I heard they use some pixel method. and it takes 6 months to make a character.
but didn’t they like make a 3-D model template, and handdraw the sprites based on of that? but it isn’t line art, I’m not sure the word they use for the pixel style they use.
There is a pretty stupid misconception going around online that using 3D models and “tracing” their animations is cheating, and means tha game isn’t “really” 2D, and this is pretty ignorant.
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So basically, here’s what I’ve gathered of what they do for this game, from various sources:
The make a 3D model in the Style of Nona’s art, and give it the animations they plan to have in the 2D Characters. They also set a light source here, which comes with the benefit of showing where character limbs would self-shade the character, on their global light source style.
This character is then draw in pixel-by-pixel art style, by multiple designers. This means there are no gradient fills, and it means that each line is drawn by hand, on a computer. Unline BlazBlue (Which uses a rather simple “3 tones per color” shading style (Base, highlight, shadow), KoF XII uses multiple shades per same color (Looks more like 5+), to give the 2D sprites more of a rounded, realistic look.
Of course, there could be more passes and all, but this is the gist of it.
Because of all this, the characters seem to have some nice tricks added to them. They seem to have dynamic highlighting on them (such as when getting hit by fireballs), as well as dynamic shadowing (Such as when stepping in the shadows at the sides of various stages. They also have very nice self shading from their own limb and hair movement, pretty much during every motion (in stances, during moves, etc.) Shading on clothing seems to be done with hand-drawn graduation, but self-shades are represented as hard shadows.
There is a lot of detailed secondary animation, as well. Iori actually is lip-synched pretty well when he speaks to you in his command throw. Characters wince at small hits, and when Athena blocks bows and is pushed back, her skirt and hair kick up a bit from the impact (I’m sure all characters do, I just really noticed it on her.) I’m not sure if I’ve seen detailed “Reeling from standard block” animations in 2D fighters before.
The sprites don’t appear to truly be “HIGH resolution” though. I hear they stand around 480p quality (Where as your HD stuff runs normally at 720p or higher.) This means they are lower-resolution than Blazblue or even SSFIITHDR sprites. But the method for creating them is entirely different.
Blazblue used Hand drawn vector artwork, which produces very sharp oulines. So think of that as drawing on a computer with a tablet, or scanning in pictures to the computer.
KoF does is dot-by-dot, so compare that to opening up MS paint, turing on the square grids, and filling in each dot one at a time, to make the outlines. of the characters.
A lot fo peopel don’t appreciate how labor-intensive KoF’s method of graphic creation is, and I find that pretty sad. Resolution isn’t everything! And animation is a LOT more than how MANY frames each motion has, it’s dependent on what you DO with each frame, and how consistent those things are.
Hope that answers your question, and maybe help you see some of the hidden depth of the game’s artwork! 
Whoa, 16 to 17 months per character. Thats crazy, I still don’t understand why it would take that long for one character. Does it take that long to create sprites in SF3 and Blazblu?
Each character in KoF XII has about 600 frames of animation, I believe they said. Imagine 11 people drawing 600 images that require dot-by-dot animation, seperately, and then having to make sure the shadows, clothing folds, muscle deformation, and facial animation is consistent between all matching frames.
Then imagine having to come up with the special effects for each character (there seems to be very few shared special effects in this game), High-resolution portrait art (which is probably done early on), gameplay, etc.
As an example, In pixel art, making sure shades / highlights stay consistent comes with “Counting pixels”. For example, if a shadow is 32 pixels wide, I’ve gotta make sure that it stays that width in each frame, while taking into account the deformation of the shadow, as clothing folds and perspectives change. I mean, sure, you have to do that for vector art, to a degree, too, but it’s not a “per pixel” thing there.
KoF XII has a lot of secondary animation, too. If they were satisfied with stagnant faces on the characters, no secondary animation, no “touch ups” by Nona, and using the same special effects for more characters, they could probably cut MONTHS out of the production time per character, and in turn, serve up more characters in the same time frame.
But they decided to add MORE per-frame detail to characters that are multiple times more detailed, pixel-wise, than their old ones. Their standards of what constitutes a character have actually risen. A pretty daring choice.
