Works of Visual Works Exhibition

March 26 - August 31

2016

Ooka Makoto Kotoba

Museum

Works of Visual Works

State of the Art

Digital Art Exhibition

The Works of Visual Works -State of the Art Digital Art- Exhibition was held on March 26 through August 31, 2016 at the Ooka Makoto Kotoba Museum in Mishima, Japan. The museum is a literary museum dedicated to the achievements of Ooka Makoto, a Japanese poet and critic. The exhibition offered a great opportunity for visitors to get a behind-the-scenes look at the CGI production process of Visual Works, Square Enix's CGI production company, and learn how everything comes together into a final product. The admission price for entry was ¥1,000.

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MUSEUM SHOP

The Museum Shop was located near the entrance of the exhibition, selling merchandise such as posters, art books, art prints, and plushies.. Figurines of characters from the Final Fantasy series were displayed.

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VISUAL WORKS CREATIONS

Visual Works’ impressive digital art was on display and fans were able to see close-ups of high quality wall prints featuring character renders we have never seen before of Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII), Yuna, Tidus (Final Fantasy X), Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII Remake), Ace (Final Fantasy Type-0) Hatsune Miku and Katagiri Kyoka (Gunslinger Stratos).

Many exhibits were accompanied by commentary videos on monitors, including short documentaries that go behind the scenes of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest. These videos featured scenes that didn’t make to the final cut, showcased how amazingly detailed characters and immersive worlds are constructed and follow the production progress from lighting to motion capture and beyond. In addition to video games, visitors got to see the creation flow of commercials like Hatsune Miku x Tetsuya Nomura, which was originally created for Hatsune Miku Expo 2014.

In order to reach realism and capture impressive amount of details, Square Enix often created real things such as hairstyles, armour and other items for the digital productions. Several of Square Enix's full-sized figures of iconic items were on display, including Cloud's Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII, Genesis' outfit from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Sin from Final Fantasy X, a real Crystal from Final Fantasy XI, Gabranth's Judge armour from Final Fantasy XII; and Ace's samurai armour from Final Fantasy Type-0. Behind Gabranth's display are lines from Irvine of Final Fantasy VIII, befitting of a literary museum. The power of words is exhibited through various installations, showcasing lines from many characters from the Final Fantasy series.

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VISUAL WORKS PRODUCTION

This area of the exhibition focused on Visual Works' CGI production process, showcasing the realistic motion capture system that’s used to capture animations for CGI movies. The company's production is divided into three stages:

Process A - previsualization, look development, research & development, break down. Motion capture is also done alongside.
Process B - asset, matte paint, rigging, animation, simulation.
Process C - effect, lighting, composite, edit.

Visual Works employees will be on hand on select days throughout the exhibition for workshops showcasing the company's motion-capture process. A mini reproduction imitating the company's motion capture room is displayed. The motion capture can be viewed on screen in a different room.

Handwritten staff storyboards were exhibited, as well as a work desk, capturing what it was like working for the company.

A hands-on Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality area allowed visitors to test out the company's works. In the AR corner, visitors used a game console (3DS) to view the venue through AR and witnessed a mini Cloud in his World of Final Fantasy form dancing. Other characters from the series were scattered throughout the venue.

A Schoolgirl Strikers photo op area was available for visitors, based on the social network game developed and published by Square Enix.