It's no wonder Death Stranding 2's hyper-realistic visuals are so good as Hideo Kojima shares behind-the-scenes footage from a "live-action lighting workshop" from over 2 years ago

While I haven't played many Hideo Kojima games, he is one of my favorite developers to follow because of how much behind-the-scenes footage he shares of his process. He's posted a video to Twitter that shows a lighting workshop he did for staff at Kojima Productions two years ago, featuring Shioli Kutsuna, who plays Rainy in Death Stranding 2.

In the short video, we see Kutsuna sitting and moving her head from left to right, looking up and down. There's a blue light shining on one side of her face and a red light on the other.

The effect these colors have on her face is mesmerizing. As she turns, we see how the interplay of the lights changes not just the color but also the shape of her facial features. It's a fantastic demonstration of what light and motion actually look like on a person.

"This is a video from when we rented a studio and invited a lighting director to hold a live-action lighting workshop for our staff for DS2," he writes. "Two and a half years ago."

Kojima is a massive cinephile, his Twitter bio states "70% of my body is made of movies," so it's no surprise he wants to ensure his team knows how to realistically light even in video games.

It could also be that Kojima used Kutsuna for this test as he's previously said to IGN Japan (translated for IGN), "It's hard to make Asian people look accurate in CG. Especially young women or those with flawless skin, they end up looking too smooth. It's not just Japanese people, but many Asians have beautiful, fine skin that makes them look artificial in CG…"

It's good Kojima's trying to advance the medium and help artists get different skin tones right. He added, "this time, thanks to new technology, the results were much better, and I'm quite satisfied. Though, of course, I want to improve things even more next time."

Over on Twitter, he's also showed off "early experimental (test) footage from three years ago of Tomorrow's awakening action sequence." It shows an actor hooked up to some sort of spinning rig seemingly swimming through the air as two others push the contraption around.

It's funny seeing the actor in the motion capture suit with all its little bobbles on it, but it's also impressive seeing just how much physicality can go into recording the action sequences and cutscenes in Death Stranding 2.

While you're here, check out our Death Stranding 2 review, as well as our guide to Death Stranding 2's ending explained if you've already finished the game.