Concept artist reacts to Metal Gear Solid Series Character Design- Analysis
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What makes a good Character Design? In this series of character design analysis videos, I attempt to answer this question by evaluating concept art for video games such as Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid. I talk a lot about the presentation but want to focus mostly on shape language, color use, clustering and storytelling.
PO BOX - Aquatic Trent 26895 Aliso Creek Rd, B1031 Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
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Games I've worked on -
Fortnite (Environment concept art)
Overwatch (Environment concept art + Sprays artwork)
League of Legends (Character design + Environment concept art, UI + Icons)
Diablo 3 (Character design + Environment concept art)
Hearthstone (Illustration)
Burning Crusade(Character design + Environment concept art)
Wrath of the Lich King (Character design + Environment concept art)
Indivisible (Environment concept art)
Final Fight Streetwise (Voice Acting + Character Design + World Design + Cutscene Direction + Co writer on script)
He Man GBA (Pixel Art)
Terminator 3 GBA (Art Direction + Pixel Art)
CannonBallers (Character + World design)
Ikeda: The Scrap Hunter (Programming + Art + Design)
Goblins and Gnomes (Concept Art)
Books available-
CreeD Re:Imaginary (2021) - 2 part Comic series
Twilight Monk - Return of the Ancients (2021) - Illustrated Novel
Twilight Monk Secrets of Kung Fulio (2020) - Illustrated Novel
Escape from Giants Crown (2019) - Illustrated Novella
World Of Twilight Monk Vol 1 (2019) Art Book
The Man and the Moonken (2019) - Illustrated Novella
The Beast of Tuksa (2018) - Illustrated Novella
Twilight Monk (2012) - 2 Graphic Novels
Nova Colony (2009) - 1 Graphic Novel
CreeD (1993-2007) - Comic Book Series
Ghost Rider (2000) - Comic Book Series
The Fuzz (1997) - Comic Book - บันเทิง
These images are great during a blue sky phase in game development, when you are not concerned with modeling. They establish mood and atmosphere and help build a roadmap that will visually distinguish your game from the plethora of others out there. Eventually you need to be able to do detailed turnarounds of your characters, but I would argue that it's almost more important to figure out what makes them unique. Illustrative and abstract images are a great tool for creating unique and memorable characters and designs.
Well said!
If you haven't figured it out yet Yoji Shinkawa uses Japanese Archival ink "Sumi-E" ink and occasionally image corrects and scans in his traditional medium works and adds graphic design elements digitally, sometimes traditionally too. Its fun, not expensive and anyone can make something fun with it.
There are videos of him painting live and like Kim Jung Gi uses a Pentel Fude brush pen. I’m assuming most of his artwork is done with it before the final product. There’s another live drawing where he’s using a large calligraphy brush, it’s impossible to tell what ink. But looking at the MGS3 artwork I think the ink is acrylic based just because of how some of it was gunking together. I could be wrong though.
Particularly great for thumbnail generation and illustration in general
But i seriously think any designer that still dont have a brushpen and a sketchbook exclusive to playing around with it, should definately go out and buy one right now, because its suuuuper fucking fun!
@@MillywiggZ At the time when I was looking into it about 5-6 years ago there werent that many videos of him demoing his art but I would love to see more sometime so good to know you saw more.
18:41 When MGS1 released, Kojima wrote 800 pages of MGS2 script and he gave developers notebooks so they could write down their own ideas during the development, even when KP was making Death Stranding, developers and actors were exchanging different ideas with Kojima. I don't know why people think that Kojima is some kind of Dictator, lol. Overall nice video, loved it!
Because he doesn’t give credit to his team, he comes across like a glory hound. I like his old stuff, but he puts his name on a lot of other people’s art. Even as a huge fan, I’m only just now learning about other people on his team because I’m doing more research.
@@TrentKaniuga what other people's art?
Love this idea for a series. And I appreciate you bringing up Escape from New York, the best movie of all time
Same, I want more
lol while watching the video i was literally thinking about you James, and then i finish the video, scroll down and youre the firsr comment lol
i was remembering those visual library videos you did and all the great stuff i learned from them. Thank you for all your great work my man 🙏
This is insanely helpful! Please keep making videos like this! Its like a master study done for you with a lot of better insight then I would have gotten by studying it.
