Caricaturization and Musculature in Character Design

[linkfire12]

Hi all! Lurker who wanted to express some thoughts. If this needs to be relocated into a separate thread, or is somehow inappropriate let me know, I didn't really find anything discussing this.

Caricatures and larger than life characters have been a huge stable of almost every fighting game since its conception, serving both artistic and mechanical purpose. Oftentimes aspects of a characters design or personality are expressed through their body shape, and their design is built to emphasize their mechanical hitbox's and priorities, to make each fighter unique and distinct from one another.

Mortal Kombat would be closer to the "realistic" spectrum, but the larger than life designs for characters has been a significant part of the fighter's personality and gameplay style since the games conception. The male characters obviously have exceptionally unrealistic builds, looking like anything even closely resembling them in real life would take steroids or other incredibly unhealthy drugs, or a dedicated body building obsession with heavy eating and very specific tasks every single day (and arguably quite unhealthy). It would be impossible for a martial artist to look anything close to what these characters do. But that is absolutely okay, great even, fictional mediums allow artists to create and show the world things that we only imagine. Unique body frames are a small part of the creative imaginings designers can utilize in games, art and animation.

Something you actually very rarely see in games is muscular female characters, and I greatly enjoyed that Mortal Kombat (in particular MK9) had badass, iconic fighters with powerful frames and strong figures. It really emphasized their representation as the worlds best fighters, in a tournament only the best of the best from all the realms could hope to enter. Their unique designs and strong muscular aesthetic brought power and weight to their attacks, and showed they were a serious threat on the battlefield, that worked hard to get where they were now.

I find is very odd (and slightly disappointing), that for both MKX and now 11, aspects of strength and muscularity are heavily de-emphasized for the women of Mortal Kombat. Men have utterly insane tree trunk frames (debatably even more so now) and huge bulky figures that are all but impossible to achieve healthily, especially for professional fighters. But women's frames have been severely minimized in definition, frame, height and stature. Making them look small even as they stand tall as the worlds best.

This is obviously subjective, but I really enjoy these larger than life designs as a part of MK's identity as a world and game, so I'm personally a little sad that iconic characters like Sheeva, Sonya and Jade, have been severely reduced in their artistic presence.

Sheeva is especially odd, (irrelevant of discussions on faces or outfit designs) her new design looks bizarre to me, considering her iconic powerful frame has been severely reduced, and it looks especially unusual when she stands next to the ridiculous frame of characters like Kotal Kahn.


It looks unusual when throwback art to MK9, visibly minimizes the definition of female characters, but keeps the men's hulking stature.

Even with Injustice 2, concept models for characters like Cheetah I feel would have looked fantastic, and I genuinely wonder why it wasn't present in the final game.

I'm sure what I'm saying is personal bias as well, but I genuinely loved those body/art designs, and I'm quite sad to see them gone, I'm genuinely curious as to why that was made the case.

TLDR: Gimme Bricc Abs Waifu.

 

[Matsumoto]

basically what i wanted to say.


So is Sheeva too?

How disappointing.Didn't see her, but from people's impressions, i thought she is quite big.

Even saw Bobby Lashley comparisons.

 

[Matsumoto]

Even with Injustice 2, concept models for characters like Cheetah I feel would have looked fantastic, and I genuinely wonder why it wasn't present in the final game.

my personal theory is lead character designer the reason for all of this.

He were doing similiarly in injustice 2 telling to censor clothing and reduce bodies parameters.

You can see radical differences if you compare early game footage with final game.

Notably Catwoman breast reduction.

 

[linkfire12]

Sheeva's face looks very strange and drastically different, which probably brought about the Bobby Lashley comparison (I really am confused why Jade, Skarlet, Kitana, and so many others look completely different face wise to their original characters), but what I'm referring to is her muscle definition, which has been dramatically reduced.

The faces and clothes are a separate topic that have been discussed a fair amount, and while I think they are legitimate and hope the developers listen, all the points have already been made.

