See How Half-Life's Corpse01 Model Looks in Half-Life 2 RTX

If you have clicked on this article and have any interest in the history of game development, chances are you already know about Half-Life 2's corpse01.mdl and the disturbing story behind it, which surfaced a few years ago, revealing that Valve used a photo of a real-life victim's burned face to create the in-game model.

With such a notorious legacy, Orbifold Studios – the team behind the upcoming Half-Life 2 RTX remaster – couldn't avoid including an updated version of the model in their game, with 3D Character/Creature Artist and Sculptor Nikita Polukarov recently presenting the team's take on corpse01.

A master of using CG to design pure nightmare fuel, Nikita had the opportunity to work on the RTX remaster's version of the model, skillfully recreating its charred skull and body using Maya, ZBrush, Substance 3D Painter, and Marmoset Toolbag. Most intriguing of all is that the artist chose to stay true to Valve's original technique – both in spirit and approach – to preserve the horror of the original model, hinting that the updated corpse might also be based on a disturbing reference image. Attached below are some of the renders shared by Nikita:

We also highly recommend taking a look at the artist's full portfolio – perfect if you feel like you've been sleeping a bit too well lately and need some proper motivation to turn on all the lights in your house:

And if you're interested in learning the history behind corpse01.mdl, you can check out this amazing video by Richter Overtime (sorry, we can't include Valve's original reference photo in the article – getting shadow-banned as a Christmas present doesn't sound too appealing):