I’ve got a triple-punch of goodies for you SF fans today. First, new artwork to feast your eyes on. Second, producer Rey Jimenez walks us through how Udon Comics are going about updating the character artwork for the game. And third, Rey responds to some of the questions, requests, and speculations that have been made about the game both in the comments here on the blog and on the message boards.

Here’s a quick and dirty peek into how the fantastic artists from Udon are creating the frames of animation. For some of you artist and graphics peeps, this will be old news to you. But for a lot of you, this should give you some cool insight into the process that you may not have known about.

Click through to continue reading and check out the artwork.

[More:]

This is all done in Photoshop. This picture shows 4 general steps used to create the frame, but in Photoshop, they are all lined up on top of each other in separate layers. For those that use Photoshop, this will makes sense. If you aren’t quite sure what this means, think of clear transparencies for overhead projectors back at school. The artwork would be in the middle, one on each transparency slide, or layer, with everything lined up perfectly. The artist can show and hide different layers on the fly to check his or her work.

Click for full-size image

The first step (far left, also shown below) is to extract the original sprite from the original game and set it as your first layer to use as a reference for the updated frame.

Original sprite

Step 2 is to “block” out the new frame. Blocking is just putting together the basic shape of the frame using the darkest tones of the base colors. This is done on a layer laid out on top of the sprite layer so the artist can keep to the shape of the original. As most of you know, since this is a graphical update using the same code for the gameplay, the new sprite needs to keep almost the exact same shape and size of the original so it won’t mess with the hit detection and the way the game handles the art. We have some slight leeway as you probably noticed in the Akuma art, but not much.

Block version

It should be noted that this is different than the traditional way of creating line art first and then coloring it in. Many artists still use the traditional method, but in this case, for the frames of animation we are using the blocking method. This is because it is easier for us to edit a blocking step for any needed changes, than doing the line art first (which takes more time) and editing that. So basically, it’s a time saver.

Steps 3 and 4 are the steps in which the artist renders in the details and shading of the frame.

In step 3 below, you can see that the artist has added in the arm detail and has started to add the highlight details to the gi (clothing).

Basic details

Step 4 below has the rest of the highlights and mid tones put in. Fine details, such as hatching on the gi are added to help add depth and shape to the 2D frame.

Finished frame

So I hope that gives you insight to the process that we are using for the creation of the art in the game.

Now, for some responses to questions and other comments I’ve been seeing on the blogs and in the forums.

– Akuma’s mouth is NOT missing. It is part of one of his winning poses where he is making an “O” face. It will make more sense when you see it in motion.

– The chances of this kind of treatment (“HD Remix”) being done on another Street Fighter game will depend on how SF HD Remix does.

– This has not been announced for release on the PC.

– The game will support lower resolutions, not just 1080p.

– We will not be redoing the music or the voice and sound effects.

– Zangief should be retaining all of the scars in from the original game. For that matter, the character designs for everyone else will be the same as well.

– The game will not have any new characters or secrets that the original did not have. We will, however, be re-working the endings. We will not change the main content/message of the endings, but the writers at Udon will be re-imagining them to offer another angle or take on the original endings. I’m not going to spoil anything about them, but it’ll be pretty damn cool for those that know the old endings.

That’s it for now. I’ll probably be giving Brian some new character art to post up before the week is over.

Big thanks to Rey for taking the time to write this up for me to share with you guys. What do you think?

I hope to have some more SF art to share today or tomorrow, so check back later.



—Brian