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Thread: The Final Fantasy 500 Project

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    Default The Final Fantasy 500 Project

    Hello EoFF! I've come here in hopes of gathering as many talented artists as I can for my collaborative project, The Final Fantasy 500. This project's goal is the creation of a group picture of 500 characters from across the Final Fantasy series. This is no small task, so I've been searching for as many artists as I can to help me out. I've noticed this site has an unusually large amount of extremely talented artists, and I hope some of you would be willing to help me out in this. I've created a site to act as a resource center, status update page, and general Q and A page for anyone interested in what the project is about. You check it out here:

    The Final Fantasy 500

    I've gotten decent support so far, but with a project this size I'm always looking for more artists to help me out, so here I am. Anyone that is interested please check out the site for the basic idea behind the project. Any artists who want to help out can contact me either here in this thread, via PM, or via email at espritduo@hotmail.com. You can also find me on AIM occasionally, also as espritduo. Just browse through the characters listed on the site and let me know which character(s) you want to do, and I'll add you to the ever-growing list on the update page.

    Also, for any artists interested, here's a few important guidelines to keep in mind before you go rushing off on a drawing spree:

    1. There's no deadline on the project. I will be working on it as long as it takes to get it done, and I'm giving the artists involved all the time they need to do as much or as little as they want to do in their own time.

    2. As far as actual submitting goes, there's a limit of 10 characters at once per artist. Most people only take one character, but there are always a few eager beavers that like to take a bunch at once. This is great, but to keep a limit on how many characters I have up in the air, I'm limiting it to 10 at one time. As you finish characters you can then add more to your to-do list. Just don't go too crazy, since I've noticed I have a lot of people who have taken many characters, and have yet to finish their first one. Take as many as you think you can do in a reasonable time, and then as you finish them you can choose whether or not to do more.

    3. I'm not screening artists based on quality or anything like that. If you're willing to help me out, I won't turn you down or ask you for samples or credentials(although I'm always curious to see anything the artist has done if they want). Just let me know what you want to do, and you're in. Simple as that.

    4. Style and method. There are some things all artists needs to keep in mind when drawing their characters.

    4a.) First and foremost, all characters need to be in color. If you really want to participate in the project, but can't color for beans, there's always the option of giving it to someone else to draw. I won't be actively looking for people to color other people's work, but if you can find someone, then go for it. As long as the finished piece is colored, I won't care how it got that way.

    4b.) Secondly, the characters should not be in any sort of action pose, like jumping through the air, or swinging a sword, or anything too stylish. This picture is a group picture like you'd see in a graduation picture or some other gathering where you have a large group of people standing in front of a camera. The characters can be doing static things like holding up their sword, or posing in a "cool" manner, that's fine. Also, make sure the entire character is in the picture. No wings/feet/tails/limbs cut off from the edge of the picture. Just try to think of your character as a person(or animal, as the case may be) standing(or hovering for the flying types) as naturally as possible in front of a cameraman waiting for the flash.

    4c.) Pencil-drawn (and colored) characters are acceptable, but I strongly recommend ink/computer drawn if you can manage it reasonably well. If you can go over the pencil-drawn character's lines in ink, then that's a good alternative. I'll still accept a completely pencil-drawn character, but unless the artist takes care to draw clear, solid lines and smooth coloring, it will come out as blurry, faded, and grainy, and may need to be touched up before I can add it to the final version. You can see examples of all kinds of drawing methods in the done characters I have uploaded on the site's character list page.

    4d.) Last one. Backgrounds aren't needed and will only be removed by me when I get them and put them into the group picture, so don't go crazy with fancy backgrounds. Best background is just a plain white background with the character clearly and completely in view. You can add your signature if you like(just don't plaster it over the character!), and I'll keep that intact for the individual picture which will be displayed in a seperate credits section along with the names of everyone who participated in the project.
    And that about covers the basics of the project. If you want to know more, you can always check out the FAQ page of the site.

