Official Tomb Raider Blog

[E3 Ambassador Blog] Concept Art & Direction in Rise of the Tomb Raider

Author: Maxime Turpin – Tombeau Croft, France

Behind the game we all love, there is a team of passionate people. They are deeply devoted to the fans and inspired by a powerful desire to revamp an icon through a modern-looking game, while staying close to the roots of the franchise as invented by Core Design 20 years ago. These people strive to put Lara back to the place where she used to be during the nineties, to the place where she belongs, in the front line. It was my recent pleasure to act as a community ambassadors for the French-speaking countries throughout the world and represent them at E3 this year. Thanks to Crystal Dynamics and Xbox, I’ve lived an almost life-changing experience that inspired me and taught me a lot.

From what I’ve seen, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a compelling game full of promise. While it remains mainly based on the previous title, you’ll quickly notice that the developers did a great job in bringing back that “tombraider-ish” feeling. It’s time for us to welcome back our beloved tombs and venture through an incredibly vivid wilderness in the good company of Lara Croft, as she lives the middle chapter of her evolution as a Tomb Raider. She’s more confident, she’s wiser, and she’s stronger, but she’s not quite there yet.

The work of the artistic team has been primarily to deliver a realistic experience to the player in terms of character evolution. Additionally they played a key role in making sure that Lara Croft advances and evolves in an environment that will still challenge her. To write this article and take you behind the scenes, from the inception of the project to what you have seen at E3, I have had the immense pleasure to interview both Brian Horton and Brenoch Adams, respectively Game Director and Art Director at Crystal Dynamics.

Like every work of art, a video game needs a fair amount of reflection and research in order to establish a direction. This started a while back for Rise of the Tomb Raider. The idea of making a sequel had already been penned before the release of Tomb Raider, only at that time, locations and myths had not been chosen. This was in fact done only recently. Such a game is defined by the legend anchored deep within the plot, therefore explaining why the team at Crystal wanted to make this choice carefully. On it depends Lara’s new abilities, new gameplay features and innovations.

“Sometimes we think about location first, sometimes about myths first, but it’s usually together. We wanted to go to an artic location, and when we did research on myths, we found this legend of the city of Kitezh - the city that sank into a lake. It seemed a legend that hasn’t been exploited much in modern cinema or modern books and games and it was those things that said it was perfect. We said ‘this is the location we want to be and this is a good legend for us to use.’” - Brian Horton

With the idea in mind, the creative team began to look for interesting concepts and references to implement into the game. This time, most of the research was done from the studio - rather unsurprising considering all the technology at our disposal nowadays. Exploring a remote place can be done with two clicks and a few keywords on your favorite search engine. Nevertheless, Brenoch Adams, Art Director, confided that, to him, nothing compares to being able to actually visit the location they want to drive inspiration from, thus, a few people were sent overseas to capture on site photos. The surroundings of the studio itself, based in Redwood City, have also been used as references, since they offer a wide variety of landscapes and climate changes only hours away. Making a game - making a work of art - is all about trying to draw inspiration from nearly everything, and to harness it to emulate and render life in your production.

“Photography reference drives the grounding we want to achieve in our concept designs. This helps us get an exact representation of material surfaces and structure that work for both concept art, and modeling. It is important for us to find the balance between what we see in images and what defines the Tomb Raider universe, so we push and pull aspects of reality to hone in on the visual style and experience we are looking for.” - Brenoch Adams

Using photo reference also enabled them to create a hybrid style, making the architecture of Kitezh unique and easily identifiable. There has been a concern in bringing a fair level of archeological accuracy, whilst flirting at the same time with something that looks less believable, but more impressive, in the hope of conveying a feeling of grandeur. Lara has to explore temples and places such as no one has ever seen or discovered before, and these locations must inspire awe and let the player feel miniscule in the face of the past. Concept art is the blueprint of what the team intends to design - is it the root from which the tree will grow. It consists in all of the components of composition, palette design, and experience that Crystal want to deliver with the game. The hard part comes with translating a 2D world into a lifelike and breath-taking 3D real time simulation, and this has been done in a formidable way thanks to time, work and passion invested by the incredible artists and extremely talented developers. Communication is a keystone in the matter, hence explaining the constant exchanges between the different levels of development at the studio. It enables them to discuss ways to improve some things and make some others more effective and reliable.

