Come ye, be awed by the marvelous art of Bren Adams [Updated]

[Original July 1, 2010 post] We’ve here the awe-inspiring art of Brenoch Adams, Tomb Raider dev house concept artist. Adams joined Team Lara in 2008 and is still currently involved with the group; he provided additional concept art for Tomb Raider Underworld. Having worked on THQ title Conan, Adams has created art that showcases environments not too far in looks to places raid-worthy for Lara (see here, if you don’t believe us).

Update: Bren is confirmed to be involved with the reboot, most notably for doing the concept stage and some finishing touches for Lara’s look as she appears on GI’s January ‘11 cover, for which he “literally didn’t leave his desk for a straight twenty-four hours.”

[Original June 29, 2010 post] In every game, someone’s responsible for the look and feel of the menu screen — or the user interface, as the techie jargon puts it — where we choose to start a New Game or Pause or Continue with our progress. For Tomb Raider 9, Shay Casey, user interface designer at Crystal Dynamics, may be it.

We’d love to have grass as beautiful in Tomb Raider 9, dear sir

The Maya-based 3D grass work (first in series) is by Rick Gilliland, technical artist at Redwood HQ. He worked on the last three main Tomb Raider games, but only started work as technical artist on Underworld. Gilliland’s work with the Tomb Raider dev team has heavy emphasis on technical problem-solving and making sure there’s defined workflow to have all contributions technically well put-together. Taxing. (But we want the grass.)

The creative director bears the all-important responsibility of giving direction and vision to a project. For the last pillar release, Tomb Raider Underworld, Eric Lindstrom was it — but Mr. Lindstrom is no longer working with Team Lara.

By Tomb Raider Biz’s count, we’ve three creative directors left at Crystal Dynamics. One of them, Daniel Neuburger, was creative head for downloadable side-series title Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. There are two others.

Either both of them are heading creative duties for Tomb Raider 9, or just one of them is, or, god forbid, both of them are plus Neuburger. Now we’ve our daily-sleuthing prop glasses on, let’s see if we also have the answer.

Thanks to one man’s involvement at Redwood HQ, we’ve hope that emulating Disney’s animation tech for the next pillar release isn’t only stuff of dreams.

Today we introduce you to the music of Jack Grillo who, just three months ago, stepped foot inside Redwood HQ to join our favorite video game dev team.

Character designs of Team Lara’s art visionary are tattooed, sexy

Here are character designs by Brian Horton, senior art director at Crystal Dynamics. Horton manages a pool of artists towards an artistic vision for — you guessed it — an “unannounced title”, which may or may not be the next pillar release. Horton joined Crystal Dynamics in September 2009 after his stay at Disney Interactive Studios.

Josh Harrison, camera designer for Sony title God of War III, is now part of Crystal Dynamics, joining the Tomb Raider dev team only last May 2010.

A sexy look at the majestic work of one Tomb Raider concept artist

These aren’t Tomb Raider 9 concept art, but they’re the work of Crystal D neophyte Brandon Russell. Russell joined the Tomb Raider dev team in April 2010, and has since been involved in an “unannounced project” at Redwood. He was formerly a concept artist at game company Krome Studios.