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

This is my final gallery showcasing my work on The Last of Us: Part II. I want to thank everyone here for supporting these and stopping by to ask questions, leave comments and generally engage with me. It's a lot of work to put these together, but doing so has been therapeutic for me. Working on this project was my reason for leaving my home and loved ones in the UK and at times this was monumentally difficult. I faced some incredibly challenging personal situations throughout development, made worse by the pandemic and in part, my desire to dedicate myself to the work...The Last of Us: Part II was, and will likely remain the most challenging and memorable project of my career, it fostered incredible personal and professional growth for me and would eventually lead to my being promoted as the first ever Principal artist at Naughty Dog. It didn't come without great difficulty however and in finishing each of these galleries I've been able to achieve a little closure on the project and the effect it's had on my life.

Of course i'll soon be posting more galleries from new projects and works, but this one has just been deeply personal to me. And so, again, thank you so much for stopping by and helping to motivate me along the way, I welcome questions and comments here and look forward to sharing more galleries from different projects, in the future.

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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

(Includes audio) The brutal battle with the Ratking was followed by the sickening moment the Stalker tears itself away from the Ratking's dying body and escapes...the exit now revealed, Abby must follow her quarry, into the crawlspace and the unknown...

More infected spore's and fungal growth fills this space, there was a lot of intricate placement and blending involved so that the detail would hold up under such close examination

More infected spore's and fungal growth fills this space, there was a lot of intricate placement and blending involved so that the detail would hold up under such close examination

(Includes audio) Edgar assembled the crawlspace to feel very tight and claustrophobic and in turn, I set dressed with a more detailed fungus pass and created unique shaders for the space to try and suggest a feeling of damp, decay and rot...

This shader uses alpha blend plus parallax occlusion mapping, to create the thickness of the metal grid, as well as the natural 'growth' of the fungus as it spreads...it was quite challenging to make the spread feel natural over an irregular surface

This shader uses alpha blend plus parallax occlusion mapping, to create the thickness of the metal grid, as well as the natural 'growth' of the fungus as it spreads...it was quite challenging to make the spread feel natural over an irregular surface

The fungal spread could be painted with vertex colours and it then used a combination of height + alpha masking + noise to ensure that it would feel like it had 'grown' into place, wherever I painted it

(Included audio for the brave) I loved how our design and animation team guided the pacing of this section, with the slow, ominous crawl interrupted by this moment of ferocity from the Stalker, who'd be laying in wait...

Followed by a moment like this with the establishing shot, reminiscent of the confrontation with the Ratking, before the final show down and ultimate end to the Stalker in the Morgue

Followed by a moment like this with the establishing shot, reminiscent of the confrontation with the Ratking, before the final show down and ultimate end to the Stalker in the Morgue

We continued the same fungal growth throughout the Morgue and I made use of my custom infection shaders once again, that exhibited more wet/slimy qualities to integrate them with the stagnant water that had flooded the entire space

We continued the same fungal growth throughout the Morgue and I made use of my custom infection shaders once again, that exhibited more wet/slimy qualities to integrate them with the stagnant water that had flooded the entire space

My goal was always to ensure that every asset and surface the fungal infection spread across would also receive the same shader treatment, helping to integrate these assets together and really make the fungus feel as if it had 'grown' in the space

My goal was always to ensure that every asset and surface the fungal infection spread across would also receive the same shader treatment, helping to integrate these assets together and really make the fungus feel as if it had 'grown' in the space

The entire space was mostly lit by Abby's flashlight, surface response was key in order to help the player identify the layout of the space during combat. Emphasising angles in the tile normals was one way for me to help highlight these surfaces even more

The metal racks laden with body bags was a particularly creepy detail here, not just because of the theme, but also because they cast interesting and broken shadows throughout the space when hit by the flashlight

The metal racks laden with body bags was a particularly creepy detail here, not just because of the theme, but also because they cast interesting and broken shadows throughout the space when hit by the flashlight

To integrate the fungus with the tile, I created a cracked tile blend, I liked the idea that wherever the fungus spread, it would stick, pull and erode the surface, damaging and eventually cracking it over time...

To integrate the fungus with the tile, I created a cracked tile blend, I liked the idea that wherever the fungus spread, it would stick, pull and erode the surface, damaging and eventually cracking it over time...

This shot is a nice example of how exaggerated tile angles could create interesting and shimmering material response, helping the player more easily identify the space since it was so dark throughout

This shot is a nice example of how exaggerated tile angles could create interesting and shimmering material response, helping the player more easily identify the space since it was so dark throughout

Exiting the Morgue Abby finds herself in a flooded parking garage, a final opportunity for me to make use of my library of submerged shader vehicles and wetness blends

Exiting the Morgue Abby finds herself in a flooded parking garage, a final opportunity for me to make use of my library of submerged shader vehicles and wetness blends

This was one of the final areas i would work on and so I went pretty hard and modelled all of this erosion damaged, cracked asphalt as an excuse to make use of a flowing stream shader and a final bit of environment story telling with the broken water pipe

This was one of the final areas i would work on and so I went pretty hard and modelled all of this erosion damaged, cracked asphalt as an excuse to make use of a flowing stream shader and a final bit of environment story telling with the broken water pipe

The stream shader was created with uv animation + normal map + refraction + depth softening tricks to make where it touches the soil transition nicely. But modeling the curving erosion lines into the soil was done by hand and a little more time consuming

Here are some wireframe shots, I imagined the broken water pipes at some point breaking, flooding the parking garage and eroding the asphalt so that it would break away, sliding down the slope revealing the earth beneath...

Here are some wireframe shots, I imagined the broken water pipes at some point breaking, flooding the parking garage and eroding the asphalt so that it would break away, sliding down the slope revealing the earth beneath...

I used zbrush's dynamesh and 'remesh' features to combine a lot of individual 'broken edge' rubble assets. Then manipulated the shape to create this 'opening crack' shape. Followed by edge bevels and blends, it's a really quick process

I used zbrush's dynamesh and 'remesh' features to combine a lot of individual 'broken edge' rubble assets. Then manipulated the shape to create this 'opening crack' shape. Followed by edge bevels and blends, it's a really quick process

This is my final shot from The Last of Us: Part II...as Abby's ordeal in the hospital comes to an end, so does my creating these galleries. Thank you for all the support along the way. Like Abby, it's time for me to breath a little fresh air once more

This is my final shot from The Last of Us: Part II...as Abby's ordeal in the hospital comes to an end, so does my creating these galleries. Thank you for all the support along the way. Like Abby, it's time for me to breath a little fresh air once more

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