Photographer Larry Chen Stars within the New Forza Horizon Racing Game

Canon Explorer of Light and famed automobile and automobile tradition photographer Larry Chen is a serious character within the brand-new racing online game, Forza Horizon 6.

Shockingly sufficient, this isn’t truly the primary time a Canon ambassador photographer has been in a online game. Skateboard photographer and Canon Explorer of Light Atiba Jefferson was in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 again within the day. However, in contrast to Jefferson, whose voice strains had been infamously changed by an actor, Chen himself has a serious talking position in Forza Horizon 6 (FH6).

“The voice thing is crazy,” Chen laughs, referring to Jefferson’s voice strains being changed. Chen and Jefferson are pals in actual life, so there’s little doubt this might be a degree of lighthearted competition amongst them.

Turning Photographer Larry Chen Into a Video Game Character

Chen tells PetaPixel he recorded over 300 talking strains for the sport throughout two voiceover periods. He additionally needed to bear movement seize so the group at Playground Games and its growth companions might realistically recreate Chen in-game.

Chen says the mo-cap was in July 2025, so the event course of for his in-game missions was tremendous quick. More on these missions in a bit.

“It actually looks like a horror movie because they made me put a bald cap on and they made me put this thing in that spreads my lips so it’s just like my teeth exposed,” Chen laughs. “I wore that for quite a long time for them to scan my teeth.”

“It was hilarious. But the rig they used to scan me was super interesting. It was 250 Canon consumer DSLR cameras, so it was funny. It was unintentional that it was Canon, but it was Canon.”

The 250 white DSLR cameras are Canon EOS 250D DSLRs, generally known as the Rebel SL3 in North America.

A Celebration of Car Culture

Full disclosure, I’m a large Forza fan and, extra broadly, racing online game fanatic. I’ve performed each Forza Motorsport and each Forza Horizon recreation. I’m such an enormous fan of the Forza video games that I don’t watch the pre-release movies or learn an excessive amount of, as I don’t need any spoilers about which automobiles and places are featured within the recreation.

Had I been paying nearer consideration, I’d have seen the promotional collection, “The Art of Driving.” It’s a three-part documentary collection hosted by Larry Chen himself that explores Japan’s real-life automobile tradition, surroundings, and historical past.

However, since I placed on blinders and waited till FH6 launched in early entry final week, I had no clue that Chen was concerned in any respect. Shortly after booting up the sport for the primary time, I briefly noticed a photographer with a Canon t-shirt holding a large RF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM lens in an intro cutscene.

“That looks like Larry Chen,” I assumed. I instantly opened up my electronic mail and despatched a late-night message to one among our contacts at Canon to ask if that was actually Larry.

Sure sufficient, it was.

“Through our long-standing relationship with Larry Chen as a Canon Explorer of Light, Canon is excited to be featured in Forza Horizon 6. Having trusted Canon gear to document the soul of Japanese car culture for decades, Larry’s transition from behind the lens to an in-game character is the ultimate tribute to his craft,” Canon U.S.A. tells PetaPixel.

Chen’s inclusion in Forza Horizon 6 makes a lot sense, I can hardly consider I used to be stunned to see him. Chen, who relies in California, spends quite a lot of time in Japan. I met him after I went to Tokyo to tour Canon’s headquarters, and discovered that he retains a few of his automobiles in Japan. He lives and breathes world automotive tradition, and few international locations have as tight a relationship with automobiles as Japan.

Arguably, nobody on Earth is as intently related to capturing the whole scene surrounding automobiles, the individuals who drive them, and what automobiles imply as Larry Chen. And of any racing online game collection obtainable in the present day, none have a good time all elements of automobiles as a lot as Forza Horizon. Driving round, embracing historical past, studying concerning the locations you’re driving, and taking images have been vital components of Forza Horizon because the very first recreation launched on Xbox 360 in 2012.

