The Animation of Final Fantasy
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2021
- How has the animation in Final Fantasy series evolved over time? Join professional animator Dan Floyd on a retrospective journey through the series, starting here with the NES original.
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Watch the whole series! ► • The Animation of Final...
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Retro Game Mechanics Explained ► / retrogamemechanicsexpl...
Interview with Kazuko Shibuya and Yoshitaka Amano ► • Yoshitaka Amano, Kazuk...
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PATREON ► / newframeplus
TWITTER ► / danfloydplus
LET'S PLAY CHANNEL ► bit.ly/2lmGte8
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Written and produced by Daniel Floyd
Special thanks to:
-Carrie Floyd
-Soraya Een Hajji
-Alexander Losego
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♪ Featuring selections from the Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy XIV official soundtracks.
#FinalFantasy #animation - Ігри
I'm ready for the slow descent into "oh boy, I may have bitten off too much"
GAGAGAGAGAGA! I will now count to 3 and then I am still the unprettiest UA-camr of all time. 1...2...3. GAGAGAGAGAGA!!! Thank you for your attention, dear kai
I think that will take longer to set in. He’s pacing himself so much better than he did with Sonic (though that’s not stopping me from wanting more at once :P )
Same
Like, Dan just committed to like possibly 15 videos here
I could see it if it was split into themed sections but nope, each edition of Final Fantasy
@@makomachine7643 true. Maybe the happy medium is a couple games at a time? Like one video per console for the Nintendo ones, and then I don't know what goes where.
Man I do miss just listening to Dan talk about literally any game topic ever
Right? Always a treat, I don't even care what the subject is, I just wanna hear what he has to say on it. And when it's a game I already love? So much the better.
Then, you should watch the playthrough he is doing right now of Psychonauts 2: m.ua-cam.com/play/PLvFQJa1XAXzxwZKxxLj5B7JUAgW2RQQSS.html He is having a good time and his love for the game (and its animation) is clear for anyone to see.
I still remember the two hours worth of quality sonic content that I watched at 2 in the morning, and I've never even played any of the games
Same
Yeah, and the other Dan also...
I love the ko'd pose. The way the characters are completely sprawled out with their legs in the comedic scorpion position... I don't know, it just gets me.
And later on, in upcoming games ...
WHO DROPPED A WHITE RUG???
XD
It looks like they just faceplanted onto the floor! With their small proportions they feel a little like toddlers who tripped or threw themselves onto the ground in a fit.
Same. They’re so comically cute it’s kind of endearing
Peak "oof" energy.
Playing games with such limitations and repetition back then *really* made you appreciate and get excited when you saw something new. "WHOA! This sword is red!!!" with not an inkling of sarcasm behind it.
Cool sprite rendering fact (at least I think so):
Notice how Dan said that the sprite layer could only have 3 distinct colors per 8×8 sprite, but if you look at e.g. the black wizard, you'll notice some characters have 4 distinct colors in the overworld sprite? And actually, all the battle sprites have 4 distinct colors everywhere!
Here's how that's done:
- For the overworld sprites, the head and body are not part of the same 8×8 square, so the head can have a different color palette. You can notice in the black wizard sprite, one of the walking frames puts the yellow hat slightly below the head sprite and into the body sprite, so the closest matching color (the pink-ish color) is used for the lowest line of pixels (see 8:35).
- For the battle sprites another trick is used! The background is black already, so there's no real point in drawing black pixels on top. So actually all the black pixels in the combat sprites are transparent instead of black! That leaves the 3 (non-transparent) pixels for 3 distinct colors. That's why the battle sprites look a little more fancy. You can see this at 7:14 when the black background is replaced by a blue background, and indeed the black pixels of the battle sprites (reused in this screen here) are blue instead. You can also see the black pixels flash yellow when the background of the battle arena flashes yellow later on.
This is correct! It's one of my favorite clever tricks of theirs that I didn't find a good place to mention. :D
@@NewFramePlus I was waiting for you to say it the entire episode, so I just had to comment when the episode was over. 😄
Well spotted, I never noticed that!
