it's still insanely well animated.
9:55 "He destroyed fabric of reality and my pants" - Professor Goo
💀
😆
5:13 It’s actually a common trait with modern Sonic games to move the mouth in the position of specific characters (Like Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Silver, etc.) It started with Sonic Unleashed and carried over throughout of the mainline games.
From memories, it was already there in Sonic 06.
When they said that it was made on blender I couldn't believe it, I am a 2d animator but this genuinely made me interested in 3d a little more 😂 also if you want to bless you eyes more these are 3 episodes in total so have a good watch :>
Wait its made on blender?
PLEASE WATCH, GENIUS CHOREOGRAPHY.
@@carso1500 yes!
BLENDER?! THEY SAID IT WAS MADE ON BLENDER?! YOU'RE JOKING! Source! Please!
@@kaistudios5536 uuh idk how to link it, if I remember correctly it was a post on the official account for blender, maybe on x or instagram? I don't remember 🤔
7:47 The next 8 seconds of fight scene sent you flying, bro hahaha
The animation is really good with the combination of 2D and 3D, that's enough to make me interested in watching it 👍
Dark Beginnings is so special to me. Ever since Rise of the TMNT and later LEGO Monkie Kid came out, I have wanted a Sonic tv show made by Flying Bark Studio more than anything. I've always felt their brand of snappy, heavy, impactful fight scenes and overall fast-paced storyboarding would fit this franchise perfectly.
Who would've thought that, after years of praying and hoping for my pipe dream to one day come true, several of my favorite talent from Flying Bark would form their own Studio GIGGEX and debut WITH A SONIC THE HEDGEHOG MINISERIES?? AND IT WAS EXACTLY AS GOOD AS--NO, EVEN _BETTER_ THAN I IMAGINED IT WOULD BE?
This series will always hold a special place in my heart. I wish all the best for Studio GIGGEX and everyone involved and PRAY that SEGA brings them back on for a full-length animated series featuring my blue boi someday.
THEY'RE FLYING BARK PEOPLE???
@@lallelol9516 YES BRO
Go look at the main people involved in Dark Beginnings and look at the shows they’ve worked on previously :)
FLYING BARK MENTIONED RAHHHHHH
YOOO A LEGO MONKIE KID MENTION? thats awesome, I've noticed as of reccently LMK is gaining popularity (still so sad flying bark studio isnt animating for it anymore :< )
Honestly agreed, this was an absolute masterpiece of a blessing XD
Saw this animation when it came out and immediately thought of you! Great breakdown! Btw The final episode of Sonic x Shadow Dark Awakenings drops today
Just came out lol
OH SHI
@@professorGoo Time to react to Episode 2 & 3.
@@professorGoo Please react to ep 3
These are the EXACT reasons I was geeking out over these shorts bro, makes me so excited to be learning 3D animation
Honestly, I knew it was 3D from the beginning, but that didn’t make it any less impressive to me. I could tell which parts were 2D too, which made it all the more better! What’s funny though is that when watching the final episode, I actually thought it was 2D animated! It just looks that good! The animators did such a fantastic job bringing these awesome characters to life in all three episodes. Seriously.
Thank you for analyzing this episode and for breaking down all the super important frames. It’s so cool to see the process behind such fantastic work! (And it was so fun seeing you geek out over Sonic stuff lol)
SO well done!! Would be great to get a whole show in this style.
I didn't think about whether it was 2D or 3D, it just looked great.
That's all I need. Easily the highest praise I can give.
Just goes to show, 3D animation mixed with 2D can look good. It's not impossible.
The mouth being constantly visible is quite common for anthropomorphic animals in sonic
Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I remember seeing the ripped version of Sonic Gens model. They have two versions of the mouth model, one for left and another for right. No center ones tho.
That being said, it's not easy to animate them smoothly. You can see some shots looking weird at times (Sonic Unleashed scene with Sonic playing with the drained Chaos Emeralds were the most obvious one for me), plus it's definitely not easy to make contour like they did with Maria's mouth from the side.
@@Handepsilon The models in Sonic (2006) had mouths in the middle
@@SlothfulArcher Oh, yeah. I know that the side-mouths are not always there (outside of pre-rendered cutscenes at least). I think it started in the ingame models around Unleashed era and stayed that way since.
Except for Boom? I think?
