Animator Reacts to PERFECT CGI Shadow The Hedgehog Anime

[@professorGoo]

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.

[@HybridTwisterVR0979]

How can i send you some animations if i may ask?

[@CaramelFoxSFW]

you should check out the other 2 parts

[@pforgottonsoul]

definitely watch episode 2 and 3 of dark beginnings

[@HybridTwisterVR0979]

If i could send you one, The World Ends With You: The Animation has a similar style to this

[@FieryN8]

what to watch? WATCH THE LAST TWO EPISODES!!!!! Both the second and third damn near double the quality from each previous one

[@ACatThatCantSing]

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

[@draydenferguson3128]

Drama drama drama, just shut up. He was already professional in a different way before this.😑

[@ACatThatCantSing]

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.

[@draydenferguson3128]

@@ACatThatCantSing "Geo" as in GeoExe the animator? Or is it another Geo I'm unfamiliar with?

[@ACatThatCantSing]

Oops typo haha

[@draydenferguson3128]

@@ACatThatCantSing Ah, you meant to type "Goo." Gotcha.

[@danaugust993]

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.

[@yamiru3417]

i noticed right away it was 3d though, but it is insanely good regardless

[@Neokan_n]

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

[@thecrazykid-b1o]

Blud has a point.

[@wichrom8096]

9:55 "He destroyed fabric of reality and my pants" - Professor Goo

[@Solid_Sn8]

💀

[@kirby_rising]

😆

[@sp3ctrum114]

Are we just gonna pretend that 7:48 never happened?😭 That caught me so off guard😂😂

[@sp3ctrum114]

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

[@common.cloverrr]

DUDE FR IT WAS SO FUNNY 😭😭

[@CKLNstudios]

I was so focused on analysing the animation until that part DESTROYED ME

[@thatonedrainedplatter5421]

He was blown away literally lmao. 💀

[@kirby_rising]

That got me too! LMAO 😂

[@SuperHexer123]

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.

[@JogoseBizarrosConteudos]

After watching a few times the 2D illusion starts to fade, but, it's still insanely well animated.

[@yoitsmiggy1013]

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.

[@clementrenaud4260]

From memories, it was already there in Sonic 06.

[@byonty886]

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 :>

[@carso1500]

Wait its made on blender?

[@DesktopProductions77]

PLEASE WATCH, GENIUS CHOREOGRAPHY.

[@byonty886]

@@carso1500 yes!

[@kaistudios5536]

BLENDER?! THEY SAID IT WAS MADE ON BLENDER?! YOU'RE JOKING! Source! Please!

[@byonty886]

@@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 🤔

[@JaceAce22]

7:47 The next 8 seconds of fight scene sent you flying, bro hahaha

[@dangangalaxy9759]

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.

[@lallelol9516]

THEY'RE FLYING BARK PEOPLE???

[@dangangalaxy9759]

@@lallelol9516 YES BRO Go look at the main people involved in Dark Beginnings and look at the shows they’ve worked on previously :)

[@kageneeks6393]

FLYING BARK MENTIONED RAHHHHHH

[@Xiaotian_Edits]

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

[@corpsimmons575]

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.

[@FSAPOJake]

Just goes to show, 3D animation mixed with 2D can look good. It's not impossible.

[@IshimurA99]

The animation is really good with the combination of 2D and 3D, that's enough to make me interested in watching it 👍

[@XastherReeD]

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.

[@GodSlayerKoopa]

- Wait, its all 3D? - Always has been

[@ConceptOfCreat10n]

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)

[@Lanoman123]

These are the EXACT reasons I was geeking out over these shorts bro, makes me so excited to be learning 3D animation

[@SlothfulArcher]

The mouth being constantly visible is quite common for anthropomorphic animals in sonic

[@Handepsilon]

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]

@@Handepsilon The models in Sonic (2006) had mouths in the middle

[@Handepsilon]

@@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?

[@rawls101]

SO well done!! Would be great to get a whole show in this style.

[@CosmicCupidForges]

SPIDERMAN RULES I'm actually crying lmao 2:56

[@yoitsmiggy1013]

Not bro giving Maria the Gwen Stacy treatment 😭😭😭

[@alicesacco9329]

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'.

