Okay, so I got this idea the other day while playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. You know how sometimes the characters just look totally beat down? I thought, hey, let me try and capture that vibe, like a proper “suffering” themed picture.
My Little Photo Project
First thing, I fired up the game. Had to figure out who and where. Cloud’s usually got that mopey look down, so he was the obvious choice. For the location, I wanted something kinda grim. I remembered the ruined reactor area near Gongaga village, that place has a real downer feel to it.
So, I fast traveled over there. Took a bit of running around to find a spot that felt right. Lots of twisted metal, dark corners, you know the sort of thing. I wanted Cloud to look small against all the wreckage.
Once I found a decent backdrop, I brought up the photo mode. This is where the real work started. I fiddled with the camera angles a lot. Tried getting low, looking up at him to make him seem kinda overwhelmed. Tried a few shots from further back too.
Then, the posing. This was key. I went into the character pose options. Most of the standard ones are too heroic or neutral. I scrolled through until I found one where he looked kinda slumped, head tilted down a bit. Yeah, that started to look right.
- Positioned Cloud near some broken pipes.
- Switched his expression. There isn’t a specific ‘suffering’ one, but I found one that was close enough – looked more tired and stressed than anything else. Avoided the angry or determined faces.
- Played with the lighting. Turned the brightness down a touch, upped the contrast just a bit to make the shadows deeper.
Filters were next. I tried a few. Some were too fancy. I ended up using one that slightly desaturated the colors, made it look a bit bleaker. Didn’t want black and white, just… less vibrant. Added a slight vignette effect too, to darken the edges and keep the focus on Cloud.
Getting the Shot
Honestly, I took maybe ten or fifteen pictures? Kept tweaking things. Move the camera an inch, change the depth of field slightly, adjust the character’s gaze direction. You mess with one thing, then you gotta adjust another. Like, I made him look more towards the ground, which felt more defeated.
Finally, I got one that felt pretty close to what I had in mind. Cloud looked worn out, the background was gloomy, the colors felt muted. It wasn’t perfect, maybe, but it captured that feeling of struggle, that moment of being overwhelmed that I was aiming for.
So yeah, that was my little experiment. Just messing around in photo mode trying to get a specific mood. It’s kinda fun seeing what you can come up with just by playing with the tools they give you.
