Final Fantasy VII Comic Adaptation Project

[vaderSW1]

So, I saw quite some time ago that there was an attempt made at doing a Final Fantasy VII comic that would have featured pivotal moments from the game. I also saw that nothing ever really materialized even though folks were donating to the project.

I've been thinking about writing a FULL comic adaptation of Final Fantasy VII for quite some time. The idea actually started as thoughts for developing a movie script and I actually adapted the entire bombing mission into a film script. However, I stopped with that, knowing full well I'd never be able to afford such an endeavor. Instead, I thought taking the game into the comic book medium would be easier.

My thought on this would be to make this a community project. This would not be a paid project, so no donations would be required. Instead, the idea would be to see if we could get volunteers from the TLS community to do the artwork for the project. This way nobody has any money on the line. Nobody is losing anything. It's just donating time.

I understand this would be a MASSIVE undertaking. So, there would be no hard deadlines set for the completion of this project. We would just work on it as time allows us to do so.

I will only proceed with this project if we have enough interest and volunteers to work on it. Please post here and let me know if you'd like to see something like this come to fruition. Let me know if you are interested in fulfilling one of these roles:

- Pencils
- Inks
- Colors (digital)
- Lettering

Also, I may look to have a small group that works with me on the development of how we tell the overall story. I have some ideas that I would love to bounce off of others to see how they feel.

 

[Pixel]

Check out Comics life for doing text boxes and speech bubbles. I used it for this
http://white-materia.deviantart.com/art/A-Moment-Page-2-514976634

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Vader, this project would take up the rest of your life.

Even Obstinatemelon has thrown in the towel after getting as far as the Gold Saucer dates.

 

[vaderSW1]

Vader, this project would take up the rest of your life.

Even Obstinatemelon has thrown in the towel after getting as far as the Gold Saucer dates.

It very well could with it be a volunteer-only project. It's just something fun to do with the community. Personally, if I sat down and dedicated myself only to writing this book, I could probably have this fully adapted within a few months. The artwork is going to be the longest piece of the project.

 

[Claymore]

Can't really offer anything other than to echo Licorice, but that I would really love to see something like this. Perhaps settle on doing a comic version of up to the end of the Bombing Mission and see how that works out - then you can always add more story segments if there is enough of a positive reception from the fandom.

Many years ago, I was going to put together a simple motion-comic video story of a new FF world I created, but the amount of assets and art required meant that it was just impossible without a dedicated artist. If you could get the artists though - enough so that you weren't dependant on any single one, or could even rotate through them so everyone spent a little time rather than one or two people expending all their time - then you're set.

 

[vaderSW1]

Can't really offer anything other than to echo Licorice, but that I would really love to see something like this. Perhaps settle on doing a comic version of up to the end of the Bombing Mission and see how that works out - then you can always add more story segments if there is enough of a positive reception from the fandom.

Many years ago, I was going to put together a simple motion-comic video story of a new FF world I created, but the amount of assets and art required meant that it was just impossible without a dedicated artist. If you could get the artists though - enough so that you weren't dependant on any single one, or could even rotate through them so everyone spent a little time rather than one or two people expending all their time - then you're set.

The idea actually would be to have multiple artists working on the project, if possible. If we don't end up with multiple artists I won't proceed. The project is too large for one or two people to take on without receiving some sort of payment.

I don't mind adapting out just the Opening Bombing Mission to start out with to see if we can engage more participants. However, that is dependent on getting some artists on board with doing this.

Check out Comics life for doing text boxes and speech bubbles. I used it for this
http://white-materia.deviantart.com/...ge-2-514976634

Thanks for the recommendation Pixel! I've never heard of this software before. I actually have done some lettering using Adobe Illustrator before. This looks like it might be a bit easier to use!

 

[Channy]

This sounds awesome vader. I really hope you can manage to find some other artists to chip in on this. I'd love to help anyway possible, be it collaberating storywise or helping with funds when available, but unless you want stick figures for drawings.

 

[Flare]

^I do rad stick figure drawings, but I'm 99.9999999987% sure no one wants this to be a stick figure comic.
This sounds like a ton of fun, and the nerd fan in me wants to participate, but my plate's full right now with illustrating so I couldn't do anything for a couple months.

 

[Pixel]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/josephiroth/page6.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/josephiroth/page8.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/josephiroth/page9.jpg

First 3 pages DONE :p

 

[Claymore]

Lol!

 

[vaderSW1]

This sounds awesome vader. I really hope you can manage to find some other artists to chip in on this. I'd love to help anyway possible, be it collaberating storywise or helping with funds when available, but unless you want stick figures for drawings.

Ruby, if we get enough participants I will make sure you are included in the small group of story collaborators. Thanks for volunteering!

