Matthew Trevelyan Johns
Principal Environment Artist - Naughty Dog
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The Last of Us: Part I...The Firefly Lab Part I

The Last of Us: Part I is a particularly special project for me, my enjoyment of the original game inspired me to pursue a career at Naughty Dog and this was the first project for which I was promoted to the position of Principal Artist. I fulfilled this role for the duration of the project and it was an incredible learning experience.
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As Principal, I was tasked with expanding upon, and developing new art pipelines that would help empower the environment team to create a visual experience that could truly harness the full potential of the PS5. I also took ownership of some very technically challenging sequences and was responsible for creating many of the modular assets and shaders that would be shared across the project.
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I continued my roles as the Vehicle Specialist (asset creation, art/technical pipeline, management of library) and as a level artist (textures, shaders, modeling etc).
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This has been my third Naughty Dog title and it has been an incredible experience and as always, it takes a monumental team effort in order to make such amazing games. Without the hard work and dedication of the entire team, across all departments, none of this would be possible. Please do check out all of the posts from the other incredible Naughty Dog artists!

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For 'The Lab' I worked alongside Todd Foster (modeling and layout) and Bethany Lo (lighting) as well as many other people across all departments, as always. I always enjoy the mass collaboration involved to bring a level like this to life, it's not only enjoyable, but essential to the development of such engaging experiences for the player.

Please enjoy this small gallery and stay tuned for more very soon!
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Though I worked across many levels in the game and all vehicles, St Mary's Hospital was my main level responsibility. I worked alongside Todd Foster to re-imagine this level for the PlayStation 5, hopefully giving it some new flavour along the way...

After escaping the sinking bus (see previous galleries) Joel awakens in St Mary's Hospital, now occupied by the Fireflies. After escaping capture, it's time to find Ellie...

After escaping the sinking bus (see previous galleries) Joel awakens in St Mary's Hospital, now occupied by the Fireflies. After escaping capture, it's time to find Ellie...

With so many shadow casting, runtime lights, physically breakable objects and complex characters on screen at once, this opening sequence was extremely difficult to optimise for performance. It's always tough to balance the visuals with our framerates

We also tried to add more environment storytelling throughout the space, giving previously empty rooms more clearly defined purpose and creating more unique props to fit the narrative

We also tried to add more environment storytelling throughout the space, giving previously empty rooms more clearly defined purpose and creating more unique props to fit the narrative

I wanted to try and show a few more wireframe shots of our environments too, to show that our polycounts remain fairly conservative for assets. We tend to rely more on texture and shader work to convey detail, which is why topology is spread more evenly

I wanted to try and show a few more wireframe shots of our environments too, to show that our polycounts remain fairly conservative for assets. We tend to rely more on texture and shader work to convey detail, which is why topology is spread more evenly

I really like to use colour to help players navigate through spaces, particularly repetitive or intense combat areas. For these functional rooms i loved having these coloured laminate floors, great for material response and bounce light

I really like to use colour to help players navigate through spaces, particularly repetitive or intense combat areas. For these functional rooms i loved having these coloured laminate floors, great for material response and bounce light

Here are the wires for this room, I handled a lot of the asset modeling, building desks, machinery and hospital equipment in combination with our outsource partners. Much of it was a mix of bake, trim and modular components for easy re-use and sharing

Here are the wires for this room, I handled a lot of the asset modeling, building desks, machinery and hospital equipment in combination with our outsource partners. Much of it was a mix of bake, trim and modular components for easy re-use and sharing

I love working on exteriors, but the lab had so few, so with each small space I paid a lot of attention to small modelled details and my favourite wet shader looks. Breakdowns below...

I love working on exteriors, but the lab had so few, so with each small space I paid a lot of attention to small modelled details and my favourite wet shader looks. Breakdowns below...

Our in-game wireframe view isn't so pretty as we might be used to, but edge thickness also denotes polygon density and so it can be a useful debug. On the ground here you can see how useful large alpha cards were in supporting the leaf models and blends

Our in-game wireframe view isn't so pretty as we might be used to, but edge thickness also denotes polygon density and so it can be a useful debug. On the ground here you can see how useful large alpha cards were in supporting the leaf models and blends

I try to treat all areas like mini-vignettes, imagining the player hiding here for a while, having the time to take in the details, the cracked concrete, individually modelled leaves, slightly crumbling of the edge the window rests on...

I try to treat all areas like mini-vignettes, imagining the player hiding here for a while, having the time to take in the details, the cracked concrete, individually modelled leaves, slightly crumbling of the edge the window rests on...

Pushing deeper in to the hospital, Joel will pass through this quarantine area and others like it, i'll try to show some breakdowns of some of these challenging assets in my next galleries...

Pushing deeper in to the hospital, Joel will pass through this quarantine area and others like it, i'll try to show some breakdowns of some of these challenging assets in my next galleries...

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