Support NeoGAF

[Syril]

Yeah, I couldn't find any information on this, but I agree that something must have been done to get Elena's animations. She's also lacking lots of details like fingers and toes in most frames, and for that reason, she's my least favourite character in the game in terms of graphics.

I always figured she was rotoscoped.

 

[dukeoflegs]

Those artists must have read up on Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas's 12 principles of animation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation), because those character animations are fucking beautiful.

 

[Stone Ocean]

Wasn't street fighter 3 that started using 3d models and animations for reference/rotoscoping ?

I know some elena stuff clearly comes from 3d

Elena was basically a big tech demo for CPS3.

 

[Krammy]

It's Oro's cr.HK.

cr.Hk

Thanks, here it is.

And on that glorious 7th frame...!!

On one of the behind the scenes pages, they talk about naked characters, including Oro!

I've hung out with old school Capcom people who told me that a lot would work off pen and paper and reproduce that, but others would literally jump into the art creation tool and just do that shit pixel by pixel without reference. Apparently the early toolset was along the lines of "move to this pixel position with the arrow keys, then press one of 16 keys that correspond to the colors you've got available." He insinuated the people who did this were utterly insane.

I'd love to hear more about Capcom's toolset, but this sounds brutal as hell.

 

[Celcius]

Now I've got to fire up some 3rd Strike!
Definitely interested in learning more about the development process for CPS3.

 

[Vital Tundra]

Man everything has "oomph" to it. Al lthe energy attacks are drawn with their cloths and hair reacting appropriately. One thing I wish they tried to do with 4 and 5, where its just a flat physics kinda thing that isn't actually worked on per move.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Great thread.

Sometimes I boot up this game just to see the sprites in motion. It's so beautiful to look at.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Only Arc system works with BB has gotten close. Alpha 3 is my favorite SF game but SF3 is the highest quality SF game objectively

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

The story behind this is so damn dope and funny; and shows crazy dedication.

What's the story?

Link?

Echoing this.

 

[jett]

SF3 has such amazing spritework. Really the apex of the artform.

 

[katsubento]

Yes, III had the most gorgeous animation. I wished IV and V had animation like it in 3D form

 

[UrbanDandy]

Cool

 

[jett]

Yeah, I couldn't find any information on this, but I agree that something must have been done to get Elena's animations. She's also lacking lots of details like fingers and toes in most frames, and for that reason, she's my least favourite character in the game in terms of graphics.

Low tier boiz unite!

I can never unsee this now. :|

 

[Snakeyes]

Man, the difference in the quality of Street Fighter's art direction before and after its 00s hiatus is like night and day. Was there a significant exodus of talent from Capcom after CvS2?

 

[WarRock]

Yeah, I couldn't find any information on this, but I agree that something must have been done to get Elena's animations. She's also lacking lots of details like fingers and toes in most frames, and for that reason, she's my least favourite character in the game in terms of graphics.
http://68.media.tumblr.com/0f0fa34c5dd14918e17959ef45671f3b/tumblr_inline_o4p8pzIOdg1ri065t_500.gif http://68.media.tumblr.com/d3eadb7feba22d2b19b08b0b9c7660be/tumblr_inline_o4p8px0YgG1ri065t_500.gif


Low tier boiz unite!


http://68.media.tumblr.com/49037f1a85853f453406a19c171896f0/tumblr_inline_o4p8q1bvl51ri065t_500.gif

Elena used photos of one of the staff members that practiced capoeira. I remember seeing pictures of that in some old 1up blog.

 

[Taco_Human]

I saw an actual cabinet with this game a few months ago. My mind was blown how beautiful SF3 is, I fell in love and played it as much as I could when I did.

I wish I had a personal arcade machine.... someday...,

 

[L Thammy]

Man, the difference in the quality of Street Fighter's art direction before and after its 00s hiatus is like night and day. Was there a significant exodus of talent from Capcom after CvS2?

It might just be that Street Fighter 3's animation quality was too expensive to continue with. CvS2 was part of the great era of Blatant Asset Reuse, wherein Capcom didn't even give a shit if the artstyles of their sprites meshed together.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the individual sprites from CvS2 look like they're of similar quality, but the animations have fewer frames and aren't as fluid.

EDIT: Oh, after CvS2. Nevermind.

