Dev Blog: Building from Life
Kam Yu, Lead Character Artist
[Leading into the launch of Rise of the Tomb Raider, we’ll feature a variety of developer blogs that lift the curtain on the creation of Lara’s first great tomb raiding expedition.]
Our goal in Rise of the Tomb Raider was to utilize the latest technology to make the most immersive and believable characters possible in video games. Our characters had to look, move and react just like real people. The challenge was to get everything from the early stages of the model all the way to the final performance to work together seamlessly. If any one aspect was off, the characters could easily fall into the so-called, “uncanny valley” and the illusion would be broken.
A believable, realistic character always begins with a good model. For Lara, we went back to the basics by gathering reference of real people. We photographed their heads and bodies from every angle and in various poses. The resulting shots were then processed and output as 3D meshes in a process known as Photogrammetry. The data we obtained enabled us to add subtleties and nuances to Lara’s face and body that would not have been possible otherwise.
Several different people were used as subjects for our photos and scans. They were selected for particular traits we felt they had in common with Lara.
Pictured below is a head turn of Megan Farquhar, one of the Lara models used in Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Each model was photographed showing a range of facial expressions in order to capture the surface detail and overall morphology. Many of the poses were based on FACS (Facial Action Coding System). The captured data was particularly useful when creating the blendshapes for the head.
Pictured below is Ariel Suzanne and Crystal Cooper, wearing some of Lara’s signature outfits from Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Raw 3D scans of clothing needed to be cleaned up and detailed further before they could be used. An example of a finished hires mesh is shown below.
The use of real-life reference and scan data added a solid, grounded feel to all our characters. The subtle nuances helped make the game more of an immersive experience.
Kam Yu Lead Character Artist, Rise of the Tomb Raider
