For your viewing pleasure, here is every single frame of Akuma/Gouki's special intro from the Capcom vs SNK games, presented frame by frame at 8x size.
First, the animation in full!
(A thread...)
#PixelArt #SpriteArt #Akuma #豪鬼 #CVS2
Right off the bat, Frame 1/18 is quite unusual! Akuma/Gouki is dropping from the sky so he's drawn much smaller in this first frame, to convey distance. I can't recall any other instances of an in-game Capcom Fighting Game sprite playing with size/distance like this!
In Frame 2/18 he's at regular in-game size. Such an amazing anticipation pose! Arm rearing back ready to unleash hell. Front arm adding to the torque covering half the face. One glowing eye exposed. And those perfectly flat side view legs! Those feet! Love it!
Frame 3/18. Awesome in-between frame. Love that he leads the movement with the twist of his torso, the striking arm trailing behind the shoulder. Legs relax, so you feel the weight traveling up to that arm! This is the very definition of "bearing down"!
IMPACT on Frame 4/18! While the figure was very loose on the previous frame, he looks ROCK SOLID at the moment of impact (which is ideally how you're supposed to strike!). That arm looks so strong! And I love the sharp angles on his legs!
Frame 5/18. The deathblow has already occurred on the previous frame. Note how little it actually overshot. No need to push this animation too much. His form is PERFECT. He is in total control. His body relaxes here, yet it still looks so SOLID.
Frame 6/18. Body is perfectly still. Just secondary animation on the hair, necklace, clothes, still catching up to this motion. He can close his eyes because he knows the attack was a success.
Frame 7/18. Body is again perfectly still. Follow-through animation on hair, necklace, gi and belt continue. He is perfectly at peace here.
8/18. Follow-through is complete. Brief moment of zen is over. Eyes open,, body springs back into action like a well oiled machine. This is some INCREDIBLE sprite art going on here. This is an in-game sprite, but it conveys as much information as a full portrait!
#PixelArt
9/18. The snap to erect posture here is SO DAMN GOOD. His movements are like a beautiful karate kata. Look at how volumetric is face is! And how the beads just blend into the shadow underneath his jaw. It's so expressionistic! All in-game, super low rez, 16 colors!
10/18. THIS. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD FRAME. This is legitimately one of my favorite illustrations of Gouki/Akuma and it's an in-game sprite! It's like watching a Nio-Guardian perform a kata. It's AWESOME!
#仁王 #PixelArt
Side note about frame 10/18. Look at how his left eye (our right) is shaded much darker than his right eye. This makes it look like his left brow is down while the right brow is up! Incredibly sophisticated color theory! With only 16 colors to work with!
#PixelArt
11/18. What more can I say? Every single frame of this animation is an amazing standalone work of art. If someone sculpted this, it would be one of the most beautiful works of Buddhist art ever made.
12/18. His movements are so precise. He's brimming with both RAGE and DISCIPLINE! The solid form of a master karateka. The curled fingers of a wrathful Buddhist deity! And look at how that one 1-pixel red eye is just barely visible! ITS SO GOOD TT____TT.
13/18. It just keeps going and going. One masterful illustration after another, in in-game sprite form! Look at how much information you can extract from this. It's so utterly solid. It's "pixel perfect."
14/18. Awwww yeah here we go! The moment Akuma fans have all been waiting for!
15/18 as he begins to strike his iconic taunt pose, look at how the details drop out. There are barely any outlines in this frame! Just blocks of solid color! But they're so SCULPTURAL. You don't feel like you're missing any information!
16/18. Here's the money shot! Look at how much detail gets dropped out! His gi is almost a single flat tone except for the sophisticated rim lighting! It's so GRAPHIC. Heightens the iconography of the pose!
17/18. There's only some subtle movement of his forearm, conveying just how tightly he's clenching that forward fist!
18/18. Back to full color! The pose fighting gamers have come to know and love. What a reveal! You can practically hear him grunt "HMMM!!!"
BTW you wanna know why Akuma/Gouki keeps his mouth shut almost all the time? It's a reference to the Nio statues that stand guard at Buddhist temples. They come in pairs representing life and the beginning (Agyo/Ryu) and death and the end (Ungyo/Akuma)
Here's the full animation again, this time at slow motion. Please take some time to really savor it. Something I LOVE about Capcom 2D animation at it's best... it plays so fast in-game. It works so well as a whole. But it also holds up frame by frame. It's incredible!
#PixelArt
Oh also, here's the animation with more context. This is actually a special intro from Capcom vs SNK where you think you're gonna fight Bison/Vega but then Akuma/Gouki squashes him like a mosquito! And you're next!
#SpriteArt #CVS2
I put together these animations using sprites ripped by "Insanius" and uploaded to The Spriters Resource.
Source:
spriters-resource.com/playstation_2/…
#PixelArt
Insanius is a PROLIFIC sprite ripper. You can see more of their work here:
spriters-resource.com/submitter/Insa…
The Capcom vs SNK games are a treasure. The new sprites that they made for those games are PHENOMENAL. They were the last original fighting game sprites that Capcom ever made! They are the culmination of DECADES of expertise!
This is what peak performance looks like.
More Capcom vs SNK love here
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