Matthew Trevelyan Johns
Principal Environment Artist - Naughty Dog
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The Last of Us: Part II...The ER

This gallery is part of my on-going series showcasing my work on The Last of Us: Part II.
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As well as being the vehicle specialist for the duration of the game, I also continued my role as a texture and shader artist with my usual level responsibilities.
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For this particular area, I worked in partnership with Edgar Martinez (modelling and layout) and Bethany Lowe (Lighting) as well as the rest of the fantastic Naughty Dog team, without whose contributions none of these levels would be possible.
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My main responsibilities included the creation and adaptation of textures and shaders for application to the environments and contained assets. The levels ended up being so huge that I also did quite a bit of modelling and additional set dressing, working back and forth with Edgar, to continually push and improve each other's work. I also spent a lot of time in researching a new asset pipeline for which these levels became our testing ground.
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Working on The Last of Us: Part II 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.
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I would also like to take time to thank our incredible outsource studios who time and time again prove to be so vital to our development of these worlds, their contributions are incredible and I am incredibly grateful to have worked with them.
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Edgar Martinez portfolio, please check him out! https://www.artstation.com/edgar_a_martinez

Immediately after passing through the decontamination room, Abby must search the ER for medical supplies. Formerly ground zero for infection treatment, it's a morbid place

Immediately after passing through the decontamination room, Abby must search the ER for medical supplies. Formerly ground zero for infection treatment, it's a morbid place

I liked the idea of these zip lock contamination doors as part of a containment protocol. I created the asset and Christophe Desse applied the awesome rigging and physics support

They also gave us a nice reveal moment as Abby passed through them, our talented design team scripted the face covering animations and faulty flashlight effects which really helped to sell this small moment

Inside the space, the lighting was so dark that I needed to help the player navigate the space , I chose strong colour coding, with blue (ER) red (Ambulance Bay) and green (Surgery) tent colours and accents. A really useful way to help guide the player

Inside the space, the lighting was so dark that I needed to help the player navigate the space , I chose strong colour coding, with blue (ER) red (Ambulance Bay) and green (Surgery) tent colours and accents. A really useful way to help guide the player

I like to try to and add certain effects to the shaders to really sell them as different surfaces, the floor here and the fabric on the divider are examples, both fabric of sorts, but one matte with light transmission and the other glossy and reflective

I like to try to and add certain effects to the shaders to really sell them as different surfaces, the floor here and the fabric on the divider are examples, both fabric of sorts, but one matte with light transmission and the other glossy and reflective

For those floors, I used marvellous designer simulation - zbrush refinement and substance painter for base textures. Then I created the flooring with this idea of modular panelling and some tricks for a fake transparency effect

I wanted the flooring to feel translucent, but that sort of shader is too costly. Here I fake translucency by using the diffuse map of the floor beneath as a low opacity overlay - so it looks like you can see through it to the surface beneath

When i'm not using cheap tricks, i'm also trying to use those expensive shaders in small doses, this medical tent uses a blurred, refraction shader + custom fabric detail map set I made. It was expensive to render, but i loved the look

When i'm not using cheap tricks, i'm also trying to use those expensive shaders in small doses, this medical tent uses a blurred, refraction shader + custom fabric detail map set I made. It was expensive to render, but i loved the look

Stuff like this is tricky though, the glass that leads to this room wouldn't render on top of the refraction. So I removed the alpha blend and created these vinyl advisory signs instead. They still broke like glass to reveal the tent behind. Cheap fix!

These doors led to the Ambulance bay, I wanted an eye catching door and colour coded space that the player would remember when it came time to find these doors again in game

These doors led to the Ambulance bay, I wanted an eye catching door and colour coded space that the player would remember when it came time to find these doors again in game

Throughout this space there were small side rooms, i worked on a series of infected patients that had almost melted into the gurneys they lay on. Shader blending all these assets together was time consuming but i liked the final integrated look

Throughout this space there were small side rooms, i worked on a series of infected patients that had almost melted into the gurneys they lay on. Shader blending all these assets together was time consuming but i liked the final integrated look

Creating these large fungus infections was fun, VASG and our character team also provided awesome body kits, so that I could bury infected within the larger volumes, not sure how many people noticed this one almost totally consumed by the growths

Creating these large fungus infections was fun, VASG and our character team also provided awesome body kits, so that I could bury infected within the larger volumes, not sure how many people noticed this one almost totally consumed by the growths

Here's a quick gif of my typical treatment for when infection meets the tent, spreading bile and rotting the shiny plastic. A lot of talented members of the team made these fungus assets, (Ben, Khanh, Alice and more - i salute you!).

The door locking mechanism was really fun to make. I made the entire asset from scratch, using a brilliant concept by my friend Aaron Limonick, he even made the labels that i used in the texture, which was a huge time saver!

The door locking mechanism was really fun to make. I made the entire asset from scratch, using a brilliant concept by my friend Aaron Limonick, he even made the labels that i used in the texture, which was a huge time saver!

Here's a few components shown in substance painter. I love hard surface modeling and texturing, we don't get to spend much time doing it so this was a great change of pace

Here's a few components shown in substance painter. I love hard surface modeling and texturing, we don't get to spend much time doing it so this was a great change of pace

The high poly is pretty basic, no need for a zbrush pass, I sometimes don't even sub d certain elements. Just model and bevel as needed for the bake. Much faster with a focus on the end result, rather than a perfect high poly

The high poly is pretty basic, no need for a zbrush pass, I sometimes don't even sub d certain elements. Just model and bevel as needed for the bake. Much faster with a focus on the end result, rather than a perfect high poly

And here's how those mechanisms functioned in game, we had a few variations of opening animations too which were really cool to see...side note, explosive shells in the shotty are lethal!

In order to get those door locks to function though, Abby has to enable power in the ward. Edgar did a great job modeling this big unit, I then did the usual texture and decal pass and then worked on the animation sequence

In order to get those door locks to function though, Abby has to enable power in the ward. Edgar did a great job modeling this big unit, I then did the usual texture and decal pass and then worked on the animation sequence

The sequence itself was a collaboration between myself and designer, Jonathan Gregoire. I hooked up shaders with emissive values that could he could script on/off etc. It took a lot of back and forth but the final power up sequence was a cool moment

This area also had a workbench...for these I used a special distance blend feature in the metal shader, to enable extra scratches and fine details that would blend on when the camera got close and off when it pulled away for optimisation

Making her way back to the Ambulance Bay, Abby sees signs that something has awoken...its gruesome nest of infection and death now lies empty. More soon...

Making her way back to the Ambulance Bay, Abby sees signs that something has awoken...its gruesome nest of infection and death now lies empty. More soon...

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