A Behind-The-Scenes Look At Animation & Rigging For Sonic X Shadow Generations

Veteran Animator and author of Game Anim: Video Game Animation Explained, Jonathan Cooper, recently published some footage from Sonic x Shadow Generations, one of the latest entries in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The game has been well-received, and for Sonic fans curious about the making of Shadow's journey, the original article features an interview with Sega developers, who dive into character modeling, motion creation, and scene production using Maya and other tools, with examples.

Throughout the development of the Sonic series, in-house Technical Artists have continually customized Maya's animation tools to better suit their needs. Notable enhancements include updates to the graph editor UI, improved display switching, support for Softimage-style numerical input, and automated curve operations such as smoothing, key convergence, and thinning, all of which have significantly enhanced workflow efficiency.

There's also a dedicated launcher that has been developed to load animation-related tools, allowing animators to start working with motion tools already in place. For home environments, these tools can be easily accessed by downloading them locally and launching them directly.

Interestingly, for rigging characters beyond the main cast in the game, the team utilized the modular rigging system mGear. This allowed for the efficient rigging of various non-humanoid enemy characters. Even without rigging specialists, Animators could generate functional rigs automatically by simply placing guide markers. The Dream Wall Picker, integrated with mGear scripts, enabled the creation of controllers for swaying elements like hair. These were simulated in Maya, then baked and exported, making it much easier to animate complex secondary motions.

The article also explores the game's distinctive effects, "distorted space" and "Doom Power", with the former developed using a blend of Unreal Engine 5 and Houdini, and more, so dive in here.

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