In the almost 14 years since, Forza Horizon followers like me have been clamoring for the collection to lastly make its strategy to Japan. It has made pitstops alongside the best way in Colorado, the French and Italian Rivieras, the Australian Gold Coast, Scotland, Mexico, and now, lastly, Japan. It was definitely worth the wait.

As Chen says, the automobile tradition scene in Japan is completely booming proper now. People with disposable earnings are touring to Japan only for automotive tourism.

But the globe-trotting photographer is aware of he’s lucky to have the ability to go to Japan at a second’s discover on a job and take unbelievable images of uncommon, historic automobiles in stunning places.

With Forza Horizon 6, everybody will get to have a style of that have. The recreation options well-known Japanese places, like a surprisingly trustworthy recreation of Tokyo, Japan’s rocky coastlines, dense forests, and snow-covered mountains. Futuristic metropolises flank historical villages. It seems to be unbelievable, thanks largely to how severely FH6’s developer, Playground Games, takes realism and, extra importantly, respects a location and its tradition. As Chen says, Forza Horizon 6 is just not an ideal 1:1 duplicate of Japan, nevertheless it undeniably captures the really feel.

“Not everybody can do what I do,” Chen says. “I mean, a lot of people do. A lot of people do end up going to the same places that I go to and they can photograph these cars in real life. That’s great. I love that.”

“But if you’re just a casual photographer who doesn’t want to spend thousands of dollars to go to Europe or Japan or whatever, then you could do it from home and it kind of gives you the same feeling, that same essence. And I think that’s really important because it gives them even just a chance to do it at all versus nothing.”

Forza Horizon 6’s Photography Missions

That love for automobiles and Japan is on full show in Larry Chen’s aspect missions inside Forza Horizon 6. The participant is tasked with finishing six quests to assist digital Chen nail a shot for an in-game, fictional automotive tradition journal, “Moto Auto Zine.”

Throughout these missions, an eerily reasonable Chen walks you thru a particular shot he desires assist capturing and explains the importance of the topic, the automobile, and the places you drive via.

Virtual Chen additionally dishes on pictures, together with tips about shutter pace, that you simply don’t want the most recent and best gear, and that pictures is an unbelievable strategy to join with different individuals who love automobiles.

Having frolicked with Larry in individual, I used to be significantly impressed by how properly Playground Games captured his total look and aesthetic. I imply, positive, he doesn’t truly go round carrying a t-shirt with Canon’s brand on it, at the very least not that I’ve seen, however his digital persona received his trademark cap, neck gaiter, joggers, and sneakers.

The builders additionally gave him one among his favourite lenses for taking pictures automobiles, the Canon RF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM.

“I think so much of that comes from just what I’m known for, what I like to shoot with. I famously like to shoot with the big white lenses trackside or even when it’s just regular car photography, I like to shoot with these huge lenses just because it just gives a different look. It’s not so much about the length. I’m not using the length. I’m using the look, the fact that I could shoot at f/2.8, but I’m further away. And then all of a sudden you see a tiny subject, but it’s still blurred in the background, which you can’t achieve that any other way except for using big lenses,” Chen tells PetaPixel.

He says Canon despatched Playground Games references to assist them nail the look. Although he notes they didn’t put the hood on it, which he usually makes use of. It might have regarded “ridiculous,” Chen muses.

During the six Larry Chen pictures missions, one prevailing theme emerges: timing.

Whether it’s chasing the sunshine on a seashore in a traditional Porsche rally automobile, nailing a drift shot in order that the tire smoke and grit are in an optimum spot within the body, or getting the right timing on a supercar leaping over a sure well-known location in Japan, Chen in FH6 is all about discovering the precise proper second.

“Really the thing about car photography, and I say this all the time, the hardest part is not actually shooting the cars. That’s the easy part,” real-life Chen says. “Once you have the car in front of you, just so ham and just most competent photographers, if they know how to use a camera, they can end up with usable content. The hardest part is to get the car in front of you in the right location, in the right light.”