    Feel free to post any questions or suggestions here and I'll be sure to address anything anyone brings up. Thanks in advance and good luck!

  2. #2
    programmed by NASIR Recognized Member black orb's Avatar
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    >>> Very interesting idea you got there, its a huge task.
    I would like to give some piece of advice to you since there some issues when you try to gather talent from different people.

    First the style, it seems you already thought about this and you gave some reference pics for the people out there. So I think is ok.

    Second is the quality, all the drawings you gather must have a very similar quality. And of course not all the artists who send the images will create something in the same level.
    You have to be careful about this.

    Third and most important is the fan made vs official artwork.
    In this final picture you want to make in your list of "done characters" most of those images you want to use (if not all), are official artwork from square, the problem is that mixing official art with fan made stuff will create something too weird and unappealing in the end.
    So its better if you stick only to fan-made drawings and discard any official image from square, no matter how appealing and pretty they are.

    Well this is something I was thinking about, your idea is great but it have to be carefully planned if you want to make it succeed..
    >> The black orb glitters ominously... but nothing happens..

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by black orb View Post

    Second is the quality, all the drawings you gather must have a very similar quality. And of course not all the artists who send the images will create something in the same level.
    You have to be careful about this.
    Yeah, this is probably the biggest hurdle, and one I think is just inevitable. There will be a difference in quality between characters, since no two artists are exactly the same. I just have to try and hope for the best, and hope the basic individuality of the characters themselves is enough to make up for differences in style and quality. So far I've gotten a wide range of styles and quality work, though, and the images still mesh together surprisingly well, so I feel the end product will definitely be worth striving towards.

    Third and most important is the fan made vs official artwork.
    In this final picture you want to make in your list of "done characters" most of those images you want to use (if not all), are official artwork from square, the problem is that mixing official art with fan made stuff will create something too weird and unappealing in the end.
    So its better if you stick only to fan-made drawings and discard any official image from square, no matter how appealing and pretty they are.
    Oh yes, this is a completely fan-made project. The only official artwork is what I've gathered on my site for resource material for the artists. No matter how hard it may be to find an artist for a particular character, I will not have any official artwork in the final group image. I'm not sure what you were looking at on my done list, but if I understand you correctly, you're clicking on the name of the character on my list, and that brings up their bio with a list of resource images for the artists. If you click on the star next to a done character, you'll see the actual submitted fan artwork for that character.

    Well this is something I was thinking about, your idea is great but it have to be carefully planned if you want to make it succeed..
    I've spent many months now planning and organizing and predicting all the twists and turns of this project, and I am 100% confident I can make it work. All I need now is a solid core of dedicated artists to supply the art, and everything will come together. I've already got a quarter of the 500 characters accounted for by over 30 artists, and there are still many more sites on the internet I have yet to tap.

    Now, what about yourself? Truth be told, your incredible artwork was one of the main reasons I picked this site for my project, and I'd be pleased as punch to have you lend your talents to the effort, even if it is just for one character.

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    card mod ur face Rocket Edge's Avatar
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    Great idea.
    Quote Originally Posted by black orb View Post
    Third and most important is the fan made vs official artwork.
    In this final picture you want to make in your list of "done characters" most of those images you want to use (if not all), are official artwork from square, the problem is that mixing official art with fan made stuff will create something too weird and unappealing in the end.
    So its better if you stick only to fan-made drawings and discard any official image from square, no matter how appealing and pretty they are.
    I agree with this. If it were all drawn from official art it would get rather boring I guess.

    I'll start on Julia from VIII. I don't have a clue how to work photoshop but i'll do a drawing with graphite and colour pencil.

    Any idea on the scale of each drawings?

