The Last of Us: Part II...Abby descends into the hospital
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
after being arrested for being AWOL from the Forward Base, Abby is freed by Nora and begins her search for a medical kit that will take her deep in to the lower levels of the hospital...
A series of corridors and large lobby areas follow, those same areas that Ellie will later hunt Nora through. Since the player can now take their time to explore these areas, another level of shader detail and set dressing was required
I spent a lot of time building ceiling kits with detailed insulation roofing and modular pipe sets so that we could add some interesting damage and detail. With this kind of work, building a kit to sample makes the process a lot easier
Small, cluttered rooms fit for looting and perhaps...for finding Easter Eggs
The Annex...I left this area unfinished for a long time, only coming to detail it in the final months of production, it was a huge area and had a lot of side rooms too that required many new shaders, it was daunting but ultimately rewarding to finish it
Bethany Lowe did a great job of lighting this area, it was very low light but had this beautiful bloom, fog and exposure effect when you looked up to the skylight
On occasion Edgar would have more pressing areas to model and so I would do a more complete pass alone. With an established set of props and shaders it's relatively quick to detail an area to completion
This hidden office was the first stage of the ambient storytelling we added to this area, hospital staff had barricaded themselves inside to escape the infected, the blockade didn't hold...
Dropping down to the ground floor, we find the remnants of the ensuing battle and this long since abandoned Chapel...
I imagined this Chapel being used as an emergency ER, moving all of the pews to one side and bringing in military beds, emergency lighting and a adding a makeshift admissions desk gave it a different sense of purpose
It was another area that I took from a more basic modeling pass to final in the final stages of production, the design of the Chapel itself was concepted by my pal Robby Johnson, it was a big help to us in those late stages
In the Annex itself, we had dialogue for Abby as well as notes left by the fallen Fedra soldiers that indicated a bloody battle had taken place. Telling this story and making the blood shaders react differently to each surface was a fun challenge
The exterior to this decontamination unit was again, concepted by Robby Johnson. Our amazing OS vendors handled the initial modeling pass and I finalised it all with textures, shaders and additional detailing
The interior was a really tight space, but it was an opportunity for me to squeeze in some hard surface modeling, pom decals for panel lines and other small details so it was a cool, isolated asset to work on...
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here...