Monday, August 4, 2025

An Archive Unearthed: Hideki Kawabata's 3D Renders

Earlier in the year, a discovery was made of a stash of online Shenmue content: an archive containing over 120 3D rendered images from the development of the first two Shenmue games. These images were posted on a personal webpage belonging to one of the 3D Character Main Designers for the original titles.

Some of the many newly-found renders

The webpage was first archived by the Wayback Machine in February 2022, which suggests that access may have changed - perhaps unintentionally - from private to public around that time.


How the Website Was Discovered

This year, a large collection of original Shenmue development artworks and design documents was acquired at auction by a small group of dedicated fans. These materials were generously made available to the wider community. While reviewing the contents, one name appeared repeatedly: Hideki Kawabata. Further investigation into his background led to the discovery of a historical page on his personal website - and it is here that an entirely separate treasure trove of 3D character and promotional renders from the Shenmue development era was found.

This series of posts will focus specifically on these images, as posted on Kawabata’s website, rather than the extensive auction-sourced materials housed on the Shenmue Dojo which will be a separate future topic.

The collection on Kawabata's page includes a wide range of 3D renders featuring main characters, NPCs, and a small number of locations. While many of these designs appear in the first two released games, others do not. This hints that some may have been cut during development, or potentially, they may even provide glimpses of content planned for Shenmue IV and beyond.

In this blog post, we will give an overview of what the collection contains, and subsequent posts will take a closer look at some of its most interesting and surprising items.


Hideki Kawabata's Historical SEGA Page


The webpage on his personal website relating to the Shenmue project appears to have been created for the purpose of documenting his work experience at various companies. It covers the six years he spent working at SEGA Enterprises from April 1994 to March 2000.

He commenced his work at SEGA, prior to his involvement in the Shenmue project, with graphical and design contributions on several titles for the Game Gear (RPG Kishin Douji Zenki, action puzzler Quiz Gear Fight!!, RPG Magic Knight Rayearth, action game Tama & Friends) and moved on to the SEGA Saturn (Professional Baseball: Greatest Nine '96, World Series Baseball II).

One of the titles on which Kawabata worked at SEGA: Greatest Nine '96 for the Saturn

Joining the Virtua Fighter RPG Project at SEGA


Kawabata describes how he came to be involved in Shenmue, in February 1996:
"At the time, the hit title Virtua Fighter was being developed by the AM2 R&D Division under Yu Suzuki. When the team began recruiting internal staff to develop an RPG based on Virtua Fighter, I transferred departments to join the project. I was assigned to the development team for VFRPG (Project Berkley), which would later become Shenmue Chapter 1: Yokosuka."

Hideki Kawabata shortly before joining SEGA (1994, left) and more recently (2016, right)

Evolving Roles


Kawabata's role changed as the VFRPG/Shenmue project evolved, starting from the background modeling for Hong Kong before going on to play a key role in the 3D character team. Interestingly, he was also involved in creating promotional renders, as will be seen when we browse the images.
"I initially joined the background team, where I was responsible for modeling and texturing environments such as the Kowloon Walled City, ships, and street stalls.

After a team reorganization six months later, I transferred to the 3D character production team for the same project.

The following year, after the departure of the lead designer, I was promoted to assistant lead (equivalent to assistant section manager) of the 3D character team, which then comprised about 15 members.

My responsibilities included:
  • Developing specifications and design structure
  • Establishing and refining the visual style
  • Research and implementation of design improvements
  • Quality control and scheduling
  • Modeling, texturing, and animating major characters (including facial expressions)
  • Rendering and creating promotional materials such as posters
At its peak, the 3D character team grew to around 25 members, whom I helped manage and support through supervision, feedback, and skill development".

Shenmue I end-of-game credits: Kawabata is listed as a Main Designer
 

Reflection on the SEGA Years


Under a summary section called "What I Learned", Kawabata reflects on his six year stint at SEGA, revealing his eventual desire to move on to seek new opportunities that would offer greater decision-making independence:
"As a new graduate entering the workforce, I gained a strong foundation in workplace fundamentals - from professional etiquette and communication, to team leadership, workflow management, and technical tool usage.

However, the workplace operated in a strictly top-down manner, which left little room for personal initiative. Over time, I began to feel a sense of concern about falling into a passive, follow-only mindset. This experience taught me the importance of seeking environments that encourage autonomy and creative ownership; and that staying too long in a setting that stifles initiative can be limiting for personal growth".
In more recent years, Hideki Kawabata has continued to be active in the field of CG modeling and design, including the following:

Hideki Kawabata's Shenmue Renders: Overview


With such a large number of renders to cover, it will be useful to start by sorting them into a number of themed groups. Here are the groupings we'll be using:
  • Character Model Sheets
  • Size Comparison Charts
  • Promotional Renders
    • Megumi
    • Nozomi
    • Chai
    • Wong
    • Xiuying
    • Ren
    • Mao
    • Dou Niu
    • Elder Yeh
    • Yue Fei
    • Other
  • Location Renders
    • Karate tournament hall
    • Hong Kong boats
    • Kowloon Walled City

In coming posts, we will dive into the each of the groupings, and pick out some of the most interesting items.

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