“There are a constant barrage of obstacles and challenges that arise throughout any title. Concept art is our way of solving problems before they are created by artists to be implemented in game. Snow and ice is a major component of our environments, and we wanted to make it as amazing as it possible could be. Meaningful interaction, and accurate reactions from snow were huge challenges that we tried to represent in our concept pieces. FX, lighting, and some amazing new tech features have granted us the ability to successfully address those obstacles and make some amazing features.”  - Brenoch Adams

Creating environments is not all about enabling the character to move from one point to another. Environments have to be meaningful, they have to set a tone and to interact with the protagonist, and they are indeed intrinsically linked to the story. The Tomb Raider team wanted to create landscapes that would confront the player with the harsh reality of exploration, thus, inducing a certain feeling of isolation. Creating that sort of mood was made possible by drawing inspiration from the masters. Brenoch Adams, for instance, relys on them when applicable. Albert Bierstadt, Joseph Mallord, William Turner, and some Russian Realists like Ilya Repin produced impressive works that inspired the art team.

                              “Cathedral Rock” by Albert Bierstadt

                                              Official Concept Art

Bierstadt’s painting represents a lonesome scenery, half desolated, half enlivened by the prospect of a calm right after a storm. The painting depicts an in-between, and so does the concept art; The artists have strived to create oppressive landscapes. Although Lara is now conscious of the danger that surrounds her, she isn’t yet accomplished enough as a trailblazer to face every kind of threat. She’s still on her way to becoming who she’s meant to be, and she still needs to be overwhelmed to “rise”.

                                       “Slave Ship” by Turner

                                         Official Concept Art 

Turner’s art has also been a source of inspiration: a bleak seascape foretells a typhoon. The atmosphere of his paintings inspire apprehension and create tension. The formidable sight in front of Lara reveals the danger behind any adventure. She will have to risk her life so as to uncover the truths of this world. She will have to be one with her environment, to learn from it, and take advantage of it. The Romantic mood instilled in Tomb Raider marks the struggles of the protagonist.

“The uniqueness of this game comes from the combined efforts of all visual design to create an overwhelmingly immersive and powerful experience. We have been able to achieve a density of atmosphere and richness of environment in Rise of the Tomb Raider that is very exciting. A new lighting system, film inspired real time simulations, and painstakingly crafted characters make it a title that aims to be a visual benchmark.”  - Brenoch Adams

Lara can now see her destiny, but there are questions that are left to be answered, and those doubts, this evolution, has been carefully translated into her design. Lara’s model is based on augmented scan data. But she stands out as a unique individual, and her appearance has a meaning. She seems more tenacious and accomplished than she was in the previous game, and those things have been made transparent thanks to slight adjustments in her look. Every single detail has been thought out to send the right message. She seems older and stronger, and that denotes a big shift in her character from Tomb Raider to Rise of the Tomb Raider.

“A grounded experience is where things begin for us. In Rise, we want to take it further, and develop the awe of amazing discovery amidst that reality. The flavor of Tomb Raider 2013 still drives the things that make the hostile world and characters of Rise of the Tomb Raider feel set in their surroundings. We’ve worked hard to make sure things feel more immersive and intense, while leaping to the next step in visual quality.”   - Brenoch Adams

With Rise of the Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics aims to deliver a game that will please both the hardcore fans of the franchise and the “new” fans, bringing back symbolic elements such as underwater exploration, puzzles and magnificent tombs.

“She [Lara] will still be different, but you’ll start to recognize more and more the traits that you’d see in a classic Lara characterization. We do believe that there’s something different about what we’re doing compared to the Core vision. But, ultimately the DNA of Lara Croft is a confident smart woman who is seeking the secrets of the world. Nothing is going to stop her.”  - Brian Horton

[Transportation, lodging, and E3 badge provided by Crystal Dynamics and Xbox as a part of the E3 2015 Ambassador Program.