Duude! Loved this! Thanks for sharing! I'll check the gameplay out! Awesome overview of their designs, really liked this new format!
I would totally sit down and watch more if you did analysis on more characters and some of the metal gears as well. I would love to see some weird eyeball stuff with “the end” for concept art.
Loved this. Thanks Trent!
Love hearing you talk about what you love. Hoping to see some of these on newer artists.
Idk why I’m barely seeing this video now. Really loved this, Trent!
dude, i clicked on this video in the mindset of closing it in 2 minutes, but ended up watching the whole goddamn thing. Great video! I could feel your love for mgs and Yoji Shinkawa and the team. Awesome work from yourself as well.
This is the great content! Please do more in future :)
When I first saw Yoji’s Metal Gear Art back in the day I always thought the promo art had a “metallic” look. I wonder if that was intentional…
we definitely need more stuff like this!
Hey Trent, I've taken both your Hearthstone and character design courses and I can say, I seriously doubt anyone out there is providing the service you are at such an accessible price-point. Thank you! I can begin to picture myself working in the industry one day and it doesn't seem like as much of a pipe dream as it once did. It would be cool if you did a deep dive like this on the Overwatch pantheon of characters as they might be this generation's MGS (which is also my favorite all-time series.)
Wow, thanks!
I’m a huge Metal Gear nerd so this video is very much appreciated!
this looks awesome keep it up thanks for sharing
These videos are super interesting and insightful. I'd love to see you do a breakdown of the Megaman series Trent, those designs are some of the most iconic in all video games imo (or anything Capcom for that matter). Thx for the amazing content and keep it up!
That is a good one!
Now I need trent to hold minigun! Man thanks for indepth review, as a new concept artist I didn't know much about the history of how concept artist work back in the days.
You are one of my favorite artists of all time, specifically... for my CreeD collection. Lol Thank you
Top comment! Tnx!
I literally just started doing some artwork using mgs peace walker as a reference, so seeing this vid pop up on my feed just made my day.
That was amazing, great breakdown of what the industry might actually be looking for in a concept artist in the modern day, that last page breakdown really sealed the deal. Funny enough, I come from a background in 3d modeling first really, as I’m learning the 2d side besides just sketching now, so I really appreciated what you explained when coming at the topic from a 3d modelers perspective. How well shapes and whatnot read vs the illustrators need to balance gesture and style, can’t thank you enough for the lightbulbs that this lit for me and the paths I maybe should or should not walk down.
I specifically enjoyed this video, thanks Trent.
The highly detailed work of Sahelanthropus is done by Takayuki Yanase. He did a lot of the high detail mech design.
Look up his work and you will find a lot of mech design that is laid out similarly.
Thank you!
Thank you for the video 👍
This was awesome!
I'd be interested in a breakdown of dragon age and darksiders--
Thanks for the great content! As always: I'm v inspired ☆♡
I would love to see dissection of Lords of Shadow! I remember playing it and when you got a new move they had that little animation of how it worked.. I loved those, that’s what would pump me up to sketch around. I love when games do that kinda stuff. The character design in that game was phenomenal
Treeeeent !!!! Great vid, man.
I think it's interesting to have an overview of the technical issues at the end of the video. The parts are well segmented, but a lot is lost when you talk about technical issues and when you talk with that sparkle in your eyes at the same time, the intensity is different, so the viewer's attention goes to the most intense moment. Did you get it? Overall as a video it's very good, I also love metal gear with all my strength so I was much more excited to see the video and help out in the best possible way!
I love these kinds of videos, thank you!! :)
In my opinion - Malthael, Tyrael, Deckard Cain, and the Demon Hunter (in Diablo*) are incredible characters
Thanks! The Demon hunter was based on my designs.
These series are gold!
Would love to see you do a video on the concept art for Darksiders, I own the art books for the first too games and they show what I feel is good concept art of characters, weapons and environments plus I think you'd have a blast going through them as it's in your wheelhouse of super stylised fantasy.