I just realized Black Belt's hair also shortens in his walking sprite for the same reason, hats off to Kazuko Shibuya for doing so much with so little!
I thought something was off about how the sprites looked against the blue background, but just attributed it to colors blending together on CRT TVs or some kind of optical illusion. Don't know if I'll be able to unsee that now!
the thing I like about this trick is you may notice the change but never quetion why the sprite does this because of where the transparent pixels are used, pixel art especially '8bit' pixel art looks easy to produce but there is actually a lot of artistry on display here!
Okay I'm not gonna lie I didn't expect the editing efforts that went into this. That sprite layer section must have been a tonne of work. Keep up the good work, very excited.
Dan is, as always, the man.
To be fair, I think it was easier than it looks. I mean, we have emulation after all.
Yeah, most 8- and 16-bit emulators give you the option to view/hide any layer of the graphics. Isolating the backgrounds would have been quite easy.
You can choose to show and hide many of the layers on an emulator, I've done it before, syncing was the tedious part for me lmao.
Strap in guys, it’s finally here! Arguably Dan’s magnum opus in animation breakdowns. Until he decides to do another Sonic deep dive, at least.
Or a Kingdom Hearts one.
I WANT TO SEE HIM GO CRAZY CUZ OF SONIC AGAIN HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Or Darkstalkers
@@xiahoupaul19 KH is gonna be magical. Just hearing the disney animation trivia in the LP's is already so engaging.
PLEASE make sure you do an entry on Final Fantasy Tactics. The sprite animation is SO expressive, especially considering the constraints of the art style.
Especially when the sprites themselves don't emote very much at all!
I am curious exactly how many if any of the spinoffs will be included in this.
Fully agree!
@@AkaiAzul the Confusion Dance!
XD
@@shawnheatherly Personally I'm interested in WoFF analysis, and what sorts of challenges the chibi sprites pose for animators.
This is so good - I absolutely adore dives into how extreme technical limitations shape animation, and I can't wait to get to places like FFV and IX especially to hear about those approaches!
Oh man my two actual favorites getting called out at once
I love the way they managed to adapt Amano's art style to the bosses' sprites. It's so recognizable.
It's too bad the character sprites varied so much from the designs. I want to know what happened with Faris in particular.
@@BonaparteBardithionFaris has concept art from at least three artists so that is a factor to consider, as is telling Lenna and Faris apart at a glance on a very tiny sprite across a Lot of sprites. Yes making them both blonde wouldn't hurt much in the end, but giving them different hair colors helps make confusion less likely.
I love that Dan named the characters after Carrie and friends, thus (So)raya, Echo, and Lil
I noticed that too! Is Echo meant to be Dan Jones (for Dan reasons) or someone else that I'm just totally blanking on?
We all know that we're only getting these in a one game per episode format so Dan doesn't end up making a second feature film that ends up longer than the extended editions of Lord of the Rings right?
Oh ye of little faith. I'm betting FF7 & 8 come out to at least one LOTR Extended edition together, and there are a LOT of FF13 games.
Props to Brian Celvinger for making lemonade out of 12 sprites.
I see those KO poses and I immediately think "ah yes, everyone has fallen down because Fighter has made a very dumb joke"
I always get a bit of whiplash at seeing the male White Mage whenever I see the original game in action.
I love me some 8 bit theatre. Good times~
Damn Dan, I could feel you getting Louder/Angrier subtly speaking of the outrage of Kazuko Shibuya getting credit for her work. That said, I never knew anything about her until now, and I salute to this wonderful person (salutes).
6:00 - THANK YOU for mentioning Kaziko! Her work is incredible and definitely deserves more recognition!
I'm one of those who, unfortunately, only learned of her relatively recently, and I'm so glad I did, and only wish I had sooner!
Her work absolutely shines even to this day!
wow I had no idea that the character art for the first 6 games was done by one person, that kind of blows my mind. happy she's finally getting the recognition she deserves!
What an amazing foundation Final Fantasy I made for the series. Ms. Shibuya's work is incredible.
At first I read the title as "The Animation of FF" and was like
Dan, my dude, what did you do?! How long have you been working on this?!
