Yoshitaka Amano Illustrator - Final Fantasy
Yoshikata Amano is a Japanese illustrator, artist, character designer, costume designer, and set designer. He rose to fame after working on the animated version of Speed Racer in the late 1960s. He is the creator of characters like Tekkaman, Hutch the Honeybee, Gatchaman, and other well-known characters. As a freelance artist, he collaborated with various authors and was commissioned to work on the Final Fantasy series.
Since the 1990s, he has been working on retro paintings of iconic pop icons and exhibiting them worldwide. His paintings are primarily made from aluminum panels with acrylics and automotive paint. He has received several prestigious awards for his work. His influences include Western comics, Orientalism, Art Nouveau, and Japanese woodblock prints. Amano also founded a film production company called Studio Devaloka in 2010. His work has garnered a worldwide following and fan base.
Biography
Yoshitaka Amano was born in 1952 in the small town of Shizuoka, Japan, near the base of Mount Fuji. Amano always had a passion for drawing, creating sketches on large scrolls of paper. In 1967, in Tokyo, he brought his work to the animation studio Tatsunoko Production, and was immediately hired, moving into the company's dormitory at the age of 15. He ended his career after creating various famous characters and went freelance, finding work at Science Fiction Magazine, which hosted his works. He published his first collection of paintings in 1984, titled Maten (Evil Universe). He has worked with many authors and contributed to many picture books such as Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D, Kaoru Kurimoto's Guin Saga, Yoshiki Tanaka's Arslan Chronicles, and Baku Yumemakura's Rasen-Oh (Spiral King) and Chimera.
He contributed to the film Angel Egg , a cult hit in Japan, and eventually became involved in video games. His first project, Final Fantasy , became a worldwide hit. He also contributed to Mission Frontale, None , Firearm Hazards, None, Rebus (published as Map in the US), and Emblem of Eru (to be released in Japan by Capcom). He began working in New York City, exhibiting various works such as "Think Like Amano," which traveled to Tokyo's Uenonomori Museum where it was a great success. He also worked on the collaborative film/music project known as 1001 Nights with composer David Newman, which was commissioned by the LA Philharmonic.
Working on Final Fantasy
Amano joined Square in 1987 to work on the RPG game Final Fantasy for the Nintendo Entertainment System. He created designs using both digital and traditional illustrations. While employed at Square, he also worked at Kure Software Koubou, where he created box art as well as character designs. After Final Fantasy VI , he resigned as lead image, graphics, and character designer, but continued to provide promotional and character illustrations as well as logo designs for subsequent games. In 2006, he worked at Hironobu Sakaguchi's Mistwalker studio with legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu working on game production.
Devaloka and the present time
In 2010, Amano opened Studio Devaloka and announced that he would be making a 3D animated film titled "Zan." In 2010, an official website for the film was published with information about an upcoming press conference. In 2012, a graphic novel of the film was announced by Dark Horse Manga. The book marked Amano's debut as an author and included several of his original paintings.
Popular quote
Your parents will die before you, so you'd better make your own life decisions. Your own choices are always good if you know yourself, especially in art, because every time you do something new, everyone will be against you.
List of Final Fantasy works
- Final Fantasy (1987) – Character Designer, Logo Designer and Graphic Designer
- Final Fantasy II (1988) – Character Designer, Logo Designer and Graphic Designer
- Final Fantasy III (1990) – Character and Logo Designer
- Final Fantasy IV (1991) – Character Designer, Image Designer, and Title Logo Designer
- Final Fantasy V (1992) – Character Designer, Image Designer, and Title Logo Designer
- Final Fantasy VI (1994) – Character Designer, Image Designer, and Title Logo Designer
- Final Fantasy VII (1997) – Promotional Design, Image Illustration, Title Logo Design, and Character Design
- Final Fantasy VIII (1999) – Promotional Art, Image Illustration, Title Logo Design, and Character Art
- Final Fantasy IX (2000) – Original Character Art and Character Designer
- Final Fantasy X (2001) – Promotional visuals, image illustrations, logo and character design
- Final Fantasy X-2 (2003) – Promotional visuals, logo design and image illustration
- Final Fantasy XI (2002) – Promotional visuals, logo design and image illustration
- Final Fantasy XII (2006) – Promotional visuals, logo design and image illustration
- Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008) – Logo Designer and Image Illustrator
- Final Fantasy XIII (2010) – Promotional visuals, logo design and image illustration
- Final Fantasy XIV (2010) – Title Logo Designer
- Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy (2011) – Logo Designer and Image Illustrator
- Final Fantasy Type-0 (2011) – Promotional visuals, logo design and image illustration
- Final Fantasy XIII-2 (2011) – Title Logo Designer
- Fantastic Life (2012) – Image Illustrator
- Final Fantasy XV (2016) – Promotional visuals, logo design and image illustration
- Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius (2016) – Logo Design and Promotional Illustration
