Every character design in MGSV starts with Shinkawa
Since Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain uses 3D scans of real people, some fans were worried this would take away from the creative character designs the series is known for. On their official podcast, Kojima Productions addressed these concerns.
The thing people were worried about, was: does the 3D scan take the unique identity away from the character, as opposed to designed characters?
According to Kojima Productions, this is why not every character in the game will be 3D scanned. Some of the existing characters already had established looks. But even for the 3D scanned characters fans shouldn’t have to worry, Eyestone reassured. All of the characters start with Shinkawa, he is the one who comes up with the concepts. After that the actors are cast to look like his designs. There are some characters that have no equivalent in real life, such as Code Talker, who is over a 100 years old. They got help from special effects prosthetics make up artists to create him: his face is make up on the base of an actor. “Photorealism is important, but you should not sacrifice creativity in order to achieve that.” Sean Eyestone of Kojima Productions said.
Source: KP Alert 4 (June 21 2013)