A look inside Yoji Shinkawa’s workspace
One of the most important people behind the Metal Gear franchise is art director Yoji Shinkawa, who has contributed a lot to the game’s look and feel, and its recognizable characters ever since the first Metal Gear Solid.
In the second episode of Kojima Station, creative producer Yoshikazu Matsuhana paid a visit to Shinkawa’s office.
Shinkawa talked a bit about his job, showing how he worked. He told Matsuhana that he has been using brushes for a long time, and while drawing with a tablet feels similar, he still draws mostly on paper at home.
This is Shinkawa’s equipment:
- WACOM CintiQ.21UX / DTK-2100/KO
- Mac Pro/2.8GHz / Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Before, Shinkawa had a much smaller space, but about a year ago he moved to his current office, which is twice as big. Action figures and statues of his designs surround him. He is also wearing the Metal Gear Rising X Wired watch that he helped design.
Shinkawa also did a live drawing of Snake, using both a brush and a white-out pen for highlights.
And he showed the designs for some of the Metal Gear Solid V merchandise: the Fox Edition PlayStation 4, the Puma Jacket poster and a t-shirt.
Here you can see a wall full of environments and character concepts for Metal Gear Solid V, such as Ocelot, Quiet, Skullface and Kaz (missing some limbs).
All in all a pretty interesting look behind the scenes. If you want to see it for yourself, check the episode from 40:42 onwards.
Source: Kojima Station Episode 2