Designing my own DARKSTALKERS character!

With the new Capcom Fighting Collection on the way, I’ve been revisiting the stylized and vibrant pixel art of the Darkstalkers series, and I thought I’d challenge myself to create my own original character design within this style and world. Follow along as I share my design ideas and workflow, then we can see how well I did by a comparison with the rest of the Darkstalkers cast!
Since I mentioned it, here's a link to the Capcom Fighting Collection in case you're curious: www.capcom-games.com/cfc/en-us/
...not sponsored btw (...if only; that'd be rad!)
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0:00 Introduction
0:53 Darkstalkers Character Breakdown
1:34 My Character Idea
2:13 Stick Figure
3:04 Silhouette
4:42 Colour and Rendering
8:15 Bring the Idea Together
9:18 Final Artwork
9:56 Will it Blend?!
10:35 CRT Time
11:17 VID OVER
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Check out my art here:
/ brandonjamesgreer
/ bjgpixel
Shop:
rdbl.co/bjgpixel
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Software used: Adobe Photoshop 2022
Need help picking a pixel art program? Watch this: • What Program to use fo...
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Title sequence theme music by Failpositive:
www.failpositive.bandcamp.com/
/ failpositive

[@SethKotta]

I feel like he should have only one hand. Give it a whole "curse of the monkey's paw" vibe, which I think would ground him pretty well with the rest of the cast.

[@ruolbu]

That's what I wanted to suggest as well. Nice to see others felt the same.

[@BrassMountainLion]

Perhaps he could hold the severed paw in his tail and use electricity to change it's gestures! It's a good design that evokes new ideas while being reminiscent of old, like Son Son in MvC2.

[@triplepinata27]

That’s actually very clever

[@tristancarter4324]

Design is just monkey with tazzed tail no spider present like make the monkey blue and clothes orange at least

[@pallukun]

due to technical limitations, characters in early fighting games were pretty much always designed to be symmetrical, so the devs could flip the sprites instead of doubling the sprite work and needing to reconsider how attacks would work from this new perspective

[@ulrickai]

I really love that you re-explain simple basic concepts even if you've covered it before. Things like not fully combining the body parts of the characters in it's silhouette so you know where the different parts connect or not and the stuff about the shadings used to show off depth. It's great just so you get a refresher on those concepts and it makes jumping into any of your videos very approachable. It's also great that you simplify the concepts you talk about that just about anyone (artist or not) can understand what you're talking about. Anyway, great video as always. The character looks great and I'd gladly love to play your character in a fighting game XD

[@burnwolfember729]

Please do more of designing characters for existing games, it’s incredibly interesting seeing how you try to fit into the style and theme

[@user-iy7dh8ss9n]

Definitely a under used talent of his huh

[@allekid]

Darkstalkers is very cool and I'm glad it's coming back through the fighting collection. If sales are good we can finally have darkstalkers resurrection

[@randomcommentor]

The claws really make this design. With just the brown and the blue, it's a great sprite, but it doesn't fit *as* well as it could. With the yellow claws and the golden detail on his clothing, it really sells the DARKSTALKERS aesthetic.

[@Pancreaticdefect]

A monkey that was used for laboratory tests fits perfectly into the aesthetic of the game. The only other way I could think to include one would be to give him plague based powers using the monkey from the film Outbreak (1995) as inspiration.

[@toochmcgooch4678]

Love that you went from 1bit in your last video to one of the largest most detailed sprites of yours I've seen! Well done!

[@KururuJi]

I think that this kind of pixel art is the most fascinating, since Capcom fighting games tended to have artists drawing at least key poses on paper and then digitising them.

[@n3ptain]

I love to see a move set for the monke, datkstalkers has such such fluid moves and attacks for their characters. And I don't know if that's something in your wheel house but it would be awesome to see! I love your channel and seeing your growth has been awesome. Great work bro

[@cheerwhiner7829]

I would love to see how you would animate his neutral fighting stance (and maybe an attack or two). 👍 I have tried adapting Honda into a simple 8-bit looking style and found his simple animation to be extremely challenging. I enjoyed this video very much.

