 When Sonic Mania first debuted, fans were treated to a slick, stylish 2D animated intro that called back to the heyday of the famous blue hedgehog. This cartoon was the work of countless animators and artists, all under the direction of Tyson Hess, a stalwart member of the Sonic art community. Tyson has done a lot to breathe new life into Sonic the Hedgehog. He has directed all of the Sonic Mania Adventures animated shorts, drawn various comics, and even helped create new characters for the ongoing comic book series from publisher IDW. First and foremost though, Tyson is a fan, as is evidenced by the parody fan comic that got him his first opportunity to work on official artwork for Sonic the Hedgehog. This is the story of Tyson Hess and how boxer hockey and original characters helped create the look and feel of Sonic Mania. Tyson Hess always wanted to be an artist. When he was young, he would pour over Sonic the Hedgehog media, such as comic books and cartoons. He was passionate, and he attempted to learn to draw his favourite hedgehog in the style of artists that he admired. He would take screenshots from the animated intro to Sonic CD, and would do his best to learn to copy them. As much as he loved Sonic, Tyson knew that he couldn't simply draw fan art. Through college and beyond, he worked on his very own webcomic, entitled Boxer Hockey. This comic showed off Tyson's quirky sense of humour, as he imagined a brand new sport with an elastic frog for a ball, in which all players must participate while wearing nothing but their underwear. The comic went on hiatus every so often, as other priorities took precedence in Tyson's life. One time, just for fun, when he didn't have time to work on the main comic, he instead started messing around with parody comics, featuring Sonic the Hedgehog. This is a weird alternate universe in which the rules of the Sonic world are turned on their head. The comics poke fun not only at the weird contrivances of Sonic lore, but also the bizarre fan community that has grown around the games. The comic is strange and surreal, but it's clear to all who read it that Tyson has drawn it from a place of love. Tyson's career as an animator and artist wasn't exactly taking off. He tried his best to find work, but for a while, he entertained the idea of eschewing traditional employment in favour of simply making Boxer Hockey full time. To this end, he ran a series of Kickstarter's to create printed collections of his comics. One came with a bonus reward, a printed copy of his Sonic comics, now collected under the name Sonic's Big Fat Adventure. The Kickstarter's didn't go very well for Tyson. The work involved in fulfilling orders was greater than he'd anticipated, and he found himself needing to rely on the money he'd raised for everyday living expenses. While most of the books were printed, one had to be cancelled entirely, as he attempted to make sense of the mess he'd gotten himself into. Nevertheless, Tyson was now in possession of a load of printed comics that showed off his talents, and he did what any aspiring artist would do. He got a table at a comic convention and attempted to sell his wares. It was while at a convention that Tyson first bumped into an editor for Archie Comics, who was working on the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series. Excitedly, Tyson gave the editor a copy of Sonic's Big Fat Adventure, hoping that its weird puns and jokes might make an impression, as well as showing off his talent. This paid off, as soon after, Tyson was contacted by Archie, who wanted to hire him to draw a cover for one of their Sonic issues. Working on the Sonic comic was a dream come true for Tyson. With this, as well as some work drawing the amazing world of Gumball comic, he felt like his career as a comic artist was finally taking off. Archie worked with Tyson on several other projects, and he eventually graduated from simple cover art to being able to draw the comic art itself. Most notably, Tyson drew the art for Sonic Mega Drive, a comic that attempts to recreate the look and feel of the classic Sonic era. The comic won the love of the Sonic Fam community, which at the time was still starved for retro Sonic artwork. Tyson couldn't have imagined just how important this comic would become. Soon, he was going to be doing a lot more classic Sonic artwork. At a party for Sonic's 25th birthday, Sega announced Sonic Mania, a brand-new, old-school title that harkened back to the classic games in the series. It was at this party that Tyson got chatting with Aaron Weber, the social media manager for the entire Sonic the Hedgehog brand. Aaron was a fan of Tyson's work and saw the potential to use his work as part of the promotional campaign for the upcoming game. Do you want to do something for Mania? Asked Aaron. Tyson assumed that this meant that he was going to be commissioned to draw a single picture, and as such he readily agreed. It was only a month later that Aaron made clear his plans. He wanted Tyson to create a fully animated trailer for Sonic Mania. Wow, thought Tyson. This was ambitious. There wasn't long until the game's release, and such a big project would take a lot of work. But it was the chance to do something he'd always dreamed of. After weighing it up, he agreed to direct the trailer. He had no idea how much work this was going to be. With such a quick turnaround time, Tyson had to start work immediately. He began by drawing up a quick animatic which showed a series of still images that gave the gist of his vision for the video. At this point, this was meant as little more than a trailer, and so Tyson wanted to