IO Interactive Explains How It Handcrafts Hitman’s Elusive Target Likenesses

Hitman World of Assassination developers say Elusive Targets come from studying talent for many hours and careful craftsmanship instead of scans. Even when a 3D mesh is technically accurate, it may still not resemble the real person in practice.

IO Interactive has made clear that it hand-builds every Hitman World of Assassination Elusive Target rather than depending on standard scanning methods.

With the launch of World of Assassination’s latest Elusive Target mission, The Host, featuring YouTuber JackSepticEye, the team discussed how it creates these special updates and how it designs the most inventive eliminations.

When asked how the studio captures the likeness featuring celebrities and prominent public personalities, senior-level designer Marin Ansdal said each character is made from the ground up, with no motion capture or scanning used anywhere in the workflow.

• Every character starts with a hand-made concept.
• A character artist then models and textures the design.
• Bespoke craftsmanship guides the full process.

Ansdal added that strong likeness work often depends on knowing when to combine realism with caricature. In his view, a skilled character artist can make that judgment in a way a scan cannot.

Junior concept and character artist Lovisa Österman also described how she starts the design work, saying that she spends hours studying references before the model-building stages begin.

She said she looks through videos and photos of the talent to understand the face from every angle, and that textures are a major part of the process.

• Getting the mesh right is only one part of the task.
• Freckles, spots, and other small flaws help make the face recognizable.
• Without those details, the likeness can feel incomplete.

The studio also shared insight into how it chooses the game’s targets, confirming that the level designer and writer step in once a celebrity or public figure has been selected.

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