PAUL-EMILE BOUCHER
ART DIRECTOR
Why did you decide on a painterly art style for Sifu?
Actually, at the very beginning – the very, very early stages – I remember we even had a discussion about should the art style be more realist. But we ended up choosing to build on our expertise from Absolver, continuing with the stylised approach. Stylisation means that you are controlling the level of detail of your image. And by choosing not to put too much detail, you can – and we at least try to – put the emphasis on what matters most. Which, in Absolver, was the idea of the fight as a dance.
And having worked on that game as a lead artist, what did you carry over to this project?
We built a lot on Absolver’s art style, but we didn’t want to repeat ourselves. Absolver was heavily influenced by the low-poly aesthetic, and for Sifu we are more based on the 2D speedpaint style. So basically, where in Absolver our smallest scale of detail was a large polygon, here in Sifu our smallest detail is a small brushstroke.
Did the fact that the main character gets older introduce any challenges for the art team?
It had a large impact on how we approach the character [design], because you’re not creating a character, you’re creating a spectrum. It was especially a challenge in terms of concept art, because we had to individually design each age for our male and female characters.
Were there any concepts you couldn’t make work?
At the very beginning, when everything is possible, we even thought about how [ageing] could impact the environment. But we decided to restrict it to the character, because that’s what made most sense with this idea of mastery through practice.