^I do rad stick figure drawings, but I'm 99.9999999987% sure no one wants this to be a stick figure comic.
This sounds like a ton of fun, and the nerd fan in me wants to participate, but my plate's full right now with illustrating so I couldn't do anything for a couple months

I totally understand being busy. As I stated in the initial post, there are no deadlines so there isn't any big hurry. If you want to be a participant, you are more than welcome! Just let me know if you want in.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27...roth/page6.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27...roth/page8.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27...roth/page9.jpg

First 3 pages DONE :p

LOL!! Outstanding!

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Can't really offer anything other than to echo Licorice, but that I would really love to see something like this. Perhaps settle on doing a comic version of up to the end of the Bombing Mission and see how that works out - then you can always add more story segments if there is enough of a positive reception from the fandom.

Many years ago, I was going to put together a simple motion-comic video story of a new FF world I created, but the amount of assets and art required meant that it was just impossible without a dedicated artist. If you could get the artists though - enough so that you weren't dependant on any single one, or could even rotate through them so everyone spent a little time rather than one or two people expending all their time - then you're set.

I think Vader's love of the project and dedication to duty is fantastic, but I also think that this is a story bigger than any one human being. I don't even know of any fanfic writer who has completed a novelisation of the game, and writing a novelisation is much quicker than drawing the whole game!!

But then Claymore's post made me think - what if a whole bunch of artists got together and each of them drew just a section of the game? That would be manageable within a human lifetime and it would be an incredible homage to the game as the remake comes out. I wonder how one would organise it?

 

[vaderSW1]

Can't really offer anything other than to echo Licorice, but that I would really love to see something like this. Perhaps settle on doing a comic version of up to the end of the Bombing Mission and see how that works out - then you can always add more story segments if there is enough of a positive reception from the fandom.

Many years ago, I was going to put together a simple motion-comic video story of a new FF world I created, but the amount of assets and art required meant that it was just impossible without a dedicated artist. If you could get the artists though - enough so that you weren't dependant on any single one, or could even rotate through them so everyone spent a little time rather than one or two people expending all their time - then you're set.

I think Vader's love of the project and dedication to duty is fantastic, but I also think that this is a story bigger than any one human being. I don't even know of any fanfic writer who has completed a novelisation of the game, and writing a novelisation is much quicker than drawing the whole game!!

But then Claymore's post made me think - what if a whole bunch of artists got together and each of them drew just a section of the game? That would be manageable within a human lifetime and it would be an incredible homage to the game as the remake comes out. I wonder how one would organise it?

Claymore's post is actually the jist of what I was trying to say in my original post. The idea is to have this be a HUGE collaborative effort between multiple artists. I would never expect one artist to stick with something this large without being fairly compensated for it.

The writing piece of it will actually, for me, be the easiest and funnest part. It seems daunting when you look at it on the whole. However, I think it doesn't have to be so daunting when you break the story down into smaller components. Depending on how we choose to tell the story, we can probably compress it just a bit but still hit all the same major plot points.

As for organization, it really just depends on how many artists volunteer for the project. On a minimal number, I'd like to have at least 5. However, ideally, I'd like to have a lot more. Maybe somewhere between 15-20. Then, I can break down the art assignments to have each artist responsible for x amount of pages per section of the story, with x being a divisible number based on the amount of artists.

 

[Pixel]

In all seriousness, you're welcome to use this if it fits the way you want to open the story. I did it ages ago as an opening thing, as a way to introduce the planet and into Midgar.

I dont think Id be able to take part. Digital art isn't exactly my thing.

 

[trash panda]

I'm not very good at illustrating scenes...that and it (generally) takes me three weeks to finish one painting.

I think it would be a less intimidating task to have a group of artists illustrate key scenes from the story line instead of scene-by scene-drawings....maybe...?

 

[Tetsujin]

I enjoy drawing but I fear my skills are not up to par...

 

[vaderSW1]

In all seriousness, you're welcome to use this if it fits the way you want to open the story. I did it ages ago as an opening thing, as a way to introduce the planet and into Midgar.

I dont think Id be able to take part. Digital art isn't exactly my thing.

Pixel, these sequentials are gorgeous! I hadn't actually thought about starting out the story with taking a look at the planet but what a terrific idea! You should totally be involved with the art on this project.

I'm not very good at illustrating scenes...that and it (generally) takes me three weeks to finish one painting.

I think it would be a less intimidating task to have a group of artists illustrate key scenes from the story line instead of scene-by scene-drawings....maybe...?

Perhaps you could do some cover artwork paintings if that interested you?

