As Sonic Legacy is a labor of love, we'd love to see you audition to help us with the comic! Currently, no one on staff receives compensation. On this page, we summarize the audition positions. All auditions are handled on our Discord server. Please read the #intro-and-rules channel first. Fully fleshed-out rules for auditioning are located in each #auditions channel as pinned messages. Please join us there and go to the #auditions channels for all the details. And thanks for your interest!
In all staff roles, staff are expected to be able to take review and direction for revisions to content produced. When auditioning, we will require samples of your work. If you are auditioning for Colorists we do have sample pages for you to use for your audition.
You can always re-audition if you're not accepted! We're willing to help you improve, so don't be afraid to ask for help! You can ask for help in #art-help.
Penciler
Pencilers are the first step in the big process of drawing the Sonic Legacy comics. Pencilers are responsible with rough story-boarding, panel layout, and of course the primary pencils that make up the artwork in the issue. Pencilers often work with one or more other pencilers, and even the other artists, with pages in an issue divided up between those assigned to the task.
Pencils Guidelines
- Auditions for the pencils role should conist of two mock comic pages containing at least two panels to help show understanding of perspective. The pages should also include backgrounds and character interaction. (It would benefit anyone auditioning for pencils to know how to draw both humans and Mobians, as there will be issues that will require both from time to time).
- Image resolution is not a factor for auditions, but we would prefer larger resolution images to better judge line/color quality.
- Pencils auditions can be sketches, but please ensure that the sketches are not too rough, where someone assigned to inks can't follow the outline clearly.
- Pencils auditions would benefit from multiple angles of a character, such as a front/back/side view.
Inker
After a penciled page has been approved and signed off on, the page is assigned to an inker. Like with pencilers, the pages in issue may be divided up between one or more inkers so the task isn't too daunting, and so deadlines can be met.
Inks Guidelines
- Inking auditions should show clear line work for characters and backgrounds.
- The inked pages must show working knowledge of distance variation, meaning the closer a character is in the foreground, the thicker the lines should be. Line thickness should gradually decrease (become thinner) the further in the background the character is. This line thick and thin scaling applies to the background, as well, depending on what's drawn.
- Your audition pieces should display no stray lines outside the panel(s), unless the lines were drawn to bleed outside the panel(s) for a specific purpose.
- In addition, your comic pages should be clean: they should display no mistakes, such as random dots or overlapping of lines into other lines.
- Your inked comic audition should be submitted to us as PNG images, full-size, 100% quality.
- Lastly, inkers who submit an ink audition will need to provide 2 8x11" sized inked comic pages so that staff can review your pages and skill properly; also, so that we may be able to provide critique of your skill and potential areas to improve, if needed.
Colorists
Colorists then take the approved inked pages and color them accordingly to defined palettes, utilizing shading and blending techniques. One or more colorists may be assigned specific pages in any given issue.
Colors Guidelines
- Color auditions should be able to provide the skills to show an understanding of how light direction works in a scene (shading and highlighting). Such as, you need to show you have an understanding of how shapes get illuminated by light reflecting off the object, and how the shadows cast will come from different directions.
- In addition, when presenting a color audition, staff will need to be shown that you, as the artist, have a proper understanding of color theory. Examples include mixing up warm and cool colors or giving off a special kind of setting/mood with a certain background, where the colors can balance each other out but not overpower one color over another; otherwise, the scene/illustration will look muddy.
- Artists who submit a color audition will need to provide 2 color pages in order for staff to review your pages, in addition for us to give you a proper critique that can help you improve on your art, if needed.
- Lastly, your color auditions should be submitted as a PNG file with resolution size of 2100x3150, DPI of 300 for the best quality presentation.
Letterer
Adding the dialogue bubbles is the last part of the comic issue production process. Letterers take the polished, finished colored issue pages and add in all the proper dialogue.
Writer
Currently, there are no open writer positions. Sonic Legacy writers are one of the most core positions of the team. Writers are expected to "know the lore" from a wide-range of official Sonic lore, whether it be from the games, cartoons, comics, etc. Writers directly influence and discuss the story all the way from Sonic Legacy overarching plots to individual issue arch details. In addition, writers hold considerable sway in ironing out minute details relating to anything in Sonic Legacy, from locations of villages to character details.
Music
Currently, there are no open music positions. Music is a core and fun aspect of Sonic Legacy. We're proud that we have such wonderful music talent for our own custom-produced music! The music contributed to Sonic Legacy is featured anywhere there may be video content: dubs, animations, podcasts, etc.
Voice Actor
Currently, there are no open voice actor positions. However, please feel free to join us in Discord to read up on the process for auditioning as a voice actor, for when positions and roles may open up. Voice Actors provide exceptional voice talent for any and all Sonic Legacy's voice needs: from comic dubs to custom animations.
Other
There are other areas in Sonic Legacy that we may need help with. If you think you have a skill that will help Sonic Legacy's reach, please talk to us about it.
Special Assignment: Comic Translators!
Sonic Legacy is always interested in reaching further to people we ordinarily wouldn't be able to with just English. Are you interested in translating the comics into your language? We're interested to talk with you about it! But please be aware that you need to have graphic skill to insert the translation and re-make the speech bubbles from our raw, full-size pages yourself.- What language(s) are you specifically looking for? Any, really! But if we had to choose, we'd say Spanish, since our analytics data shows the highest second language visits to be Spanish.
- Do you have someone to proof the translation? Most likely we don't, so you'd need to have someone to proof it for you. We advise against only you working the translation, since a proofreader could ensure there's no grammar or translation oversights.
- What do you mean graphic skills? We require you to have software that you can use to create speech bubbles. It doesn't matter what software it is, if it works well. We will not do that for you. We also do not allow and will not accept you merely erasing text on existing bubbles on comic pages and stuffing the translated text into those bubbles. Why? Because, as languages vary, so does the length and amount of words. You may need more or less space to properly fix dialogue in a speech bubble. The entire comic looks 100% better when custom bubbles are re-made to fit the text properly. If you don't have software and/or graphic skills to handle speech bubbles, it's fine for you to find someone to work them for you.
- How and what to export the translated pages as? Please export all pages at 300DPI 2100x3150px resolution 16-bit PNG images.
- Where would I handle this project task? All work would be discussed and collaborated on in our Discord server, so you'd need to join it.
- Do I get a translators credit? Of course! On the credit boxes at the beginning of each issue you translate, you'd simply add yours there.
- Can I just translate one issue? We highly discourage this. Translating an arc at a time is fine though!
- Does communication need to be in English? Yes. But if you're reading this, you already know English, so no problem! Why? Because English is the language we use for all communication. We'd want to be able to communicate with you, too.
- Other questions? Join our server and just ask in the #legacy-chat channel!