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Capcom Legends interview with Nuri (art director DGS)Topic%20Title
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迷探偵

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Capcom has put a new "Capcom Legends" interview on their site, this time with AA illustrator NURI Kazuya. It's very informative interview on character designing, but also very long, so I'm just going through the main points.

Nuri Kazuya studied Economics in university, entered a company after that, but switched to Capcom in '99. Illustrators & mangaka he likes / was influenced by are HARA Tetsuo (Fist of the North Star), OZAWA Satoru (Submarine 707).

He was first added to the Breath of Fire team, where his first job was a character 'dotter' (sprite artist) for BoF IV. With BoF V, he helped with character designs, 3D modeling & some animation. After BoF, he did Demento, and then moved on to Ace Attorney, doing character design and original art until AA4, and then art director & character designer for Professor Layton VS AA. And he also did some work for the Capcom Lounge in PS Home.

Nuri was asked by producer Matsukawa if he was interested to become the new illustrator for AA around the time AA3 (GBA) was released. He had just started playing the first game and loved it, so the timing was great (Matsukawa asked Nuri this in an udon restaurant by the way). Takumi had Nuri draw the four main characters as a test, and he loved it. Those illustrations are on the cover of AA1 (DS) (Japanese version).

Nuri designs his characters to look simple, but to actually convey a lot of information. A large part of this comes from making a basic 'cel' of a character and putting shaders on it, giving the illusion of depth. For Layton VS AA, he focused on doing stuff they could only do in 3D, while keeping the good points of the 2D era. For DGS, he wanted the graphics to have an 'illustration-like' touch to it and convey the feel of the material of the clothing and objects of the period.

Nuri's favorite AA characters are:
- Apollo (first protagonist he designed. He kept a balance between "looking cool" and "easy to get attached to" by playing with his expressions).
- Ema (first character Nuri designed. Also because he was able to draw her in different stages in her life).
- Gant (did a lot of work on his design and animations. Thinks he's a real AA-like character who leaves an impression).
- Darklaw (has a lot of elements Nuri himself likes. They also got the voice actress he wanted for her).

Capcom characters are often designed so their silhouette is recognizable, which is especially important for action games (so you can see your own character). With AA, this is a bit different, as they need to be recognizable only from the chest up. For DGS, the characters tend to have a more 'realistic' touch to them, as their (more realistic) expressions and movements are necessary for their roles. Witness and jury members on the other hand tend to be more comic-like, so you can recognize them instantly even if they are all sitting next to each other.

What he did with the DGS characters was:
-Ryuunosuke: the student uniform was so you could instantly set him apart from Phoenix. The hairstyle was the most difficult; Phoenix' silhouette might be very recognizable, but such a hairstyle wouldn't fit Meiji at all. Nuri tried a lot with the few hairstyles available around the time, and he did around 50 variations.
- Susato: starting with the keyword Yamato Nadeshiko, Nuri made sure she looked the part as someone with a good upbringing and gave her a 'sorta-believable, but actually not possible' hairdo. The sakura family emblem was to emphasize the Japanese theme. The overall design is fairly subdued, to contrast with the English team.
- Asougi: clothes are designed to be more influenced by both Japanese and Western culture than Ryuunosuke. The headband fluttering in the wind was something they could only do in 3D and was something Nuri really wanted.
- Holmes: Nuri made a lot of designs for him: Depresssive Holmes / Cute Holmes / Adventure Holmes / Dark Holmes / the Sleeping Holmes, but they settled on a slightly arranged version of a 'classic' Holmes, that worked to contrast with his actual personality. The pistol is for contrast with Ryuunosuke's sword.
- Iris: the keyword "genius girl" invoked ideas of gothic and 'mad-scientist' elements. Details were made so she would look good on the screen together with Holmes.
- Barok: Death God -> vampire, wolf, fallen angel ideas. Nuri used those elements to make a upper-class type of character.

For AA, unique characters and showy movements are important, but for DGS, these characters needed also to look the period. It was difficult to come up with characters considering the more limited choice in clothes and hairstyles then. Everyone had a suit, had and a mustache then, so he had to bring out their personalities in different ways.
"One dumbbell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumbbell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" - The Valley of Fear
Re: Capcom Legends interview with Nuri (art director DGS)Topic%20Title
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The video game boy; the one who wins

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Oh, that was really interesting :edgey:
(......Ack! I've run out of snide comments!)
Re: Capcom Legends interview with Nuri (art director DGS)Topic%20Title
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[Whip the cream!]

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Agreed, it really was!
Gimme a "P"! Gimme an "I"! Give me a "P" and an "E"! What's that spell?! Pipe!
Re: Capcom Legends interview with Nuri (art director DGS)Topic%20Title
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Breakdown

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Darklaw was one of my top favorite character designs since the OT. Cool to see she was one of the creator's personal favorite.
Re: Capcom Legends interview with Nuri (art director DGS)Topic%20Title
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I am saddled with unnecessary feelings.

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I find it very interesting indeed, concerning his interesting background of having to go from Economics to becoming the main lead Art Director for such a beautiful game franchise.

Also such details of his thinking process when it comes to concepts for character, and knowing the contrast he attempts with them, such as Sherlock's gun, Asouji's sword, etc etc.

Very inspiring indeed, ah the wonderful and creative life of such a role.
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Re: Capcom Legends interview with Nuri (art director DGS)Topic%20Title
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元・超会社員級の管理人

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Quote:
a 'sorta-believable, but actually not possible' hairdo


I love Ace Attorney character design.
Hi! I've largely stepped back from C-R due to life stuff. Please contact one of the other staff members for help!

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