A Nearly 3 Minute Peek of What’s to Come
Say what you will about Richard Kuta, but right now, his Sonic fan film is a touch farther along than Eddie Lebron’s.
He proved that by releasing a lengthy black and white animatic from the film this week. The scene is what will be fully animated for the public to preview, and to prove Kuta’s work in progress is the real deal. It is from the later portion of the film, and according to the attached description, this is just part of the action that will ensue:
…and so the badniks revolted against Robotnik thanks to Sally’s ingenuity. This gave Sonic and the freedom fighters the opportune time to race upstairs to rendezvous with Sally and finally leave Robotropolis with the Chaos Emeralds. Unfortunately, their victory is short lived when Robotnik swoops down in his hovering Eggomatic and swipes the Chaos Emeralds from the princess. Sonic enraged with vengeance, dashes towards Robotnik’s Eggomatic and is confronted by his metal adversary who protects his creator. A brawl ensues between machine and hedgehog while the rest of the freedom fighters watch in terror from the sidelines…
Kuta also opened a Youtube channel dedicated to the fan film, which includes a video progress report by Kuta himself. The channel link can be used to view that; the animatic, with no accompanying dialogue, is below. Your thoughts on the work are welcome in the comments section.
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Cool. Would like to see something beyond a slideshow of drawings though, like animations.
That.
Is.
So.
COOL!
I could almost HEAR the (not included) dialogue: Robotnik freaking out as his robots turn against him; Sonic’s stunned reaction to seeing Metal for the first time, then shouting to his friends to leave while HE handled Metal; Tails insisting on helping Sonic, but having to obey Sally and Bunnie; Sonic’s shock at having the wind knocked out of him by his metal look-alike.
At least I didn’t have to hear any swearing or innuendo.
He could have at least included the voices, but I guess he’s still mad that he doesn’t have Jaleel.
Was it wrong for me to assume animatics usually feature voices?
“Say what you will about Richard Kuta, but right now, his Sonic fan film is a touch farther along than Eddie Lebron’s.”
That is really a pointless statement, Kuta’s film has been in the works for YEARS, of course it should be farther along.
But I bet anything Lebron’s will be finished first and be of better quality.
@TheOGB
No, it’s not. An animatic of an animated project should include voices and maybe even some temp music (like this one does) and sound effects.
That video isn’t an animatic, it’s a bunch of storyboards put together. An animatic would have limited (sometimes even completed) animation with all the backgrounds and different cels together, but is usually always in black and white. That video is not.
I have not been the biggest supporter of this film, but I will say the introduction of Metal Sonic does look good. Granted it’s almost stolen completely from “Sonic Vs. Metal Sonic”, but it does look nice, and the character models look good as well.
Also is the title actually: “Sonic The Hedgehog: The Animated Fan Film”? If so, change it. That is a stupidly bad title.
It’s Sonic OVA expect lame.
…..
that fan film doesn’t not deserve to have such an awesome song…
I guess I’m the only one who doesn’t support this.
yeah yeah “if you don’t like it, don’t comment”. Whatever.
The old school Archie designs look even worse than normal here.
Fantastic.
“Say what you will about Richard Kuta, but right now, his Sonic fan film is a touch farther along than Eddie Lebron’s.”
That statement made me not read the rest of the article and go straight to the “animatic”.
But anyway, considering how Eddie’s plans for the Sonic Live Action/CGI fan film surfaced many years after Kuta’s, it’s no wonder Kuta’s movie is farther along.
“Sonic enraged with vengence”
Okay hold the fuck up. Seriously? Sonic enraged with vengence? That is COMPLETELY out of character, who the fuck is writing this?
I sure hope the drawings don’t reflect how the characters will look because if so only Jaleel White is going to be the good thing holding this POS up.
I’ve never been able to figure out why so many Sonic fans are so critical of this film. I for one applaud Richard Kuta’s determination: with all the shit he gets from the gang at Sonic Retro, I’d have quit a long time ago.
As for the animatic: Lookin’ good, but I can only hope he raises the funds necessary to really get this project off the ground.
@ Haru
“Okay hold the fuck up. Seriously? Sonic enraged with vengence? That is COMPLETELY out of character, who the fuck is writing this?”