build it with a sense of mystery. He wanted fans to leap for joy at seeing the return of the classic Sonic design and 2D animation. In just a month, Tyson had finished the animatic. But from then on, things got more complicated. The bulk of the artwork was done by Studio Yotta, a professional animation team that handled a lot of these kinds of projects. It was up to Tyson then to guide the studio in everything they did, as well as to fix up all the imperfections and hiccups that appeared in the artwork. If Sonic or his friends ever appeared even slightly off model, it was up to Tyson to fix it. He had to constantly review footage, make changes, and keep steering the project forward. Initially, Tyson had wanted an impressive 3D background for the video. But as the deadline drew closer, this proved impractical. He had to trim a segment in the middle of the animation to make things flow better with more static backgrounds. It didn't help that Tyson was kept in the dark about a lot of the details of the game. As the project was still in development, Tyson couldn't rely on full notes about the game's final design. Elements such as the hard-boiled heavy enemies were added to the animation very late in the game's development. Creating the animated trailer was taking a lot of work, but it was bearing beautiful fruit. Looking at the quality of Tyson's work, it was agreed internally that instead of simply offering the animation as a trailer, the team should include it in the game itself. This mirrored the animation intro to Sonic CD and gave the video the greatest chance to shine. But the marketing team still needed a trailer. It was for this reason that Aaron Weber tentatively approached Tyson again. Sure, making one animated video was an enormous strain, but how would he feel about making a second video as well? And so, against his better judgment, Tyson brought together a group of his friends to animate a second, shorter cartoon trailer for the game. This pre-order trailer needed to be made as quickly as possible while the main team at Studio Yotta were still putting together the game's intro video. Everything about the trailer was chosen to make it quick to animate. Tyson had the idea of using a sketch design which would look cute and fun while simultaneously requiring a lot less polish than a full-colour cartoon. This trailer now became audience's first glimpse at the return of a 2D animated Sonic, and everyone loved it. Just a few short seconds of sketchy animation was all it took to inspire a huge wave of fan art and speculation about the game. As the deadline for Sonic Mania drew nearer, work on the full animation became more and more intense. Tyson worked night and day trying to get everything together and spent time throwing in tiny little Easter eggs and visual touches to make the cartoon as fun as possible. He also added things like Knuckles spinning on a giant ring right at the last second. The night before finishing, Tyson went through the entire animation and added tiny little score points to each of the bumpers, reflecting a mechanic in the old Sonic games. He wasn't sure how much goofy comedy he was able to get away with, but he wanted to make the whole animation as funny and silly as possible. Towards the end of the development period for Sonic Mania, a local legend visited the team. Naoto Oshima, the artist who had originally come up with the first basic sketch of Sonic the Hedgehog, came to see how development was going. The team were able to proudly show off Tyson's work on the animation. Someone snapped a picture of Naoto's reaction to the cartoon. He had a big smile on his face as he gave a thumbs up right at the conclusion of the cartoon. This picture quickly became one of Tyson's most treasured possessions. In fact, seeing people's reactions to his work became Tyson's greatest source of satisfaction at the conclusion of the project. Once Sonic Mania launched and the intro animation was released online, Tyson spent hours watching reaction videos. He was in floods of tears as he saw the excitement and joy on everyone's faces and he loved seeing just how much people cared about what he'd created. With the popularity of the intro, it was inevitable that fans would want more. It wasn't long before the team at Sega came to Tyson with another request. Could he make a longer series of animations in the same style? Tyson agreed and instantly began work on Sonic Mania Adventures to tie in with the physical release of Sonic Mania Plus. Sure, the first animation had been a nonstop fight to complete, but why shouldn't he make a bunch more of them? What could possibly go wrong? The moral of the story is that doing what you love can help lead you to where you need to be. Tyson Hess was a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog from when he was young. Tyson's love of the character and his animated adventures led him to practice drawing and study animation. The thing that ultimately led him to create official Sonic artwork was a silly fan parody comic that he made out of a genuine love for Sonic. He didn't just emulate his idols, but he sought out opportunities to give his own spin to the famous character. Similarly, you should pursue your dreams in your own way and with your own unique style. Your work might not always be appreciated at first. Sometimes it takes a while to find where you truly fit in. If you keep working hard and seek to improve yourself and find your own unique voice, then one day, just like Tyson Hess, you'll be satisfied with the skills and talents you develop. Be yourself, embrace what you love, and one day, you'll find where you truly belong.