User:GeneticJen/sandbox
Kazuko Shibuya | |
|---|---|
| Born | 渋谷 員子 September 4, 1965 |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Known for | character design, illustration, pixel art, user interface design |
| Notable work | Final Fantasy series, Romancing SaGa series, Mana series |
Kazuko Shibuya (渋谷 員子, born September 04, 1965) is a Japanese pixel artist, character designer, illustrator, animator and user interface designer. She is best known for her work with Square (now Square Enix) on video games, in particular the Final Fantasy series.
Biography
[edit]Shibuya was born in 1965. While in middle school, she began creating illustrations and animations inspired by anime series including Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999. As a high schooler she enrolled in a technical school to study animation and worked part-time for animation studios on popular anime including Transformers, Area 88, and Obake no Q-taro. In 1986, as she was losing interest in animation work, she was recruited by video game company Square.[1]
Shibuya’s first work for Square was providing illustrations for Alpha’s game manual and graphics for several games in development. In 1987, prompted by the success of Enix’s Dragon Quest the year previous, Square released Final Fantasy.[2] Shibuya created graphics including characters, spells, monsters, fonts, menus, and the game’s opening bridge scene. By Final Fantasy II, she was one of two designers creating all the pixel art for the game.[1]
Shibuya went on to design graphics for other Final Fantasy games, most notably the iconic chibi versions of characters, monsters, fonts, and menus. She was the primary pixel artist for many well-known games including entries in the SaGa series and Mana series (of which she created all the graphics for the first game).[3]
In 2019, during a lecture at Japan Expo Paris, Shibuya was invited by Women In Games to be a member of honour.[4]
Notable works
[edit]- Alpha (manual illustration)
- King's Knight (graphics)
- Rad Racer (graphics)
- The 3D Battles of WorldRunner (graphics)
- Final Fantasy (graphics including opening scene and user interface)
- Final Fantasy II (graphics and user interface)
- Final Fantasy III (graphics)
- Final Fantasy Adventure (graphics)
- Final Fantasy IV (chibi character graphics, package design)
- Final Fantasy V (chibi character graphics, package design, opening and closing scenes)
- Final Fantasy VI (chibi character graphics)
- Final Fantasy IX (sub character graphics)
- Romancing SaGa (chibi character graphics)
- Romancing SaGa 3 (chibi character graphics)
- SaGa Frontier (chibi character graphics)
- SaGa Frontier 2 (chibi character graphics)
- Blue Wing Blitz (graphics director)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (menu graphics and user interface)
- Code Age Commanders: Tusgu Mono Tsuga Reru Mono (menu design)
- Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (chibi character graphics)
- Final Fantasy Dimensions (chief designer, chibi character graphics, menu design)
- Dragon Quest Monsters (monster and background graphics)
- Nanashi no Game (character graphics)
- Yosumin! (design director)
- Terra Battle (monster graphics)[5]
- Adventures of Mana (graphics)
- Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius (character supervisor and designer of Katy Perry’s character)
- Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders (art director)[6]
Notes and references
[edit]- ^ a b Inc, Aetas. "「最近目指しているのは，洗練された美しいドット絵，ですね」――FF誕生以前から，アルバム「FINAL FANTASY TRIBUTE ～THANKS～」までを，スクウェア・エニックスのデザイナー・渋谷…". www.4gamer.net (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-08-28.
{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ Fujii, Daiji (2003). "Entrepreneurial Choices of Strategic Options in Japan's RPG Development" (PDF). p. 14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-30. Retrieved 2006-08-12.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|curly=(help) - ^ "Final Fantasy Pixel Artist Kazuko Shibuya Comments on Her Career and the JRPG Series' Early Days". DualShockers. 2019-07-05. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
- ^ "Kazuko Shibuya, la reine des pixels des premiers « Final Fantasy »" (in French). 2019-07-09. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
- ^ "Kazuko Shibuya". Terra Battle Wiki. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
- ^ "Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders for Windows (2009)". MobyGames. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
Category:Anime character designers
Category:Final Fantasy designers
Category:Japanese illustrators
Category:Living people
Category:Video game artists
Category:1965 births