Speaking of the smoke and grit when photographing a automobile burning rubber, in-game Chen notes that he usually tapes his lens to the digital camera to stop small particles from getting inside. He notes you don’t need any mud getting in your sensor. This is a very enjoyable element, as I distinctly recall asking Chen about why he had taped an outdated tailored EF ultra-wide lens to his Canon mirrorless digital camera final yr in Japan.

Real-Life Car Photography Dreams

Although I don’t wish to spoil the large closing mission in Larry Chen’s Forza Horizon 6 storyline, I’ll notice that the participant helps the digital Chen obtain one among his photographic goals. It’s a terrific second, and really properly acted, I’ll add.

Chen isn’t any stranger to digital pictures, as he tells PetaPixel he used to do it on a regular basis in older racing video games. But what about his real-life goals? Although he has achieved loads and photographed a number of the world’s rarest automobiles in probably the most gorgeous places, he nonetheless has unrealized photographic objectives.

“I think a lot about the ‘halo cars’ of my era,” Chen says. “Especially the early 90s era, even late 90s, early 2000s, race cars.” 

The first automobile that got here to thoughts for Chen was the legendary Mercedes CLK GTR. Even counting variations and drivable prototypes, fewer than 30 of those have ever existed.

“I finally had a chance to see a couple of them together this last trip that I took to Germany, but they were just available for everybody to shoot, which is fine, which is great. I feel like I got some good shots of them, but I would love to put them in an awkward place where it’s kind of out of place or on the street just on a canyon road. I mean, the dream would be to drive something like that in a downtown square.”

For these of you who get to play Forza Horizon 6 and do Chen’s missions, that real-life reply will show fairly attention-grabbing. Although, sadly, there’s no CLK GTR within the recreation but, you possibly can assist the photographer obtain a part of his real-world purpose.

Chen stays hopeful he’ll be capable to understand his CLK GTR goals.

“A lot of people say that I am able to play Forza in real life when it comes to these photo modes because there’s really no limit now when I think about something to shoot where I can take it or what background I can get for these photos or for these cars,” Chen says.

He says it’s all the time price a shot to ask somebody about picture alternatives with their automobiles.

“These manufacturers and these individuals that have these cars, they actually want to see [these photos] too,” Chen says.

“I haven’t convinced anybody yet to let me actually photograph one,” Chen says of the CLK GTR. But there’s nonetheless hope.

Car Culture Meets Real-Life Photography

As Chen says, he has performed many racing video video games over time. For so many younger, up-and-coming automobile fans, digital worlds are the place they first fall in love with automobiles. You can “drive” and have a look at so many uncommon automobiles that most individuals are by no means fortunate sufficient to see in actual life. Games like Forza Horizon 6 channel and develop that keenness. FH6 celebrates automobiles and why they’re particular. It additionally embraces Japan and what makes its automobile tradition so magnetic. It’s Chen’s favourite place to {photograph} automobiles for a motive, in any case.

The new recreation, thanks largely to Chen’s involvement, additionally celebrates pictures in methods only a few video games ever have earlier than. I’ve spent almost as a lot time tinkering with my in-game digital digital camera in Forza Horizon 6 as I’ve racing.

“You can just really push the limits of what’s possible in terms of car photography because you’re not limited by the physical world and you have so many different cars to choose from,” Chen says of the digital camera in Forza Horizon 6. “It’s such a great tool and it’s something that’s why naturally there’s such a huge community surrounding this movement.”

“I get tagged all the time when people tell me that they like to shoot in the game or more recently people have been recreating my real life photos,” the photographer provides.

So go on the market, take some picture classes from Chen inside Forza Horizon 6, and put your digital pictures abilities to the check. Capture one thing share-worthy.

Forza Horizon 6 formally launches in the present day on Xbox Series S/X and PC. It is coming to PlayStation 5 later this yr.

Image credit: In-game images and screenshots captured by Jeremy Gray inside Forza Horizon 6. Behind-the-scenes images of Larry Chen supplied courtesy of Larry Chen.