Street Fighter X Tekken Artbook - Nina-centric artwork and commentary

UDON Entertainment just recently released the English version of the Japanese artbook Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks. I've been waiting for this ever since I flipped through the Japanese one, realizing that there is commentary by the creators on almost every single picture. I'd feel really bad asking a Japanese friend to translate a whole book for me, so I was extremely relieved to hear that the wonderful people at UDON were working on an official translation. It took some time for it to come out, but what we got in the end was absolutely worth the long wait. It's 191 pages packed with character and production artwork, rough sketches, costume designs and creator commentary. There are interviews with Polygon Pictures, Akiman, Dimps and Namco Bandai's own Yoshinari Mizushima (Tekken's Visual Design Supervisor) and  Kenji Kimura (Art Director of Tekken X Street Fighter!!!). The artworks are gorgeous, as is the book; top-quality paper, detail-rich print, subtly embossed high-grade cover, effective easy-on-the-eyes layouts; it's everything an artbook should be.

Lots of pictures after the jump...

Japanese Collector's Edition Package Art by Kazuma Teshigawara @ Polygon Pictures. "I couldn't include every single character, and narrowing down my choices was the hardest part. [...] Since the regular edition's package art was about conflict between Street Fighter and Tekken, I wanted the teams to be intermingled for the collector's edition."

"Street Fighter X Tekken Master Guide" Cover Art by Endo Uichiro @ Capcom's development team. "At first, I had each character partnered up with a character from the other team, but I changed my mind just prior to the final draft. [...] I had only just started using Photoshop CS5's image rotation feature, and I was so excited by it that I remember spinning this piece around gratuitously while working on it."

Nina Williams Character Visual by Kazuma Teshigawara @ Polygon Pictures. "Since Kazuya was making a frontal assault on the Street Fighter world, I wanted Nina to be taking advantage of that opportunity by flanking the enemy while they were distracted by Kazuya's bold antics. I drew this piece pretty early on, so we hadn't yet established the flow of transferring the 3D models into the illustrating process. That meant I had to spend a lot of time struggling with the complex costume design and the camouflage pattern. I was starting to worry about deadlines while working on this piece, so when it was approved, it gave me a real sense of hope with regard to all of the other character illustrations."

Tekken Team: "Nina is the woman who led the way for female characters early on in the Tekken series. We wanted to give her an aloof kind of coldness, something akin to Kazuya's character. She hasn't had an easy life, having been constantly locked in deathmatches with her younger sister Anna and put into a cold sleep for 19 years, but Nina is a cool beauty who doesn't let it show that she does indeed carry the weight of a heavy fate upon her shoulders."

"Nina appears in SFxTK with the outfit she wore in Tekken 6. Her cool, sharp gaze was carefully incorporated into her SFxTK model."

"Nina's potential costume ideas included things like a futuristic bodysuit as well as something that makes her look like a Shadaloo operative."

Dimps: "While trying to achieve a balance with her partner Kazuya, we once again took our efforts too far and had to tweak Nina a bit in order to make her milder. She was one of the first characters we worked on, so she took more time than the others to fit into 'Street Fighter Proportions'."

Street Fighter X Tekken Trailer Episode 1. "Ryu and Ken, Kazuya and Nina; these are the official main character tag teams for this game. Episode 1 of the trailer depicts an action-intensive battle that showcases the exciting chaos of a four-person fight, which of course is the main draw of a tag team fighting game. This episode also makes plentiful use of the water effect, which is the official visual theme of SFxTK."

Toshio Ohashi @ Polygon Pictures: "The sumi ink for Street Fighter IV was all drawn by hand, but the pattern of the water used in this game was first calculated in a physics simulator."

Character Select Idea.

Street Fighter X Tekken Prologue: Kazuya & Nina. "When playing in Arcade Mode using an official tag team, the player is treated to a unique story specific to those characters. [...] Each rough sketch is displayed next to the equivalent final image, [...]."

Kazuma Teshigawara @ Polygon Pictures: "We adjusted the art style a bit for each official tag team. We thought it would look good to have each prologue look like an independant piece from an art collection of numerous artists."

Street Fighter X Tekken Ending: Kazuya & Nina. Toshio Ohashi @ Polygon Pictures: "I would say that this ending is the most 'cinematic' of all the endings. It's got a serious atmosphere, a dramatic turn of events, and plenty of suspense. Both Kazuya and Nina are pretty deep characters, so they played off of one another like two of Hollywood's A-list stars."

UDON Entertainment Corporation is a publisher of original comic books, graphic novels, and art books. UDON’s best-known projects are those based on popular video game franchises such as Street Fighter, Okami, Mega Man, Darksiders, Valkyria Chronicles and more. The publisher’s ever-growing library also includes English editions of several Japanese manga titles, the anthology art book series Apple, and the Manga for Kids line for children ages 7-12.. This is their website and this is their twitter.

POLYGON PICTURES Inc. is a Japanese 3DCG anime studio. They have animated a wide variety of content for such renowned names as Shiseido and Production I.G. and have worked on videogame titles such as Onimusha 2, Dead or Alive 4, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken. Click the following links for their website and their twitter.

Dimps is a Japan based video game development studio with offices in Osaka and Tokyo. Employing a staff of 218 people, it is known for developing such games as the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai trilogy and various Sonic titles, as well as co-developing Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken. Here you can visit their website.

Kazuma Teshigawara works at Polygon Pictures and handled the character illustrations as Street Fighter X Tekken's Chief Designer. He holds this position since Street Fighter IV. Amongst other titles he has also worked on KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation A, Dead or Alive 4 and Dead or Alive Xtreme 2.

Toshio Ohashi is a Technical/Animation/CG Director at Polygon Pictures and was the Art Director for Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV and "flexed his artistic muscles for Street Fighter X Tekken as well". Besides Street Fighter he has worked on Marvel VS Capcom 3, Dead or Alive 4, Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad/Bikini Zombie Slayers, Onimusha 2 and Resident Evil 5, among others.