Completely out of character for Sega Sonic? Sure. But you did know that he’s basing most of this off of SatAM…..right? Before you drop a load of F-bombs on the guy writing this, try familiarizing yourself with SatAM, and the earlier, darker storylines of the Archie comics that Richard Kuta is so obviously drawing inspiration from.
whoa whoa wait a minute, wheres is some 3-d graphics?
@Poochy:
“try familiarizing yourself with SatAM” Ohoooo so big man talks down to me like I haven’t seen SatAM and I would speak knowingly without knowing anything about the cartoon OR the comic.
I grew up watching the cartoon religiously. I have the boxset not even 6 feet away from me. I used to read the Archie Comics all the way up to comic #125. Enraged? Almost never. Angry/Impatient? Always. That’s how Sonic was a lot in that cartoon. But he also always played around with Robotnik; slinging insults and jabs in the cartoon even when he was facing a possibly impossible-to-escape trap like in “Game Guy” in Season 2.
So don’t assume next time.
@Haru: Why do you care so much in regards to a fan film of all things? It more than likely won’t be seeing the light of day anyways because of how ambitious it is, and how long it’s taking for anything to really come out of it.
@Haru
” Jaleel White is going to be the good thing holding this POS up.”
Eu, not even that. Wrong fan film; Jaleel White is voicing Sonic in Eddie Lebron’s fan film.
@Haru
My film is the one with Jaleel. There are currently two fan films in production, Richard Kuta’s and my own (Eddie Lebron).
… nope.
Pause the video at 0:56…. Then look to the left.
That is my reaction to the entire video itself.
It looks awesome. It will be funny to see two fan OVAs better than most official products
Is that from the people who made the Megaman one?
Some of the art here is good, and some of it is bad. But usually, animatics consist of more frame and sound fx/ voices.
@EEE
No, I directed the MegaMan film. This is a different Sonic fan film
Ed
that looks kinda shit
@ Haru
I find your hostility unwarranted. I did not only refer to the SatAM continuity, but Archie’s continuity as well—where Sonic had a battle to the death with Robotnik in issue #50. I think that classifies as enraged with vengeance. If Sonic were to fight Robotnik face-to-face in the SatAM continuity, how could he not be enraged with vengeance? The big fat guy robotocized Uncle Chuck and all but destroyed Sonic’s hometown of Mobotropolis.
If you’re such a SatAM fan, I’m surprised it never occurred to that Sonic might be the teensiest bit miffed at Robuttnik for all the pain that he’s caused and that if he ever had one final showdown with him that he would be…I dunno…enraged…with vengeance?
Sonic doesn’t rub off as a vengeful guy to me. Shadow yes, Sonic never.
ohhh.. GREAT. I thought this was going to be something like Sonic the Movie.
Not Sonic Satam!! NOOOOOOOO!
@Poochy
I find the fact that you consider Haru’s comments “hostile” baffling.
You guys do know that usually storyboards only have very simple effort put into them? It’s not like their artstyle reflects the final product. It’s just storyboards after all.
Only thing I don’t care about is Sonic’s vengance. Not a good idea personally, but besides that it’s good.
This isn’t an animatic; it’s a storyboard set to slideshow.
Here’s an example of scenes from an animatic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6jhJhmw2u4
Obviously Kuta doesn’t have a professional animation team on his hands so it’s unfair to compare him to professional productions. However — he’s using an incorrect word here to make himself sound more professional. As it stands he has a wordless comic book that has yet to be inked or colored. Plenty of Sonic fans have accomplished that before — and even written multiple issues in their series.
I realize I’m being very critical of this guy, but he’s raised and dashed people’s hopes so often and done some shady things in the past — like ask people to pay for his way to college in return for an eventual Sonic film. He should be treated with suspicion at every step of the process.
The pencil work is excellant, though.
@Daftman909, My money’s on yours. Might I just suggest that on the Sonic model you’re using you make it less hairy? I talked to quite a few friends about it and They have no complaints other than the hair.
NO
NO ONE LIKES YOU, RICHARD.
Hey guys, this is the storyboard artist for Sonic: The Animated Fan Film. I wanted to clear some things up here about the film.
