Let’s Get Fired Up!

It’s been ages since I’ve done any Nintendo fanart!

Self Critique: The forefinger of the hand to our right is a bit chubby. The forearm to our left is thicker than the one to our right. I didn’t catch on to this until the end. The feet could look better. And that is a weak ass belt. Her head should be smaller

So I finally decided to draw Wii Fit Trainer. I don’t quite remember what prompted me to draw her. Though my communication with retro ero artists on Pixiv probably the sowed the seeds of this idea. It also got me thinking of how many other people thought to draw the Wii Fit Trainer in a 1980s aerobics outfit. Turns out not too many. So I went ahead with the idea. I had to find a rather surprising amount of references to nail down how I should make the outfit and hair. I didn’t want references from recent photos since people tend to overdo what was actually worn in the 80s. It’s all “NEON THIS, PASTEL THAT!” like some kind of Technicolor vomit, when in fact it was primarily 2-3 colors and sometimes muted. So I went off outfits from workout videos that were actually taped in the 80s. I did run head first into a problem that totally forgot: the video quality. I was hoping to extract a pose from them, but since they were VHS quality, I had to whip out Mikoto to make one.

Anyway, back to the outfit. It’s pretty much just an 80s version of what the Wii Fit Trainer usually where, with her tank top being replaced with a leotard and her yoga pants for tights. The real challenge came with the palette swaps I had to do (which I’ll get to when those are uploaded). I kept going back and forth on whether or not to give her a belt for this version of the outfit since some people did and did not have belts when working out back then. People like Jane Fonda wore belts, while people lesser known vids didn’t. Speaking of which, I referenced Jane Fonda’s 80s big hairstyle halfway when working on WFT’s hair. There was however one other element that I started creeping in during the sketch process that I thought would be kinda cool to reference and was also integral to the 80s: the anime style of the 1980s. This was the other half of the reference to the hairstyle. I mainly referenced these two images for the hair:

i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff…

animationaficionados.com/wp-co…

I would still do the usual stranding technique that I always do though, mostly using these references for the general shape of the hair. I also tried to replicate the facial style of 80s anime (at least for the older women), with thicker eyebrows and a bigger mouth (eyes are pretty much the same as I tend do them). In the end, I knew that to really replicate the 80s look, I had to do the color in high contrast (or at least slightly higher than what I usually do). So whatever color I usually picked that I was comfortable with, I went darker than that. It was kinda tough since WFT’s skin is stark white, but I managed.

Moving to the background (I’ll make this short), I wasn’t sure to replicate the large stages that some 80s workout videos to place on, or in a smaller workout studio. I picked a sort of halfway point between a large stage and a studio. The only element I took was the platforms that other people would possibly be on, though make it small enough that it would probably be a bad idea to stand on them.

Tuck In Those Glutes!

Or as the PAL voice would nicely say, “keep your bottom tucked in”

Self Critique: This behind-character pose is quite new for me, so there’s still much to learn. There’s inconsistency between how both elbows are drawn. I was unsure as to whether or not the back-knees stuck out or sunk in. It wasn’t until a Pixiv spotlight that I learning that it stuck out, and by then I had already finished this. The feet have no detail in the toes, making both feet look like they’re the same. And the hand looks like it either has an extra finger or a very large knuckle.

So when conceptualizing drawing the 80s Wii Fit Trainer, I wasn’t sure if I should do a front pose of the back pose. I wanted to show off the design of the outfit, but I want to show off that one popular facet of the 80s Workout vid scene. I knew it would be double the work, especially since I was palette swapping and NSFW versions. But I wasn’t sure if I’d have much of a chance after this to to a back pose, and all I’ve done so far is front poses. So doubled down on the potential work I’d have to do. On the bright side, the background would at least stay the same.

As for the selection of pose, I kinda thought about doing the same pose as the front one, but from the back. It would be possible since I use Mikoto for posing and all I’d have to do is rotate the camera. I even have the screenshot backed up just in case. But in the end I wanted to pick poses that focused on different parts of the body. The front pose was about working the arms and legs. The back pose though, it’s all about the butt! I made some crazy miracles happen to make this pic work though. I might show off the preliminary sketch of this on twitter soon, but you’ll see from there that I made many changes. I tipped her upper body forward more than the sketch since it was still straight up. Her head was facing down in the sketch so I rotated her head up so she could face up. Thankfully her hair would cover more of her back so there was no need to keep redrawing some lines (though still keep her head and body within the realm of plausibility).

While there’s many things I still have to learn, I’m still pleased with the results.  Now to go practice.

Done on GIMP 2.8. Intuos4 tablet used.
Wii Fit Trainer and Wii Fit logo are (c) Nintendo