Dear Reader:
The artist behind Smash Bros. Ultimate's "Everyone is here!" mural explains how it all came together
Smash Bros. Ultimate's roster is a dream come true for video game fans. It plays out like a fan-fiction written to be as outrageous as possible, yet it's real! The craziness of the game's roster is perfectly encapsulated by the "Everyone is here!" mural, which was created by illustrator Yusuke Nakano. In an interview with Nintendo Dream, Nakano explains how the whole piece got started.
“The idea came from Sakurai-san of creating a giant mural that could show off how impactful the game was at E3 and other promotional events. It was decided that it would feature hand-drawn art with realistic proportions, and I would be the main person working on it as it would be the quickest.
Regarding the artstyle, I first showed off Breath of the Wild’s Link, and Mario in an oil painting style and showed it to Sakurai-san. He liked it and gave the go-ahead, and it was a smooth start. Out of all the characters, the first two I illustrated were those two.”
Sure, that's how things started, but how int he world do they keep adding in characters? It must be a nightmare to shift things around, right?
“First, with the 66 Fighters revealed at E3, I considered ‘what pose they would make’ and ‘how they would be placed’ on the long canvas, by drawing rough linework and piecing it together like a puzzle. The Fighters in Smash Bros. are all main characters, so I didn’t place them focused around the center, but averaged them out around the artwork. The theme was that no matter which part you cropped, there would be sights to behold.
Furthermore, by averaging out their positions, it had the advantage of being easier to add in the additional characters. Regarding the additional characters, I already had an idea of where to place them, but they were mostly placed through trial and error.
While thinking of the overall compositional balance and character poses, I would check on the poses with all the characters’ original creators, and also think about how it would look both horizontally and vertically… This was all done in parallel, so it was quite a pain, but the overall sketch was finalized surprisingly smoothly. It felt like something descended upon me.”