SPIDERMAN RULES I'm actually crying lmao 2:56
Not bro giving Maria the Gwen Stacy treatment 😭😭😭
Glad you like the animation in this ^^
I literally thought about arc system from the blaze blue, dbz fighter and guilty gear when saw these animations i could immediately tell it was 3d
- Wait, its all 3D?
- Always has been
I can’t wait for him to review episodes 2 and 3
Amazing work by the animator blender has came a really long way.
I am a creator working on a manga series using fully 3d.
A lot of this reminded me of the 3D animated Spiderman show for some reason.
Have you checked the animations from ARK SYSTEMS WORK? Since they made GUILTY GEAR XRD, they perfected 3D ANIME WORK! This Shadow short reminds me of their style!
ArcSys were the pioneers of much of what people know today about making anime models: anybody who’s looked at modeling techniques for anime models knows about their GDC talk from one eternity ago.
So of course the team knows about those guys. The techniques used for making anime models were literally *invented* by ArcSys
As a massive 3d user, I noticed is 3d immediately. And I was amazed that at the same time, the art kept the life that is typical of traditional animation. It makes me think to 'Land of the Lustrous'.
Can't believe Sonic went from an industry wide punching bag, to something that has professional animators stopping up to take notes. Incredibly validating as a fan. A huge thanks to you for taking a look at it, and of course, everyone that helped make it.
I'm not going to lie, the animation series made me really happy. Granted I'm a huge Shadow fan so it's not that hard to make me happy, but man was this good.
i think Dark beginnings is a great show of how mixing 3D and 2D animation done right can lead to outstanding results, if they went full 2d, the sonic characters (Shadow, Rouge and Omega, mainly) would have looked off model in a few shots (Like in sonic X), if they went full 3D the human characters would have looked weird if they didn't take more time into it (So far I think the only ones that they modeled in 3D were Maria and the GUN Soldier piloting Heavy Dog [i Think] on short 3)
THAT BROTHA GO WHEEEEE 7:49
It took episode 3 for me to notice the characters were 3D characters. And it took the first 50 seconds of this video for me to notice they've been 3D from the start!
YESSSS I WAS WAITING FOR YOU TO REVIEW THIS ANIMATION, I wonder what 3D program they used to make it... If they actually used Goo Engine I'd go insane
SO WOULD I
They used blender
@@gogito_03I was surprised about that, not so common using blender for professional things.
I've worked with cel shading in games for several years now so I could tell from frame one that it was 3D.
The shadows where a dead giveaway.
But I could definitely see how those not as used to it would be fooled.
I figured out it was 3D in that scene with Shadow and Maria in front of the window. It just felt like there were too many different angles of the characters for them to be 2D animated, but I was impressed with how good it looked.
You need to see many Sonic games Intro and cinematic cutscenes.
Many have crazy good animations and iconic moments.
I don't think I realized until like halfway through that it was 3D. Such gorgeous work.
Trigun Stampede anime does the face morphing similar to how they do Maria’s face from front to profile and definitely a show I’d love to see you analyze too. This one was a great watch as always!!
if Sega ever decided to work on a Sonic Fighting game, what I wouldn't give to see ArcSys and the Sonic animation team work together
Wow. This was an amazing video! I laughed out loud at the model going ragdoll when the fight scene begins lmao
Sonic Team finally has a budget :,)
I am very curious on your input of part 3 of this. Specifically Shadows facial animations in a certain part of the video (which I will not spoil, but you'll know what I'm talking about). I want to know how they managed to put so much emotion onto his face, if it was 2D or 3D animated. I'm pretty sure it was 3D, but I can't be sure.
I figured the whole thing was 3D, so I was surprised when you pointed out Maria and the professor being 2D. Now I have to go back and rewatch the other parts to see if I can find more 2D.
in sonic games they made two different mouths one for straight and one for side view maybe they are using the same system. cause you can have a simple mesh that billboards and flipbooks to show human mouths but shadow has consistent enough to be two mouth system.
Please do all 3 parts! This was so insightful.
Subscription well earned! Can’t wait for more!
5:03 they've done that side mouth thing in every sonic game since 06
Even Sonic Boom?
