For anyone ever hoping to get into character design, BigMex's 'How to Design a Street Fighter Character" will be your bible.

[Kalmakov]

http://www.capcom-unity.com/street_...3617/how-to-design-a-street-fighter-character

A 30(!) part series of essays by Capcom-unity's BigMex that takes a deep-dive into analyzing what makes Street Fighter's character designs so iconic and memorable. The principles demonstrated here go into specifically what makes them good "fighting game" designs but many of the techniques apply to character design in general. Some early highlights include how color theory is probably the single most important element in character design, how simplicity will always trump complexity, and just why exactly El Fuerte and Rufus are such god awful designs.

Edit: After some discussion and some convincing, these essays may not be as good as initially believed. That said I still believe there's a lot of good lessons to be taken here...just maybe dont follow the author's words and advice to a T.

 

[Deleted member 8860]

I think I read this about ten years ago around when it was written; BigMex's slavish devotion to SF EX and bashing of designs like SF IV's Juri, Hakan, and Viper look even more ridiculous with another decade of hindsight.

 

[Kalmakov]

I think I read this about ten years ago around when it was written; BigMex's slavish devotion to SF EX and bashing of designs like SF IV's Juri, Hakan, and Viper look even more ridiculous with another decade of hindsight.

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I mean, I never get the impression that they have a "slavish" devotion to street fighter EX, just that the series has good character designs, which it does (save for Area) and that SFIV's designs are little misguided (I think the language used here is a little bit snobbish but regardless the materials and lessons here are really good.) Like, I love me some Hakan, but visually the man is a mess.

 

[DrArchon]

I think I read this about ten years ago around when it was written; BigMex's slavish devotion to SF EX and bashing of designs like SF IV's Juri, Hakan, and Viper look even more ridiculous with another decade of hindsight.

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I've never heard of these blogposts before but the 1st one I randomly clicked on talked about how C.Jack's design is better than Viper's so I have to assume this dude is completely crazy.

 

[Deleted member 8860]

I mean, I never get the impression that they have a "slavish" devotion to street fighter EX, just that the series has good character designs, which it does (save for Area) and that SFIV's designs are little misguided (I think the language used here is a little bit snobbish but regardless the materials and lessons here are really good.) Like, I love me some Hakan, but visually the man is a mess.

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This was the author's vision for his Hakan-replacement ("Hassan"):

 

[RecRoulette]

Oh yeah, this dude was crazy. There were some good pieces throughout here but overall dude was NUTS

 

[IneptEMP]

I've never heard of these blogposts before but the 1st one I randomly clicked on talked about how C.Jack's design is better than Viper's so I have to assume this dude is completely crazy.

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Some people really, really hated Viper's design back in 08. Saying she belongs in an SNK game, etc.

 

[Village]

I disagree

No one thing should be you art bible. This is just my opinion but as an artist I feel like that's how you get stagnant. Your influence on how you do stuff should come from a bunch of places...like street fighter characters.

And personally if you are looking for a capcom centric take iirc I think there is quite litterally a capcom fighting game character bible that you can like buy that gets down to anatomy.

 

[DrArchon]

Some people really, really hated Viper's design back in 08. Saying she belongs in an SNK game, etc.

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I get that she's got a weaker design than most of the older characters, but she was still the best looking SF4 newcomer by a country mile until we got Juri.

 

[Kalmakov]

This was the author's vision for his Hakan-replacement ("Hassan"):

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...ok I regret this now, holy shit.

The first few chapters I read were really good especially talking about color theory and why a design like Blanka worked, but uh...yeah.

 

[Kalmakov]

I disagree

No one thing should be you art bible. This is just my opinion but as an artist I feel like that's how you get stagnant. Your influence on how you do stuff should come from a bunch of places...like street fighter characters.

And personally if you are looking for a capcom centric take iirc I think there is quite litterally a capcom fighting game character bible that you can like buy that gets down to anatomy.

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What is this book? 90s Capcom Art and their character designs is like everything I aspire to be as an artist, so I would really get some use out of this it seems

 

[Village]

What is this book? 90s Capcom Art and their character designs is like everything I aspire to be as an artist, so I would really get some use out of this it seems

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Upon googling I screwed up, not available for purchase it's an internal guide about anatomy particularly fighting game characters. That they still use. However apparently it's still available or part of of it is on cfn

 

[Kalmakov]

Upon googling I screwed up, not available for purchase it's an internal guide about anatomy particularly fighting game characters. That they still use. However apparently it's still available or part of of it is on cfn

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It wasn't this was it? Says it goes for a retail price of around $70

 

[RPTGB]

What is this book? 90s Capcom Art and their character designs is like everything I aspire to be as an artist, so I would really get some use out of this it seems

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https://mashable.com/2017/04/04/street-fighter-artists-reference-guide/?europe=true

This and studying how Andrew Loomis and George Bridgman constructed their figure drawing should be a pretty good foundation for aping Capcom's art style of that era, alongside lots of blood, sweat and tears :)

Goerge Bridgman-consructive anatomy

 

[Kalmakov]

https://mashable.com/2017/04/04/street-fighter-artists-reference-guide/?europe=true

This and studying how Andrew Loomis and George Bridgman constructed their figure drawing should be a pretty good foundation for aping Capcom's art style of that era, alongside lots of blood, sweat and tears :)

Goerge Bridgman-consructive anatomy

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I've heard a lot of artists recommend the Bridgman book, so I might have to finally dip and see what this is all about.