 

[Matsumoto]

Sheeva's face looks very strange and drastically different, which probably brought about the Bobby Lashley comparison (I really am confused why Jade, Skarlet, Kitana, and so many others look completely different face wise to their original characters), but what I'm referring to is her muscle definition, which has been dramatically reduced.

The face's and clothes are a separate topic that have been discussed a fair amount, and while I think they are legitimate and hope the developers listen, all the points have already been made.

I am actually ok with clothing and faces as it is.

It is body compositions, that baffling me.


Reducing Sheeva was low blow and compromize her character too much.

That's just ridicilous and had no excuse to make her scrawny as everyone else.

Are they had muscular girl phobia or something? Just makes no sense to me to make everyone look like that with no variety, especially Sheeva


They should went Armageddon design with Her.

 

[linkfire12]

I have some issues with all of the faces in regards to the uncanny valley facial animations and weird facial expressions that make characters look off sometimes. I also feel the skin looks overly shiny and plastic. I have no issues with any particular characters face, beyond I that I think it's very strange to completely change what iconic characters look like, some consistency in design would be appreciated.

For example, I think Kitana's new face mostly looks great (other than some awkward facial animations/lighting/proportions that all the characters share), but I think it's very strange how different she is. I was under the strong impression that Kitana was arabic?

Anyway, I completely agree with you, I find it very strange and don't understand the change.

 

[Quad]

This a thought provoking topic and I am very much in agreement here.

I think it was a missed opportunity to take advantage of today's advancement in technology and sculpting techniques to further enhance the look and feel of the characters. Clothing is another subject entirely (which I also feel could be improved), but with the games shift to realism I would have expected much more variety in the female characters.

This is not to say that every female character should be muscular, but for the background of these characters it makes sense for them to appear stronger physically.

Sheeva is a great example actually. With her focus on pure strength and Shokan background, I would have expected her physique to be more like here:

Spoiler: Sheeva References

Sheeva would really appear larger than life. Standing as strong and imposing as the likes of Kotal and Shao Kahn. Being Queen of the Shokan must be reflected in her look. She is noticeably bigger than the other females in game, but I don't get that same feeling of power like in past games (MK Armageddon is a solid example).


As for the other females:

- Jacqui could have benefited from having more powerful looking legs to sell her heavy use of legwork to contrast Jax's use of his arms. Sort of like a realistic "Chun-Li".

Spoiler: Jacqui Refs

- Jade and Kitana I'd see as pretty much all around. They're trained assassins, and actually that Cheetah base model seems like it'd be closer to what their physiques would be.



I think there's much more depth to be had in female character design rather than just throwing big boobs on them and being done with it. MK9 is still guilty of reusing the same body on the females, though it did at least accomplish making the females seem powerful as a result of the muscle definition.

That game however was more limited than the current, and with so much detail/fidelity in this game I think the body types could have been far more fleshed out. When you consider how strong, beefy, and varied the male characters are, I think this is something they could improve on in the next game.

 

[Lun]

@linkfire12 At first I thought this was the usual "why not bikiniiiiii" thread, but no.

You're saying a valid argument here, and since I'm someone who cares even too much about character design, here's my thoughts.

1) Mortal Kombat 11 is following classic superhero comic book design - There's even manuals on how to draw in superhero comic book style. That style requires that the men are muscular and shaved, the girls are slim with long legs and arms. Now, the problem is that said superhero art style is getting so outdated even actual superhero comics are starting to leave it behind. Plus, using superhero style for Mortal Kombat makes it look too much like Injustice.

2) The developers are at odd with themselves, unsure wether to go for realistic women or sexualized dolls - This clash of two opposites is made clear in a lot of instances: we have Jade wearing appropriate clothes, but she has stiletto high heels. We have Sonya and Jacqui looking fully battle-ready, yet none of them is allowed to have a bit of muscles. Sometimes, they even went back on their original ideas, as if they were afraid of angry neckbeards: Kronika looks much cuter than she used to be in the beta footage, and Sonya used to look her actual age while now she looks as old as her daughter. And yet, on the other hand, the devs babble about how progressive they and are afraid to give bigger boobs to a female character. It's like they're trying to keep both sides happy without fully taking a stance.


