I haven't seen the video yet but the art you used in the thumbnail is by satoshi okano, I recommend you read the article "The Modern Sonic Evolution: Satoshi Okano & His Influence To The Series" for more information!!
@@DannoTheArtist Actually, a good amount of the art in Sonic Adventure 1 isn't made by Uekawa, or at least not by Uekawa alone, Okano had a lot of influence on the Sonic Adventure art and made a lot of pieces for that game 1:54 That art you used right here at this exact moment for example? That was also made by Satoshi Okano, with Yuji Uekawa's iconic lineart, shading and rendering, for some reason Okano just isn't as popular as Uekawa and often is uncredited by people when talking about his influence and work in Sonic Adventure 1, which is a shame, both Uekawa and Okano are awesome for what they've done People mostly recognize his art from the Saturn Era, like the one you used in the thumbnail that is the cover for the japanese version of Sonic 3D Blast (also used in here 1:35), and also his promotional art for the Saturn Era, that iconic artwork of Sonic with some different shoes with a lightining bolt on the side and some kind of cyclop glasses on his head (that one: 1:29), while Uekawa is both known for his artworks in Adventure 1 and his artworks in Sonic Jam, which has that classic iconic soft shading that is present in the other artworks from the classic era like the classic JP boxarts for Sonic 1, 2 and 3 or all the Screensaver artworks from Harmony and the Callendars, which are made by a lot of different artists, in which both Uekawa artstyles are amazing just like Okano's work
It’s really crazy how they just don’t use Uwekawa’s art for the games anymore. They have him making art on the Sonic Channel website every month and it’s all fantastic. He even changes his art style a bit with each new batch. So clearly he isn’t incapable of making new art for the series. I honestly would love to see if he was appointed as the art director for the next game or the alleged Sonic Heroes remake. It would be such a breath of fresh air
The modern renders of Sonic are so stiff, if Sega ever makes new Sonic models i think it would be a neat idea to go back to the 3d Dreamcast artwork for Sonic adventure (not DX) and use that as a base to make more up to date models while still looking stylish and appealing.
DX models are much superior. They don't have the texture which makes the characters look like they are made out of felt nor do they have gigantic foreheads which were never on any artwork and don't look good at all. The Dreamcast Sonic model is just the prototype's Classic Sonic model whose head they swapped to have longer quils, so really Dreamcast could make separated fingers for the hands as Adventure 2 proves, they were just using Saturn era models. Adventure 2 models also look ugly with their square fingers and jerky mocap animations, but at least they are closer to the artwork and aren't textured like toys. Heroes-Shadow models would be the best if they didn't lack so much detail from texturing to the colour pallet and weren't so shiny, but still they are an improvement over Adventure 1 and 2 original models but loose to DX ones. I'd even say DX still has my favourite character models but that could be nostalgia talking, as it must be for you to think original models looked remotely good.
@@genyakozlov1316 I'm not letting nostalgia get to me, because i've never played the adventure games as a kid and i'm also not talking about the in-game models, I'm just saying that the 3D promotional images that have Sonic with Eggman, Knuckles and Amy look really good to me and i think they could be used as a base or blueprint to work off of mainly because i think the 3D model's design is super solid and really gets across Sonic's cool attitude and could look really amazing and expressive if they refine it properly.
@genyakozlov1316 fair enough, but I greatly disagree lol SA2 models ain't perfect, but I also think it has to do with how their animated, plus how they're rendered of course. I just am not a fan of the glossy look of DX models 😂
Your right me the early 2000s was just the peak era of the Sonic franchise but also the peak era of Sonic art. That adventure one pose is iconic as soon as you see you know where it came from
One thing to note for the reason behind all the "wacky" poses for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy for SA1, is because they were going for a spinning disc-like CD-style-pose. Paste the artwork into a CD disc and you'll see what I mean.
I adore the spriteart of the Advance trilogy as I've always felt that those games came the closest to replicating Uekawa's sharp and dynamic style in-game. Even as a kid, I recognized that the faithfulness of the sprites were something special. Uekawa's work really made the cover of every game catch my attention to the point where I recall being in awe of Sonic Advance 2's cover despite me not even owning a gaming console yet at that point during my childhood. The game itself didn't matter to me yet, I just liked admiring the cover art.
To be honest, I think Uekawa's best work on Sonic which a lot of people really sleep on is his early work on Sonic Jam and Sonic R. His rendition of Sonic in those games is my personal peak om terms of aesthetics. He keeps the iconic sleekness of the Classic designs, but tweaks them to be cooler and more dynamic. Uekawa's Classic Sonic is deep blue, has some really wacky and dynamic poses and strong curves in his design. Satoshi Okano's art from the same time is also really slept on. I wish we got to see more of that style. Uekawa's drawn Classic Sonic again since, but he doesn't draw that design in the same way at all anymore, it looks much more like the generic Generations model.
i'm happy to see that i'm not the only one that really enjoys the yuji uekawa artstyle, it's what i think of when i think of the sonic franchise. simple and elegant yet sharp and cool.