I started my art journey by copying Yoji Shinkawa's artwork and I love his style so much as a kid.
Do you know about Adam Adamowicz ?
@@bringbackdislikesbringback1124 No but I searched his name and he is a concept artist for Bethesda Softworks. We can see many of his works on games like Fallout & The Elder Scrolls series.
@@hanifmazuki why do u say no then
Love this format! i do some master study of Shikawa's work and it's a delight to hear you comment about it.
Also i would love to hear your take on monster hunter design, they have some pretty extensive concept art book
Such a cool idea for a vid series.
Metal Gear def has the most interesting ,fun and memorable characters. Thanks for this vid!
Monster Hunter would be a great breakdown especially focusing on combining natural and fantastical creature designs.
Was not expecting to watch the whole video, very interesting. Just found your channel, I'm a big fan. I hope to check you out playing mgs4
Great video. I love Shinkawa style. I wish i would have same skill one day.
In early 2000s I read Kojima’s interview where he was complaining that he has to do everything because his employees can’t/won’t do decisions by themselves and everytime he tries to give decision making to some one else they will still come to ask from him about everything. If I remember right he blamed Japanese culture for that. But as that was long ago I don’t properly remember anymore but the point is that hierarchy at Kojima productions aren’t like that because Kojima wanted it but it just ended up like that.
Hey, enjoying your videos and learning a great deal. I appreciate your time and wisdom :). I think both you and your audience would enjoy a break down the the Death Stranding Art Book. a huge amount of production art, mood sketches and awesome detail sketches of straps and bits of teck. I will continue to listen to your content. Thank you :)
You see the same kind of artistic license across graphic design and other art forms too, maybe even to a more extreme level. The big names get away with doing stuff that may not be hard to replicate, may seem really easy to do, may even BE really easy to do. Yet because they are who they are, they get to set the rules.
I often wonder how many of the big names in these fields would far had they started their careers later on. Or even what would happen if they tried making some work under a pseudonym today with no connection to their current celebrity and see what they get away with.
I think there are many newer creators who get told their work is bad because it doesn't abide by the currently accepted rules or conventions, when the big names are routinely stepping all over those conventions. But the big names are called revolutionary and the new people are called disrespectful amateurs.
It is as you say, because they earned their celebrity and apparent right to break conventions. But a lot of the time the conventions didn't exist when these people became celebrities, so for new people coming into these fields there are more rules to abide by than when the big celebrities in those fields got established. When it comes to actual practicalities of a workflow pipeline the rules are a lot more set in stone, and those famous artists wouldn't be able to do their job without a team of more grounded artists turning their ideas into concrete, actionable designs.
But I think in my field of graphic design, there are some celebrities out there who have no more ability than some students, and no respect for conventions, but because they were in the right place at the right time they became a name to be recognised and as such are given more license. it does bug me a bit and I would love to see one of these industry leaders start from scratch today and see where they go.
This is the very reason all "young" people are depressed now, just to have the most basic of skills now means to be a really good really not so long ago. and they were there from the start,they learnt slowly. anyone nowadays has to catch up not only learn the skills of the past but of the present too,and several other complementary skills, and just get to be below entry level.it takes several times the effort than in the past,and the failure rate increases by the second. despair.the bar just goes higher and higher.
It's called having a portfolio. As you have said, without any name to back themselves up, they may not even get the job, let alone a role in a studio. Studios need reputable, professional people who know what they're doing, rather than new young'uns with less experience and connections who studios cannot risk to bet their money on. I could make this type of art and I won't get the part. Why? Because I haven't made a game with this, and no assistant to HELP make sense of my drawings, and even APPLYING these into the product itself YET. And even then, would it be successful that it would span a legacy of games, to back up my own amateur work? I think not.
I'd like to see you take a look at the Megaman series. I like how the designs are simple yet really effective.