MY OWN CONCLUSION: I have noticed since the beginning that there's clear problems in how every female character has the exact, identical body shape. But this is also the first Mortal Kombat game in which the designs for the ladies are so good that I want to main female characters, and this is very important to me. So I'd rather not complain about the women having all the same body without boobs or muscle mass to distinguish one from the other, because despite that, the women in this game actually look badass and I really want to play them, which is quite an achievement to reach since I am superpicky when it comes to female characters.

 

[linkfire12]

Thank you for the responses, sorry for taking so long to reply. The discussion seems to rotate back to sexualization in design a fair bit, and while I can understand that, I do feel there is more to it, and what can be done for interesting aesthetic designs in general.

Insofar as outfits (for everyone), ignoring graphical fidelity, I feel X had much more interesting, and in some instances, artistically detailed designs. It becomes more obvious with model comparisons. Armour and fabrics in 11 seem to look much more drab, colourless, and despite improved fidelity, lacking in detail. This is part of where I feel striving for realism is a poor idea, because honestly, realistic clothes are incredibly boring. No one is going to wear the intricately weaved and designed clothes of Raiden or Kung Lao from X, or strive to wear overwrought engraved armour on Takeda in the real world beyond an art showcase.

And yet, Raiden's drab linens and Jade's drab brown fabrics look far less interesting in a fictional world than the original ornamental designs and details.

This isn't to say simplicity can't be aesthetically well done, MK9 strove for the simple, iconic original designs of the cast, and overall, achieved that quite well. But there seems to be a fundamentally uninteresting and artistically bland thought process going into Mk11's costume department.

I don't feel realism is something to strive for, as I have discussed, and even then, if that was the games intent the it falls immensely short in that regard. Jade's garbs are incredibly impractical and flimsy, and would hardly help in a martial fight, and hinder movement. Shao and Kotal are immensely exposed and vulnerable to weapons of any sort, the military character's armour is overwrought and would be clunky and inefficient to move around in.

Even with these much more artistically muted designs, they haven't achieved anything as far as a coveted "realism".

Lun, I feel I disagree with your final assessment on the characters, insofar as I feel the character designs aren't the best they have or could have been, but that's totally fine, and I generally have broader concerns with the uncanny valley faces and uninteresting clothing designs for all of the cast, in comparison to the iconic designs, as well as new ones from X.

I don't want to get stuck on it, but I like sex positive designs, and I feel there is nothing inherently shameful or taboo about the female form. I don't feel sexual designs are at all negative or shameful. I would greatly prefer a scantily clad woman, who has excellent writing, interesting character development and a fleshed out personality, than one which takes no narrative or artistic risks. I am disappointed with the concept of "scaling back" sexuality, I feel it should be looked at as a positive thing, and there is nothing shameful about sexual attraction. I wouldn't at all mind seeing iconic designs return to the game. I feel good writing is greatly important, and sexism in media is much more directly correlated with terrible writing rather than the female form inherently being degrading or negative.

Also the concept of "removing breasts", removing muscle or drastically altering a character's body because it's "too taboo" is kind of creepy. Obviously it is completely fictional, but I don't like the concept of completely altering a character's established appearance, the same way I dislike how drastically different some of the character's faces look, so much so they seem to be completely different characters. A woman is perfectly capable of having genetically large breasts or other "sexual, shameful" attributes, and also dressing conservatively (or not, which is equally fine), and I feel that shouldn't categorize or define a character, when writing is far more important to having an engaging character in a story. It's even more bizarre to me that canonically physically strong and well built fighters have been drastically scaled back, and given no body variety.

I overall would appreciate more artistically interesting designs (realism be damned), muscular female characters and body variety in fighters (especially for MK9 characters who were established as muscular then scaled back, since it's supposedly the same timeline), sex positivity, and not seeing sexually appealing designs as inherently shameful or taboo.