 

[Sectorseven]

Man, the difference in the quality of Street Fighter's art direction before and after its 00s hiatus is like night and day. Was there a significant exodus of talent from Capcom after CvS2?

I guess you could say that. In a lot of ways it was similar to Hollywood with the transition from practical effects to CGI, a lot of the old talent moved on and you could never put that lightning back in the bottle.

 

[OricWindstar]

As someone trying to teach themselves animation, this game gives me anxiety. Such fucking smooth animation.

 

[Syril]

Man, the difference in the quality of Street Fighter's art direction before and after its 00s hiatus is like night and day. Was there a significant exodus of talent from Capcom after CvS2?

They had kind of given up on fighting games for most of the 2000s. They've mentioned that SF4's development was about 70% from Dimps because at the time they didn't have what it took to actually make a fighting game themselves anymore.

It might just be that Street Fighter 3's animation quality was too expensive to continue with. CvS2 was part of the great era of Blatant Asset Reuse, wherein Capcom didn't even give a shit if the artstyles of their sprites meshed together.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the individual sprites from CvS2 look like they're of similar quality, but the animations have fewer frames and aren't as fluid.

Haohmaru and God Rugal were some of the better ones too. The Chun-Li and Yun sprites looked like they took the SF3 sprites and hacked away most of the animation.

 

[Barkley's Justice]

The story behind this is so damn dope and funny; and shows crazy dedication.

?

 

[Remapped88]

Best sprites ever imo, everything from the colors to the style to just the animation itself is just godlike. I love SF3's sprites soooooo much that it got me into spriting/pixel art for a few years....really miss doing it tbh. It's really hard at the beginning but man, once you get into it, it's just a whole lot of fun to do custom sprites of characters you love. Also while not as well animated as SF3's sprites, I really loved CVS2's style as well.

 

[RoninChaos]

Still the greatest fight of all time. Shame a lot of people didn't like the party system. I don't think we would have had the fighting game drought if street fighter III had the original cast.

It is still my favorite fighting game. I love it when we bust out the cabs at final round. It's like playing a time machine.

 

[dcx4610]

The last good Street Fighter. 4 and 5 were a huge step back in my eyes. More hand draw sprites, less bad 3D models.

 

[Nuu]

I really don't care what people say. On average sprite based game with love and care will look much better than a 3D equivalent. Third Strike was the pinnacle and KOF XIII looked gorgeous. Unfortunately, it only seems that Blazblue is the last of the high profile sprite based fighters. To be fair almost all 2D indie fighters are sprite based or at least use 2D graphics, but with the exception of Skullgirls they don't have the production/dedication. Trajes Fatales is the closest to SNK/Capcom's 90's work and its just merely average.

Still the greatest fight of all time. Shame a lot of people didn't like the party system. I don't think we would have had the fighting game drought if street fighter III had the original cast.

It is still my favorite fighting game. I love it when we bust out the cabs at final round. It's like playing a time machine.

Street Fighter III has much bigger problems upon release than using a new generation of characters.

It was:

- On an expensive new arcade machine at the time when arcades were dying everywhere but Japan.

- SFIII: NG was pure dogshit.

- Came right while the Alpha series was still hot.

I couldn't see the game being a major hit unless the Alpha series never existed.

 

[VariantX]

Q's SA3 looked like it had 3000 frames of animation, lol

Feels like Q has more animation than the entirety of the SF2 WW cast looking how uncanny valley some of his animations are

 

[L Thammy]

Street Fighter III has much bigger problems upon release than using a new generation of characters.

It was:

- On an expensive new arcade machine at the time when arcades were dying everywhere but Japan.

- SFIII: NG was pure dogshit.

- Came right while the Alpha series was still hot.

I couldn't see the game being a major hit unless the Alpha series never existed.

The arcade machine also destroyed itself when mishandled and arcade owners had the alternative of getting machines which could have their games swapped out more easily.

Plus there was a genuine contempt for 2D games for a while after 3D games were first introduced.

 

[Sectorseven]

Street Fighter III has much bigger problems upon release than using a new generation of characters.

It was:

- On an expensive new arcade machine at the time when arcades were dying everywhere but Japan.

- SFIII: NG was pure dogshit.

- Came right while the Alpha series was still hot.

I couldn't see the game being a major hit unless the Alpha series never existed.