[@vargnaar]

I absolutely loved this one, Brandon. You outdid yourself and the work you've put in is always so inspiring and humbling.

[@nananakeson]

I loved the character specially the shorts, it really looks like a muay Thai short which fits well since he's a fighter

[@francoalmiron5107]

I love it Brandon, now i hope you make a series about making characters, i would love if people made commisions for that, specially if is for series like Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man and even Darkstalkers again.

[@xedusk]

Your character looks pretty great. The claws and chains were a really nice touch to make him fit in amongst the rest of the cast. My only issue is that he doesn’t really read as electric to me. Probably because he’s red and most electric characters use blue, green, or yellow as the main color. The bolts around the tail just kind of looks like he has generic energy surging through him, kind of like a super saiyan.

[@IAmBael]

I was thinking the same thing. From the sketch, I thought he'd have power coils coming out his back, and maybe being partially robotic or cyborg enhanced. It came out great, but the electric idea kinda got lost in translation.

[@pharoahanakaris3202]

If you turned it into a chupacabra with electric powers, it would have synced perfectly with the Darkstalkers theme.

[@magedreamuhe3022]

I think you did a great job at recreating the game’s style and sense of color but I feel that without the lightning particles, you wouldn’t be selling the lightning theme. Depending on the animation, the sparks in practice wouldn’t be consistently emphasized either. I recognize the the fraying on the tail as another contributing element but with your prompt there’s a couple routes I’d consider. 1. Work electrical equipment into the tail. My immediate thought is lightning rod and many models I see when looking them up is in the same blue as the cuffs, but cables and cords instead could be used to emphasize flexibility and a combat utility. 2. Jagged fur texture. The furry characters son’t seem to have a lot of shading detail to imply fur but Sasquatch uses it to define muscles and add weight and potential follow through below the arms. In the more exposed areas like the front leg and arm it might work to use small bolt pattern as a shading dither. Maybe add a couple stray hair lines using a shading color outside the main silhouette in areas where thunder would be channeled through. 3. The chains are more emphasized for follow through and potential attacks. In your pose the chain only shows on one arm. This could work if he broke them off cleanly to the side but it could help to have one link left on the other side to tell that story. Maybe add some brown and black to the chain links to show burning from electricity sent through them. I probably wouldn’t think of these if I was working in the moment, but I just thought the theme expression was the weak link in this overall fun and informing video. Thank you

[@soulsparx]

honestly your analysis on fighting game sillouhettes is like. understatement of the century lmao. sillouhettes are HUGE in fighting games, properly recognizing the shape of a pose can be the difference between taking a massive combo that kills half your health and properly dodging and landing your own, plus sillouhettes give you an idea of what a character has going on-- even if youre new to fighting games, you can tell just by looking at the stance how characters like ryu, jon talbain, or sol badguy would fight, so it gives you an idea what to expect, whether youre playing as or against them

[@AGreatTsunami]

Quite liked the concept, only notes i'd trow in to blend a biiiit more would be: 1- a bit more feral. longer claws, more pronounced fangs; 2- the handcuff thing and electricity theme could be a pair of lightbulbs with the fuses as an analog to his arm bones. Everything else, on point.

[@APOCALIPTICLIZARD]

I really love this by the way! I would say though, I think the muscles need more definition. Not a size change, but more of a blocky look with more detail on them. Also, giving more of a tuft/spike/static look to the tail I feel wouldve helped give him more of an interesting silhouette since characters like Talbain and Rikuo have these pieces that come off the sprite like Rikuo's spikes and Talbains neck furr/hair. Obviously, you did hella amazing though! A missing arm would have been interesting to bring in a reference to the monkey paw curse, I think someone else had also mentioned that before me! :D

[@timothymclean]

7:30: I know what you're talking about. Figuring out the best way to use a handful of pixels to convey X is _so_ satisfying, in a way that traditional art just isn't (for me).

