Day in the Life of a Japanese Game Illustrator

this is a day in the life of a Japanese game illustrator [Music] [Music] this is Ruby 30 years old living in the heart of Tokyo and she's just waking up for work she lives with her cute pet in this one LK 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 good idea that's quick

for so Ruby has been working as a video game illustrator for 6 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 design at a professional trading College ultimately leading to our dream job at our current company are you good on time so do

you wake up the same time when you work [Music] remotely I guess she HS yogurt with nuts jam and blueberries looks healthy [Music] [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 kagabo 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 good morning y'all I'm back with another day in 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 Ruby's office is just a quick one minute walk from hiashi 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 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 replies to them as required once complete she quickly gets to work on her current illustration projects so what are you working on [Music] can you finish it today actually she's been working on this illustration now for two weeks but not just this alone as 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 [Music] so what's the process for creating an illustration this is the concept sketch she Drew in one day which is already rather impressive from here she gets feedback and adjusts the character's 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 my best everybody you do that was it difficult to draw what else [Music] 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 [Music] here oh look this room is open it's pretty cool it's a chokeable meeting room okay so what is going on in this room here [Music] excuse me what's this room for cool how long do the recordings go so what do you need to be most careful about he says that he checks the distance between the voice actors and the mic on the monitor during recording and ask them to

step closer or further as needed also during the recordings he'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 thank [Music] you hi what are you doing what character no worries so what do you do exactly what's that Final Fantasy holy n nice talking to you now she has a meeting with a game director in addition to character illustrations she also designs costumes weapons and items found in

each specific world creating detailed spec sheets of each design including how it moves and functions she's already s her design to the 3D modeler to be brought to life and this meeting is to 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 she gets to see her designs come to life before the rest of the world 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 shashu in

Japanese and it's part of the company staff benefits program as the set meals here are offered at reduced prices what an awesome place to [Music] eat 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 sell your hair any way you want here so how long have you been with the company cool and what do you do Fant 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 makes sense how'd you get this job do you have a favorite character oh I guess she 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 chocoo GP team and so she attends a regular meetings to discuss the progress of current design and development tasks as well as future [Music] planning how was it Ruby has a few hours until the next meeting so she's going to work a little more on her illustrations oh she's working on something else what's that 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 final fantas [Music] Ruby has to book a motion capture studio for one of her next projects which is why she's here working in a large company with multiple teams she sometimes needs to step outside of her illustrations and perform other tasks cool I guess she 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 Final Fantasy remake Final Fantasy 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 going to 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 this 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 is being used in what's the most challenging part about motion capture [Music] thank [Music] you 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 chocoo himself almost 30 years ago has chocoo changed over the years H 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 a cover in 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 so are you [Music] done 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 [Music] day 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 oh I guess she's making a peach mozzarella dish looks [Music] good so that's all you're eating tonight oh it seems like your friends are online now oh you stopped talking to them [Music] now huh that's fun I guess so it

looks like Ruby is going to be playing this game until 10: with her friends enjoying and then after that probably take a bath and then probably go to sleep at 12:00 that's pretty much a day in the life of a Japanese game illustrator if you guys like this video definitely help me out and hit that like button if you guys want to help with the channel check out the Tokyo merch and if you guys want to see more videos like this or or anything related to Japan hit that subscribe button and the bell button I'll

catch you guys in the next one