I know for me the presentation was just a total miss at the time. I mean, each individual part was fine on it's own, but the culmination just felt like nothing recognizable. Aesthetically, it looked nothing like II, the music sounded nothing like II, and the barrier to entry was much higher. Even the marquee was overly simplistic. It just said "three." I remember walking into the arcade and taking a minute to even realize what I was looking at.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

Street Fighter 3 is still the pinnacle of sprite-based fighting games. I personally doubt its animation will ever be topped.

A hadoken alone is amazing to look at:

Yup. One of the first things my friends and I noticed when we first played a New Generation cabinet was just how... well... "beautiful" the Hadoken animation looked. And it was made even more pleasing to the eye because that Hadoken was happening in this stage:

 

[Nuu]

I know for me the presentation was just a total miss at the time. I mean, each individual part was fine on it's own, but the culmination just felt like nothing recognizable. Aesthetically, it looked nothing like II, the music sounded nothing like II, and the barrier to entry was much higher. Even the marquee was overly simplistic. It just said "three." I remember walking into the arcade and taking a minute to even realize what I was looking at.

This is all true. People don't realize that Street Fighter III wasn't Street Fighter III until Third Strike.

 

[Tizoc]

Feels like Q has more animation than the entirety of the SF2 WW cast looking how uncanny valley some of his animations are

Ever looked very closesly at the frames of his qcf+k follow up of his sa3 super?

 

[Syril]

I know for me the presentation was just a total miss at the time. I mean, each individual part was fine on it's own, but the culmination just felt like nothing recognizable. Aesthetically, it looked nothing like II, the music sounded nothing like II, and the barrier to entry was much higher. Even the marquee was overly simplistic. It just said "three." I remember walking into the arcade and taking a minute to even realize what I was looking at.

Seriously.

It's funny because they already had a perfectly good logo to use.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Echoing this.

Gotta find the link but long story short. Dudley originally didn't throw a flower but one of the juniors suggested it, but in order to add it they had to program new tech to handle it.

I really don't care what people say. On average sprite based game with love and care will look much better than a 3D equivalent. Third Strike was the pinnacle and KOF XIII looked gorgeous. Unfortunately, it only seems that Blazblue is the last of the high profile sprite based fighters. To be fair almost all 2D indie fighters are sprite based or at least use 2D graphics, but with the exception of Skullgirls they don't have the production/dedication. Trajes Fatales is the closest to SNK/Capcom's 90's work and its just merely average.



Street Fighter III has much bigger problems upon release than using a new generation of characters.

It was:

- On an expensive new arcade machine at the time when arcades were dying everywhere but Japan.

- SFIII: NG was pure dogshit.

- Came right while the Alpha series was still hot.


I couldn't see the game being a major hit unless the Alpha series never existed.

Also add in, Dreamcast was dying.

 

[morpix]

This game and the swing animation in Neo Turf Masters... SO GOOD!

 

[Syril]

Also add in, Dreamcast was dying.

Remember this was 1997. It would be almost two years before there was a Dreamcast in the first place.

 

[Mike M]

Yup. One of the first things my friends and I noticed when we first played a New Generation cabinet was just how... well... "beautiful" the Hadoken animation looked. And it was made even more pleasing to the eye because that Hadoken was happening in this stage:

One significant fly in the ointment for me with 3S was that a lot of the backgrounds were a step back from previous installments. Ibuki and Elena's stages were monochromatic bores, and characters sharing backgrounds like it was Street Fighter Alpha 1 and not the third version of the game was inexcusable (Yang and Yun excepted).

 

[rackham]

Put it in HD resolution and the game looks better than Street Fighter IV and V

 

[Tain]

legitimately don't think pixel art will go beyond these heights again

 

[The Lone Dragon]

This game series is legit my favorite animated work of all time.

Above television and film..Disney, Pixar, anime...it's SF3.

It's perfect.

 

[Nuu]

Put it in HD resolution and the game looks better than Street Fighter IV and V

Pixel art doesn't work like that.

legitimately don't think pixel art will go beyond these heights again

Animation wise for pixel art? Probably. But pixel art graphics? KOF XIII has it beat. Unfortunately, SNK isn't a big enough company to come out with frequent pixel art fighters like Arc System Works. Though to be fair KOF HD sprite process was insane as each character took almost a full year to do (more than double the time for Blazblue characters).

