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Over 20 years ago, Capcom created an anatomical reference guide that is apparently still in use today when bringing characters to life.




According to Gamasutra, Capcom art director Toshiyuki Kamei discussed the guide at GDC in 2017. (Capcom Japan published it online.)

Kamei said that the guide dates back to the mid-1990s and was overseen by then in-house artist Akira Yasuda. It contains detailed listings of different muscles and shows how they work with bone structure.


Even though it was originally intended for sprite design, the reference material continues to inform and instruct young Capcom artists so they know how to make, for example, Street Fighter characters that look like Street Fighter characters.




“It’s a pretty old document,” said Kamei. “But still very valuable to us.”


For more, check out Capcom’s official site. (Gvaat.com did a translation of the guide, which can be found here.)