[@MichelHermier]

Your artwork is as good as always. Thought I would make a little comment, the character lacks a little of muscle and shadowing on them to perfectly in the cast. It is a lot of work, but maybe it would be nice to see an idle animation pose in a future episode, to see how to bring life to such quite huge sprite.

[@KissenKitten]

I LOVED this! Thanks for making this. I will say the one thing that didn't make him blend as well was the musculature. Darkstalkers is known for detailing as many muscles as possible. Especially on male characters. So a little bump to that and this character would fit right in. Amazing stuff! Definitely subscribed! I hope you make an idle animation too. Pretty please!

[@alloounou6900]

Recently got into your channel and felt like your videos ended so soon. I'd barely notice almost ten minutes have passed. Now I've come to think that the length is just right. Pixel art in byte sized chunks.

[@LEROILAPIN]

Your videos always pull me out of an art slump! Thanks for sharing!

[@KillerMoustache]

These have been really great to watch - so many of these tutorials and the step-by-step processes you take have been really fun to try and put into play myself. I've never been really more than a mediocre artist (because I really don't put the time into practicing) but it's been really awesome to see more of the ideas I have realized in pixel art to share with other peeps for fun! Great stuff man, always look forward to your vids.

[@DaeronPixelArt]

Fantastic design and adaptation of the style! I wonder how it could look with small wings on his back? it would tie in with the fliying monkeys from the wizard of Oz, being more monster like. Speaking of monkeys, was it confirmed that Son Son was supposed to be a scrapped darkstalkers character? (aside from being from an old capcom game)

[@LowkeyJouta]

Ruby Heart is the only confirmed new character from Marvel Vs Capcom 2 to have been a scrapped Darkstalkers design while SonSon is primarily based on the old Capcom game with the same name

[@FelixSunblade]

This guy look right at home in Darkstalkers. I always loved the look of those sprites.

[@colinmurphy7576]

once again amazing art

[@KaiTheLegend]

I’ve been on a huge DarkStalkers kick, so this is perfect! Can’t wait to buy the new collection.

[@ledu4614]

Very cool character! I love Darkstalkers and its art style! I would love to see you creating a fighting game character for old school The King of Fighters games like '96 or '98 to kind of contrast with this one since KOF style is less saturated and has more realistic shapes and colours.

[@brenoferreira7480]

Man... Your art and child-like imagination inspire me SO MUCH to go back to pixel art. Keep it up!

[@elbhaji]

Love the editing you do to compliment your commentary. Really amazing stuff! Keep it up!!!

[@arno3796]

Dude i've been going crazy over darkstalkers lately! Specifically vampire savior. What great timing!! I'm too psyched for the capcom fighting collection.

[@lemongummy7047]

that's so cool! I love this type of pixelart video :))

[@BlazeWolf9511]

Ahhh! I love him, I would definitely welcome him into the cast. (Tho I might be biased because I already tend to like the money boy type character lol) The character came out really well though, and actually blends well with the cast already. You did a really good job

[@user-iy7dh8ss9n]

Piezu is my favourite pixel art character I've seen you do. I liked the look of the original sketch seemed like you were thinking of adding goggles lifted onto the forehead. Piezu would look good in an alternative costume in dark red as a ww2 pilot kind of thing I reckon

[@mattduncan3869]

It was just as fascinating listening to you talk about the process of creation as it was watching you create. This was awesome.

[@jonesy2064]

YOU ARE THE BEST, I took a break from watching, but oh man I didn't even realize how much I missed this content

[@teh1archon]

Awesome video and great tutorial!

[@llivefforttoday]

I'm excited for the Capcom Fighting Collection too! Love seeing your take on character designs for existing games.

[@DaltonPietersen]

The work you're doing here is amazing

[@jhodder]

You talked about it reading like Megaman, which is another Capcom game. Look up Sten from Breath of Fire 2 and you'll see another Capcom property you paid tribute to.