I LOVE ANALYSIS VIDEOS LIKE THESE MAN! super fun watch. Literally took the words outta my mouth, Uekawa's art sorta lost bits of soul when you look at his more recent art.
i think its interesting how uekawa himslef seems to have moved on from that art style and yet the fans will never let it go. fans are still making art of the newer characters in that same art style, it's just that iconic and cool. i think i might learn how to replicate it myself
Great video, man! Your style is great, and i love that stylistic thumbnail! The art at 1:35 was actually done by Satoshi Okano, who did the artwork for Sonic Jam & the Japanese version of Sonic 3D blast, the art you used in the thumbnail! There's just something about those artwork that I just love, no idea why as that era was wayy before my time. As the pinned comment suggest, I'd recommend reading the article on Okano and his style. He tends to go under the radar compared to Uekawa. Keep up the work, tho!
Thankfully the Japanese Sonic Channel still gets new Uekawa art on a monthly basis, which really makes me wonder: where is that for the English side? Why don't they share that on the English twitter, instead of the lame thrown together in under five minutes - and forgotten even faster - memes.
They kinda do that sometimes, it even happens in all accounts when it does happen, like the Fast Friends Forever campain, it had a lot of cool comics made by talented artists
It bothers me endlessly that Sega insists on using safe, stale, sometimes ugly looking 3D renders for all the branding and box art when Yuji Uekawa, Hideaki Moriya (the Riders guy) and other talented 2D artists still work at the company, relegated to the background when they could help restore the style the series desperately needs
Just found your channel in my recommended and this video has been a great outlook on all of Yuji Uekawa’s works. I absolutely love the art style and I would even say it’s as iconic to Sonic as is Akira Toriyama’s style to Dragon Ball, RIP to a Legend, he really changed the world, impacted and influenced a lot of the stuff we love including Sonic with his Super Form.
Everyone's brought up the art in the thumbnail being Okano's artwork, but I think it's also worth mentioning that he also did the sketches for the Adventure 1 artwork while Uekawa did the lineart, coloring, and shading for them. And the different Sonic redesigns at 1:31 are made by a different artist for each design, including Naoto Oshima for #3. Correcting misinfo aside, this is a pretty good video talking about how Uekawa's artwork became less prominent throughout the years. I think we can all agree that the current Sonic model just needs to be replaced for an actually good one, but having his artwork on the covers again is also something that would be nice to see, although I didn't really think about that until you brought it up. Lots of neat points brought up. Also, at 6:15, only now do I realize that besides the colors, all he did was change the head. ;-;
i appreciate you not saying uekawa "fell off" or anything like that, i think he still puts out a lot of banger art and just recently people even said they prefer it over his 2000s art due to the more jagged edges and clean lineart, but thats all opinions i wouldnt say uekawa ever lost it though, his modern art is still great, just has to adhere to sega's design guidelines to match the 3D model, which isn't his fault im surprised you didnt mention the frontiers renders, those ones in particular felt kind of like they were going back to the wii era, to me anyways
Yeah I wouldn't really diss his art nowadays, I still love his work! But yeah the Frontiers render isn't much to speak of for me personally, but I think it's because they don't do much other than the funny dance animation when he gets a chaos Emerald. That shits awesome.
Is it really true that Sega or Sonic Team put guidelines in place for artists and they have to match the 3D model or is that just speculation? That's what I've assumed for a while, and it really pisses me off. The artists didn't have any fucking guidelines in the 90s and were free to express themselves. If any guidelines should be put in place it should be for the 3D modelers. Sonic has always looked great in 2D art, and his look in-game was always playing catch-up. His model STILL looks awful and now it's encroaching on the 2D art? That's so ass-backwards.
1:36 Like many mostly obscure or knit-picky little details about the 90's, I kinds wanna see aspects of this era of his art style come back. Those punk rockish thick lines and the wild, devil may care attitude, with a hint of friendly playful whimsy really strike me as fun and dynamic
Gonna say something I know nobody will agree with, but the design peaked with 06. He looked older, a little more mature, and he rocked freaking Air Forces.
@@DannoTheArtist much appreciated. And I'm not just limiting this to just Sonic. Granted, I personally would change up certain characters movesets but, design wise? (with some exception to Eggman) Definitely it's the closest then I would see Sonic and crew a little more grown and tackling heavier and darker issue like in the Archie Comic run.
It's a little disappointing hear you talk about Uekawa so much in this while completely leaving out any mention of the ACTUAL man behind this style, Satoshi Okano. (Yes, I know the pinned comment also mentioned this, but I think he deserves more credit anyway). As far as I'm aware, the majority of Uekawa's works for Adventure aren't really *his* works, Okano did the original art while Uekawa remade them with modern designs and his style of rendering. I don't think it was until the 2000s that Uekawa actually made the works himself.
