The Making of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

If you ever wanted a great behind the scenes book on the movie that is the greatest ahievement by computer animation with realistic 3d characters, check this book out.This book features full page color on every page turn. Interviews with all the creative people that made it happen, original script accompanied by all the storyboards, character designs, as well as many "how we did it information" on animation, motion capture, lighting, VFX. compostiting, and final production.Great buy for any animator.

How can a person complain about "too much making"? After all, the name of the book is: "The MAKING of Final Fantasy". I personally would have loved to read more articles on the VERY tech-y side of creating the characters skin textures, but that would have probably bored and confused general readers. I was expecting the transcription of the dialouge to occupy a chunk of the book, but luckily, it doesn't. You might need a magnifying glass to read it anyway. Excellent display of pre-production work and funny "secrets", like cameos of chocobos and The "Gooch" himself(director Hironobu Sakaguchi) in CG form! Mr. Sakaguchi also provides the foreword. The book is lite in text, but the pictures do all of the talking for you.

Let's be honest here, Whether or not you liked this movie, you have to acknowledge the unbelievable amount of talent and artistry that went into making it. It took 4 years to make this movie, and it definately didn't do as well at the box office as it should have. Granted the plot wasn't the best in the world, but this book is NOT about the plot. Its about what really made this movie impressive, the breathtaking CG. If you're a fan of art, then you will love this book. The bottom line is, this is the highest quality Computer Generated graphics ever created, Its a whole new genre for film-making. Buy this Book!!!