#neostricker

The basis

What really was Sonic Before the Speed? (no link between this project and Sonic Before the Sequel in case you are wondering).

In short, Sonic BTS (as we would refear to for practical reasons) was an independent animation project by Fernando Uncos (aka. Unkatsu). well known from his musical covers of different Sonic related music. Sonic BTS was originally born as a parody intended to make fun of the franchise, but rapidly changed into an animated retold version of the Sonic the Hedgehog Lore based on diferent media (specially the 1991 promotional comic, as well as Fleetway publishing's Sonic the Comic and adding some tweeks to Sonic's wold in different ways). The project got a lot of atention from the spanish speaking Sonic community around social media, Specially Facebook and YouTube, making possible the fandom involvement not only in the story but in the actual promotion of it overall.

My involvement in the project

As mentioned before, Sonic BTS was dragging a lot of attention, making possible the direct communication with the creator of the project itself. Back then, I was 18 years old, no experience whatsoever, and having trouble making digital art because of my poor experience with it until that point in time; On november 21st 2019, I had my first interaction with Unkos, We became friends faster than I expected, I loved his work as the main heart of the project since he was not only writing it, but animating, composing, performing and doing voice over for Dr. Robotnik's character. As part of the new team that was formed during this period of time, I had a lot of fun sharing some of my works. I got accepted as a side Ilustrator for the project, focused on the Facebook page where we shared promo art and concept art for the project as a whole; I had the oportunity to get involved with HikaruArt999, (a long time friend and an amazing artist). Overall, the experience along the team was pleasant. All of we where fans with 0 experience sharing a project as a safe spot to be ourselves while developing something for others to enjoy. interacting with them on Discord and Facebook lives was an experience I would like to live once again along with these people I call friends.

My artwork and some of its process (CHAPTER 1)

First piece of Sonic (Aka. Maurice) for the project. November 22nd 2019

Basic doodle of Maurice and Dr. Robotnik together (Autodesk Sketchbook Layout) November 22nd 2019

Final Robotnik design. (Autodesk Sketchbook Layout) November 22nd 2019

Maurice Sketch rework. (Autodesk Sketchbook Layout) November 22nd 2019

Final Piece (background made by Unkattsu himself) November 23rd 2019

Maurice/Sonic and Robotnik Icon Images (Based on Sonic Adventure 2's recap screens) December 1st 2019

Sonic/Maurice Promotional poster (parody poster based on the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie poster back in 2019) December 7th 2019

Sonic/Maurice Promotional poster (parody poster based on the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie poster back in 2019) December 21st 2019

My artwork and some of its process (CHAPTER 2)

Storyboard/Concept | Sonic's Nightmare January 7th 2020 The idea behind this was to manifest Sonic's fears with himself, as another character (Sonic.exe inspired) called Silueta (Silhoette) who had no impact on chapter 2 whatsoever, but it was design to be used during the next chapters that never came by).

SonicPromotional icon (parody poster based on the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie poster back in 2019) January 21st 2020

Sonic Promotional Image for chapter 2 on Facebook January 31st 2020

Sonic/Maurice and Silhoette promotional image for episode 2 February 8th 2020

Concept Art of Maurice Looking at the Distance (Background Art made by HikaruArt999) March 6th 2020

Modern Sonic and Maurice (Sonic Adventure 2 intro reference. Sonic piece and Moon background Drawn by HikaruArt999) March 21st 2020

Robotnik and Maurice running together through Green Hill Zone July 22nd 2020

Maurice Doodle art for an Unused sequence based on the negative critisism of Episode One poor animation (keep in mind this project was animated by a guy with almost 0 experience animating) | Early 2021

Maurice/Sonic Artwork based on Episode 2. July 2021

Sonic's Look from episode 2. Late 2021.

What Happened then?

Right after episode 1 was finished, it dragged a lot of attention from different people across the Sonic spanish speaking fandom as well as some curious users from all over the globe. Sonic BTS was at its best until some point in time between late 2020 and january 2021 from a YouTube User known as Ronald Kenway, another great YouTuber who usually makes Sonic related content. making a review about the project and calling it lazy because of traced frames and modified parts of the project that where worked by an amateur artist. To be more specific, there are certain scenes from episode one that contains Sonic frames from the Sonic X anime, as well as traced images for the backgrounds. The critique was "ok" until this user started attacking Unkos from a personal point of view regarding his life and believes such as "terraplanism" (wich I can confirm he does not believe in). As noisy as the spanish speaking community of the project were (or are, I don't really know) YouTubers, so called friends and main audience in general started showing hate against the creator and the team. Time went on and Chapter 2 was realised, having a rocky start due to Roland's (now deleted) video about the first chapter. But as it is today, chapter 2 can be seen with over 79k views (at the point of this post being made)

What's Next for Sonic BTS?

As Unkos told me before, Sonic BTS is suspended/ in an undefinitive hiatus, prefering to concentrate on other personal projects involving animation and music, wich are Unko's true passions. for the rest of the team, we are still making art, music, dubbing, and animations along the community, and Sonic BTS was the first step into a new chapter. Hope some day, we can finally come to a conclussion about this project that helped me to develope my art and making me get close to a wonderful group of people that are my friends.