Amazing video, completely agreed The earlier 2d sonic art styles are something that really formed my art growth. Theres just something so cool ABOUT the graffiti esque vibe of them. One thing i miss in the later uekawa work, however, is this sense of flow... if you take the time to look at every adventure 1 art piece, you'll notice that most of the poses follow the shape of a spiral! I always really digged that. edit: I was not awake enough, my ass making typos and writing nonesense
Honestly, Yuji Uekawa’s SA1 and SA2 artworks, along side with Archie/IDW Comics artwork by Tracy Yardley are my key inspiration to me, to this day. 👏 Also, Sonic’s model from Brawl is still my favourite. It’s more of a personal preference, but the mouth was on centre on his face and his emotions are much more expressive, than the later games. Key compare? The iconic "I’m waaaaating" animation, in Brawl, he shows his annoyance at the player, while in next games, he just smiling. But again not that next versions are bad, just the lack of these details.
Hey. I know I am late to this, and I am an American speaking about European Sonic Comics, Fleetway Sonic. A masterful twist on making Sonic evil. It exists longer than Dark Sonic. And Sonic Frontiers: Final Horizon revealed to us a combination of both Dark Sonic and Fleetway Sonic when he was going up against The End. It wasn’t a more evil Sonic and also had a short appearance like Dark Sonic. How we go about seeing exactly that 3rd new form can be up for debate, but we got both Dark Sonic and Fleetway Sonic in the canon and Sega is going about a new twist on both of them as we speak.
You forgot the Saturn and Sega arcade models, 3 dimensional Sonic models didn't start in 1998, they started when the Saturn came out. And classic Sonic was the first to be on box art.
They weren't the highlight of the video, plus I showed the original classic illustrations and quite literally showed the art of the first game. The point of the video is showing off Uekawas art and how it changed from being tied to Sonic's identity, and now it's lost that sadly. Maybe I need to do a CLASSIC RENDER video next time tho 😈
@@DannoTheArtist Not really. I knew what you meant before you explained it, but it wasn’t really compatible imo. I just thought it was funny because in my head I pictured you interrupting yourself and going “well… okay. He didn’t really change. But Sonic did!” lol I saw the Mario changes as being kinda like Sonic Unleashed - Present. Micro adjustments but same design and art style.
There's something about Uekawa's art that other artists can't quite capture. This isn't to say they are bad. But Uekawa has a certain flair to them which makes them stand out. He captures the feeling of Sonic so well.
Things have been the same for way too long, to the point of where im kind of scared of any changes happening any time soon. Marza sonic is just too iconic, man.
That's a pretty valid point. I actually love their art! I think it's a good fit for the new generation of Sonic fans, but even then sadly I don't think we'll ever have a Karasuno piece be the cover art for a new game 🫤 but if we did tho... We'd be so back.
5:10 he looks like Jelly, even more jelly then how Chaos looks like, i guess they mispelled “Edgy” for “Jelly.”, 6:27 the difference here is quite dissapointing, they made his blue a little darker, his blue at the first place was Cool or Good, and they shortened his Quills, i see this tradition, over and over! Frontiers, forces, and Now this?! What now the sonic movie design?
I don't think the DX shiny models are completely bad, they just have some kinks to iron out. The shiny aspect I don't prefer but I don't mind it in that art style since everything is shiny. I saw it as a metallic color kinda like what you'd expect from Super Sonic. SA2's model is my favorite. I have others that I like as much as well that are probably more definitive Sonic but SA2 is pretty definitive of the Adventure/Modern Sonic for me that they come close to once in a while but ultimately never reach again. It looks like the Uekwawa art style but as a 3D model and I feel like SA3 could have evolved the model in that direction even more before Heroes started making these adjustments in a different directly that, in their credit, at least did evolve from Heroes to Shadow to the Olympic titles kinda to Unleashed and onward. Like you look at the 3D renders in Shadow The Hedgehog artwork and they look pretty much like they look today just less clean art than now. And they've refined some of the shapes to their muzzles and anatomy in the past decade but same overall design. But that said, while the Heroes renders did clearly try to bring over some Adventure-esque stlye into their redesigns, it's just... idk... I hate the Heroes looks. They look generic and awkwardly positioned, their shine looks more like them being some kind of plastic or shiny rubber, they look like bobble heads. There's one render of Sonic from Heroes running towards the camera at an angle I like. But like... why does the edge of Sonic's eye stop in the middle of his cheen rather than rolling into the groove like it used to? Now it's always like that in modern games. lol I didn't really like Sonic's face again til Riders where the other exaggerated features were products of that seriers' style on purpose. 06 Had some decent renders more so decent than the in-game model. Still like SA2 more though.
"life and death of Yuji Uekawa artstyle" shows in the thumbnail a drawing he did not make, bruh edit: why yall think Satoshi Okano's art is Yuji Uekawa's art? Okano did the sketches for the first adventure, Uekawa just clean up and did the colors, why yall don't search?
See I think Sega should take elements from other Sonic models/art styles to create a new model. Taking inspiration from the Uekawa, Sonic 06 and even sonic prime models to create a new, fresher take on the character would work great. Sonic is silly, but has an edge to him, and I think Sega has stopped leaning into that edgy side of him in regards to his model. But yeah, I’ve seen a lot of people say that sonic needs a new model and I agree. His current one is iconic, but kinda outdated.
