Q. Exactly what is the story behind this site? A. It started as a very simple idea, and yet it turned out to be a very difficult task to accomplish. In my possession is a group picture of all the Simpsons characters from the first 12 seasons or so. I looked at that and thought it was quite possibly one of the coolest things ever done with the Simpsons. Later, I saw a group picture of all the characters from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and was equally impressed with it. The picture that finally sparked FF500 was a group picture of all the then-announced Dissidia characters. I saw that and it hit me that one giant picture featuring every Final Fantasy character ever would be just about the greatest thing to ever be created. And so The Final Fantasy 500 was born. Q. Why 500? A. I originally started by just listing as many FF characters as I could, just to see what I was dealing with. My original number of characters was only about 450-ish. By comparison, there are only about 300 characters in the Simpson's picture(yes, I counted). I figured 467 was a horrible number to stop at, and knew I was probably forgetting some major characters, so I set about padding that number to a nice clean number. I hit 500 and said to myself, "Final Fantasy 500, now THAT has a nice ring to it." So I decided I'd stop there, even though my final tally of the characters great and small from across the series is very close to 1,000. Besides, many of these characters are just too minor to get a full treatment, and 1,000 is just plain unfeasible in a single image(but hey, if anyone out there is crazier than me and wants to try, don't let me stop you!). I spent a great deal of time sorting out the characters and trying to create as even and well-represented a selection as I could, and I feel I've done a decent job of representing the series in my list. So 500 it is, and 500 it's going to stay. Q. So why the site, why not do it all yourself? A. Unfortunately, I may have big ideas, but I am not an artist. I thought about just putting together a hodge-podge of various artwork to make a collage of sorts, but I quickly came to the conclusion that this would look discordant and jumbled. Can you imagine Amano art side by side with Nomura art and in-game pixelated models? So me bringing the idea to life all by myself was a no go. I am determined to make this idea of mine a reality, though, so I knew I had to go the masses and hope I could find enough people willing to help me out. So I sat down and banged out a nice clean user-friendly site organizing all 500 characters and as much imagery as I could to help out any takers. And this is the end result. Q.How exactly does this site work? A. The site serves as a sort of homebase for the project. It is a place for me to organize everything that is going on with the project, and hopefully someday house the finished project itself. Each and every one of the 500 Final Fantasy characters is represented alphabetically and by number for easy referencing and locating. Under each name, I've compiled as good a selection of images of that character as I could find to give the artist as much source material as I could. You can hover over the image to get any pertinent details on the image I may have to share. I've scoured the four corners of the internet searching for these images, as well as uploading my own personal collection of images from the various offline sources I have at my disposal. There's official artwork here from many of the artists who have worked on the series, as well as many in-game screens, models, and sprites. I've also used fan artwork either when I couldn't find particular pictures or when the fanart was so well done that I would be remiss not to offer it as a guide to the character. Sadly, I do not know who many of the authors are, nor do I know how to contact many of the ones who have names, so unless they contact me, their work will have to go unclaimed as simply "Fanart". I'm not claiming any of the artwork on this site as my own, and it is 100% the property of Square Enix, and the very talented fans who enjoyed the series enough to create the beautiful works of art you'll find here. Even if this project's main goal should fail, at the very least I can claim to have created a truly unique collection of FF artwork from across the series, so enjoy the site even if you can't contribute to the project directly. Q. I want to contribute! What do I do? A. Firstly, I have no forum on this site, although that many change in the future, depending on how well this is received. If you're reading this, I've probably linked to it from the forums I visit to get things started. You can just contact me through there, which is preferred for now. If you have stumbled across this site or had it shown to you by someone other than me, then don't let that stop you! You can contact me via email at espritduo@hotmail.com with anything you'd like to discuss or contribute. I can also be contacted via AIM if you choose to go that route. My AIM screenname is also espritduo, but good luck finding me online, since I'm usually only online during the late-night/early-morning hours, Atlantic time. Once I get the image and approve it, I'll do all the dirty work of combining it with the other images to form one big group shot. I may not be an artist, but I'm a dab hand at photoshop. Remember, I need all the help I can get with this project, so don't be afraid to contact me with any questions or suggestions! Q. What exactly are you looking for, art-wise? A. I'm not really in a position to be picky, of course, so basically, anything you can give me. Realistically, I can't have people submitting any and all kinds of fanart, or I'll be in the same position I was in with trying to put together the official art. The size, style, perspective and general level of detail need to be as similar as possible for evey character in order for the image as a whole to look clean, realistic, and harmonious. Since we're talking about 500 people here, the images can't be huge. Also, the finished product is going to be a massive gathering of wildly different characters, so too much detail might be too jarring, especially considering the relatively small size of each character. And style is very important here. I'm aware most artists have their own style, and that has been a problem in the back of my mind regarding this. It's inevitable that the more people I bring in to this, the more styles and levels of quality I'm going to have. So I'm not asking people to rigidly conform to an exact style and quality-level, but I'd like to try and keep the images as close in appearance to each other as I can. For an excellent example of just what kind of images I'm looking for, take a look at these pieces for some of the characters: Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3. The first two samples are official group art of various FF(and some DQ) characters, and they represent as close as I can get to what I'd like the whole project to look like. Just think of those pictures, but much, much, much larger and you've got a good idea of how I want this to look. The characters don't have to be quite so cutesy as they are in those pictures, but the level of detail, size, and general style is spot on. The last sample is a group shot I put together of fan-made Black Waltz art. I don't know who this artist is, but they hit the nail on the head on what I'm looking for. If you have any doubts about what kind of style I'm looking for, then don't look any further than the Black Waltzes. Q. There's so many different versions of these characters! Which one do I base my picture on? A. In general, it doesn't matter to me, since I'm not the one doing the drawing. I have my preferences, of course, and any versions of a character that I find just downright unappealing I have purposely excluded sample artwork for. Not everyone is as familiar with these characters as I am, so it can be tough to weed out unnecessary details between versions while keeping the important stuff in. For example, you could probably get away with not having the red swords on Seifer's jacket sleeves(although there's no reason not to put them on if you notice them), but you would be doing his character a great disservice if you forgot to give him his trademark scar! In general, if you have any specific questions on what you should or shouldn't be including in each character, or what they should have with them(like what weapons, or trinkets and such) or what pose they should be in, them please don't hesitate to contact me and discuss it with me. I do have my own preferences for characters that I've included multiple versions of, so if you're unsure what version you should do, just ask and I'll let you know what I would suggest. For example, I prefer classic SOLDIER Cloud over his Advent Children look, simply because that is his original and most well-recognized look. Typically this is my feeling for most of the characters, so take that for what it's worth. In some cases, I've purposely supplied images of the characters depicting them as I would really like them to be(like Steiner wielding the Excalibur II). In the end, though, YOU are the artist, and I leave my vision in your hands. Good luck! Q. So who gets credit for the finished product? A. Everyone who contributes anything. I plan on making a seperate page with all the credits as well as a cheat sheet of sorts on who's who in the image. Q. This site sucks! Typos, glitches, incorrect information blah blah blah... A. I am by no means an expert web designer, and this site is almost guaranteed to have all three of the above-mentioned problems strewn across it. I've tried to make it as clean as I know how, but if there's anything you catch that I haven't, let me know via whatever means you can. Again, my email is espritduo@hotmail.com and my AIM screenname is also espritduo. Back to Main Page