Especially in 2D.
There’s no “free” lighting work in a 2D game. (Ok, there is some in this game; dynamic shading when walking into light/dark areas of stages isn’t hand drawn, that’s a programming trick with color pallettes/opacity.)
There’s no “free” cloth and hair dynamics.
There’s no stable of facial animations that have data that can be shared between character models.
Theres so much more “I’ve been working at this SAME FRAME for ONE character, for a Week!” and so much less “I got the base frames for everyone’s Dragon punches animated! Now we have THAT part done for 4 characters!” It’s just a crazy, detailed-intensive, expensive, slow-to-finish way of working.
Makes me wonder how detailed SNKP’s work would be, if they did things the SF4 method (Personality-filled 3D models with truly extensive animation quality). Capcom did an amazing job with that game, for a 3D work. It’s got personality in spades. I’m VERY glad this game is Pixel-art 2D, but I’d still love to see a Maximum Impact game with More SF4 style 3D, and less Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny level 3D.
Someone sticky this forum since the explainations are perfect. I’d repp u if I could Sab-Ca
a) 16-17 months if one person made one character. They have multiple artists in each.
b) The sprites are not “drawn” in their final form. They are dotted. Each pixel is added. Since the resolution is twice what it was before, it takes twice the time.
c) There are only a handful of dotters in the world (unlike the 90’s).
SF3 and BB would be faster.
SF3, because they had half the resolution, and less steps
BB, becase they have far simpler shading, less frames of animation and less steps
Hmmm how would kof Look with that anit aliasing or whattever?
It would make it look smoother and less pixelated, but when you’re playing the game you can’t really see the pixelation anyway.
You’d have to zoom in alot to be able to see it; if I’m not mistaken they have an AA option in the console version
Yes, yes you can.
yea you can. Its not bad (roughly the same as 3s) but yea Ignition is putting in 3 different filters so you can make it artificially smoother.
I just looked at the Newest Trailer in 720p at a rate higher than 30 fps( gametrailers.com) and yeah the grain is there but it looks good in HD.
you guys ( okay some people) make it seem like its horrible, isnt the set up at AI running at 1080p anyway? ( suppose to run at 720p).
Thank you SAB-CA for that detailed information, I was always impressed with KOF XII’s graphics and realised a lot of effort must have gone into it, but I had no idea just how detailed the process was. Very, very interesting reading, and it makes me appreciate this game all that much more.
thanks! this information would help reminds those jerks who whine about smaller roster, or more characters sold as DLC, to appreciate the time, money and work spent on these sprites! But in the end, this will help make future KOFs become even better!
I was told it was running at 720p and yes the pixelated edge was the first thing I noticed when I saw the game at AI. I asked if he had a soft filter setting and he said he wished it did too.
The PS3 and Xbox 360 game is going to have 3 different kind of soft filters, it was said in an interview.
Hey, thanks all for the appreciation And thanks Frankfurt for adding some emphasis to the details!
It gets so old hearing how this game looks like something off the SNES, lol. I remember growing up, and watching the changes from games in the Arcade or on Neo Geo, as they where ported to SNES/Genesis, so it just seems… insane, to me, that people can’t see the level of difference between this, and something like Yoshi’s Island, GBA/DS games, or PS2 2D graphics… -_-;
I always make sure, if I’m showing this game to someone, that they watch it in HD or at least high res video, in hope that they realise just how fantastic it looks. Youtube just can’t do it justice.
Here’s the process, step by step:
http://kofaniv.snkplaymore.co.jp/info/15th_anniv/2d_dot/creation/index.php
I like the sprites and dont mind the pixels, seems snk does too, seeing how they make a site just for it 
After seeing KOFXII running on a real HD monitor, the pixelization doesn’t look (in my eyes at least) like a badly upscaled SD game. The art style and the way the sprites were created makes it look more like an artistic choice - as if the game is intentionally presenting a pixel art style. Which in a way it is.
Personally, I’ve come to like it. It makes it seem as if the art direction is supposed to evoke the look of NeoGeo games without actually looking as pixelated and jaggy as a real NeoGeo game blown up on an HD screen.