I agree, the (knuckles) just made me laugh for some reason. It made me think like stupid is knuckles or something 😂😭 but yeah I agree. I really dislike how knuckles looks. His head shape is so flat he looks like he has no brain 🤯
Honestly I’m ok with the current 3D models, they themselves aren’t bad they just aren’t posed and lite in a good way. If SEGA would release models that use better posing and lighting I can almost guarantee they wouldn’t be nearly as hated as they are. As far uekawa’s art goes I personally prefer his newer stuff and his work on adventure 1, I just like how saturated and bright the colors are as opposed to his more desaturated work. And as iconic as he is and how fantastic his art is, I’d personally want someone new to make box art for sonic games. Like bringing back Hideaki Moriya to do the art and repurposing the sonic riders art style, since it doesn’t look like riders will come back any time soon.
RHANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THA K YOU THANK YOU THA K YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING THE WII ERA RENDERSS I LOVE SONIC'S BRAWL MODEL SOOOOO MUCH
Even as a little child who just discovered sonic, I still didn’t like the new render. 😩 It’s so stiff. I grew up with sonic heroes which, I might sound biased, but it looks really neat for a render. The stylization is still there. I also like the 06 model, it’s a little different BUT he still looks badass😎 The new models are stiff and basic. zero personality. :( I really hope they change that.
Please do more research next time you make a video. When Sonic Team was redesigning Sonic for SA1, they held an internal competition between various artists, the concept art you showed at 1:58 are some of the results of that. All 4 are drawn by different artists, only the top right was actually by Uekawa. The artwork in Sonic Adventure were collaborations Uekawa and Satoshi Okano. He did the sketches for most of them which is where that "noodly" look comes from and is why SA2s art is more "streamlined" since those were drawn by uekawa himself. Okano was also the one behind the classic artworks for Sonic Jam and Sonic 3D Blast, whos art you used in the thumbnail, WHICH YOU STILL HAVENT CHANGED AFTER BEING CORRECTED ALREADY. This is honestly disrespectfull to both artists. Okano already has to deal with being confused for Uekawa all the time. You kept using the wrong art when talking about Uekawas evolution in the 2000s as well, using sonic advance 3 art when talking about sonic rush, etc. Sorry for the angry comment but this video is really spreading misinformation.
I haven't seen the video yet but the art you used in the thumbnail is by satoshi okano, I recommend you read the article "The Modern Sonic Evolution: Satoshi Okano & His Influence To The Series" for more information!!
Wow thank you! I'm kind of embarrassed cause everywhere I read kept populating it as Uekawas art 🤦🏽
@@DannoTheArtist easy mistake to make, I know I did, given google said it was Uekawa. But now we know, and knowing is half the battle.
Damn str8 😈 @DemonDethchase
@@DannoTheArtist Actually, a good amount of the art in Sonic Adventure 1 isn't made by Uekawa, or at least not by Uekawa alone, Okano had a lot of influence on the Sonic Adventure art and made a lot of pieces for that game
1:54 That art you used right here at this exact moment for example? That was also made by Satoshi Okano, with Yuji Uekawa's iconic lineart, shading and rendering, for some reason Okano just isn't as popular as Uekawa and often is uncredited by people when talking about his influence and work in Sonic Adventure 1, which is a shame, both Uekawa and Okano are awesome for what they've done
People mostly recognize his art from the Saturn Era, like the one you used in the thumbnail that is the cover for the japanese version of Sonic 3D Blast (also used in here 1:35), and also his promotional art for the Saturn Era, that iconic artwork of Sonic with some different shoes with a lightining bolt on the side and some kind of cyclop glasses on his head (that one: 1:29), while Uekawa is both known for his artworks in Adventure 1 and his artworks in Sonic Jam, which has that classic iconic soft shading that is present in the other artworks from the classic era like the classic JP boxarts for Sonic 1, 2 and 3 or all the Screensaver artworks from Harmony and the Callendars, which are made by a lot of different artists, in which both Uekawa artstyles are amazing just like Okano's work
@@DannoTheArtistyou mean “propagating”?
It’s really crazy how they just don’t use Uwekawa’s art for the games anymore. They have him making art on the Sonic Channel website every month and it’s all fantastic. He even changes his art style a bit with each new batch. So clearly he isn’t incapable of making new art for the series. I honestly would love to see if he was appointed as the art director for the next game or the alleged Sonic Heroes remake. It would be such a breath of fresh air
I absolutely agree. He hasn't had a direct art role in the series since Rush Adventure! He hasn't even been a "Character Supervisor" since 2016 😞
The modern renders of Sonic are so stiff, if Sega ever makes new Sonic models i think it would be a neat idea to go back to the 3d Dreamcast artwork for Sonic adventure (not DX) and use that as a base to make more up to date models while still looking stylish and appealing.
