Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

[DjVoyager]

I watched FFVII Advent Children last night for the first time. Not sure if it was released in the US theaters, because I never heard of it until I read about it in EG mag two months ago, and they didnt say anything about a US release.

Even though I'm not a FF fan, I like the graphic and concept of the games. This movie was definitely far better than the first one, but I was wondering and maybe those who have seen it might also noticed this. Besides the awesome CG, most camera angels were not very effective, i.e. cameras switched too fast and most of the time just gave a hint of the location. In the last quarter of the movie, the camera movements became too jerky.

True, the movie is action packed, but these movements felt too much. And the director says he doesn't intend it to be an action movie. So I'm kinda thinking he wasn't able to pull it off cuz action was the strongest factor in this. Also, I'm thinking they used the fast camera movements & jerkiness to hide any potential flaws in the CG.

Well that's just my take on it, but I was wondering if this is considered a plausible technique in CG animation. Of course, I'm looking at this outside the FF fanbase realm. :)

[danlefeb]

Its not playing in the theaters, its a straight to DVD release. I haven't seen it yet, but I want to...

[DjVoyager]

Straight to DVD is kinda strange cuz Square Enix produced this movie to get back its standing lost due to the last FF flick in theaters. I saw the Japanes version but I heard there is an English dub for it also.
The movie's pretty good, CG inspiration wise. Looks like an FMV of FF games though. :)

[Shogunato]

wonderful !

I love it.. I found the camera movements are a little bit fast but very effective..

very nice !

[DjVoyager]

Fast camera movements or angel switches are good where action is concerned, but they have also been used where there's little action, thought orientation, or just plain dialogues. They look very much like 2D anime camera shots, i.e. limited, if I can put it that way, whereas 3D CG is a totally different concept, especially with such creative styles. For example, Finding Nemo uses beautiful scenes, and the camera angels give ample time for the viewer to take in what they are watching.
As danlefeb has mentioned above, it's straight to DVD release so I'm thinking maybe FF AC is produced for only its fans who know the characters & their stories well. In that case, camera movements don't matter then :)

[Shogunato]

yeah...

there are many beautiful scenes cut by the camera movements. i think FF is initially for fans and later for people who don't know the video game.
I hope that there will be another movie and i'm waiting for the european Umd and dvd.

even camera movements are too jerky, FF is very nice for me.
But i'm not a professional as you in 3D so maybe my sight is a little different.. :)

[LaLiLuLeLo]

If you're an FF fan, look for the Dragon Quest 8 game coming in late Nov that has the FF12 demo on it.

[danlefeb]

ooooo, thanks! I'll definitely look for that!

[zinfer]

Would I ever love to come across the meshes of Kadaj and Yazoo.

:yes

[tallacus]

lol, my friend has his old ties with the manga company Tokyopop he use to work with and he got an english subtitled of the original, i love the openning sequence and the fight with Bahaumut, cool stuff very cool stuff Square Enix

[Nova333pwr]

Not for nothing i have to agree with you on the comment when u said;
there using the camera angels to hide the CG pontential when they made Final Fantasy7 it is so true!!!!Mind you Im a big time FF7 fan from when the game came out first day and i hate to say it but they could've made the movie better in more than one way.For example there are stones called Materia in the game where they can use magic such as lighting,fire,and water etc. that wasn't used at all but one or two sences which was when they summon Ifrit or the dog like creatures.I guess they wasn't confident with there CG skills to handle all the other stuff.

[Hard_Drive]

does square-enix use maya or their own 3d software?

[DjVoyager]

My friend works for a company that provides Square-Enix with Maya, and yes, they did used it for FF FMVs, and The Spirit Within...although I am pretty sure they use tons of third party plugins too. These studios have to be at least one step ahead of the average CG artist :)

[rawforce29]

My friend works for a company that provides Square-Enix with Maya, and yes, they did used it for FF FMVs, and The Spirit Within...although I am pretty sure they use tons of third party plugins too. These studios have to be at least one step ahead of the average CG artist :)

Yes in fact, according to an interview with the director, they mostly used maya and renderman for the whole movie. Man i WISH i would someday work for square enix im so into RPG games >_<!!! and that kept me with my eyes wide open the whole time. heres the link:

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q1-2005/032005a.html

[Hard_Drive]

you said, "I guess they wasn't confident with there CG skills to handle all the other stuff."

thats not true. square-enix is very confident in the work they do.

[Hard_Drive]

oh and they are re-rendering the whole movie just for blu ray

[safaki_lemur]

hehe, I watched it right when it came out in Japan years ago, luckily a fan decided to subtitle it right when it came out. The first movie was terrible, cause it had absolutely nothing to do with the games, it was pretty much just the name Final Fantasy used. This one was great, I have my own copy. I got the actual Japanese import one with subtitles, cause I couldn't stand the acting and translations in the english version. It was a cool movie, but it barely had an imersive story compared to the seventh game. But it was still cool. And no, theres nothing wrong with the quick camera action, it's Japanese/anime style, they do that a lot. It gave the action scenes that quick pace feel, and some of the shaky cam made it feel more natural then cg.