This surely took longer than the Sonic video, this will be a looong episode, you don't need to follow the steps of that creator that did a 7 hour retrospective on the whole Resident Evil series
Then I saw that the video is 15 minutes long and the title is about FF I and was much relieved
I would have been down :x
@@ChesireWaltz Honestly, me too but the last Sonic video was an absurd amount of work. I think it makes sense to be split up over *multiple* this time lmaoooo
I misread it at first too and I was like: There's no way he's spending 15 mins on all of FF after doing an hour long breakdown of Sonic.
Breaking it down definitely makes it both more approachable to the average viewer. It's a lot easier to spend an hour watching a series of videos than to deliberately commit to an hour long video.
Oh man I am SO excited for this series
The saga begins! This was super helpful and informative! Thank you for pointing out the absolutely groundbreaking and massive contribution to Kazuko Shibuya. I might never have learned about her without you pointing it out. Great highlight!
... playing metroid music, while displaying castelvania.... your going to give some people issues Dan... I love it.
I twitched so hard when I saw/heard that.
Me: "Dan, I've never played _any_ of the core titles in the FF franchise."
Also Me: "Dan, I am genuinely excited to hear you talk about the limitations and evolution of the animation of the core titles in the FF franchise!"
Loved how well the writing flows and how well the music was timed for section changes. Hearing battle theme kick in when examining combat sprites made me smile a bit.
Man I could listen to this guy talk about animation forever - I actually got into animation thanks to your youtube work; props!
I loved this video. Would also live to see a similar treatment of the Dragon Quest games, comparing and contrasting Square and Enix, especially how things changed after the merge.
YAY MORE NEW FRAME PLUS! I started learning Maya thanks to you
I already wanted to do 2D animation for shows and stuff but then I saw your Guilty Gear video and decided I wanna do both
Same! Dan's Smash Bros videos inspired me to start learning 3D animation in Blender and it's so cool!
@@Evan-rj9xy are you working with IK or FK?
Oh man, the music in this video is so timeless and nostalgic. I mean, I’m just 17, but I’ve got such an attachment to this game. Great to see this analysis!
I love how you break this down and explain it and thanks for the heads up regarding Shibuya-san. She is an unsung genius who deserves waaay more recognition than she's ever gotten.
I remember helping my friend with his Final Fantasy I team.. he showed me his level 25 team of Fighter, Bl. Belt, White Mage and Black Mage. Then, to my horror, I found he had his Bl. Belt equipped with Iron Nunchucks.
"Unequip him right now," I said.
The next battle his jaw hit floor when he saw his Bl. Belt do 6 hits for 600 damage.
I want to say, Dan, that you have such a soothing voice and a clear passion for video game animation (and design in general). I've been following you since the early Extra Credits days and it's been a joy listening to you talk about pretty much anything. I can't wait for the rest of this series
Why we adore Dan, he really was the Soul of Extra Credits, that series may as well be dead to me at this point.
the knocked out sprite looks utterly adorable
One thing I think is fair to say was there from the very beggining is that the monster pixel art, particularly for bosses, was always spectacular 😙👌
Kinda surreal to think this series is finally releasing, after all those years. And all I've done is hear about it - can't imagine what's it's like for you making it!
My favourite Dan telling me stuff about animation. Amazing.
It's heeeeeere!
I'm glad that the FF1 Wizard circle proves that the franchise has always needed the following disclaimer:
"Several cutscenes will play in sequence. It is recommended you set aside sufficient time to view these scenes in their entirety"
This is why cutscenes galleries are nice, though it obviously wasn't an option in '87.
I've always kinda enjoyed the blank-slate cast of FF1 and 3. While yes, they don't have any character of their own, it allows for me to fill in the gaps with my own stuff. It's like my own personal dungeons and dragons party, and I can imagine how different characters would react in certain situations. This is further amplified by how you can name them whatever you want. So I usually name my party after a group of my friends. It's fun to imagine what classes each of them would be, and what they would say or do in the fairly open-ended scenarios the games put you in. While I enjoy the more in-depth stories and characters of the later games, I don't think we give enough appreciation to blank slates and how they can make you interact with the game in a unique way.