DX models are much superior. They don't have the texture which makes the characters look like they are made out of felt nor do they have gigantic foreheads which were never on any artwork and don't look good at all.
The Dreamcast Sonic model is just the prototype's Classic Sonic model whose head they swapped to have longer quils, so really Dreamcast could make separated fingers for the hands as Adventure 2 proves, they were just using Saturn era models.
Adventure 2 models also look ugly with their square fingers and jerky mocap animations, but at least they are closer to the artwork and aren't textured like toys.
Heroes-Shadow models would be the best if they didn't lack so much detail from texturing to the colour pallet and weren't so shiny, but still they are an improvement over Adventure 1 and 2 original models but loose to DX ones.
I'd even say DX still has my favourite character models but that could be nostalgia talking, as it must be for you to think original models looked remotely good.
@@genyakozlov1316 I'm not letting nostalgia get to me, because i've never played the adventure games as a kid and i'm also not talking about the in-game models, I'm just saying that the 3D promotional images that have Sonic with Eggman, Knuckles and Amy look really good to me and i think they could be used as a base or blueprint to work off of mainly because i think the 3D model's design is super solid and really gets across Sonic's cool attitude and could look really amazing and expressive if they refine it properly.
@genyakozlov1316 fair enough, but I greatly disagree lol SA2 models ain't perfect, but I also think it has to do with how their animated, plus how they're rendered of course. I just am not a fan of the glossy look of DX models 😂
@@DannoTheArtist A lot of people don't like those glossy modelsm but if you look at the art work, Sonic is pretty shiny.
Good news: pretty sure the director of frontiers said in the next mainline game there will be new models, so hopefully they get it right this time
Your right me the early 2000s was just the peak era of the Sonic franchise but also the peak era of Sonic art. That adventure one pose is iconic as soon as you see you know where it came from
One thing to note for the reason behind all the "wacky" poses for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy for SA1, is because they were going for a spinning disc-like CD-style-pose.
Paste the artwork into a CD disc and you'll see what I mean.
I adore the spriteart of the Advance trilogy as I've always felt that those games came the closest to replicating Uekawa's sharp and dynamic style in-game. Even as a kid, I recognized that the faithfulness of the sprites were something special.
Uekawa's work really made the cover of every game catch my attention to the point where I recall being in awe of Sonic Advance 2's cover despite me not even owning a gaming console yet at that point during my childhood. The game itself didn't matter to me yet, I just liked admiring the cover art.
Holy this is a great video, loved the topic and style, nice job!
ITS THAT ONE GUY THAT ONE WHO MAKES FUNNY TOP TENS AND COVERS.
Thank you!!
To be honest, I think Uekawa's best work on Sonic which a lot of people really sleep on is his early work on Sonic Jam and Sonic R.
His rendition of Sonic in those games is my personal peak om terms of aesthetics. He keeps the iconic sleekness of the Classic designs, but tweaks them to be cooler and more dynamic. Uekawa's Classic Sonic is deep blue, has some really wacky and dynamic poses and strong curves in his design. Satoshi Okano's art from the same time is also really slept on.
I wish we got to see more of that style. Uekawa's drawn Classic Sonic again since, but he doesn't draw that design in the same way at all anymore, it looks much more like the generic Generations model.
i'm happy to see that i'm not the only one that really enjoys the yuji uekawa artstyle, it's what i think of when i think of the sonic franchise. simple and elegant yet sharp and cool.
I LOVE ANALYSIS VIDEOS LIKE THESE MAN! super fun watch. Literally took the words outta my mouth, Uekawa's art sorta lost bits of soul when you look at his more recent art.
I know 🥺😭
i think its interesting how uekawa himslef seems to have moved on from that art style and yet the fans will never let it go. fans are still making art of the newer characters in that same art style, it's just that iconic and cool. i think i might learn how to replicate it myself
It was fun learning to replicate the style! Check out Chaomix's video on it, it's how he makes all his thumbnails
Great video, man! Your style is great, and i love that stylistic thumbnail! The art at 1:35 was actually done by Satoshi Okano, who did the artwork for Sonic Jam & the Japanese version of Sonic 3D blast, the art you used in the thumbnail! There's just something about those artwork that I just love, no idea why as that era was wayy before my time.
As the pinned comment suggest, I'd recommend reading the article on Okano and his style. He tends to go under the radar compared to Uekawa. Keep up the work, tho!
I definitely will! Glad that I could end up learning something from you guys! Thank you!!
“Surely every video analysis for Sonic franchise has been made”
*this video* 😸
Thankfully the Japanese Sonic Channel still gets new Uekawa art on a monthly basis, which really makes me wonder: where is that for the English side? Why don't they share that on the English twitter, instead of the lame thrown together in under five minutes - and forgotten even faster - memes.
