Tetsuya Nomura is a Japanese creative lead for Square Enix, the game company behind such franchises as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. Nomura has served in a number of roles throughout his career. His most notable roles include character design, concept artist, game designer/director, and film director. Linked here is a video of Nomura sketching Cloud Strife, the lead protagonist of Final Fantasy VII. Nomura’s art style is very distinctive and is heavily influenced by another long-time Square Enix artist, Yoshitaka Amano. This video details some of the creative processes behind Nomura’s creation of a number of his most well-known characters.
Nomura’s art style is one of the primary components of what make Final Fantasy games look very distinctive. His use of vivid colors on many of his characters really draws attention to Nomura’s attention to detail. Personally, Nomura’s art style is one of my favorites and his many character designs throughout the years have inspired me to create characters of my own.
