this is a day in the life of a Japanese
game illustrator
[Music]
this is Ruby 30 years old living in the
heart of Tokyo and she's just waking up
for work
[Music]
she lives with her cute pet in this 1lk
apartment quite spacious for a single
person in the city she says that she
used to live in a much smaller apartment
nearby but she needed to find a bigger
place during the pandemic to house all
of her equipment so she could work
remotely
so how long do you spend on makeup
that's quick
so Ruby has been working as a video game
illustrator for six years now even as a
little girl she loved to draw but
growing up couldn't Envision a proper
career where she could pursue her
passion so she entered University
majoring in a completely different field
but when her job hunting started she
discovered that there were prestigious
Japanese companies offering illustration
jobs recognizing the opportunity she
convinced her parents to let her study
character designs at a professional
trading College ultimately leading to
her dream job at our current company are
you good on time
so do you wake up the same time when you
work remotely
[Music]
I guess she hits yoga with nuts jam and
blueberries looks healthy
[Music]
Ruby's current work commute by train
takes about 20 to 25 minutes but when
she first started her job she was still
living in Kanagawa with her parents a
common situation for new Japanese
graduates entering the workforce But as
time went on the hour plus commute every
day was a bit too much so she decided to
move closer to the office
[Music]
good morning y'all I'm back with another
day in the life you guys don't even know
the Hoops I had to go through to get
this one done but we're here we're doing
it and I'm super excited and pumped Ruby
should be coming on the next train let's
wait for her now
good morning
did you sleep well
um
Ruby's office is just a quick one minute
walk from higashi Shinjuku station and
here it is the Square Enix headquarters
one of the top video game developers in
Japan creating Ultra popular titles
known worldwide such as Final Fantasy
and Kingdom Hearts and making it all
happen 3700 hardworking employees but
these days due to safety measures many
employees have the option to work
remotely which is why the office is
relatively quiet
[Music]
Ruby also often works from home but
today she has a few meetings with her
team
the first thing she does is check her
emails and reply to them as required
once complete she quickly gets to work
on her current illustration projects so
what are you working on Facebook
[Music]
can you finish it today
tonight
actually she's been working on this
illustration now for two weeks but not
just this alone and she must manage
multiple projects concurrently while
also collaborating with various team
members to complete each one
so what else do you work on other than
this
it is
[Music]
so what's the process for creating an
illustration
this is the concept sketchy Drew in one
day which is already rather impressive
from here she gets feedback and adjusts
the characters poses facial expressions
Etc paying close attention to their
unique personality and background it's
quite a detailed process Ruby can I see
your past work
everybody you do that
was it difficult to draw foreign
foreign
so it looks like Ruby is going to be
illustrating for just a little bit
longer so while she's doing that let's
see if he can game around this place
let's see what's down this Hall here
oh look this room is open that's pretty
cool it's a chocobo meeting room
okay so what is going on in this room
here
[Music]
excuse me what's this room
Foreigner during recordings and ask them
to step closer or further as needed also
during the recordings you'll need to
make adjustments in order to produce a
consistent sound
wow this is amazing can you hear that
there's no echo in here so do you have
any messages for the viewers
oh you guys are hiring exclusions
thank you
[Music]
hi what are you doing
what character foreign
nice talking to you
now she has a meeting with a game
director
in addition to character illustration
she also designs costumes weapons and
items found in each specific world
creating detailed spreadsheets of each
design including how it moves and
functions she's already submitted her
design to the 3D modeler to be brought
to life and this meeting is a check if
what she designed has been implemented
as she imagined
holy pixels she designed that vehicle
I guess one of the perks is that you get
to see her designs come to life before
the rest of the world
I don't understand
what are you doing now
[Music]
yay lunchtime today she's eating with
her co-workers at the company cafeteria
within the building it's called shashoku
in Japanese and it's part of the
company's staff benefits program as the
set meals here are offered at reduced
prices what an awesome place to eat
[Music]
and Ruby is having the set meal with
fried flounder
so what do you do oh
which game did you make
awesome by the way it's okay to style
your hair any way you want here
so how long have you been with the
company
cool and what do you do
this
cool what's the best part of your job
cool what do you do
oh so all of you do the same thing
are you ever told you can't do something
foreign
makes sense how'd you get this job okay
so today
do you have a favorite character
oh I guess you can go forever about the
character it's easy to tell that they
love what they do they even told me that
they're so passionate about what they
create and that they're always trying to
find ways to improve the quality that
they're often told to stop working I
suppose when you're in an environment
where you can freely imagine and then
are given the tools to turn those
imaginations into reality everyday work
seems more like play
[Music]
so she's also part of the Chocobo GP
team and so she attends regular meetings
to discuss the progress of current
design and development tasks as well as
future planning
[Music]
how was it is
Ruby has a few hours until the next
meeting so she's gonna work a little
more on her illustrations
oh she's working on something else
what's that
Halloween Halloween
so what do you like about this one
that's fun apparently she says that the
hardest part of her job is to
continuously come up with ideas but when
she does hit a creative slump rather
than stop drawing she draws even more to
further develop new ideas can I see
other stuff you designed
foreign
[Music]
with multiple teams she sometimes needs
to step outside of her illustrations and
perform other tasks
cool I guess he managed to get an open
spot looks like she's going back now but
since we're already here let's see what
this place is all about
hi this place is amazing can I see
inside
damn look at all these cameras so what
kind of games do you capture here
they make final fantasies
oh don't you use a suit
of course this is awesome he's bringing
out one of the suits right now wow
that's dope can I see it
yes please okay so I'm in the studio
right now and we're gonna change real
quick just to see what it's like okay
here it is and there you go look at that
I'm wearing a motion capture suit so
look at this I am wearing the suit here
in the studio but I don't think I have
all the time in the world so let's go
move on and see what else is going on
wow and look at all of these weapons
interestingly most of the weapons are
fairly light and the animators will
later add weight and length to it in the
motion capture data to suit the world
it's being used in what's the most
challenging part about motion capture
[Music]
thank you
[Music]
oh that's the guy I met earlier
apparently he's an art director and Ruby
needs his feedback on her Chocobo
illustration and what better way to get
feedback than from the man who created
mini Chocobo himself almost 30 years ago
has Chocobo changed over the years
hmm I guess I can see that
now they're working on a chokable Record
soundtrack cover from the final fantasy
series he says he needs to illustrate a
two-page spread since the covering cases
two records
it took him about a month to draw this
the approval process must have been
insane
how's the Final Fantasy illustration
going
on
so are you done
[Music]
yay finally done she says that she could
probably work a little longer but
tonight she has plans to play an online
game with her friends so she decided to
call it a day
[Music]
when she plays online she usually has a
drink or two with a light meal while
chatting with friends so before the game
starts she prepares her dinner do you
have any specialties
foreign
oh I guess she's making a peach
mozzarella dish looks good
[Music]
so that's all you're eating tonight
oh it seems like your friends are online
now
oh you stopped talking to them
[Music]
that's fun I guess so it looks like Ruby
is going to be playing this game until
10 with their friends enjoying and then
after that probably take a bath and then
probably go to sleep at 12. that's
pretty much a day in the life of a
Japanese game illustrator if you guys
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