Street Fighter 2 Fan Art work flow

This project was a start for me to interested in making 3d illustrations.

I grew up with street fighter2. I liked the game but I was too shy to play the game with other players at the arcade center.

1. Research and Idea

I gathered pictures of the game. Street fighter2 is an old game, so it was not easy to find references. There is a new version of the street fighter on the market already, but I wanted to recreate the old version with memory. I choose 2~3 main items that represent the character and stage then placed them nicely.

Idea item sketch and reference of street fighter. Dhalsim and Ken.

Honda Idea sketch

Chun-li Idea sketch

2. Storytelling and Thumbnail sketch

I wanted to tell a story of the art. When I play the game, I saw a new background scene for each new stage. So, I imagined the game is a world, and characters are waiting for a game player to come to their stage to challenge. I was wondering if it is so, what characters would be doing while they are waiting for a new challenger. For example, Honda fights in a Sento. However, he might not be always stand by with a scary idle pose. When he is not fighting, he must be the same as another human like us. So, I decided to give the characters' Off time for the illustrations.

Honda is taking a bath while he is waiting for a new challenger in his stage.

3. Add detail on the concept

I placed gray boxes to see the composition. Sometimes, I make gray box scenes before sketches. These works are back and force. Then, I searched for reference pictures of the texture for more detail and made a map. It helps me to understand the materials of props when I am texturing.

Graybox Blockout

Materials and Reference Map

3. Modeling and Texturing

I keep simple and clear wireframe for game art modeling. If it was only for illustration redering scene, the models would be ok with highpoly. I tried most edges are straight because it makes UV unwrapping easy for me.

I textured with Substance Painter. I used basic materials that provide in Substance painter, Pictures, and hand-painting as well.

Since this is an illustration piece I did not work on basking but I made normal maps for tiles.

4. Rendering and post-production

I rendered street fighter2 fanart with Arnold in 3dmaya. I set lights for each character's moods.

Therefore, After I exported textures from Substance painter, I made Ai standard surface shades and imported the textures. I used photoshop for working on the background for each character.

The final piece of Honda illustration

Working on the individual concepts for eight different characters of illustrations was not easy. However, I had lots of fun with it. I enjoyed expressing my storytelling in the illustrations.

All eights characters together