[@billcassonato]

I thought the same thing

[@mattisheretonight]

Piezu definitely fits in with Darkstalkers 2 or 3 for sure! I'm not this good at pixel art, but I would have chosen a Lovecraftian / Nosferatu design for a Darkstalkers character. Some sort of blend between the two, would've been my idea. I love how this turned out

[@misaqju]

Nice design, I love the concept behind the character and the result is very similar to the original characters.

[@Mr.Maguro]

viewtiful sprite work, you really captured the artstyle of the games. the sad backstory you gave him also fits with the series tonally.

[@SirCalalot]

This is my favourite video you’ve done. I adore the Darkstalkers style, and you’re at a place now where you can absolutely smash 32-bit pixel art. I’d love to see you tackle more of these larger characters as we really get to see you flex with all the methods and techniques you’ve learned over the years. A new Street Fighter 3 or Alpha character next? 😉 Keep up the incredible content, mate.

[@kinoko6096]

This guy is really cool!! I’d be really interested in seeing your take on something involving Pokémon, the series has had some fantastic pixel art.

[@TOOFUTURETV]

Impressive, most impressive.

[@tauxins3239]

It could be interesting to see you tackle your own take on a Sonic character, ideally in the SEGA Game Gear style.

[@parinamais]

this is mind blowing. congrats Brandon!

[@brandonatkins2258]

This is a good character concept, but remember Capcom already had a monkey character named Son son who was in a video game of the same name. In fact, we can say that Piezu is friends with Son Son and his reason for being a darkstalker is that he is looking for Son Son who went missing during a festival. So now I guess I have given Piezu a motivation for being a darkstalker.

[@beelucy7314]

Dude you always make the perfect videos

[@tendividedbysix4835]

Stellar work!

[@demaninichols2463]

I love this kinda videos so much! Please continue to these. And if you could maybe a new street fighter alpha video or mvc2🙏🏾

[@lastgunsl1nger102]

Now it's time to make a special level for him.

[@GeahkBurchill]

I know from personal experience how hard it is to capture that Bengus style. The man is a clear genius designer!

[@JovemEverton]

Very cool posing as usual.

[@dannyemory6261]

That looks really good! I would imagine if someone plays as this character! =)

[@giovanephelipe]

Amazing! Great Work please Capcom give a chance for this guy!

[@smellyfishstiks]

Dude like 32x32 is usually the biggest like character sprites I'm comfortable with, I mean I've done like bigger for backgrounds and stuff but usually those are broken up into bits and not like a whole big thing. So ya I need to get better at my bigger sprite art and posing sometimes too but you kicked it out of the park!

[@monoe5270]

hoping to create my own fighting game, so i was a really big fan of this one 👍🏼 here’s to darkstalkers 4

[@N_IRL]

I don't know what this game is, but it has a VERY Digimon World Dawn/Dusk/DS art style and I'm here for it!

[@CKTDanny]

Piezu looks awesome!!! I could already tell it was going to be a cool sprite from just the silhouette but the rendering really brought the character to life; especially the details on the face 😁✨ Also wow this video seemed particularly well produced 😱

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks! I think part of why I put a lot into the silhouette up front was procrastinating the eventuality that I'd have to attempt this level of rendering 😅 Feel like it all paid off though! And thanks, I feel like I put a bit more into this than usual; I love when I'm able to include a CRT intro 😊✨

[@CKTDanny]

@@BJGpixel The procrastination just before an overwhelming task is so relatable 😩😆

[@chifii]

I know this isn't a mechanics video, but I'm getting heavy Son Wukong vibes here, and I feel like a staff fighter could be a cool concept.

