For that outfit, the team went from physical clothing on a mannequin to a scanned digital version. Crystal Dynamics' Brendon Bengston also describes printing Lara's sculpted body at full size as part of the clothing process. It gives the artists real fabric to work from when they recreate the folds.
The feature, written for PlayStation Blog by Amazon Game Studios' Michael Lovan, includes artists from Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog. They explain how more detailed hair and facial expressions fit around a design that still looks back to the first Tomb Raider.
One character, several eras
Narrative director John Stafford says the team is bringing together elements from different periods of Lara's history. Her confidence and curiosity stay; the Survivor games' sense that danger has consequences informs this version too. Those are the developers' intentions. We haven't played the game yet, so we can't say how well the balance works in practice.
We'd rather see that curiosity in a room we can explore than hear another speech about it. Put something just out of reach. Let us wonder whether a climb is possible. That's the part of an adventure a character close-up can't show, however good the face looks.
The official PS5 page describes the game as a reimagining of the 1996 adventure, with Scion fragments to recover and locations including Peru, Greece and Egypt. It lists February 12, 2027 for release. For now, this feature is a closer look at the people making Lara; a longer gameplay demonstration would be the useful next step.