    Str8 Pimpin'

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    programmed by NASIR Recognized Member black orb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by espritduo View Post

    Now, what about yourself? Truth be told, your incredible artwork was one of the main reasons I picked this site for my project, and I'd be pleased as punch to have you lend your talents to the effort, even if it is just for one character.
    >>> Yeah i wouldnt mind to do a couple of drawings, but the quality will probably be far above from the ones you already have.
    think about it, if thats ok with you i`ll pick a couple of characters and draw them..
    >> The black orb glitters ominously... but nothing happens..

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    VICIOUS GEEK SOOT~ヽ(`Д´)ノ scrumpleberry's Avatar
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    I'll do Relm, and Hilda if you like.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rocket Edge View Post
    Great idea.
    I agree with this. If it were all drawn from official art it would get rather boring I guess.

    I'll start on Julia from VIII. I don't have a clue how to work photoshop but i'll do a drawing with graphite and colour pencil.

    Any idea on the scale of each drawings?
    The average size of each character completely zoomed 100% is usually about 200x500 pixels, although that varies depending on the character and pose. I scale the submitted characters up or down to approximate their actual height compared with the other characters once I get them, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about that.

    And I can put you down for Julia no problem. Since you are doing her in pencil, just make sure the lines are nice and solid and clear, and the colors as smooth as possible, and not grainy or sketchy. That's a common problem with the pencil-drawn characters and tends to make them stand out from the rest as faded and blurry. If you are comfortable going over the lines in ink, you can try that. I have other artists that are doing that with their pencil-work.

    Quote Originally Posted by black orb
    >>> Yeah i wouldnt mind to do a couple of drawings, but the quality will probably be far above from the ones you already have.
    think about it, if thats ok with you i`ll pick a couple of characters and draw them..
    If the only problem I have with your work is that it is too good, I'll gladly make that "sacrifice", heh. Just let me know which free characters you're interested in from the list and I'll put you down for them.

    Quote Originally Posted by scrumpleberry
    I'll do Relm, and Hilda if you like.
    I like quite a bit. I'm assuming you're doing FFII's Hilda, and not FFIX's Hilda, since Hilda IX is no longer on the list due to space constraints. So I'll put you down for Relm and Hilda (FFII).

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    Draw the Drapes Recognized Member rubah's Avatar
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    Auron is still open? :O Can I have him ?

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    Sure thing! You wanna know what's really crazy? Sephiroth's still open too, as well as all the Cid's except IV. Sometimes it's strange the way these things play out.

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    Holy Dragoon Kain <3 Recognized Member KoShiatar's Avatar
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    Can I have Celes, Desch and Lucrecia?

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    card mod ur face Rocket Edge's Avatar
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    Oh i'll take my baby Shiva too (FFX).

    Str8 Pimpin'

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by KoShiatar View Post
    Can I have Celes, Desch and Lucrecia?
    Sure! I'll put you down for all three.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rocket Edge
    Oh i'll take my baby Shiva too (FFX).
    Unfortunately, Shiva's already taken. Make sure you check out the character list to see which characters have been accounted for and which are free. If you really have your heart set on her, though, I can talk to the person doing her and see if he'd be willing to switch. He's actually doing quite a few of the scantily clad women from the series, and I might be able to bribe him with Siren in exchange for Shiva, heh.

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    programmed by NASIR Recognized Member black orb's Avatar
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    >>> I would like to take Hojo and the Onion kid/knight ..
    You dont have Dr Unne and matoya in the ff1 list??
    well that sucks, you should take out warmech and put dr.unne at least.

    If you are willing to put unne or/and matoya ill draw them right away..

    >>> Edit- oops, it looks like Onion Kid is taken already but because of this, I just had this fantastic idea that can make your project several times awesomer..