They kinda do that sometimes, it even happens in all accounts when it does happen, like the Fast Friends Forever campain, it had a lot of cool comics made by talented artists
Yui Karusono does some Sonic Channel stuff too
It bothers me endlessly that Sega insists on using safe, stale, sometimes ugly looking 3D renders for all the branding and box art when Yuji Uekawa, Hideaki Moriya (the Riders guy) and other talented 2D artists still work at the company, relegated to the background when they could help restore the style the series desperately needs
Just found your channel in my recommended and this video has been a great outlook on all of Yuji Uekawa’s works. I absolutely love the art style and I would even say it’s as iconic to Sonic as is Akira Toriyama’s style to Dragon Ball, RIP to a Legend, he really changed the world, impacted and influenced a lot of the stuff we love including Sonic with his Super Form.
Everyone's brought up the art in the thumbnail being Okano's artwork, but I think it's also worth mentioning that he also did the sketches for the Adventure 1 artwork while Uekawa did the lineart, coloring, and shading for them. And the different Sonic redesigns at 1:31 are made by a different artist for each design, including Naoto Oshima for #3.
Correcting misinfo aside, this is a pretty good video talking about how Uekawa's artwork became less prominent throughout the years. I think we can all agree that the current Sonic model just needs to be replaced for an actually good one, but having his artwork on the covers again is also something that would be nice to see, although I didn't really think about that until you brought it up. Lots of neat points brought up.
Also, at 6:15, only now do I realize that besides the colors, all he did was change the head. ;-;
Yeah I prefer the heads proportions @ that 6 min mark. Also not ignoring your other points in the comment, all good points I just got nothing to say 😂
i appreciate you not saying uekawa "fell off" or anything like that, i think he still puts out a lot of banger art and just recently people even said they prefer it over his 2000s art due to the more jagged edges and clean lineart, but thats all opinions
i wouldnt say uekawa ever lost it though, his modern art is still great, just has to adhere to sega's design guidelines to match the 3D model, which isn't his fault
im surprised you didnt mention the frontiers renders, those ones in particular felt kind of like they were going back to the wii era, to me anyways
Yeah I wouldn't really diss his art nowadays, I still love his work! But yeah the Frontiers render isn't much to speak of for me personally, but I think it's because they don't do much other than the funny dance animation when he gets a chaos Emerald. That shits awesome.
Is it really true that Sega or Sonic Team put guidelines in place for artists and they have to match the 3D model or is that just speculation? That's what I've assumed for a while, and it really pisses me off. The artists didn't have any fucking guidelines in the 90s and were free to express themselves. If any guidelines should be put in place it should be for the 3D modelers. Sonic has always looked great in 2D art, and his look in-game was always playing catch-up. His model STILL looks awful and now it's encroaching on the 2D art? That's so ass-backwards.
@@mrbanks456 yeah this is why hate sega and sonic team kinda lost my trust
1:36 Like many mostly obscure or knit-picky little details about the 90's, I kinds wanna see aspects of this era of his art style come back. Those punk rockish thick lines and the wild, devil may care attitude, with a hint of friendly playful whimsy really strike me as fun and dynamic
The low number of views on your video is criminal. These are extremely well-made and researched analysis videos. Wishing you continued success 🙌
Thank you! I actually get that response from comments quite often recently so I really appreciate it!
Great video! Uekawas art was so peak bro. So much style. So cool. It was unique. Iconic! Idk why Sega doesnt want sonic to be cool anymore...
Gonna say something I know nobody will agree with, but the design peaked with 06. He looked older, a little more mature, and he rocked freaking Air Forces.
Thank you, Huey Freeman wit da Keyblade 💀 very cool. On the real tho I respect it. There's definitely a charm to that model!
I’m happy that there’s folks out there that love the 06 model. It’s my favourite style that the Sonic characters have been in
@@DannoTheArtist much appreciated. And I'm not just limiting this to just Sonic. Granted, I personally would change up certain characters movesets but, design wise? (with some exception to Eggman) Definitely it's the closest then I would see Sonic and crew a little more grown and tackling heavier and darker issue like in the Archie Comic run.
06 models of Characters are so underrated, reason why I love the game.
No he didn’t.
The "latina brazzer's film" got me dying a bit. lmao
Glad someone enjoyed LMFAO 😂
It's a little disappointing hear you talk about Uekawa so much in this while completely leaving out any mention of the ACTUAL man behind this style, Satoshi Okano. (Yes, I know the pinned comment also mentioned this, but I think he deserves more credit anyway). As far as I'm aware, the majority of Uekawa's works for Adventure aren't really *his* works, Okano did the original art while Uekawa remade them with modern designs and his style of rendering. I don't think it was until the 2000s that Uekawa actually made the works himself.
Amazing video, completely agreed
The earlier 2d sonic art styles are something that really formed my art growth.
Theres just something so cool ABOUT the graffiti esque vibe of them.
One thing i miss in the later uekawa work, however, is this sense of flow... if you take the time to look at every adventure 1 art piece, you'll notice that most of the poses follow the shape of a spiral! I always really digged that.
edit: I was not awake enough, my ass making typos and writing nonesense
No, but can we talk about how the Wii had the best (in-game) Sonic models???
shit, i feel like one of the few artists that draws Sonic without eyebrows most of the time 😅
Both SA1’s art and the 3D Blast art you used for the thumbnail were done by Satoshi Okano, that’s why they’re way looser than the rest of the series.