[@soundkaiser]

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

[@thedylan6221]

Just came out lol

[@professorGoo]

OH SHI

[@simonlow0210]

@@professorGoo Time to react to Episode 2 & 3.

[@tamazhi6762]

@@professorGoo Please react to ep 3

[@SpiderandMosquito]

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!

[@33pandagamer]

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.

[@SONICX1027]

I can’t wait for him to review episodes 2 and 3

[@IngenieroMan]

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)

[@shajita]

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.

[@redemption2]

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.

[@DeliProductions]

Pretty incredible short! Amazing and inspiring to see. Thanks for the analyzation!

[@vi6ddarkking]

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.

[@drdino2002]

A lot of this reminded me of the 3D animated Spiderman show for some reason.

[@christopherdavis1622]

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.

[@Ultim8teLifeform]

THAT BROTHA GO WHEEEEE 7:49

[@jourdanfarquharson4697]

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

[@jrsop666]

I could totally see Sega partnering up with arc system works to develop a sonic fighting game.

[@jourdanfarquharson4697]

@jrsop666 they could remaster sonic battle with this system considering it is a sonic fighting game

[@comedicidiot]

Sonic Team finally has a budget :,)

[@AriaBelmonde]

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

[@foxcollr831]

Wow. This was an amazing video! I laughed out loud at the model going ragdoll when the fight scene begins lmao

[@FrozenInIce]

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.

[@gamerkingdom1442]

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!

[@crimson-foxtwitch2581]

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

[@orangeslash1667]

@@crimson-foxtwitch2581 Fun Fact: Kirk Thornton the voice of Shadow, also plays the cat in Blaze Blue, which was made by Arc Sys.

[@bashartz]

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

[@professorGoo]

SO WOULD I

[@gogito_03]

They used blender

[@alicesacco9329]

​@@gogito_03I was surprised about that, not so common using blender for professional things.

[@loziclec.1295]

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.

[@Frysbear]

I don't think I realized until like halfway through that it was 3D. Such gorgeous work.

[@meosamudazai]

For those wondering if it is made in blender. Yes it is. Watch the video "Keynote - blender conference 2024" at around 6:20 it's revealed that they used blender.

[@Ultim8teLifeform]

It happened twice💀 9:32

[@Xiaotian_Edits]

"I'm allgeric to talent" 15:31 real I literally love this its so amazing AAAAAA

[@xenithfreelancer]

Because of you I watched the full animation and I did NOT expect the fight scenes to go that hard I'm so used to the Sonic franchise being doofy and in many ways unfinished/lazy/glitchy that this animation just blew my mind. Thinking Shadow and gang looked entirely badass was not on my bingo card

[@KorgCrimson]

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.

[@Daeca]

Thanks, mate. Through you, I discovered this three episode 'anime' for Shadow and it was friggin' p e a k.

[@zainahmed4172]

You need to see many Sonic games Intro and cinematic cutscenes. Many have crazy good animations and iconic moments.

[@duduvec5971]

2:55 Her head would not touch the ground, shadow has a hand behind her neck. He's so GOD DAMN COOL 😭😭

[@quintonheimann]

5:03 they've done that side mouth thing in every sonic game since 06

[@spaceboyctstudios2934]

Even Sonic Boom?

[@quintonheimann]

@@spaceboyctstudios2934 mainline sonic game

[@mc.gemstone]

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

[@CamswaggedProductions]

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.

[@NathansNostalgia]

Please do all 3 parts! This was so insightful. Subscription well earned! Can’t wait for more!

[@s-viper1462]

I had no idea the entire thing was 3D. I thought some of it was 3D and some of it was 2D.

[@Technonova323]

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.

[@frustratedsquirrel]

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.

[@user-bx3kz9sp8p]

2:13 **looks at my knuckles** **looks back at screen** **looks at my knuckles again** *D:*

[@TripleHakim2]

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

[@genozp2328]

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.

[@Asurilm]

I'm so glad you broke these down, it looks beautiful!

[@1MM0R7AL5]

I've been nurturing a video game idea in my head since I was 16, and I think this artstyle would work wonders. It looks just like anime, which is perfect for my game! Dillon (not sure if that's your first name or not), could I have some pointers on how I could achieve this? I use Unity. The animated mouths are a good idea, I think. Plus, if- no, once I succeed, you'll have something to react to. Also, 15:31 made me say "bless you" IRL.

