Number of locations Tokyo, Japan Founded 1997 Parent organization Square Enix Holdings | Location Tokyo Key person Kazuyuki Ikumori | |
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Industry CGI animation for film, CGI animation for video games Key people Kazuyuki Ikumori (director) Products Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV | ||
Visual Works is a Japan-based CGI animation studio dedicated towards creating video game cutscenes and full-length feature films for Square Enix. Visual Works was founded as the CGI department for Square, which merged with Enix in 2003 to form Square Enix. They were responsible for creating the pre-rendered CG openings for the company, starting with Final Fantasy VII in 1997.
Contents
Beginning with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005) the company began to work on stand-alone CGI films, continuing with Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016). After the acquisition of Taito and Eidos Interactive by Square Enix, Visual Works branched out their portfolio to create cinematic scenes for their development studios as well as Square Enix's internal properties. Visual Works are assisting Square Enix with the lighting and cinematic direction of the Kingdom Hearts franchise for the high definition entries.
History
Visual Works was founded as a subsidiary CGI production company for Japanese video game developer and publisher Square around 1997. The company's first project was the 1997 Final Fantasy VII. They have continued to produce video game scenes for the company, remaining a subsidiary after the merger of Square and Enix into Square Enix in 2003, and expanding to more video game franchises and genres after the acquisitions by Square Enix of Taito and Eidos Interactive.
In 2005, Visual Works produced their first stand-alone project, the feature-length CGI film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. They produced a second stand-alone film, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, in 2016.
Process
The studio's creative freedom in creating cutscenes varies from project to project. Director Kazuyuki Ikumori explained in 2015 that some projects allow them complete freedom to decide the direction of the scenes and where they best fit, while others more narrowly define for the studio the length and location of the scene and how it begins and ends. Some projects also consult with the studio on which scenes work better as interactive scenes than passive cutscenes. Visual Works does not try to have different styles based on if a game originates in Japan or Western countries, such as for former Eidos properties, but instead try to match the style of the game series or development studio. Ikumori noted that that for some series, such as those by Crystal Dynamics or IO Interactive, they receive a lot of detail about the feeling of the scenes, which they take as a starting point, but for others such as Final Fantasy they know the series so well that they can easily match the developers' intent. Ikumori credits this last to his previous work as a map and character designer for the Final Fantasy series.
Visual Works uses motion capture to design the movements of their CGI characters; Ikumori has described the process as being "really about the center of balance and that transition of balance" then about the exact motions. Especially for more fantasy-oriented series, they use the motion capture data as a basis to overlay with more exaggerated, "flashy" movements that still reflect the way the characters normally move.