But before we give you the 411 on our new guy Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, hit play so you get an idea what we’re all in for. (Clue: epic.)

Team Lara concept artist shows you how “raid-worthy” is done

Here be the work Kenrick Leung, concept artist at Redwood HQ. This dude obviously knows a thing or two about making things look raid-worthy. We surely won’t mind getting lost in a waterfall region like that on the island.

Prior to doing dev duties at Crystal D, Leung was involved as concept artist on titles like Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, Legendary and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, continuing the job title streak with Team Lara.

Over the year, we’ve posted industry profiles of the newest chaps to join Crystal Dynamics, the Redwood-based Tomb Raider dev team. Today we put those profiles on a round-up and offer you the five new faces that can potentially change Tomb Raider forever.

Ryan Maesan translates idiomatic personification to 3D wowza

Think Toy Story. Objects — supposedly inanimate ones — literally moving and behaving convincingly like human beings. Ryan Maesan, newly-hired Character Animator at Crystal D, achieves the same with his 2010 animation reel.

Maesan previously worked on animation for Namco Bandai title Splatterhouse. Currently, he’s busy with dev duties for “a new XBOX 360 / PS3 game” at Redwood HQ, and somehow, whatever it is, we’re willing to bet Lara’s not in it.

Although just to be sure, we’ll check the end credits of Tomb Raider Ascension (!) after our playthrough in 20XX.

Team Lara has a new guy on board, and the globe is his for the taking.

In video, the job of a character animator such as Kym Brainard

A quick look at the animation work of Kym Brainard, character animator at Crystal Dynamics. Prior to joining the Redwood-based team, Brainard was 3D artist at Meta 3D Studios. More of her work here.

New hire at CD likely to set your TR9 expectations higher, too

When we learned that Rogelio Olguin has just joined Crystal Dynamics as environment artist, we immediately did some digging into his past projects to see what he can bring to the next pillar release — and now we post back with much enthusiasm, anticipating even more beautiful tombs and crypts and long-lost Edens to raid come release day of the next Tomb Raider.

Prior to the studio-hop, Olguin was 3D generalist at 4mm Games where he worked on upcoming title Def Jam Rapstar. In 2003, he was level designer at Epic Games where he contributed to the development of Unreal Tournament 4. But really, neither of those speak well enough of what he can do as an environment artist. Pictures and moving images do.

As such, here’s a jump to his portfolio page featuring an extensive gallery of his 3D work, level designs and 2D concepts. He also has a blog that features some of his works in progress. Or — you know what? — just hit play and watch the video we posted above. And granted you’re awed by it, you can visit his Vimeo page to see more video demos of his off-office projects.

And now you know why our expectations for Tomb Raider 9 are a little higher now. More talented artists, more reason to expect better of Lara, yes?

Joining only in January of this year, Hardy LeBel, former lead designer and consultant for Bungie-helmed FPS series Halo, is now director of gameplay of Redwood-based Tomb Raider dev team. Wow-worthy credentials follow.

Transformers game lead level designer jumps ship to Redwood HQ

Travis Hoffstetter, former level designer at High Moon Studios, has joined Crystal Dynamics following the release of well-received title Transformers: War for Cybertron, his most recent involvement. Aside from working on level design for the Transfomers game, Hoffstetter also had level design duties for The Bourne Conspiracy, another High Moon Studios title.

The earthly elements of Tomb Raider 9 and how they’ll come to life

Will most likely be up to this guy. Joining only July of this year, Martin Romero is a new hire at Redwood HQ; he’s now working as visual/3D effects artist for the company.

Romero was previously 3D artist at Cinematico, Inc., the company responsible for the cinematics of Activision title Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. He created “different types of explosions, clouds, smoke, cloth simulation and debris” that featured in the pre-rendered scenes. In addition to visual effects, Romero also specializes in photo realistic texturing and lighting.

Now we’re not keen on having too much explosions in Tomb Raider 9, but we certainly won’t mind dynamic god ray-penetrated clouds, realistic fire smoke and gravity-pulled debris getting featured in the game. A finger’s pressure on Mr. Romero, then.