The reason Sonic is full of vengeance is because this is more towards the end of the film. By that point Robotnik has broke the straw on the camel’s back and Sonic is furious. I want you to think in a reasonable manner. If you had to face a destructive man who held his human race in such high regard that he was prepared to destroy his own planet because it was overturned years later by antrhopomorphic animals, then I’d have more than enough reason to be upset.
I’ll be honest on the time I drew the panels. I made sure to get them as done as quick as possible. The thing is, I got one panel out of many done in 10-20 minutes. I made sure to keep the panels basic and readable for the animators to read, so as to make the animation process go by more smoothly.
As it is, you can direct any feedback, any questions. I’m all ears. As it is, Richard and I are working heavily with each other on this film, and we both want this to be pleasing. But we can’t do that without feedback. And please be it reasonable feedback.
The plan for this film is to capture the spirit of Sonic 1-2-SatAM-CD. They all built up slowly but surely to a much bigger story and were revolutionary in their time. We want this film to attempt to reiterate that success. This is one of the main reasons I drew back to the most iconic Sonic designs, the classic 90′s designs. I took the streamlined wind swept look that CD Sonic had to show off Sonic’s edgy attitude and free roaming character. I made Sonic’s snout more defined so as to emphasize that he is a rodent, and I gave him a subtle dark green eye colour.* I also built heavily on Sonic’s shoe shape to be more in tune with the CD shoes, because they felt much more natural and realistic. The most difficult thing to do though was to use that classic design and have it read “teenager” especially when we’re dealing with a character based on Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat. The younger Sonic in the beginning of the film has bigger eyes, smaller muzzle, and overall smaller, and more child-like anatomy. The older Sonic I had to make a bigger muzzle, thicker limbs, and more of the teenager Aerosmith, Pink Floyd listener type look that Sonic should have. Now while I mention those musicians, that brings up the film’s music. It won’t be generic rock music, but more in line with indie rock, electronica, and ethereal music. We want it to sound like Stanley Clarke was roboticized and became Robotnik’s personal musician who leads the Bandniks who makes music that sounds as sinister as Steam Machine, White Light, and Technologic. We want funky, groovy, electronica sound for Robotnik’s music, while the music of Mobius is definitely groovy, but more serene and peaceful.
Again, ask any questions and give feedback. But be reasonable. We have a vision, and we want people to let us know what they want, but we can’t have people demanding that we change our overall vision such as taking away the Freedom Fighters and such. That would just have start from scratch and after the 150 boards I did, I’d appreciate not having to redo the entire film. Again, as someone here mentioned the storyboards are supposed to be basic. Look at the storyboards for Finding Nemo. The drawings are FAR from the characters’ official designs. They were basic drawings to show the action of the script on paper.
One thing I’ll tell you that you didn’t get to see in the storyboards is the design for Robotnik we’ll be using. When I finish it’s model sheet, we’ll be sure to let you guys see it. If you love dome headed, thin limbed Robotnik, you’re in for a treat. We’ll even show the suits that we have planned for the film series to show the character’s “transformation”.
*From what I understand, there was an ordeal about nine months ago on this very thing, and sprouted much satire and slanderous parody to further my friend’s humility. He himself admits to me that he is ever ashamed of that, and that we want people to let go of that very rant.
i wish the tssz trolls( you know who you are) would stop critizeing Kuta so he can finish this film, though i am looking forward to the live action film as well.
@kirby2567: That’s NOT TRUE. There are obviously many people who like Richard; otherwise they wouldn’t be helping him with this film. And while I don’t agree with *everything* Kuta has done to try to get this film in production, I *do* agree that making a Sonic the Hedgehog fan film “for the fans” in the first place is a lot nicer than the loudest shouters of our kind deserve. Do you realize that Kuta originally wanted his film to be COMPLETELY SatAM in canon, but included the other elements to PLEASE THE FANS OF THE GAMES??????
I have reasons for being wary around Kuta (particularly when he asks us all for money), but his creative vision isn’t one of them. Please make some attempt to be respectful and stop acting like a two-year-old.
@Shawn Smith
Yeah, we are actually cutting back on the hair and keeping his proportions a little less extreme than the concept! A concept is only a guide
. Thanks for the feedback!
Look, just stop reporting on everything Kuta does. Starve him of publicity UNTIL HE FINISHES A WORK AND HAS THE 100% FINAL COPY POSTED ONLINE.