Exclusive Interview with Chocobo Artist Jenna Antonelli!

[Goldenboko]

A week ago I had covered Artist Jenna Antonelli's Chocobo Sculpture. As I follow up I contacted her and we sat down (over email) and discussed her fantastic piece of work. Check out the EoFF exclusive interview with Jenna below!

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GB: First's first! Have you played any Final Fantasies in the past or was the chocobo done purely because of commission?
Jenna: I've always been an avid gamer. I started out playing a lot of platformers and fighting games as a kid. Then one day my best friend convinced me to try out Final Fantasy VIII. Needless to say I was completely hooked. I've played VII, VIII, IX, X, even X-2. I also spent a good year of my life playing FFXI. Everyone and their mother will rave about VII being the best but Final Fantasy VIII will always be my all time favorite. It holds a special place in my heart. (I still have all my GF and character toys..even if they are pieces. They had tendency to break.)

The commission was actually for a friend that I had met through online gaming. He kept seeing the work I posted to twitter, facebook, etc. He approached me about possibly creating a chocobo for him. I was excited about the project as a fan and an artist. I'd never tackled something with so many feathers before!

GB: Ah great stuff! So did your friend give you any parameters for the chocbo design or would you say that this sculpture's interpretation came from your own experiences with the games? Did anything from playing the games make you inspired to make those feathers so detailed?
Jenna: The only thing the client mentioned was wanting it closer to any of the chocobos before FFX. I would say that's what I based it's proportions off of. I looked at a ridiculous number of game screen shots, concept art, and fan art. At first the feather style was based more off of the FFX concept art. The wispy, fluffy look. The more I played with feather styles, the more I realized that I just didn't like the simplified, stylized look that you see in the game models. I started looking at real birds, real feather patterns and textures.

I guess im really glad my friend and client was letting me run with it because it ended up being exactly my style. I tend to recreate real things but just put a slightly exaggerated twist on it. It's subtle. It's something I've recognized in my work the last few years. I can achieve whatever look the client wants, but if given artistic freedom it tends to come out in my 'style'. I'm currently wrapping up another job for a comic company and it's so simplified, stylized. I love the challenge of it though.

GB: Sounds like a lot of research! How long did it take? Which games did you look at screenshots and concept art from? Did you ever consider a different "type" of chocobo (Black, Gold etc.)?
Jenna: Can't say how long per say because the poor bird was put on hold while I moved myself back to the northeast.

I looked at each games iteration. I really wanted to see how they changed, how they differed from one to another. Even though my friends and I joked about him being the legendary gold, I always knew he would be classic chocobo yellow. When I was sculpting him, I was always conscious of making sure he had the defining features that made him really look like a chocobo. Once I started laying in the yellow on the feathers and orange for the beak, that's when he really looked the part. It's just so iconic.


GB: Is there any one part of the process of actually creating the piece that was the most difficult? I couldn't image the time it took to put each feather in!
Jenna: The feathers. Hands down.

The anatomy was pretty quick to flesh out. It's always important to lay an accurate foundation, even if it will be covered up. The other 75% of the work was just feathers. Lots and lots of feathers.

-End of Interview-

Jenna mentioned to me that she might sign up and answer questions left in this article, so leave any questions you want here! If she doesn't get a chance to sign up I'll pass a few a long to her via email! For more information about Jenna Antonelli and her work, check out her website.