A look back at what Tomb Raider was and the visual evolution that’s taken place

Back in 1996, those of us who are being honest with themselves remember gaining the talent of backing Lara Croft into a corner or against a wall in order to giggle over polygonal boobies. It’s just a thing that happened. We all did it. It’s been nearly 20 years since we first crawled into the tombs with Lady Croft and not only are we getting a brand new game this year in the form of Rise of the Tomb Raider, we’re getting new technology to help bring her to life, and it’s a far cry from where we started.

In a recent interview, Brandon Fernandez, the game’s Animation Director, explained how when gaming really got going “there was less specialization in games, so an animator might model, rig, animate, create character VFX and even do a bit of design tuning.” This jack of all trades, master of none approach limited just how realistic the characters could be, just as much as the available technology of the day did. Today it’s completely different and each of those items is likely to be handled by a specialist whose sole responsibility is that particular visual element.

While the animation of Lara has evolved dramatically over the last two decades, Fernandez reminds us that there will always be key elements that carry over from the original entry, “There’s a little bit of inspirations that we draw always from who we believe Lara Croft needs to look like versus what the actor might bring to the performance.”

Senior Art Director, Brian Horton contributed, “It’s her spirit that speaks louder than her physicality, at least in the way we’ve interpreted Lara Croft…we focus mostly on her emotion more than we focus on the other attributes you might call purely physical. You know it’s really trying to make sure that she’s reacting to the situation in the most believable and honest way that we believe she should.”

Rise of the Tomb Raider releases on XB1 on November 10, 2015.