Arc System Works spent years developing the Guilty Gear look. There are so many big and small techniques that create this style that it's almost impossible to identify them all. Luckily for us, ASW have actually published a lot of resources explaining how they have done it. On this page I'll try to explain the techniques and methods they use as clearly as possible and how you can apply them in your own projects.
I also made 2 videos covering what I'll share here. You can check them out right here:
I Studied How Guilty Gear Makes 3D Look Perfectly 2D
Why Guilty Gear's 'Bad' 3D Models Look Perfectly 2D
Everything in this page is an application of one idea:
"Kill everything 3D. If you find something that looks 3D, you just have to find a way to avoid it." - Junya Motomura, GDC 2015
Standard 3D software calculates shading, normals, and motion perfectly. The outputs are perfect, which is exactly the problem. The human brain recognizes this perfection and identifies it as computer graphics, because no human could ever create something similar.
The issue is not that 3D is being used. Pixar and Disney animations for example look great! But for Anime, where the expectation is that it's hand-drawn, it immediately looks off.
ASW's response at every stage is the same: find the calculation producing a perfect-looking result, and give it the manual touch of an artist. Basically adding back the imperfections that would be there if it was drawn by an artist in the first place.
These techniques require no special technology. They require time, intention, and the willingness to hand-craft what you would otherwise leave up to the computer.