Excellent start! It's funny because as much as the party lacked in designed character they actually often did end up taking on "characters" of their own during gameplay. Through things like having to choose from a limited selection of spells or randomized stats and dice rolls just always seeming to succeed or fail, your own party really did become special with each play through. The thief who was terrible at running away. The black belt who despite all his training couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. The white mage who always got targeted but was somehow amazing at not getting hit. Etc.
Man, though, hearing you explains just what lives on which layer in the battle was *incredible* - just imagining the sheer hoops a developer had to jump through to re-envision each layer and how the different effects would interact is pretty fascinating. Thank you for that.
I think I just realized I've been misreading the White Mage's casting sprite for decades now. He's not opening his arms, he's clutching a holy symbol (or otherwise touching his chest/heart) and raising his hand.
The good ole' days, back when your imagination had to fill in the gaps (including the character's background stories and personalities).
Somewhat back again for FFXIV :P
I had no idea how much I missed that old screen transition (4:53), thanks for including it!
my relationship with your channel is as follows: get notification > watch new video rewatch all your old videos > eventually forget about it for a while > repeat
Something pretty cool I noticed
The walking frames, specifically down and up, only have the legs and arms move. What I think they did is draw the one walking pose, and then flip the bottom 4 tiles to give off the impression of walking. This reusage of tiles can be seen in the battle frames too, only the forward arm tile is changed when attacking, the walking pose just draws 2 tiles for the legs, etc
Love old school tricks like that, so clever!
I can't see those battle sprites without immediately thinking of 8 Bit Theatre.
Awesome video, Dan!
Happy to see you back again, Dan. We all missed your voice.
Congrats on 300k! Loved your stuff for years and I absolutely love your in depth look on Animation. Can't wait for the rest of the series!
A new frame plus for this whole series is a massive amount of ambition that I can't wait to see through! Keep up the good work!
It's... here? It's actually here? The Final Fantasy series is here! I'm so excited! I'm happy for you Dan, to be in the releasing videos phase of this project!
amazing how we got some of the most iconic sprite comics on the internet out of twelve poses.
Sprite comics back then were a lot of staring at sprite sheets and going "hmm. what else could this pose represent?"
So excited to see this series finally launch! I know you’ve been working hard on it for a long time now.
Can't wait for the next video ! Thank you for doing these
Oh boy, here we go! Massive props for tackling this series Dan!
YES, you've been talking about this series for so long and it's finally here! I'm so excited! This episode was really nice and I learned a lot about 8-bit limitations, I'm definitely gonna go check out Retro Game Mechanics now too!
It begins! Been looking forward to this series for years. So glad for it to finally reach our eyeballs!
So excited for this show! this was a great video, and you put so much effort into the animations to explain everything. Thanks for the great video!
This video just talked me down from a breakdown, thank you for continuing to make brilliant educational content and thank you for continuing to be brilliant yourself!
LETS GOOOO love me a New Frame Plus vid in the afternoon!
Always love your content Dan! I'm excited for the rest of this series!
It's happening.... it's really happening! The long looked-for Final Fantasy Animation series is finally here! The years of wait are over and our patience has been well rewarded. Thank you for a fantastic beginning and letting the original FF1 music sing!
Great visual representation of the sprites, tiling, etc. Wonderful breakdown and editing!
I have been looking forward to this series since you announced it...so glad it's here!!
So fascinating. Loved the balance of details about everything in this video, I think you struck just the right balance.
HOORAY! you finally got this project out! I had never really thought that much about the challenges present in telling a story with such limited resources...
omg i remember dan mentioning this project when i first came across this channel last year, i think! I'm so happy to see this actually happening! i look forward for the next videos!!! :D
So excited for this series, Dan!
Really interesting video! Especially the NES technical introduction. Looking forward to the trip through time.
It's finally here! After all the work you've put in for, what, a year+? I'm very excited to see this series.
super interesting and well explained and displayed. awesome video, cant wait for more!