As to your suggestion on illustrating key scenes, IMO, it then becomes less a comic book and more like an illustrated story. I'd rather keep it as a comic book. I do realize just how much work and how ambitious this would be. However, imagine a massive collaborative effort by Final Fantasy fans all over the globe! It would be a terrific showing and I'll bet it would be the first of its kind.

Something that just crossed my mind, what if we were able to put out say an issue of the comic. It ran 22 pages like your current US standard comics. The art done by TLSers. Then we post it up and advertise the piss out of it. At the same time, we put out a notice to all FF fans that we are looking for more artists for this collaborative project! We might be able to pull in more artists that aren't a part of the TLS community right now.

It's a grandiose vision and I know it's like asking for the impossible. However, I think this is achievable if we put our minds to it.

I enjoy drawing but I fear my skills are not up to par...

Tets, would you instead be interested in sitting in on the little story committee?

 

[Claymore]

Something that just crossed my mind, what if we were able to put out say an issue of the comic. It ran 22 pages like your current US standard comics. The art done by TLSers. Then we post it up and advertise the piss out of it. At the same time, we put out a notice to all FF fans that we are looking for more artists for this collaborative project! We might be able to pull in more artists that aren't a part of the TLS community right now.

It's a grandiose vision and I know it's like asking for the impossible. However, I think this is achievable if we put our minds to it.

That is a beautiful vision. Would be a great draw for TLS too.

 

[Flare]

^Seconded. You know what they say, go big or go home, right? The big dreams and projects, even if they seem impossible or hard to see achieved, are the best ones to go for. This project will be a ton of fun, especially being a big group effort!

 

[Jason Tandro]

I'd offer my services as a writer, but the story is already written, and besides, there are far better writers and knowers of the FF7 game. But I hope this does get started!

 

[Aya Lee]

I've thought of a project similar to this before but it's so daunting as others have said already. I think doing scenes not covered in the game would be cool too. It's not just drawing up what's already been done in 3D graphics. Seems repetitive? Like I once thought of doing a comic of what Cloud does after he's seen dragging the buster sword through the wastes at the end of Crisis Core, but I know that'd be a more personal project depending on the person thinking of what could happen. My friend and I made a script on it and I was going to draw it out but even that seems daunting (haha). I'd like to help if I can, art wise perhaps.

 

[RedFFWolf]

Love the idea and enthusiasm on board, but alas I can offer you nothing on the art front.
I'll keep an eye on this thread and see if anything pops up in a way in which I can be of some use - in the meantime, good luck going forward

 

[Team_Wingless]

Guys, if you're going to do anything with FF7 proper, you're going to have to rewrite the whole thing. This is what screenwriters do when they adapt a game or a book to cinema, they scrap the whole narrative and start from scratch (case and point Edge of Tomorrow eww, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider). There's no reason (or market) to transfer the entire game scene by scene over to another medium, people can play the game or Christ they can check auto-play and watch the game play itself if they want the story. A comic or a novel should offer a new experience. Someone take into account that this game is 4 disks long of mostly filler in the place of load screens. Ite's book literally came out to something like a phonebook I heard. If you want to actually start a project you have any hope of finishing, you're going to have to tell a new story. What I'm doing is using the game as one big writing prompt and not even caring if I'm going out of order or skipping huge chunks of whatever. As long as I get the basic gist I have an opportunity to make it my own. And that really should be the only reason you invest so much passion into a project IMO. Kinda tired of ppl proposing projects for fun that never get off the ground, would love to see some frontrunners actually pull up. So if you guys are open-minded and aiming to do something innovative and ambitious with the story then I'm full on behind you. But if you're just going to clean up screenshots and laserprint it then wtf why?

 

[Claymore]

I've been thinking about writing a FULL comic adaptation of Final Fantasy VII for quite some time. The idea actually started as thoughts for developing a movie script and I actually adapted the entire bombing mission into a film script.

Also, I may look to have a small group that works with me on the development of how we tell the overall story. I have some ideas that I would love to bounce off of others to see how they feel.

The proposed concept is a complete rewrite / adaptation for the comic medium, so I don't quite understand the main issues you've highlighted here about it being a step-for-step reprint of the game, or even not having anything unique within it.

As for your second sentiments, well, that's just the name of the game. Whenever a project is done for fun and you aren't hiring people for monetary value, you are directly asking people to donate their precious time, energy, area of expertise - and sometimes money - into birthing something. That's not an easy thing to get off the ground, let alone continue. So it's no shock that a lot of the times they simply don't materialise. It's not anything to get upset about (unless you're half way through a project!). And it does take time.

In terms of this project, there are a few people on the board who I've seen are dedicated with their projects and can make things happen. Vader is one of them.

 

[e.suna]

I do arty things, so I will throw in as well! I've been already getting acquainted with Manga/CLIP Studio for another project and it sounds like fun to contribute.