Tribute to FFIX

Final Fantasy's Dreams to Dream

This page was created in the hopes of raising Final Fantasy IX's popularity among viewers as well as distributing this music video. Final Fantasy IX is the name of Square's last Final Fantasy video game release made exclusively for the Playstation One.

Disclaimer

All the images in this video are owned and copyrighted by Square Co., Ltd. The song, "Dreams to Dream", is performed by the very talented singer Linda Ronstadt.

This music video was created solely for providing entertainment, and is NOT to be redistributed for profit of any kind. This includes downloading it and putting it on pages with banner ads, renting, or selling it to other people. I am not liable if you use this video for any reasons other than personal entertainment. To download the compressed avi file, which is approximately 48.3 MB large, click here.

Due to numerous requests for a smaller version, I've created one that is only 13.8 MB large here. The quality is much worse in comparison, but won't take as long to download. Please feel free to read my FAQ and other sections below if there are problems. If you have any questions or comments you would like to add, you can send them to Lisa Carter at FFDream@ura.dnsalias.org.

PLAYBACK

This is a standard avi file and as such should be able to operate under all operating systems provided you have the correct software. Both Windows Media Player and Real Player work with this if you have Windows, although I have known skipping to occur in one or the other of the programs occasionally. I recommend Windows Media Player since I have fewer problems with it. If you run Linux I strongly recommend Xtheater since it has run the video with NO problems on my system. Sorry MAC users, but I have no idea what a good avi player is for you. If someone sends me a suggestion, I may post it. For optimum performance you should have at least a 300 MHz processor.

FAQ

Is That A Video Error?
The image to the right is a scene in the avi file. I've had a few people wondering about the black dots that appear near Eiko's and Garnet's mouth as the wings are spreading behind them. I can assure you that this is not an error in the video, rather just the darkness showing through pieces of Alexander's feathery wings. The original avi contained them, and they were retained in the compressed image because I wanted to keep the quality very high. Since it is an avi file, it would have been entirely too much trouble to go in and graphically edit each individual frame for this.

Why Won't It Display?
I tried to use a rather popular codec when I compressed this file, but if you can't see it, then chances are you don't have the proper codec. The one I used is divx322b.zip which you can download from this page as well. The XviD-04102002-1.exe codec is more current and will also allow you to view this AMV, and its source is here.

Why Doesn't My Audio Start In The Beginning?
I purposely designed this video so that the music doesn't begin until shortly after the SquareSoft logo appears. Don't expect to hear any music before that point. (My video also contains an inaccurate statement. All images and names are owned by Square Co., Ltd. not SquareSoft.)

Do You Plan On Making Another Video?
YES! Ideas are in progress now. ^_^

BACKGROUND INFO & CREDITS

The idea came to me to make a music video when I was first playing the game. I enjoyed it so much (especially the FMVs) that I wanted to do more with it. I initially looked for a different type of song than the one I finally chose, but realized how much more appropriate "Dreams to Dream" was, aside from being one of my favorite songs. As I listened to the lyrics I had all sorts of ideas of which scenes to use throughout the song and wrote an outline. I then took the FMVs from the FFIX discs and worked on them so they would fit to the song. The program I used was a very user-friendly and elegant dubbing program called VirtualDub which can be downloaded here for free. Nearly everything in the music video was done under VirtualDub.

I must also give due credit to Jarrod Johnson, who supplied me with most of the hardware I needed in order to complete this project. Wanting to produce the highest quality version of my video before compressing it meaned needing a lot more hard drive space than I possessed. which he provided. The uncompressed and complete music video alone was nearly a gigabyte in size. Although the work of the video's production was done by myself, he also was the one who suggested and downloaded VirtualDub for me in the first place and later allowed me to use SoundForge, another useful software tool that he had. This latter software allowed me to complete what remained of my video much faster since I was able to time the lyrics of the song to within hundredths of a second.

Although I made this my pet project during the early part of 2001, due to my courseload and other jobs it took me the better part of my spring semester to finish it. It was also time consuming for me to sit down and edit avi clips in a way that required me to take out individual frames throughout in order to make them fit the time constraints.

All the screenshots on this page for FFIX came from Eyes On Final Fantasy and are included here because they are images I have in my video.