I've only tried one full metal game but didn't know what to do with it XD (not quite my thing, I guess) but the art is super cool. I do have a question, though, how woud you suggest finding indie game studios and how would go about getting some work from them? I' started using artstation and looking at the jobs on there. (recently I looked into the companies and looked at what they produced) but I feel like the jobs I'm qualified for aren't what I want to do. (Though, I can't quite say what I want to do) I think character design or concept art for characters, but I'm unsure how I would go about all this. I know you're very busy, and I appreciate even if you read all this! I found your channel a few years ago and appreciate your advice and knowledge. Thanks for that! ( I think your botw Link redesign was your first vid I watched)
This is one of the most giving I.P.'s of all time.
perfect timing seeing as im binging ur content lol
edit for typo 😐
Btw Trent you are the man you tell it as is always 👍👍
Superb video! Please do more of these. Next requests: Street Fighter, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, Bioshock, Resident Evil 1 remake
Trend trying to teach concept art and me imagining Vulcan Raven watching some people on a picnic: "Damn! Those sandwiches look good... shame I can't drop my gun"
You should do a real in depth study of the character and concept of GAMBIT, very similar to Snake, and in my opinion has the best mix of retro and modern style to him, while staying mysterious and exciting to the eye
A manga with this art would be awesome.
when Yoji Shinkawa looses his job because of Artbreeder
I love this breakdown videos and your vision into it but as a Character Artist, I can build any of these chracters in 3D from these illustrations, and if a character artist can't, they are not well versed in designing themselves, many studios will give you ambiguos stuff to work from, and your job as a character artist is to provide solutions for those. Any artist needs to learn how to solve problems and designs, being too dependent on the concept art is a downside.
Ive worked with both kinds of 3d character modelers. At the studios Ive worked for, there is a high demand for final stylized renders done as turnarounds AS WELL as a game camera shot AND callouts for weapons and details. Big huge studios have big huge demands. But I wish I could work with more folks like you.
What do you do if you want to showcase really great design sensibility like that of the Metal Gear Sahelanthropus page but that style of technical and mechanical drawing doesn't really fit a fantasy genre/setting?
I would love to see a manga of metal gear done by Yoji.
He said it would be "too much work". But I agree.
I haven't been drawing for almost a couple of months now(I'm honestly kinda feeling afraid I'd drop that) so this will be a major boost in motivation to get me back into it again hopefully.
Me too but for years 😔
4:10 I actually had a picture of this piece on my wall! LOL!
I need this book
Very iinteresting insight into the character design, thank you very much. I'm not by any means a profiessional, nor do I really an illustrator, though one thing that I think I must slightly disagree upon is Vulcan Raven being deifned only by his gun. In the first conforntation he doesn't even has it, and what made him particular is his giant stature combined with his tribal tatoos. Particularly his shaved head with raven on it.
55:03 is a very important part of drawing a character.
@TRENT bro been a fan of your work since I was kid. I enjoyed this video. I've been so frustrated cause my body of work is very expensive/illustrative it just comes out naturally. However, desiring to go into concept art for games caused a ton of mental anguish because the standard of art conformity and soulless illustrations (what I call "creative architecture" it includes organic & hard surface). It was stifling. It caused great mental distress and anguish. At the art Institute our instructors called self expression of form or "style" as egotistical art. Thus, it all looked the same in value and appearance. I like your metaphor as concept artists as workers in the trenches, and thats exactly how it felt. I get it though for sculptors/modelers using functional concept art has its place, and it takes the think out of the equation for the modelers. Yet, the freedom to soundly use the innate ability to depict light, shadows and forms with suggested line quality and abstract brush strokes that aid the illustration to bring forth a vision from the immaterial into a tangible, visual form is indeed part of the magic and the meaning of the word artist. This is what is lacking in the industry and at the gaming/commercial art schools. I was happy to see you really enjoying the freedom of expression and yet it was structured enough to allow the minds to become spell bound by it all and yet recognize the franchise. I felt through your expression around 37:08-13 you had an epiphany of freedom of expression of form, design elements within the composition. I fking love your vids. Keep, keeping it real.
Lots of MGS content lately. I dig it.
Haha! You even guessed that Sahelanthropus transformed!
Nice video! As a concept artist in a medium/small studio, I always prefer to work on lineart with some color detail, since it's faster for me and I enjoy more that kind os stuff. It's a little bit frustrating that in most of triple A studios, that's not very usual and the only way to work on them is to train and improve the "photorealistic" paintwork stuff.
