The Last of Us: Part II...Ellie Flashback Ultimatum
This gallery another in a series that showcases 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 (Modeling and layout). Our process for this level differed a little to our others however, Edgar worked on this independently to begin with, porting over the assets and corridor from the first game and completing the first pass on the model/asset swaps for the different level scenarios. From there, I took responsibility for the remainder of the work, which included the final art, additional prop modeling, set dressing and technical setup for the various level swaps (there is a clean and dirty version, with various lighting scenarios for this particular level). Towards the end, Edgar and I teamed up once more to ensure the level was bug free! Lighting for this particular section was done by Bethany Lo and as always, a huge thanks to the rest of the fantastic Naughty Dog team, without whose contributions none of these levels would be possible.
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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
Ellie returns to the old Firefly hospital, desperately seeking answers...
Eagle-eyed fans will have noticed the mural here is different in the first game - this was an art direction decision, that if we could improve that iconic mural with a new graphic and still retain the familiarity of the space then we should go for it!
(Includes audio) Wherever possible I like to try and introduce movement in the environments, in this case the gently blowing curtains (controlled using vertex painting and a displacement effect) helped sell the sense of this long abandoned, eerie place
This mural spanned the entire length of the corridor and had completely unique placement of boats, sea life and clouds, the next image explains how this is achieved. Special thanks to McKenna Morison and Hailey Del Rio who provided the amazing 2D graphics
This breakdown explains a little of how we use multiple uv sets to create our murals that feature prominently throughout The Last of Us: Part II
In my next gallery i'll break down the layers of this shader that help to sell this look of painted plaster, with a subtle wobble in the surface and lively roughness response
Set dressing this room with so many stacked, uniquely labelled boxes was quite painstaking. But we hoped to sell the idea that the Fireflies had packed up and left in a hurry
(Includes audio) Boxes that could be inspected also required their contents to be arranged by hand, with no one item being too distracting, our foreground team (interact-able props) then handled the technical setup
Jerry's office (seen here during the cutscene I worked on) had two states, here it takes place within the timeline of the first game, in its clean state...
Fast forward to some years later, as Ellie searches for clues about her past, Jerry and Marlene are long gone and the office lies empty, looted and abandoned. This transition was a lot of fun to work on...
Here's a little video showing how I tried to show the passage of time in one corner
The same process occurred throughout the room, with each minor prop considered, moved, damaged or removed. A box of Jerry's belongings can be seen here in front of the desk also, little does Ellie know it contains scans of her own brain...
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It was a cool moment for me personally to recreate 'the red door' remembering it so well from my own experiences with the first game
(Includes audio) the audio team did such an amazing job through the game, really helping to set the tone and atmosphere in these moments
This one was also a personal goal of mine, I loved the notes that are often hidden throughout Naughty Dog games, the hand-writing here is my own! Being from the UK my handwriting is naturally squiggly and illegible
The surgery, the place where Joel sets in motion events that will seal his own fate and direct Ellie's future for years to come...
The idea with this room and this entire environment, was to retain the feeling of the original, but to improve quality, detail and immersion, it was a difficult line to walk but ultimately having the first game as a guide was a huge help
My favourite (most likely missed) detail is a smeared hand-print I added in the blood stain on the floor. In a later cutscene we see a firefly bent over Jerry's body and I imagined this to be the moment when that print was left