What is the game illustrator doing all day?

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 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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thank you

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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

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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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