Behind The Scenes: Tomb Raider Illustration (Patreon)

I really wanted to touch base with the type of content I was creating when I started the Polygon Runway channels, because it's I have a soft spot for the flat shaded low poly look and at the same time, as I'm venturing more and more into different avenues of 3D, it's nice to check if I can transfer some of the new knowledge into an older style.

But most of all, the requirements of this kind of look are way different than with the more realistic approaches and there is no texture or displacement map to come to your rescue. Every type of surface needs to be modeled and presented in a way that's understandable and stylized at the same time.

So it comes with it's own set of challenges and I like to put myself through this kind of exercise occasionally to stretch those muscles. And if I'm going for a bit of a nostalgic look, I might as well pick a nostalgic topic.

Visit the full Pinboard here

I vividly remember the time, when a friend let me borrow his ps1 for a day and I had the opportunity to insert the original Tomb Raider CD and give it a spin (literally). It was my first console experience and apart of mesmerizing experience of a game playing on my TV with only controller in my hand, the game itself was a mind-blowing shift from all those pixelated real-time strategies on my PC.

The first exploration of the cave and encounters with the bear and the wolves, while performing acrobatic jumps and firing at the same time. It was spectacular. I went ahead and searched for some of the game material online and some depictions of Lara herself.

But I wanted to create a vibrant and colorful illustration and the original game isn't known for those qualities. So I had to combine the look and feel of the main character and levels of the game, while trying to come up with colorful and engaging finish.

And again, I used the Midjourney AI to help me expand the possibilities. If you're on the fence with this topic, be sure to read my previous article. I basically used some of the actual Tomb Raider level screenshots and some of my own low poly designs as the prompt inputs and then just specified some additional keywords. I went through the several variations until I saved some images and added them to my reference board.

If you check out the reference thumbnails right here, the one on the right is a result from Midjourney and gave me a great inspiration for colors and lighting treatment, as well as some of the rocks shapes.

But I like to go prepared into Blender, so as always I got my sketchbook and 2B pencil (last time I made a mistake and wrote H2 :D) and sketched some layout ideas. Most of all, I wanted to have some overhang arch present as well as archway opening to have some light shine through. And I liked the references with the stairs and rocky path blending into the water so that was my choice for the other side of the diorama.

The rest was just about trying to fill the layout with some mid-size details like plants, boulders and texture details like bricks and small dents and chamfers.

You can watch the process video on Youtube