[@Mangoekaki]

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!!

[@Bamamarama]

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.

[@_casg]

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

[@K7TZ]

I was so focused on shadow that I never notice maria is 3d

[@princeofspace6628]

I'm curious how this was actually made they probably did it scene by scene but did they do the CGI first and then layer the drawing animation on top of it or the other way around, and I'm curious what was the first seen they created, I'm very curious about the process of creating this animation

[@kuromiLayfe]

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.

[@5h0ckblock]

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.

[@SanguineDoe]

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.

[@jamesscalzo3033]

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!

[@haraken3119]

Honestly it took me up until Shadow fighting Emerl (Robot) to figure out there was 3D, because I didn't expect anything Sonic related to look THAT good animated.

[@danboy12342]

After so many years RWBY's stlye is finally understood, RWBY itself may never get here but im glad others can

[@AsTDayAMVs]

i wonder why everyones sleep on game epic seven animation, even tho they has such a good quality in animation especially on their new character

[@Wonderful_night]

Holy shit videos uploading frequently?

[@professorGoo]

LESGO?

[@dranoradragonqueen1494]

you need to see the next two parts

[@wolfywonder8480]

The only reason I picked up on this being 3D at all is because I watched way too much Dragon Booster and Slugterra as a kid lol 3D shows have a certain look and feel to them that you start to pick up on the longer you watch them. Insanely impressive how close to 2D animation they managed to make this look.

[@sinom]

5:19 "That's a 2D mouth" is it though? Yeah the right side (from the camera) looks like it's drawn, but the left side has what looks like poligon lines, and rhe way the teeth come together also looks like something that might be 3D? Sonic team and sonic animators by now have a TON of experience in how to make mouthes of their characters look great on 3D models, so ot might either just actually be fully 3D or a mix between a 3D mouth with 2D adjustments. (Though it might also just be that those polygon straight edges just come for some vertex brush they were using, and that the teeth just look like that because they were first traced from a 3D base and then modified to look better in 2D)

[@tobbyman3d]

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.

[@CaptBlock]

I didn't realize it was 3D until the shot of Omega grinding and shooting in episode 3

[@BlazingNovaX7]

Can you also do episodes 2 and 3 of Dark Beginnings?

[@PixelaGames2000]

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!!

[@irkendragon]

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.

[@Kutomi1]

I was actually convinced this was 2D the first time watching. Feels good to be a Sonic fan rn.

[@HyruletheCheetah]

This animation is amazing and so interesting to see how it was made and what parts are 2d and 3d

[@TeejayTrehan-s6k]

besides your tutorial called the fundamental series on blender is there any other tutorial you recommend

[@stevonnie3041]

When is the video covering parts 2 and 3??

[@blu3ntv]

Just wanna point out that atthe timestamp of 5:25 on this video, you can see poligon edges on the '2D mouth', or at least it's jaged as if they arehpoligonal edges, I don't see why you sould do that in 2D, so mouthshmight actually BE 3D sometimes, but heavily touched up in 2D, or they could be in some way UV mapped for lighting idk, nut that still wouldn't leave jaged lines, I'd like to hear what you think

[@im_.a-bear5996]

7:24 THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I SAID TO THIS

[@venny1689]

"She's gonna die!" He doesn't know chat.

[@DeadEye364]

Just something to consider doing when reacting and breaking down animations, watch the animation in full then go back to analyze. It would make the flow of reaction to analyzing much smoother IMO.

[@ReganMagar-ri1mv]

But shadow is in the middle 1:01

[@Cheezbal470]

…

[@roxashunter8879]

GODDAMNIT, not the spider-man rules

[@cintron3d]

Dragonball Daima is also doing some cool stuff with 2d/3d mixing

[@SqueakerBunny]

I still dont know how we haven't gotten a new Sonic Anime

[@SpookySquid14]

I never knew how much they mixed in 3D with 2D in this.

[@noaht2005]

I didn’t realise this was 3D. I assumed it was 2d characters on a 3d background, but now I look at it it’s quite obvious

[@altabestudio]

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.

[@ノブゾウ]

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。

[@weirdosonicfan2309]

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!