 

[RPTGB]

I've heard a lot of artists recommend the Bridgman book, so I might have to finally dip and see what this is all about.

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Bridgman's approach to anatomy was a bit more systemic than some of the other classic anatomy tutors such as Hogarth or Loomis, so you may find it a bit "cold". For what it's worth, I find Loomis' way of teaching the best of the lot though Bridgman also did some great work on teaching how to draw drapery and folds.

 

[JJD]

This was the author's vision for his Hakan-replacement ("Hassan"):

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Honestly I prefer that to the one we got...

It's bad all around, but the hair kills it for me.

I'm not trying to be insensitive or trolling here, but what's wrong with the first design? It's a buff middle eastern black guy. SF is full of stereotypes.

Juri and C.Viper are cool in my book though.

Edit: El Fuerte is cool as well, Rufus sucks.

 

[Actinium]

I like Hakan's Jojo ass hair. I don't really get all the belts and chains though, seems like a lot to grab on to for the guy that's supposed to be all about being slippery.

 

[Gundam]

1. Give Tom cruise long hair and a char aznable color scheme

 

[Nephrahim]

You know what's funny, is I hated Rufus's design as well, but I watched so many matches rooting for him when he was being played by Ricki Ortiz or Justin Wong, I now have a positive association with the character in my head based solely on that?

 

[RLCC14]

Am I seriously going to take advice from the people that designed Balrog?

 

[Prolepro]

Rufus is god

 

[Sesha]

Did Mike Matei do that replacement Hakan? How could anyone prefer that. No accounting for taste, I guess.

Also lol C. Viper. Messy from top to bottom. Ikeno is a god-tier designer, but oof. She feels like a Nomura take on a SF char, or something. 12 years later I'll still take Abel any day.

 

[Kalmakov]

Rufus is god

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How dare you put this where my eyes could see it.

 

[Kalmakov]

Did Mike Matei do that replacement Hakan? How could anyone prefer that. No accounting for taste, I guess.

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I thought they gave him big red lips too but on second observation it's actually his mouth agape as if he is shouting. Not nearly as bad as the first impression

 

[BigMex]

Thanks for all the criticism on the old articles. I'll accept it, these are my takes and non canon. Back when I wrote it I should have titled it How to design a (Street Fighter II) style character in the format of (very specific) Japanese artists, with a bad take on culture taken out of context. I hope some people got something good out of it, and others learned to avoid my nonsense. Anyhow, I've done better stuff on my blog. Which I invite you to read, question and comment. Someone on Resetera might be interested in how fight culture influenced game characters. I did a long series on that.

Some of my other favorites include:
The origins of the Capcom giants
The genius of the SNK fighting game character designs
The roots of Zeku's '70s design
and I've started turning some of the posts into podcasts. Again, you're welcome to ask questions or comments.
Noe V. aka BigMex

 

[Poltergust]

Wait, people don't like El Fuerte's design? I just thought people just hated fighting him.

 

[Spaltazar]

huh, what a tweest. good on BigMex for showing up here. did you find this through google?

 

[BigMex]

huh, what a tweest. good on BigMex for showing up here. did you find this through google?

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Hello Spaltazar, I actually found out that my old articles turned up here from my daughter a while back. I wanted to post something then but I had to create an account and then wait for it to be approved. I have no idea where the community sites are these days. But I'm grateful that some people like or even hate my shitty takes on fighting game designs.

 

[Spaltazar]

Hello Spaltazar, I actually found out that my old articles turned up here from my daughter a while back. I wanted to post something then but I had to create an account and then wait for it to be approved. I have no idea where the community sites are these days. But I'm grateful that some people like or even hate my shitty takes on fighting game designs.

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heh thats pretty cool. shows how small the world is. btw i really like your zeku article, but i might be biased because he is my main and best sf character :P.

here is the gaming hangout OT for Fighting Games on ERA btw:

Fighting Games Era |OT| Two-Button Dashes Are Great

The OT was created by Himuro LAST TIME ON FIGHTING GAME ERA HQ We escaped to a newly discovered planet to wish for a new Era and bring back our dead friends back to life! But the evil space overlord, Capcom, is trying to DESTROY the FGC! But wait...we have our heroes to save us: Street...

www.resetera.com

there are also OTs that focus on singular games for pretty much all of the current fighting games

 

[BigMex]

heh thats pretty cool. shows how small the world is. btw i really like your zeku article, but i might be biased because he is my main and best sf character :P.

here is the gaming hangout OT for Fighting Games on ERA btw:

Fighting Games Era |OT| Two-Button Dashes Are Great

The OT was created by Himuro LAST TIME ON FIGHTING GAME ERA HQ We escaped to a newly discovered planet to wish for a new Era and bring back our dead friends back to life! But the evil space overlord, Capcom, is trying to DESTROY the FGC! But wait...we have our heroes to save us: Street...

www.resetera.com

there are also OTs that focus on singular games for pretty much all of the current fighting games

Click to shrink...