I totally agree with you, Shoji's work is maybe not so useful, but it's beautiful and expressful. That artwork maybe doesn't help to build 3D content, but yes on giving the rest of the artist a idea of what's the artistic tone of the game. How great would be to have that kind of art direction in more triple A games.
52:23
a blow torch on its crotch was what was the intention of that i don't know. You say.
His name is : SalanthroPISS Im telin u !!!
Salanhro for sure means FLAME 💥somewhere in the world
26:15 I would _love_ to have a print of that hanging on my wall!
I forgot how to breathe when I saw the mech beast mode page.
monster hunter?? does that mean creature design analysis? bc I would cry, those designs are so cool
I guess the intention with crotch-torch is so you can't stand under it and kill it like you can in many games
Any chance for a reaction video to Capcom Streetfighter art..specifically Kinu Nishimura, Bengus, Akiman and Edayan?
can i ask what happen to the "My ULTRA SECRET watercolor techniques Photoshop tutorial" i was about to rewatch it but its gone
Archived into my box set of tutorials. www.gumroad.com/trentk
@@TrentKaniuga oh..
Hi Trent! Great video again, it was very informative! =) I miss the MGS series, the last game I liked was MGS4 (or Portable OPS, I am not sure of which one was released first).
Would you be interested in doing a video on mech design? I have never really been into that stuff but recently I doodled some mechanical parts and tried to do mechs, too. Noticed that it makes fun to construct those things! But it feels so intimidating with all the details and functions when you have no idea about how machines work exactly...
Ah, and by the way - "himit(s)u psycho no sugao" means "Secret - The true face of Psycho". :) I just wonder why it is written in rômaji (=alphabetical writing system used in Japanese) and not in, well, Japanese letters or why it wasn't translated. In Japanese it should be:「秘密・サイコーの素顔」
I am looking forward to your next video! :)
I covered it a little bit at the end of this video. And I have another video about mech design from a few years ago. But it's an infinitely fascinating topic.
Does anyone know of any places other than Amazon and eBay to look for video game art books?
I’d be interested in seeing your take on classic Yoshitaka Amano Final Fantasy art
he has a Yoshida one which is pretty much the same
@@dariusalas6835 oh, awesome!
Do you remember which video this is? Not finding it after a search
@@StoryboardsbyStuffPOP th-cam.com/video/KxZPHAX4mNY/w-d-xo.html this one but he made it unavailable
@@dariusalas6835 Aw crap :(
Thanks, tho
What’s extremely important about Shinkawa art is the style of painting his art draws from. It’s meant to evoke spirit and sense, not necessarily detail. It’s a very Japanese style of painting with a name i’m forgetting at the moment.
possibly true. But it would get you fired at any other game studio, unless the director requested it specifically.
@@TrentKaniuga I don’t doubt that, but Yoji Shinkawa was not working for “any other game studio.” He had his time, place and a partner who wanted precisely what he could offer.
The scratchy metal gear art, as i always called it.
Love the ps1 booklet was filled wit this art along wit the bio's for everyone.
While idk anything about design n dev stuff, this video was entertaining and very informative, educational a bit.
To gain new perspectives on just about anything is great, metal gear themed is even better.
dark souls vid like this would be sick!
''Ah, I'll just watch 10 mins and move on''
1hr later:
''Goddamn, I need more''
monster hunter would be really badass - the creature design of these titles is god tier and to see a professional break them down would be amazing!
What are your thoughts on the blizzard work environment polemic?
I haven't worked at Blizzard in 12 years. I don't know enough about it to make any kind of judgement. I hope that if there was wrongdoing, it will be corrected to create a compelling work environment for the new generation of game developers. I would hate to think that people would be afraid to work in games because of this situation. WE NEED MORE TALENTED GAME DEVELOPERS of all types!
The guilty gear franchise or just arc system games, in general, have really strong designs in my opinion, I think u should do an analysis of them.
