This little article is probably going to seem very, very random to most people, but work with me. Please?

Let’s start by talking Final Fantasy (aka FF). Specifically, FF13—the newest one. Now, this isn’t a review, or really even a commentary. I just want to talk about the graphics. The sheer level of realism and detail that has been coming out of game design studios is really awful (and I mean that in the correct sense; full of awe). Sure, you might say that the characters still don’t look like the real deal, and sure, they might move a little awkwardly/impossibly at times, but DAMN you have to admire the realistic detail.

This whole new world of CG and digital art is truly incredible. In the case of FF13, the level of realism has really been stepped up. When I see a 3D rendered movie and I can see the stitches, that’s right, the stitches on the character’s clothing, then I am impressed. We’re talking serious details. A character (in this case, the character Snow) that has facial hair HAS facial hair. Every single hair has been drawn and rendered in 3 dimensions. The same goes for every little bit. Eyebrows? You can count the hairs. Skin? You can see the pores. This might seem like a bunch of trivial little bits and bobs, but when you look at a digital scene from 2010 and compare it to something from say, 1997, you really see the difference.

Let’s compare FF13 to every role-playing gamer’s favourite game, FF7. It doesn’t take a trained eye to see the overwhelming different. On one hand, we have, well no hands. You just get awkward blocks that are representative of hands. Look back to FF13 now, and we are looking not only at a distinctly hand-shaped hand, but we see their nails, the wrinkles in their skin and every vein. The progress is really incredible here, and things have just begun.

Not only does this new insane level of realism let you get that much closer to the game or video you are watching, but it’s also becoming extremely easy to fool us into thinking we are seeing something when it’s really not there. Here in the art and design world, we call this the idea of “photographic truth”. It’s a pretty simple idea. With all the crazy digital art we can do today, you can’t assume everything you see on screen is really real. Confused? Think of that huge blockbuster, Avatar. Nearly the entire movie was generated by computer and it’s still strangely convincing.

It’s almost unnerving how real digital art can look now. Now that we are at the point of being able to create an exact digital copies of people, places and things, you really can’t be sure of what is real, now can you?