Yeeeeeep thank you
Honestly, Yuji Uekawa’s SA1 and SA2 artworks, along side with Archie/IDW Comics artwork by Tracy Yardley are my key inspiration to me, to this day. 👏
Also, Sonic’s model from Brawl is still my favourite. It’s more of a personal preference, but the mouth was on centre on his face and his emotions are much more expressive, than the later games. Key compare? The iconic "I’m waaaaating" animation, in Brawl, he shows his annoyance at the player, while in next games, he just smiling. But again not that next versions are bad, just the lack of these details.
Hey. I know I am late to this, and I am an American speaking about European Sonic Comics, Fleetway Sonic.
A masterful twist on making Sonic evil. It exists longer than Dark Sonic. And Sonic Frontiers: Final Horizon revealed to us a combination of both Dark Sonic and Fleetway Sonic when he was going up against The End.
It wasn’t a more evil Sonic and also had a short appearance like Dark Sonic.
How we go about seeing exactly that 3rd new form can be up for debate, but we got both Dark Sonic and Fleetway Sonic in the canon and Sega is going about a new twist on both of them as we speak.
You forgot the Saturn and Sega arcade models, 3 dimensional Sonic models didn't start in 1998, they started when the Saturn came out. And classic Sonic was the first to be on box art.
They weren't the highlight of the video, plus I showed the original classic illustrations and quite literally showed the art of the first game. The point of the video is showing off Uekawas art and how it changed from being tied to Sonic's identity, and now it's lost that sadly. Maybe I need to do a CLASSIC RENDER video next time tho 😈
@@DannoTheArtistyes because the classic Sonic art also has a style to them that even you forgot about, or not if you make a video about it.
"I mean look at Mario and how much he's changed in the last 10 years"
*proceeds to show Mario looking nearly identical in each render* lol
It's funny right, it's almost like I then explain myself further as to what I mean by the subtle adjustments lmao
@@DannoTheArtist Not really.
I knew what you meant before you explained it, but it wasn’t really compatible imo. I just thought it was funny because in my head I pictured you interrupting yourself and going “well… okay. He didn’t really change. But Sonic did!” lol
I saw the Mario changes as being kinda like Sonic Unleashed - Present. Micro adjustments but same design and art style.
There's something about Uekawa's art that other artists can't quite capture. This isn't to say they are bad. But Uekawa has a certain flair to them which makes them stand out. He captures the feeling of Sonic so well.
I miss Uekawa's old game cover art style ☹️. The one last seen in Sonic Rush Adventure.
OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!
sonic riders art is my fav
Things have been the same for way too long, to the point of where im kind of scared of any changes happening any time soon. Marza sonic is just too iconic, man.
5:37 The early sonic channel 3d model is pretty similar
Okay but... What about Yui Karasuno's artworks and renders? They're kind of an evolution of Uekawa's!
That's a pretty valid point. I actually love their art! I think it's a good fit for the new generation of Sonic fans, but even then sadly I don't think we'll ever have a Karasuno piece be the cover art for a new game 🫤 but if we did tho... We'd be so back.
It's not an evolution at all, really. It's her own style.
@@mrbanks456 Definitely. But it always felt like a more angular approach to Uekawa's artstyle
4:54
SQUIDWARD!!
The in-between design is best.
great vid
Thanks!!
"that shit was foolish" amazing line
5:10 he looks like Jelly, even more jelly then how Chaos looks like, i guess they mispelled “Edgy” for “Jelly.”, 6:27 the difference here is quite dissapointing, they made his blue a little darker, his blue at the first place was Cool or Good, and they shortened his Quills, i see this tradition, over and over! Frontiers, forces, and Now this?! What now the sonic movie design?
shiiii might do a school art project on this
What do you think about the Mario and Sonic related renders?
DANNO THE HARDEST!
11:12
I like the mohawk.
Yeah me too :')
I don't think the DX shiny models are completely bad, they just have some kinks to iron out. The shiny aspect I don't prefer but I don't mind it in that art style since everything is shiny. I saw it as a metallic color kinda like what you'd expect from Super Sonic.
SA2's model is my favorite. I have others that I like as much as well that are probably more definitive Sonic but SA2 is pretty definitive of the Adventure/Modern Sonic for me that they come close to once in a while but ultimately never reach again. It looks like the Uekwawa art style but as a 3D model and I feel like SA3 could have evolved the model in that direction even more before Heroes started making these adjustments in a different directly that, in their credit, at least did evolve from Heroes to Shadow to the Olympic titles kinda to Unleashed and onward. Like you look at the 3D renders in Shadow The Hedgehog artwork and they look pretty much like they look today just less clean art than now. And they've refined some of the shapes to their muzzles and anatomy in the past decade but same overall design. But that said, while the Heroes renders did clearly try to bring over some Adventure-esque stlye into their redesigns, it's just... idk... I hate the Heroes looks. They look generic and awkwardly positioned, their shine looks more like them being some kind of plastic or shiny rubber, they look like bobble heads. There's one render of Sonic from Heroes running towards the camera at an angle I like. But like... why does the edge of Sonic's eye stop in the middle of his cheen rather than rolling into the groove like it used to? Now it's always like that in modern games. lol
I didn't really like Sonic's face again til Riders where the other exaggerated features were products of that seriers' style on purpose.
