AMA – "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", milestone in CGI, is 25 years old
It might be fun to reflect on the creation of [0] 25 years ago. The project was the first attempt at producing and entire feature film with "photorealistic" human characters using CG.
I was R&D lead on the project, and it has been fun to see how the technology has evolved over the years. Happy to do my best to answer any questions people may have.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within
Sadly it looks like this got knocked out of the front page listings quickly so I never even saw it until someone mentioned it.
Definitely consider doing a Reddit AMA in an animation sub (and link it here)
https://old.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/1xgd2qy/ama_f...?
This thread seems hidden in hackernews, you might want to repost this AMA on reddit? In the right sub it will get a lot more attention.
As for my question, I'm curious of what the tech stack were at that time, and if you think we can finally produce that in real time now? Including even crossing the uncanny valley which I think is still challenging even now 25 years later.
If memory serves...
3D: Maya (starting with a beta version) Rendering: Pixar Renderman (prman) Compositing: Shake Hardware: SGI Octane workstations Renderfarm: Pentium 2 boxes
Yes, I would imagine you can easily render the movie in real time today.
I don't have any questions, but I just wanted to say thank you for your work on this.
I was a huge Final Fantasy fan ever since FFIV came to the states (as FFII). In the US, console RPGs were a niche within a niche until the 2000's. So walking into the local theatre to watch The Sprits Within on a big screen just felt plain surreal.
What a gorgeous piece of art that movie was. Thanks for being a part of it!
What does a R&D lead do on such a project, how does one get that job and what have you been up to since/now? Were you involved in Advent Children too? Are you excited or apprehensive about AI in your line of work?
I led a team of a dozen developers to write software required to make the movie.
We were working with very early (beta) versions of Maya running on Silicon Graphics workstations. My team developed software for simulating hair and clothing, deformation and surface refinement tools, and anything else required to generate "photorealistic" humans.
As most things with my career, there were fortuitous coincidences. I was working on early hair and cloth simulation at a startup in Montreal and someone I briefly crossed paths with ended up at Square USA and recommended me to the company. The industry was very different 30 years ago: there were very few people working on things such as CG hair and cloth.
I am now teaching computer graphics at the University of Hawaii. Passing on what I know to the new generation.
It remains to be seen what the impact of AI will be on the industry and art form. I am currently creating a new course on AI and animation to be taught next year.
I remember watching it and I think owning a copy even. I thought it was amazing back then. I do remember some press at the time saying that a studio had enquired about the lead actor for another film (because the graphics were so realistic). Even at a young age I thought that was some publicist spinning a story, but you never know! :-)
There were stories about Aki, the main character, might become a virtual star. But I don't know how seriously this was considered.
I had no idea this was a movie, I had just read the book when younger and enjoyed it. Looking it up now, it seems the book was a novelization of the movie - I'll have to give it a watch. I wonder if your and your team's work also laid the path for Advent Children, which I enjoyed as a young FFVII fan.
"The Spirits Within" was produced at Square USA's Honolulu studio. We were disbanded by the time "Advent Children" was made by a team in Japan.
The Honolulu studio produced FF:TSW and "Final Flight of the Osiris", a short for the "Animatrix" anthology.
The lack of commercial success of FF:TSW led to the Honolulu studio being closed down. The staff spread out through the CG industry and took with them the lessons from the project.
I liked the movie, and I haven't even played Final Fantasy.
The quality was good enough for me to enjoy the story without getting stuck in the "graphics".