Knuckles

Project Overview

“Our main body of work was a fun mix of bespoke character animation for Knuckles, combined with red energy and destruction FX for the fight sequences,” Outpost VFX Producer, Rosalien van der Bom reveals.

The series – a spin-off from the Sonic feature films – follows Knuckles (Idris Elba) as he tries to adapt to life on Earth. Upon meeting deputy sheriff Wade Whipple (Adam Pally), Knuckles takes him on as his apprentice and trains him in the ways of the echidna warrior ahead of Whipple’s upcoming bowling tournament.

“The team worked closely with Jeff Fowler, director of the Sonic films and the director of episode 1 of the series,” van der Bom continues, “as well as illustrator and all-round Sonic mastermind, Tyson Hesse, who offered a wealth of knowledge of the characters and the Sonic world having been a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series.”

The animation and creature team would work together to create a believable character that stays true to the original films and TV show. “Knuckles has to walk a fine line between cartoon and realism,” Outpost Animation Supervisor, Oliver Dale explains. “His huge eyes, extreme brow shapes, wide mouth and a little black dot for a nose all mean the facial animation needed certain limitations to keep it feeling believable when rendered with fur and set in a photorealistic environment.”

Using the first two Sonic films as a reference guide, the team discovered that while they provided a good jumping off point, Knuckles needed developing further. “For Sonic 1 and 2, Knuckles had never really needed the expressive range required to carry his own show; that was fairly new territory,” Dale continues.

“Working closely with Tyson, we created a set of base face shapes that we could use as a starting point for all our shots, including some basic phonemes, AH, EE, OH, F, M etc., and some nice expressive brow and mouth shapes,” Dale explains.

“This was really helpful as it meant we never had to start with a blank expression and could always maintain the Knuckles attitude. These were just a starting point; each expression needed to be pushed and refined to work best with the camera angle and action of each shot.”

To ensure there was consistency in Knuckles’ expressions and performance across the whole series, the team would work within a number of guidelines: “The guidelines included things like positioning Knuckles at ¾ towards camera because he would look a little odd front on or at 90º,” Dale continues, “or keeping the eyeline fairly neutral as too high or low and he would start to look a little snake-like due to the fact that his irises aren’t round.

“Once again, these were only loose guidelines that were made to be pushed or broken if in doing so we got a better result,” Dale explains. “Final refinements also saw us often adding a sense of fleshiness to the face. The feeling of muscle and skin moving over a solid skull helped keep the character grounded in reality without moving completely into cartoon “rubber-hose” land.”

The Outpost team would also tackle the bowling alley fight sequence of episode 1 where we are introduced to antagonists Mason and Willoughby who are sent to steal Knuckles’ power for their boss, The Buyer, to use as his own.

The sequence would include plenty of super close-ups of Knuckles’ facial performance as well as wider character animation and many different kinds of destruction FX to the surrounding environment. For example, during the fight, Knuckles is thrown into the air by Willoughby. As Knuckles lands, he digs his fists into the bowling alley floor to steady himself, throwing wood splinters into the air as he brings himself to a stop.

While the FX team worked on the splintering of the wood, the lighting team were working with the complex lighting of the scene, mimicking the on-set disco-ball lighting, and making it consistent across the CG character and the FX by adding flares and reflections.

Further FX simulations were needed for when Knuckles comes to blows with Mason and his mechanical fist weapon powered by Knuckles’ power. The impact creates a sonic boom and shockwaves rip through the bowling alley. The FX team worked closely with the production team to create this effect, drawing on previous similar explosions in the Sonic films.

To communicate the right level of energy in this explosion, the team would create a lot of different layers to add complexity to the effect, bringing in the electrical elements seen in Knuckles’ red energy. Speed would also play an important role in creating the desired effect in showing just how powerful Knuckles’ power is.

“Overall, the biggest challenge was making sure Knuckles was uniform across all episodes,” van der Bom explains. “Working closely with overall VFX Supervisor Martino Madeddu, we made sure this was the case. Overall, the team did an incredible job in bringing this character to life!”

Knuckles is available to stream on Paramount+ now!