@@spaceboyctstudios2934 mainline sonic game
I dont think I ever seen something animated that conbinds 2D and 3D in a way like this, its done in such unique way that I would love to learn myself if I end up making something like this in blender one day
I'm so glad you broke these down, it looks beautiful!
Holy shit videos uploading frequently?
LESGO?
"I'm allgeric to talent" 15:31
real
I literally love this its so amazing AAAAAA
We NEED a Sonic movie written by the IDW team and done in this animation style. The money they would make. I'd wish for a series but the money they'd have to dunk into it is a not-sega price.
I never seen a fresh sonic game this good.
The animation is so good, the gameplay, the music.
They actually killed it.
It’s almost like a dream
It happened twice💀 9:32
I’m a 3D animator as well I didn’t realize it was 3D until some parts in episode 2. It’s crazy how well they kept the 2D look and feel.
it took me like three watchthroughs to realize this is mostly 3D. Which is impressive because normally I hate 3D pretending to be 2D. Too many studios use it as a cop-out rather than a stylistic choice.
Also there is a full 14 minute video with all three parts of this series already up that you should definitely check out. Its so good.
Wow! I had noticed all the moments it looked 3d and kept trying to figure out if it was 2d that looks 3d or 3d that looks 2d. But you’re saying it’s both, being primarily 3d. That’s so cool! P.s. I know nothing about animation really except what I’ve observed so 😅 Thanks for this knowledge!
Loved the video @professorGoo! Can't wait for the next video man! Bro, Shadow is Faster than Sonic Confirmed LMAO! We need to see the whole story at this point because this is too good to just be a One time thing!
Also, if you want some more Animations to check out, I'd Recommend No Tables' "Genshin Ranked" and "Ranked Daycare" as well as Subutai's "Fight at the Museum". No Tables and Subutai do amazing Animations for Genshin Impact and occasionally will work together on some Animations.
Let me know what you think about this and I'll catch you in your next video man!
After so many years RWBY's stlye is finally understood, RWBY itself may never get here but im glad others can
I could tell by looking at it closely that it was 3D, but I don’t care, because IT LOOKS SO FREAKING GOOD!!!…OMG, I LOVE IT SO MUCH! I swear, this is inspiring me to make something look as cool as this, it’s so beautiful!!
2:13
**looks at my knuckles**
**looks back at screen**
**looks at my knuckles again**
*D:*
Can we just say thank god for animators 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 the hard work, time, and creativity is outstanding truly 💎
3:49 it might be using a similar system to Sonic Unleashed's Side mouth system where the game (or in this case animation software) tracks the cameras position and automatically switches the mouth from one side of sonics face to the other to maintain the "side mouth" look.
This animation is amazing and so interesting to see how it was made and what parts are 2d and 3d
I have come across a bunch of 3D MMD models that actually can replicate the 2D mouth placement almost 1:1 by having the mouth be its own object from the head and just a very very tiny bit shifted forward to avoid clipping, the mouth gets positioned and shaped using it’s own shapekey group.
It is less useful for realtime use but insanely great with 3D models replicating 2D looks.
What person was confused about this being 3D? 🤨
It is 3d, and it's obvious. It still looks amazing, that doesn't take away from the quality and sheer ability they had in terms of making it look amazing, but it is still extremely clearly 3D. It's touched up with 2D and other such stylistic material I'm sure, but they clearly use 3D models as a base at the very least.
Personally, I think people have too much hate for 3D art in terms of animations that are trying to look like they have a 2d style. You hear about this complaint quite a bit with anime, but it doesn't look bad, people are just piggy because they want it to look more 2D than it actually is. It's called a different style, it still works, and they proved here it can work amazingly.
I would believe you. (Only at intro rn) I believe it’s 3D and 2D because of this one method. I once saw an MLP movie (unofficial/fanmade) on TH-cam and which has BOTH 3D AND 2D, definitely cooooool!!! But if that’s not the case, then it’s still flippin’ cool and pretty.
2:55 Her head would not touch the ground, shadow has a hand behind her neck. He's so GOD DAMN COOL 😭😭
the 3d vtuber tracking looks so smooth
I had an idea for how to potentially adjust an anime face for a side view using a rig, but haven't experimented with it enough to make it work in practice. But the idea would be to bind one entire side of their face to a floating handle bone, and bind that handle bone to the head bone as an intermediate controller and parent to the eye, cheek helpers, side of the mouth, etc. and repeat the same on the other side. So you kind of have both sides of the face weighted and rigged to open outwards from the middle like a book, and when you turn the camera, you can adjust the entire side of the face plus the eye and lips to get a better angle. The issue is that it would cause lots of potential weirdness with the hairline and jaw/neck area, but perhaps it could work with sharp and simple characters.
