Rise of the Tomb Raider, the sequel of the successful reboot of Tomb Raider from 2013, is a game that I would consider a masterpiece. From the carefully crafted narrative and characters to the stunning visuals that still stand out today, even if the game was released in 2015, and that says something, considering how quickly the technology evolves these days.
One particular 3d art that stands out to me in this game is the character of Lara Croft, the protagonist. Created by the 3D artist Dan Roarty, alongside Kam Yu, Lara Croft looks completely stunning. It is clear as day that the goal was creating a character as realistic as possible with the technology that was available back then, and also with the hardware limitations that the Xbox One and the PS4 brought, and I confidently can say that they absolutely nailed it!
Considering that the Lara Croft model from the 2013 game was already outdated in 2015, the artists had the challenge of recreating the character from scratch. The initial model was created with the help of 3D scans made of the model Megan Farquhar, but things have changed in the sequel . The face of the protagonist in the second game looks relatively different from the first one, and I have always wondered why. To elucidate the mistery, I have personally reached out to Dan Roarty on Instagram and asked him this question myself. He told me that in the second game, they had to merge the initial face of Lara from the first game with the one of the motion and voice actress Camilla Luddington, in order to get a more accurate representation of the facial expressions in-game. That made so much sense. Crystal Dynamics, the developers, have even used a new method of capturing the facial expression, called Mova, where small dots of fluorescent paint would be applied on the actress's face, in order to give the developers 7000 points of reference, which is incredible!
What makes the character of Lara Croft so particularly interesting and fascinating is the attention to detail. Scars from the last game have been ported onto the new model to make the character as believable as possible. No human is perfect, but the funny thing is that this multitude of imperfections that were added to this character have created something perfect in the end. Also, the 3d model itself is very detailed. From individual simulated strands of hair, the visible pores on Lara's face, the model is insanely elaborate. In order for the character to seem even more real , the developers added some more features, in order to achieve that goal. Subsurface scattering on Lara's skin, the props that are atached to her being individualy simulated in order to move naturally, these being just some small examples. They even went far and beyond to simulate the clothing that she is wearing, individual creases appearing every time she moves throughout the environment. On top of that, they also simulated Lara's muscles, so every time Lara makes a move, the right muscles that are required naturally flex, or relax, depending on the case.
 |
photo source
I want to end this post stating that I personally love this piece of artwork and that I admire so much the artists that have worked on it. Without even searching up the facts, it is more than obvious that there has been so much work involved in the process of creating Lara, and I am sure that everyone can say that it was more than worth it in the end. |
Alternative link sources for the images I have used:
No comments:
Post a Comment