06 Had some decent renders more so decent than the in-game model.
Still like SA2 more though.
what about sonic riders? i wish that stuck around for a bit longer i thought it was sick
I love it too, just wasn't an area of focus for me in this vid!
Kindof odd you didn't mention the Sonic Channel art
Bro really flexed on us with his drip and Sonic merch. Jealous ngl
I FORGOT TO ROCK THE SHADOW CHAIN HOLY SHIT
Idc what anyone say- Sonic 06 models were the ONES
The first design was not Yugi uwekawa it was someone else who did it for 3d blast
"life and death of Yuji Uekawa artstyle"
shows in the thumbnail a drawing he did not make, bruh
edit: why yall think Satoshi Okano's art is Yuji Uekawa's art? Okano did the sketches for the first adventure, Uekawa just clean up and did the colors, why yall don't search?
Already been stated in the pinned comment, thank you!
1:01 😳
See I think Sega should take elements from other Sonic models/art styles to create a new model. Taking inspiration from the Uekawa, Sonic 06 and even sonic prime models to create a new, fresher take on the character would work great. Sonic is silly, but has an edge to him, and I think Sega has stopped leaning into that edgy side of him in regards to his model. But yeah, I’ve seen a lot of people say that sonic needs a new model and I agree. His current one is iconic, but kinda outdated.
Damn
Ngl the current renders of sonic characters look so ugly to me , they also make make the characters look stupid (knuckles)
😂😂😂😂😂
I agree, the (knuckles) just made me laugh for some reason. It made me think like stupid is knuckles or something 😂😭 but yeah I agree. I really dislike how knuckles looks. His head shape is so flat he looks like he has no brain 🤯
Cole Spur
In my opinion the model closest to the art was the model used in Sega superstars
Honestly I’m ok with the current 3D models, they themselves aren’t bad they just aren’t posed and lite in a good way. If SEGA would release models that use better posing and lighting I can almost guarantee they wouldn’t be nearly as hated as they are.
As far uekawa’s art goes I personally prefer his newer stuff and his work on adventure 1, I just like how saturated and bright the colors are as opposed to his more desaturated work. And as iconic as he is and how fantastic his art is, I’d personally want someone new to make box art for sonic games. Like bringing back Hideaki Moriya to do the art and repurposing the sonic riders art style, since it doesn’t look like riders will come back any time soon.
Sonic X imho came pretty close to Uekawas designs more than anything
Maybe Sonic's quills were shorter so that we wouldn't be jealous. It was Sonic Forces. Our hedgehog OC's couldn't have such long, lovely, quills.
Sonic is the coolest character.... But his artwork now are so Bad... He look like a default character....
RHANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THA K YOU THANK YOU THA K YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING THE WII ERA RENDERSS I LOVE SONIC'S BRAWL MODEL SOOOOO MUCH
I literally jolted in happiness when you did
Hell yeah!!
Even as a little child who just discovered sonic, I still didn’t like the new render. 😩 It’s so stiff. I grew up with sonic heroes which, I might sound biased, but it looks really neat for a render. The stylization is still there. I also like the 06 model, it’s a little different BUT he still looks badass😎 The new models are stiff and basic. zero personality. :( I really hope they change that.
Please do more research next time you make a video. When Sonic Team was redesigning Sonic for SA1, they held an internal competition between various artists, the concept art you showed at 1:58 are some of the results of that. All 4 are drawn by different artists, only the top right was actually by Uekawa. The artwork in Sonic Adventure were collaborations Uekawa and Satoshi Okano. He did the sketches for most of them which is where that "noodly" look comes from and is why SA2s art is more "streamlined" since those were drawn by uekawa himself. Okano was also the one behind the classic artworks for Sonic Jam and Sonic 3D Blast, whos art you used in the thumbnail, WHICH YOU STILL HAVENT CHANGED AFTER BEING CORRECTED ALREADY. This is honestly disrespectfull to both artists. Okano already has to deal with being confused for Uekawa all the time. You kept using the wrong art when talking about Uekawas evolution in the 2000s as well, using sonic advance 3 art when talking about sonic rush, etc. Sorry for the angry comment but this video is really spreading misinformation.
Oh please dude I'm not changing the thumbnail and I'm not reading your long ass comment. Just dislike the video and go on with your day.
uekawa stole the artstyle i thought?
Took inspiration at first, refined his own after Adventure 1
Martin Jose Taylor John Martin David
THAT'S SATOSHI OKANO'S ART IN THE THUMBNAIL YOU FOOL
Chill
This is the worst Sonic Style.