0:38 yes it does...
probably because you already know its 3d
Ohhh this is actually cool. Subscribed
If I were to be correct, Dark Beginnings is actually animated in a 2.5D Format, seeing how the Models look more Cartoonish in Style but has more Depths like a 3D Model
Honest to god, I didn’t know it was 3D until like the second part of the series. Obviously, there were some 3D assets like the background and some objects, but the characters almost never seems like 3D animation. It's insane how well they replicated 2D animation.
My guess for the mouth (at least how I've done it)is a driver that transitions between shape keys, a mouth that looks good from the front and a mouth that looks good from the side, depending on the angle difference between the head and the camera. So if the camera is in front you get one mouth, if the camera is at the side you get another.
HEY ITS YOU HAVENT WATCHED YOU IN AGES AMAZING
honestly do really like the odd hint of 3D, sorta reminds me of those kids book adaptions dreamworks made like captain underpants, it has the smoothness of 3D but with the style and visual clarity of 2D, and unlike those movies where it's very obviously playing homage to the source materials style, this looks very much like a modern anime asthetic, it looks 2D but has so much more depth, it's a really nice effect.
Great video, just wanted to say that. I think you should react to the Knuckles Prologue animation to Sonic Frontiers next. The animation there is also BEAUTIFUL.
And obviously watch the other 2 episodes of this dark beginnings prologue lol
I didn't realize it was 3D until the shot of Omega grinding and shooting in episode 3
I can't help but think of the sonic fandub when I see the Eggman face in the sky 😅😂 but yeah man what a cool breakdown video
I want someone to send this guy some sprite animations.
THAT IS SUCH A GOOD EXAMPLE
Nah, I could tell since the trailers that it was 3D. A very well done 3D, but I noticed it right away.
Maybe because I'm an 2D animator too, but who knows xD
I was actually convinced this was 2D the first time watching. Feels good to be a Sonic fan rn.
I had no idea the entire thing was 3D. I thought some of it was 3D and some of it was 2D.
顔のパーツが角度によって移動するシステムを使っている可能性もある。 実際にそのシステムがExpelled from Paradiseというアニメで使用されている。
I still dont know how we haven't gotten a new Sonic Anime
15:31 Bless you.
I knew it was 3D from the beginning, but that's because I watched the series trailer which had some of the more obvious "tell" shots in it. They did a really good job though of blending those with 2D elements, the style is so close that when they swap to actual 2D it doesn't feel jarring, it all works together nicely.
I would love to see your take on Blue Eye Samurai
About Shadow's mouth well, besides characters proportions and eyes, the mouth was and kinda still is a thing that can't considered stable even in games they shifting it according to camera movements in sonic frontiers or in dream team where the mouth moves al over the place during cutscenes
The next two episodes are just as fire as this one so you won't be disappointed
From the trailers I had thought 3D models were just used for specific shots. Never did I think it was for pretty much 90% of the show.
i am glad you did this, I was really wowed by the 3d quality overall sonic animation came a long way. Haha yeah Marias hair is the first dead give away of this being mostly 3d animation. 😂
I am wondering if eyelight is post comp or a separated layer where you can change it.
I have seen people morph the head entirely to give side view a 2d look I am wondering if they are doing that. Its a very heavy rig.
I was so focused on shadow that I never notice maria is 3d
I feel like you'd have had more to say about the choreography if you knew about Emerl's ability to copy moves and abilities.
The fight scene in the second episode of this series is gonna be alot fun to react. 😆
Holy shit THE JETS ON HIS FUCKING SHOES SHOOT OUT LESS FLAMES ON THE ARC THAN ON EARTH.
The attention to detail is ridiculous.
I never knew how much they mixed in 3D with 2D in this.
They took it down a few years ago but, you should check out how Guilty Gear Strive animated its models. Absolutely gorgeous.
Please watch Murder Drones you can definitely notice jumps in quality in each episode and the action cannot be understated.
They included an animatic in the game for this short.