This is a cool idea for a series. I'm looking forward to the next video! Thanks
Thank you kindly Dan for the easily digestible information of my one of my favourite game series, I learned lots of great little trivia and gain new found appreciations for Final Fantasy I . The fond name for the NES , nostalgia box, was very endearing and thank you for the shout out recognition for spirit and pixel artist Shibuya Kazuko-san. Despite the limitation of the spirits, the key animation that Final Fantasy I had gave birth the very fun comic "8-bit theater"! Look forward to the next episode of New Frame Plus!
The bit about NES sprite limitations reminded me of the ingenious workaround for Bowser in SMB. He appears to be a four-colour sprite, but he's actually only three-colour. All the black details are the background showing through, but you only encounter Bowser on a black background.
awesome work Dan, I can't wait for more!
Great first video, looking forward to the rest of the series.
Omg i can’t wait for more! Love your stuff Dan!
As someone who wrote their senior thesis on Final Fantasy as a series and its evolution, it’s always great to see someone really dive into it. Your animation analysis is absolutely fascinating and delightful and has helped me improve my own art. And as someone who loves the series to shreds, my condolences on having to play II next. That said I’m curious if you’ll do any sort of video on like Dissidia or World of Final Fantasy to compare how they did characterization through animation. Also just the hyperrealistic chibis from the end credits of WoFF will haunt me in my sleep for the next thousand years.
This was so very interesting. I'm so glad you're covering one of my favorite game series. Though I'm just a musician and composer, the animation side of things is so very awesome and whenever a video of yours drops I'm always invested. Even that very long sonic video that covered a lot of the games.
I'm so excited for more but please try not to die covering 15 and potentially more of these.
This video was gold I can’t wait to see your next video!
I’ve been waiting for this series to start, and I’m so excited now.
Excellent presentation, I'm so excited for more Final Fantasy analysis.
Yay! I’ve been waiting for this for so long!!!
I'm always way too happy to see Dan posting on this channel
When I first read the title I somehow missed out on the "I" and was disappointed: "Oh man only 15minutes for Final Fantasy? I want a feature Film sized Video like the Sonic One!"
Now after realizing it is just the beginning of a Season, i am overjoyed.
Thanks for creating this Format and blowing our minds with every video you put out.
Love your channel!
Keep up the great work.
This was great! Can't wait to watch the whole series.
Congrats on finally getting this released! I know you've been working on it for a long time!
A whole series of Dan talking about things he's good at? I am SO on board!
I was on the verge of tears multiple times during this short and wonderful essay about a bizarre and wonderful game. Thanks, Dan!
Oh boy, can't wait for Dan to cover the hit MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV with the award winning Heavensward expansion
i was just thinking about this channel the other day. i wish you would upload more but i completely understand that these videos take time
As someone who very recently started trying out pixel art and loved the original FF this fuels me. Thank you!! I appreciate this video so much. I'm definitely gonna be rewatching this, and checking the recommended channel soon.
The beast has awakened!! I remember you talking about this project years ago, I don't even recall where. Awesomr to see it finally here!
I didn't know how much I missed hearing Dan gush about animation techniques until now
Great video! This seems like it's going to be a cool series, excited to see the next one!
Pretty ambitious series! I'm excited to see you go forward, especially when you get to the SNES era especially 6 where the sprite work really took off as well as the transition to 3D.
Wewt! Love new frame plus eps. Don't get enough of these!
4:34 "Nostalgia brick" is the _perfect_ way to put it ;D
I am so EXCITED for this series! This was super interesting. Can't wait for more advanced chapters.
I'm glad you're making this a series in which you look at the animation of games one at a time, the hour-long videos are great but this is a much more digestable format, at least for me. :'D
Over the past couple years I've been doing my own run through of every mainline Final Fantasy game, as well as a few of the sequels and offshoots. It's been quite interesting to see how the games have evolved over time in gameplay, storytelling, and graphics, and I am looking forward to your professional take on the animation in particular. Well made video!
Man hearing that FF ost along with the narration is so soothing
I'm so here for this series! ❤️ Love it!