    Why dont just make all the characters listed, open for everyone?
    Lets say that "artist A", "artist B" and "Artist C" want to draw Sephiroth..
    with the current system only "artist A" would have the right to draw Sephiroth, instead if is open for everyone "B" and "C" can draw that character too..
    Everyone WIN with this, specially you since in the end you will have various images from the same character to pick from, and you dont have to pick the one you like right away, you can wait until the end, when the 500 characters are done and pick the best images for the final thing.
    This way it will be more fair for all the people who want to help out there and of course its going to be more fun and im sure more people would like to help you with drawings..

    I hope you consider this..
    Last edited by black orb; 01-21-2009 at 06:11 PM.
    >> The black orb glitters ominously... but nothing happens..

  14. #14

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    I had Matoya on the list at one time (you can actually still see her page here: The Final Fantasy 500 - Matoya), but I had to drop her to make room for another character down the line. I figured both Matoya and Dr. Unne just weren't big enough characters to justify keeping them in while trying to fit in other much bigger characters. I've always loved Warmech, and consider him the original superboss of the series, so I felt compelled to keep him in, and I doubt I'll change that, just cuz I like him so much. There's a few other characters like that here and there that are on the list mainly because they're personal favorites of mine and I just really want them in the project(like the FFII Beavers, FFVII's Johnny, or Sagi from FFU).

    As far as letting people take the same character, I don't have any problem with multiple people taking the same character if they really want to. There's two problems with this on a large scale though.

    Firstly, if I let people take any character they like without regards to who's already taken and who isn't, I'll have everyone doing the same popular characters, with the lesser ones being forgotten and the project stagnating. With a one artist per character rule, it keeps the project moving forward and makes sure the lesser characters are taken. I don't have so many artists yet that I can afford to have them all doing the same characters. If I had literally hundreds of artists on the project, I'd be more open to the idea, but as it stands now, there just isn't enough support for it if I want to complete the project in anything resembling a timely fashion.

    The second problem is more of a personal one. I don't like being the judge and jury of who's art makes the cut and who's doesn't. The idea of having someone work hard on a character, only to have me drop it because someone else later did it better is unappealing to me. It's true that this means that what I get for a character is what I get, and I don't have much choice in the matter, but I feel that's just the price I'm willing to pay to ensure an artist doesn't have to worry about their efforts going to waste.

    Of course, that being said, I'm not stopping anyone from doing a character they really want to. Like I said above, multiple people can do the same character if they both want to, and I'll just suck it up and pick which one works with the project better. I try to keep that to a minimum though.

    Also of note, I am willing to take characters not on the list if I like the piece enough. So if you're really that eager to do Matoya and Dr. Unne, then go ahead! I'll make room for them somehow.

    For now I'll put you down for Hojo for sure, and wait for you to let me know about the rest.

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    programmed by NASIR Recognized Member black orb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by espritduo View Post
    Firstly, if I let people take any character they like without regards to who's already taken and who isn't, I'll have everyone doing the same popular characters, with the lesser ones being forgotten and the project stagnating..
    >>> hehe, I doubt real ff fans would only want to draw popular characters, that would be just too lame..
    Quote Originally Posted by espritduo View Post
    The second problem is more of a personal one. I don't like being the judge and jury of who's art makes the cut and who's doesn't..
    >>> I think thats exactly what you have to do when you try to create a project (if you want it to be good of couse), and I dont see why you have "a price to pay", is not like you are forcing people to help you. I mean the artists who are helping you with this are doing it because they want right?..

    Quote Originally Posted by espritduo View Post
    Of course, that being said, I'm not stopping anyone from doing a character they really want to. Like I said above, multiple people can do the same character if they both want to, and I'll just suck it up and pick which one works with the project better. I try to keep that to a minimum though..

    Also of note, I am willing to take characters not on the list if I like the piece enough. So if you're really that eager to do Matoya and Dr. Unne, then go ahead! I'll make room for them somehow.

    For now I'll put you down for Hojo for sure, and wait for you to let me know about the rest.
    >>> Sure thing, then also add onion knight, dr unne and matoya to my list too..
    >> The black orb glitters ominously... but nothing happens..

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