ARMS art director on Min-Min’s design, approach to female characters, designing legs
Posted on June 9, 2017 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch
Kotaku recently spoke with Masaaki Ishikawa, the art director for ARMS. Ishikawa weighed in on Min-Min’s design, the fighter’s female characters, and the thought process behind designing legs.
Read up on what Ishikawa said below. You can check out Kotaku’s original piece here.
On Min-Min’s design…
“She’s a female character that’s not too cutesy, and her sporty outfit—including the ramen bowl inspired beanie and dragon motif accessories—also contributes to her popularity.”
“Back when the character was in development, we saw a lot of women wearing shallow beanies over here in Japan. This was right around the time when we were thinking about a ramen-themed female character. It hit us that maybe we can cleverly combine this beanie fashion with an upside-down ramen bowl. That’s how it got incorporated into the design.”
“[It] widens out at the end resembles the curves of uncooked ramen noodles. We also thought this hairstyle would go well with a beanie. That’s how Min Min’s hairstyle came about.”
On how the team tried to strike a balance between femininity and athleticism for the female characters…
“We made the face and facial expressions feel like something out of an animated movie to give a sense of familiarity. We arranged the facial parts by centering them around the eyes, taking into account the positioning and balance. We thought we could create simple and easy to read expressions that the audience can relate to.”
On designing the character legs…
“When facing away from the screen, the legs convey the most information about how the character will move. We designed the legs to have clear definition so movements are easy to see even from a distance. As a result, the silhouettes of the characters resemble those of trained athletes.”
Bonus: some new concept art:
