Jaden The Hedgehog

Say hello to Jaden, my very own OC. I originally started developing him in 2021 when I fully got back into making my SFM content. Beforehand I tended to use Kabalmystic's Sonic model as my flagship character, which in turn had me referred to as "Muscular SFM Sonic" by a couple of people. Between the fact that several other SFM creators started using this version of Sonic as thier identities and for content (including Twitter roleplay accounts), I eventually got bored of essentially existing as a "me-too" account and wanted to stand out a little more, with my own flavour. As you can probably tell, I wasnt too original in my approach to Jaden, effectively using Sonic (as well as Shadow intially) as a base to design him, and now me-too'd myself as yet another palette-swapped "Orignal The Character" type OC with a which is already common within the Sonic fandom.

There are many reasons for this. There were plans for Jaden to be more abstract in design, and have more accessories on him including Jewellery or clothing. However, being that he was still a retexture of Sonic at the time, I decided to keep his design as minimal as I could so I didnt have spent too much time putting him together together for a render or two. Older renders showed Jaden with Sonic's emerald-green eyes rather than the turquoise/jade-green eyes I had planned for him. This was because I didnt know how to replace eye textures at the time. I have had the odd comment, negative or otherwise about Jaden's design being generic or unoriginal, right down to his name, which I can argue is fair critique, as well as comments suggesting changes I should add to make him more unique or original.

Overtime, however, I have grown so overly attached to Jaden's design that changes to his design have been subtle or in some cases accidental, to the point they have been written in as storypoints. The first major design happened in October 2022, when he went from being a standard retexture to being his own model. This was also accidental, as this was around the time of JADEX's (at the time Jaden.exe's) development. As I didnt know how to change eye textures, I commissioned the ever awesome SaiyanGoku4 (SG4) to make Jadex into his own standalone model, and after a back-and-fourth, it was decided that right there and then, Jaden would be his own model. This is also the reason, for those I have shared Jaden's model with, that Jaden and JADEX are the same model. This was the first time any dramatic change to his appearance came up, as he was also built on top of SG4's version of Sonic, who has a few design changes of his own. Jaden's scarf, as seen in newer renders, was also another accidental addition. First time Jaden was seen in a scarf was a traced drawing of Jaden as Boom!Sonic made by Nate aka Mario-Cap1812 as a joke.

I sent this drawing to SG4 for colour reference, as it was the only good image I had on hand. The scarf was barely mentioned during the commission prompt, but when I saw it on the final model reveal, it was a welcome surprise that I kept.

Further changes overtime include additional warbrobe for Jaden, with gym clothes such as a vest and shorts, and a t-shirt and some nice underwear, kinky. The tank and shorts also coming from artwork Nate made, itself inspired by the Sonic and Mario Olympics games.