[@DadVader]

Wow! Another great job Mate! I didn't know about this announcement! So hyped for this release ! ✌😁✌

[@BJGpixel]

Thanks! And yeah really looking forward to this one; hope they do a Marvel vs Capcom collection at some point too! ✨

[@DadVader]

@@BJGpixel Yeah me two! I've got two versions of it and we play with my son. But to be honest I've, somehow, never played DarkStalkers

[@BJGpixel]

@@DadVader oh awesome! Yeah this will be a good opportunity to catch up! 😎🕹️

[@DadVader]

@@BJGpixel I'm adding this to shopping list for June haha

[@Skeffles]

Very impressive how you've managed to make a new character fit with the originals!

[@CarlyChannel]

I feel like his play style could be something equivalent to that of a Footsies or a Hit-and-Run fighter. It’s nice to see people’s various takes on OCs for the series. :3

[@PandaJerk007]

Looks great :)

[@Deceptichop]

I would love to see you take a crack at either adding a character that didn’t appear in Marvel Vs Capcom (like maybe Doctor Strange?) or updating a character to its more modern design, like Cap or Tom Holland’s Spidey. Just a thought. Love your work! Thanks for sharing.

[@Tystarr]

Would have been awesome to see him animated.

[@magicalhats]

Would be awesome to see him with some animation.

[@pedrogabriel3158]

great art amazing, next you gotta make a mech inspired by cyberbots haha

[@testertree4545]

This would be another great series! You trying to make OC fighters in different games

[@THICCTHICCTHICC]

Yup, 100% fits in perfectly with the rest of the roster. Awesome artwork.

[@MJPDesigns]

Awesome video. I enjoyed the process. Anyone else that has done Capcom style sprites before or just fighting game characters, what's your file size?

[@sarahclaasen4317]

You are using electricity for your design, so I was thinking it would be billed as a "gremlin". I think there should be some references from Twilight Zone's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" in its design because of that.

[@ru997]

I wish they'd revive darkstalkers, such a unique series

[@weego2585]

Awesome video

[@jy-li1jq]

Im ready to get put into yetis ice loops

[@doufufa]

amazing!

[@diobrando2160]

I'd love to see some animation in ths style

[@indigomien2380]

Awesome

[@Sigmaforlifenoalphas]

Nice job

[@Olivetank7]

If there's another darkstalkers game, I would love to see Capcom add a character reminiscent of Jason Voorhees or Micheal Myers.

[@soundsofstabbing3627]

my favorite fun fact about the animation of darkstalkers is that when it came to the colors and animation, they took influence from Looney Toons, Tom and Jerry, and Disney

[@EdokLock]

I'm liking the video now but ill watch it when im free

[@PotatoImaginator]

Looks like the original ones :)

[@FlumpyTripod]

It's always a good day to see a new upload from you. Always great videos

[@w1ck3dz0d1ac]

I want to see him animated so bad

[@ThomasPOV]

hello and thank you for your video ! I would like to know why you draw a stick figure each time you start drawing and where to learn to draw ? thank you

[@evanpozez494]

You should do a yt short and make a Nano inspired skin for Pizeu that would be epic

[@Dendog90]

Do you have any tips on spriting a facial expressions

[@darksonicspower]

I feel mothman would be a cool new monster.

[@mcdanzy8379]

10:54 what an oddly good looking fishman

[@benjaminbeltran7004]

All the Darkstalkers characters are based on something from mythology or pop culture, i don't think one can just say "i'll just add a monkey with electric powers". Maybe you could search for monkeys in mythology or pop culture, for example the monkey king (although that has already been done ad nauseaum) or the flying monkeys from the wizard of oz.

[@TioMegamanX]

I think the hand and feet could have used the face colors since primates like monkeys have less hair around those areas.

[@Andreopimentel]

You could easily make him into another capcom character to add into a marvel VS capcom roster. Sven from Breath of Fire 2

[@daegan_ftw]

I'd like to see you make an OC for a game like Street Fighter III or KOF

[@CrimsonQuandary]

If Spark Mandrill was in a different Capcom game.

[@felixdaniels37]

How are you able to display the pixel art on the CRT? I'm curious because I want to do that with my own pixel art.