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Final Fantasy: How'd
They Do That?
Wednesday
July 11, 2001
It's a futuristic realm where outer space meets cyberspace, where real-life blends with virtual reality, where sci-fi becomes fantasy. It’s the new film "Final Fantasy.”
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“Final Fantasy," an 11-year-old video game, is now the latest game to play on the big screen.
But unlike "Mortal Kombat" and "Tomb Raider," both brought to life by stars, "Final Fantasy" is sticking with computer animation, perhaps the most realistic ever to grace the silver screen. “Extra” wants to know, How'd they do that?
“E.R” star Ming-Na lent her voice to the character Aki. She says, “The details, down to the freckles and the flowing of the hair, it really surpassed all my expectations. She's like my virtual reality counterpart."
And to bring her counterpart to life was a painstaking process, starting with Ming-Na recording her voice. She says, “Then the animators would take all that and create their magic."
The magic begins by creating a wire frame model of the character. The face is molded, and the skin is literally peeled off and painted in the computer, one freckle at a time.
The face is re-applied creating incredibly realistic features: the eyes, nose, lips, and even teeth! Like a marionette, the computer can position every part of Aki’s body; from the tips of her hair to her fingertips. The artists even used video of Ming-Na's recording session to sync her lips to the dialogue.
Ming-Na says, “It's like, they must have put a person in there, because that looks too realistic."
And while "Final Fantasy" may be a groundbreaking technological wonder, for Ming-Na this role was a fantasy finally come true. “I'm such a science fiction geek. I love all this stuff."
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