Ninjas are always cool, Zeku's no exception. Thanks for letting me know about the page, some of those pics are too random!

 

[Greenzxy]

Hello Spaltazar, I actually found out that my old articles turned up here from my daughter a while back. I wanted to post something then but I had to create an account and then wait for it to be approved. I have no idea where the community sites are these days. But I'm grateful that some people like or even hate my shitty takes on fighting game designs.

Click to shrink...

Good to see you at resetera, I'm a big fan of your blogs. Don't downplay your work, man. I remember coming across your article 9 years ago, and the lessons I've learn from your articles I still reference to this day. Pretty interesting that a lot of subtle mirroring of design elements throughout SF are intentionally done. Much of it works due to the functionality of the designs that reside before it. Like, you can still see Capcom using the same character connection principles in SFV with Menat = Elena, Ed = Cody, Necalli = Gill, etc.

 

[BigMex]

Good to see you at resetera, I'm a big fan of your blogs. Don't downplay your work, man. I remember coming across your article 9 years ago, and the lessons I've learn from your articles I still reference to this day. Pretty interesting that a lot of subtle mirroring of design elements throughout SF are intentionally done. Much of it works due to the functionality of the designs that reside before it. Like, you can still see Capcom using the same character connection principles in SFV with Menat = Elena, Ed = Cody, Necalli = Gill, etc.

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Thanks Greenzxy,
The designs that hit best with audiences seem to mirror elements that they've seen before, if not become a balance to existing characters. I can only hope that the team planning on SF VI takes a long hard look at their legacy and tries even harder.

 

[Greenzxy]

Thanks Greenzxy,
The designs that hit best with audiences seem to mirror elements that they've seen before, if not become a balance to existing characters. I can only hope that the team planning on SF VI takes a long hard look at their legacy and tries even harder.

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Yea, Capcom definitely still knows what they're doing.

 

[XaviConcept]

I think I read this about ten years ago around when it was written; BigMex's slavish devotion to SF EX and bashing of designs like SF IV's Juri, Hakan, and Viper look even more ridiculous with another decade of hindsight.

Click to shrink...

Ooof, yeah if he thinks Juri and Hakan are bad character designs I dont think Im gonna learn much from him lol

 

[Evilisk]

I remember this series of posts. I remember thinking the analysis portions of the series were *much better* than the redesign portions. A lot of BigMex's fighting game posts are amazingly researched so I would say it's okay to stick with the series if only to learn about the inspirations behind these designs (his newer site is here)

Ooof, yeah if he thinks Juri and Hakan are bad character designs I dont think Im gonna learn much from him lol

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I just looked this up and I swear I remember BigMex not being as down on Hakan's design (though that might have been from one of his later posts, after that series)

EDIT: Oh dang! I didn't realize BigMex had an account on here. I love reading about your analyses! Your short series on the Daraku Tenshi / Fallen Angels series got me interested in that game

 

[Waffle]

Can someone recommend me a Street Fighter artbook that has a lot of work from the Alpha/Zero and EX series?

 

[BigMex]

I remember this series of posts. I remember thinking the analysis portions of the series were *much better* than the redesign portions. A lot of BigMex's fighting game posts are amazingly researched so I would say it's okay to stick with the series if only to learn about the inspirations behind these designs (his newer site is here)



I just looked this up and I swear I remember BigMex not being as down on Hakan's design (though that might have been from one of his later posts, after that series)

EDIT: Oh dang! I didn't realize BigMex had an account on here. I love reading about your analyses! Your short series on the Daraku Tenshi / Fallen Angels series got me interested in that game

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Evilisk, thanks for reading and commenting. If I have an axe to grind with Capcom is that they could have done better. Hakan could have been amazing, instead of being a shiny red guy with weird moves, and an oil fetish. It would have been something if other studios had tried to go above and beyond like in the Fallen Angels.

 

[BigMex]

Can someone recommend me a Street Fighter artbook that has a lot of work from the Alpha/Zero and EX series?

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If you do an eBay search on Gamest Street Fighter Zero a few books will come up with breakdowns on the characters in the game, and the art and design. But almost all of the anniversary books from Street Fighter also include the same art, plus the art from every other sequel. Look for the SF20, and SF25: The Art of Street Fighter books on Amazon or a local bookstore. They are pricey but have some great illustrations and rare sketches too.