 

[Tain]

Put it in HD resolution and the game looks better than Street Fighter IV and V

This art simply cannot exist in HD. The pixel count gulf is so vast that any HD redraw would be an absolute minefield, almost certain to cause the game's visual consistency to nosedive.

That's fine tho, cuz even in 240p it looks better than SF4 and SF5.

 

[InfiniteCombo]

One significant fly in the ointment for me with 3S was that a lot of the backgrounds were a step back from previous installments. Ibuki and Elena's stages were monochromatic bores, and characters sharing backgrounds like it was Street Fighter Alpha 1 and not the third version of the game was inexcusable (Yang and Yun excepted).

PREACH.

 

[Syril]

Animation wise for pixel art? Probably. But pixel art graphics? KOF XIII has it beat. Unfortunately, SNK isn't a big enough company to come out with frequent pixel art fighters like Arc System Works. Though to be fair KOF HD sprite process was insane as each character took almost a full year to do (more than double the time for Blazblue characters).

You know it took way too long when they had to resort to just palette swapping Athena instead of changing her costume.

 

[Remapped88]

One significant fly in the ointment for me with 3S was that a lot of the backgrounds were a step back from previous installments. Ibuki and Elena's stages were monochromatic bores, and characters sharing backgrounds like it was Street Fighter Alpha 1 and not the third version of the game was inexcusable (Yang and Yun excepted).

That's how I feel also. I mean I don't hate them at all but they are definitely a step back from the vanilla game and 2I visual wise.

 

[Nuu]

This art simply cannot exist in HD. The pixel count gulf is so vast that any HD redraw would be an absolute minefield, almost certain to cause the game's visual consistency to nosedive.

That's fine tho, cuz even in 240p it looks better than SF4 and SF5.

Capcom could easily do HD sprites of SFIII if they wanted to. If SNK could do it, so could Capcom. But being that Capcom is animating their 3D models cheaply as it is....

 

[Nuu]

You know it took way too long when they had to resort to just palette swapping Athena instead of changing her costume.

The time it takes to create a character with 2D graphics widely depend on how the artstyle.

For reference:

Arcana Heart/Trajes Fatales - ~2 months
Skullgirls - ~ 4 months
Blazblue - ~ 5 months
King of Fighters XIII - ~11 months

Insane.

For the record a 3D model takes like a month to make. With Xrd models taking like ~2 or 3 months. Though to be fair, I'm sure scaling for a big company makes things different. Also, keep in mind that each of these games have different frame counts. Skullgirls for example has more than double the framecount as a Xrd characters does with much more detailed and crazier animation.

 

[Remapped88]

Pixel art doesn't work like that.



Animation wise for pixel art? Probably. But pixel art graphics? KOF XIII has it beat. Unfortunately, SNK isn't a big enough company to come out with frequent pixel art fighters like Arc System Works. Though to be fair KOF HD sprite process was insane as each character took almost a full year to do (more than double the time for Blazblue characters).

Definitely not but it's up there. XIII looks great but overall it doesn't have animations as smooth/fluid as SF3 does. Have you seen when they get K.O'ed? It's only like 2-3 frames of animation and it always takes me out of the game because of how bad it looks in comparison to the rest of the animations. The slow motion of it only adds at how off it looks.

 

[Nuu]

Definitely not but it's up there. XIII looks great but overall it doesn't have animations as smooth/fluid as SF3 does. Have you seen when they get K.O'ed? It's only like 2-3 frames of animation and it always takes me out of the game because of how bad it looks in comparison to the rest of the animations. The slow motion of it only adds at how off it looks.

That's why I said animation wise it probably doesn't, but graphics wise it has it beat IMO.

 

[Neoxon]

Capcom could easily do HD sprites of SFIII if they wanted to. If SNK could do it, so could Capcom. But being that Capcom is animating their 3D models cheaply as it is....

The problem is that SFIII-tier sprite work would be insanely expensive in HD.

 

[Cipherr]

SF3 (I believe it was 3s) will always be special to me. It was the very last time I remember going to an arcade and seeing a visual spectacle that I didn't believe current gen consoles could handle.

Arcades started to vanish from around my area after that era. I really miss it.

But yeah. Walking up to that cabinet and seeing the attract mode battles, I was like "what the fuck am I looking at". I didnt realize at the time WHAT the difference was, but I knew it looked smooth as hell.