Kaede Mugen Creations

DISCLAIMER: THIS POST WILL BE GIANT! If you won't wish read about an character creation who i dreamed about for decades, wait for next post, because most probabbly will be the char launch.

Well, let's talk about what i'm doing these months. IRL, my life was an complete chaos. My personal was destoyed, my professional was shattered(unintentional reference to KOF XV) and the less we talk about my love life, the better will be. But, instead of doing some shopping massacre or something like this, i put all my negative feelings in order, take a time to know about myself and started to look to past, looking in what moment i lost my way.
When i looking my past, i found something amazing: some idea who i have since i was a young boy with a Pentium E5300, but i only tried something in april's 2016, who is original date of sprites of video below:

Well, seeing this, i've intersted to revive my long lost desired dream: put myself in MUGEN.
Fized some sprites here and there and... i given up, i~~'m sick of feeling, is there nothing you can say?~~ and focused in my chaotic life again.

But history won't ends here: one month later, specifically 07/26/21, an friend quoted me on Discord, sending me a video about an youtuber who put yourself in MUGEN. Seeing this, i just went crazy, and, at the moment who video ended, all my hate has turned in determination to create my char.

"Your video type here" If you wanna see this video(PT-BR only), click here.

I spend some cooper and get an green screen, an decent phone and recorded an basic moveset, only testing if now, who i have more knowledge about image editing, i finally can do this project be real. Well, with new spritesheet in hand, i suffered in Photoshop, asked a friend to cut my sprites, imported in game, tested and i liked a lot what i saw:

This time, i'm gonna ducking! And properly cropped! This give me an incentive to cut my stand sprite and i got this result:

Yes, i know, terrible brightness and basic and boring pallete.

As you can see, my stand was an crappy thing who even can be seen properly, but this was important to define two things who i never do before: this was an properly cropped sprite and with an functional pallete, who give me cheered to continue this project.

My next saved register was been in 8/1/21, when i posted an gif with this subtitle below:

"Ok, wake up, because I HAVE MY SPRITE IN KOF STYLE!"

Believe me, this day i realized whi i can do myself using SNK sprites as source. Obviously, for compatibility, i choosen Kyo Kusanagi sprites to use.

I know, the gif above have different pallete, but i only have this gif actually saved.

With my soul fullfied with determination, i do more sprites, and i do an intro and a basic moveset, if you can call a punch and a kick of moveset.

That's was a moment who i started to put my dream moves: finished my intro and do my first special attack: an Repukken.

Well, i have an basic moveset and i have an magic attack. Who is missing? SPECIAL MOVES! Some image manipulation here and there, animation merging and voilá, i have an autentic King of Fighters Despertation Move!

I had an magic special move too, but FORTUNATELY i gave up this idea, because is very ridiculous. Was basically my common magic attack, but with steroids.

Meanwhile, i still being an active user in Discord and, in some conversation, Mr. Amaro give me an idea to start do an Shoryuken:

"I'm vaccined with Coronavac"
"DIRTY CHINESE, GO TO BED WITH DORIAH(reference to São Paulo mayor)! YOUR FILTHY FASCI..."
"Doriah is an good aerial type scream attack..."
Let it be clear that I was playing with my friend, get vaccinated guys.

And, like i said, Doriah really is an good shoryuken type scream...

Well, for my next sprite set, i have an misunderstanding with an "friend" in real life who generated my winpose: "Bate mais que tá pouco"(hit more because isn't enough), refering an fact who every time when she appears, she give me some problem to me solve.

Well, for these days i post my advice in Mixmods Discord server(the biggest GTA San Andreas modding website of entire world) and Jéssica Natália give me an help to improve my 2D art, since my stance was an giant piece of shit.

Second sprite version, applying Jéssica tips

Another version, now with an excessive leg animation.

Well, was a lot of things to four days, isn't? Now is only finish missing sprites and it will be finished. Well, it's is who i thought.

That was an so chaotic week who i do nothing in my life. After an terrible week, i finally have an day to do something and i inserted an MAX2(with DM effect and SDM sound effect, nice addition, 08/12 Kaede): an Rising Storm concept:

Ok, time to talk about this specific attack, because this attack is who i most changed. Initially, my concept was use this attack as MAX2 attack, where i shoryuken my oponent really hard, in a way that it would leave the screen, then i will call an friend(that's why Daimon appears on screen) to finally finish using an "Earth Storm". But i distanced myself from this friend, because of his sister, so, i discarded the helper idea. Without alternatives and facing a lot of problems to do an convicing really hard shoryuken sprite, i demoted this attack to an SDM. changed sprite priority, changed attack voice and, after decided who i will have fire powers, i added more effects and sound effects, and changed Rising Storm effect to a Fire Pillar.

Returning to character, i ended adding an Genocide Cutter(or "Cê Não Sai de Casa", in my version) to my moveset, because some friends won't accept my char not having this attack, because i am very annoing with this catchphrase Final touch comes with Discord, when someone sugested using K' fire effect instead of original razor effect. You can see this result below:

Another thing who i noticed: my voice samples was too low, turning impossible to hear in game. After some minutes mixing with some friends, i found an balance between volume and quality. You can notice diference in this video, when Repukken uses old sample, and Shoryuken uses new sample:

With an stable build, i finally put myself to play vs. Rugal. You can see this test below:

With Rugal test being sucessful, i started to work in my combo system, who my first combo was this:

Well, the day after Rugal test was giant, so, time to speedrun some info: fixed some cheap damage, put damage in some attacks, pay more attention in my intro and winpose, and changed another attack, replacing an Geneikyaku, who was useless, to an Fire kick, who renember Terry Bogard's attack, Burn Knuckle and Joe Higashi's attack, Tiger Kick.

Before Burning Kick video, i question myself: why i'm listening Arabick Nokia Tune in 3AM?

Well, after some sleep, i created an variant for move made with strong kick. Now, i can combo with weak kick, but not with strong kick:

Day 28 i have a lot of myself made, so, i started to create AI and another thing who i won't show for now, it will be a surprise. About AI, i can defeat Reu's characters with it, so, for me, is excelent.

Day 9/7/21, i put an "easter egg intro", that I hope the person who was in the based photo understands the context.