Vulcan's ammo tank has to be WAY more than 200 pounds. That's 20mm Vulcan rounds, and 200 pounds worth of say, .45acp is already ridiculously heavy in small amounts. The ammo Raven has is the stuff they arm gunships with, and those rounds are huge and heavy. Vulcan Raven is quite literally built *different.*
The madman and the translator
I'm guessing RTS games have to need a specific focus on character design/mechanical design because of the top down nature of the game, so I'd like to see you take a swing at Starcraft/Warcraft on how they make characters pop and read
29:10 Isn't that a mistake he covered up and incorporated into the illustration? Guys like Scott Robertson often point this out and these corrections are done artistically to blend in with the illustration. I mean look at the right foot at the bottom left. I love Shinkawa's art style too so I'm not bashing or anything but those black portions look more like errors being covered up. lol
Will you do a video about the concept artist Adam Adamowicz whitch did the concept art for the fallout games he did pass away and his art is amazing
I am familiar with his work. THat would be a great video!
@@TrentKaniuga yes it would be a really cool video
Hope you can analyze Dark Souls, Bloodborne Series!
Snnnaaakkkee!
if you love that mech you need to get into zone of the enders, the artbook is also pretty amazing, and don't be me started on the game, its a masterpiece
I have a hard time with the controls because of the lock on, but I do love them both. I wonder if I can find the time to do a playthrough on my gaming channel.
@@TrentKaniuga the controls does take a little time to get used to,but when you do the combat is pretty smooth. i think i fished the 1st Z.O.E in a day, not sure about the secound one
Metal Gear?! Does it have nukes?!?!?!?!?! Seriously though, thanks a bunch for this video. Like so many others, Metal Gear is my favorite game series of all time. It's always great to hear your perspective.
this scares me and exited me at the same time and at the same level. How can I get to shi level of proficence with my desings?
I love Yojis work and was just looking for the books, too bad they can only be found used for 5-600 dollars and UP!!
You should make an Annalise for dark souls 3 or bloodborne
WTF? there are more books? I only got the one from the HD collection.
BTW, in the Predator movie, they actually did hit the alien in the trees.
only a little blood. But Billy says "we hit NOTHIIIIIIINGGGGG"
@@TrentKaniuga I think it was a little more then a flesh wound since the Predator had to heal afterwards but from the humans perspective, sure.
Waiting for the next tool kit be like.....
Personally, I have no experience at all in art design, I can't even draw at all, but I have a good theory on good character design that you haven't touched on in this video (maybe you already know this) which is character silhouette meaning you can clearly identify a character just by their silhouette, a game that did this perfectly is Team Fortress 2 though I think with time the
character's distinct silhouette art style has been lost due to weird cosmetics, I hope you can talk about the art style that was in Team Fortress 2 it would be truly a fruitful video.
Notes for me :)
45:00
54:00
Nice hair Trent
Thanks! 😃
I don't know anything about the video game industry, but it seems a bit of a stretch to consider a major publisher like konami as an indie company? Even by todays standards, just because MGS1 had a small team size, wouldn't they still have huge funding? Do most indie companies have a lot of funding? Idk, maybe you're right but to me it feels a bit misleading.
MGS 1 had a dev team of about 20 people over the course of 3 years of dev time. Thats a budget of about 1.2 million dollars. + probably a 500k-1Million dollar advertising budget + localiztion means that MGS 1 costed about 3 million dollars to develop. Adjusting for inflation, we can comfortably say that it cost about 5 million dollars. That's an INDIE game budget, and SOUNDS like a lot more money than it actually is. Consider that some employees will cost 100-150k per year for 3 years. MOST indie dev teams get less than 1million in funding these days, so budgets are even tighter. In contrast... MGS5 had a budget of 80 million dollars and over 250 people worked on it full time. Thats AAA. Even Kojima refers to MGS1 as his "indie" dev team days, because you could know EVERY person on your team when its only 20 people. NOT when it's 250-500 people.
My hero is Yoji Shinkawa, Trent Shinkawa can do very rendered pieces look at death stranding
Theres a development team of 500+ people that worked on Death Stranding. Which piece are you referring to?
@@TrentKaniuga the character designs of Sam, the main antagonist I have the art book I was shocked by how well he can make a completed model sheet