YOJI SHINKAWA
Character/Mech Designer
Bold font = Interviewer
Normal font = Shinkawa
Could you briefly introduce yourself, please?
I graduated from an Art University in Kyoto where I specialized in oil paints. I joined Konami in 1993 and have been working with Mr. Uehara all this time. I started on the PC version of Policenauts and did the graphics for the pilot disc. Actually, I was in charge of the 3D graphics for the PlayStation version as well. Around that time I first started the design for Metal Gear. That was about two years ago.
What kind of feeling were you trying to evoke from the somber character design? It seems more Western than most Japanese games?
I didn't want to make it in a very Japanese manga, anime style. However, that doesn't mean that I was especially conscious of the American market. It was just that it was the easiest way for me to draw. Originally, I always used to paint with oil paints. This time, for MGS, I line-drew everything by brush first and then scanned that into my Mac. After that I used Painter to paint the colors on top of that and then used Photoshop to adjust the coloring later on. I tended to use just the colors that were easiest to paint with. When I'm drawing I don't really think that much about the typical anime or game style art. If you do, then you'll get caught up in that and that will be all you end up doing. I didn't want it to end there. If you make it look more like game art then you'd want to have missiles, etc., but the story has a serious message, so I didn't want to get too far away from reality.
Can you tell us about some of the artists that have impressed you?
In Japan I like the illustrator Yoshitaka Amano. He did the illustrations for the first Final Fantasy games. I also like the artist Hikozou Ito, who was from early Showa Era (1926-1989). As for Western artists, I like Frank Miller from America and also Denki Milano and Moebius from France. I really like French artists. Currently I'm reading the Japanese version of Wild Cats. Even if it's not translated I can find all of Frank Miller's works if I go to a specialist manga shop.
Were you aware that the game was going to be set in Alaska?
In teh beginning we didnt' have such a detailed design of the game. The first thing we did was establish Rex, the Metal Gear robot. Rather than the characters, the mech was designed first.
How long did it take to design all the characters and mecha, etc.?
It took an incredibly long time to do. First of all I worked on the Metal Gear design. I spent about a month drawing rough sketches of that and then another month to make a 3D model. Then there were a few years when I did nothing. When we started work on doing the real 3D polygon version for the PlayStation I spent another month cleaning up the design. There were many times where both Mr. Kojima's image and my image would hit it off immediately and a character would be done in no time at all. Basically, I did a lot of the design work while I was working on Policenauts. In total, it took over a year to do.
How much art did you produce?
The number of finished pieces of artwork aren't so many, but there was a lot of unfinished artwork and many many rough sketches. I should think there were at least several hundred pictures or more in total.
What sort of advice did you receive from Mr. Kojima in regards to the character design?
Mr. Kojima didn't go into that much detail. I usually started with just a very simple general image. Sometimes it would only be as much as to say whether the character was a man or a woman. I was given a lot of freedom. If the director gives a lot of character background information, then it is quicker to get started on the design, but it isn't as much fun to do. This time around it didn't feel like I was designing game characters; rather, they felt like characters from a novel or a movie.
I made up some kit models that are sold like the tank, but these are easily put together. The only model that I designed myself and built from scratch was Metal Gear. To tell the truth, I wanted to make a model of Snake as well, but I was too busy before. If I get some spart time I want to make him as well.
How did you create the Metal Gear model?
I used clay to make up the basic shape of the body, then heat pressed plastic boards to make the surface. I also took various parts from other bike, car and tank model kits, etc., as well. I created this at home and it took about a month to complete. The final model is about 30 cm high. The Rex in the game when it's not moving is about 12 m high.
How was the model used in the game?
Obviously, since we were going to make a 3D polygon version of Metal Gear, it was useful to the team to have a real model that they could use as a reference for their modeling. However, you couldn't create the computer model just from that. They had to use a lot of other materials as well. They also put it in the Lego buildings as well to see how it would with the different camera views.
Which part of the game are you most proud of?
There aren't any specific parts of the actual game that I'm directly involved in. I always feel that the others are creating the game for me. However, I'm happy with the Metal Gear model I built. Rex's original design concept was not of a dinosaur. In the game it has the image that it is roaring. With that meaning I hope it doesn't die out. Although I said I wasn't satisfied with anything I would like to see Rex survive.