In 2023, Stephen James offered insights into DNEG’s visual effects work on the debut season of The Last of Us. He then worked to Dune: Part Two and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, before rejoining the post-apocalyptic series for its second season.
It’s been two years since Melaina Mace first walked us through the visual effects of The Last of Us season one. She’s now back to discuss how season two raised the bar.
How was this new collaboration with the showrunner and VFX Supervisor Alex Wang?
SJ // It was a pleasure to work with both Alex Wang and Craig Mazin again. They are great collaborators, they know what they want, and they put a lot of trust in our team to deliver.
MM // Our collaboration with Alex Wang and Craig Mazin was great – having collaborated with them on Season 1 we were able to pick up where we left off and transition into Season 02 quite smoothly. Alex is very inclusive and has been great to work with.
How was the sequences made by DNEG?
SJ // We worked on a large variety of sequences for this season. We started out with the Salt Lake City environment, including CG giraffes. The majority of our work was sequences all across Seattle from Episodes 3-7. That includes many very complex environments such as establishing shots, the hospital, many city streets, and the entire waterfront and storm.
We were also fortunate to work on some of the quieter, more subtle moments this season, such as the music shop, space museum interior, and glacier lake.
Both of you had already worked on season 1. How did your experience on the first season influence your creative or technical approach to season 2?
SJ // It allowed us to hit the ground running when it came to technical methodology for destruction, overgrowth and our asset library of buildings, destruction, props, and vehicles. We were able to spend our resources on getting our technical workflows up and running with our new pipeline.
MM // Our experience working on Season 1 was invaluable – we knew what to expect and had a lot of similar work in Season 2, so we could build upon tools and methodologies we had used before.
DNEG delivered 356 VFX shots across 36 sequences for Season 2. What were the main creative and technical challenges in managing such a large and varied body of work for the show?
SJ // The scale of work on Season 2 was immense, both in volume and complexity. We had to stay tightly coordinated across departments, especially when dealing with sequences that involved complex environments layered with destruction, FX, and digital doubles.
MM // We had more than 20 unique locations and environments over the course of the season – the scope of work was one of the main creative and technical challenges. We employed a number of different techniques, from set extension and augmentation to digital matte painting and full CG environments. Nearly all of these required vegetation and overgrowth, weathering and because a lot of our work was set in Seattle, many sequences also required rain or FX water simulations.
You completely rebuilt Seattle’s skyline and coastline. How did you approach recreating this iconic city while making it feel believable in the world of The Last of Us, decades after its fall?
SJ // We started with real-world data that we captured in Seattle to get the layout and architectural feel right, and built many iconic buildings and structures like the Seattle Aquarium, the Great Wheel, and the Space Needle.
As Seattle is a coastal city known for its rainfall, it allowed us to introduce a different type of weathering and destruction this season– water and storm damage. Coastlines eroded, roads submerged, buildings partially collapsed from structural failure and water damage.
MM // All of the Seattle sequences were shot in and around Vancouver, BC, either on location or on a backlot set. We took LiDAR data captured on location in Vancouver and combined it with data captured in Seattle to rebuild key iconic locations from the game and some new ones unique to the show.
The show features dramatic views of flooded docks and decaying landmarks. What references or techniques helped you strike the right balance between realism and storytelling in these post-apocalyptic environments?
SJ // Even though our work is often heightened and larger than life, we always use plate photography as anchors throughout any given sequence. For example, for the FX work, we would use the shots of Ellie washing up on shore, or in the water tank, as a bar for the quality we needed to strive for in our water shading, rain, and simulation detail. For our lighting, we would match the lighting from the set and not force detail in just because it was there. That allows us to hopefully blend seamlessly between VFX and non-VFX shots.
Bringing nature’s reclamation of the city to life is a key visual theme. How did you design and animate the growth of moss, ivy, and overgrowth to feel natural yet dramatic?
MM // Vegetation overgrowth is a key part of ‘The Last of Us’ aesthetic, particularly in Seattle, and from experience on Season 1, we knew it would be a challenging aspect of our environment work. We had a library of Megascans groundplants and SpeedTree trees and plants from Season 1 that we were able to build upon as a starting point. We updated our library to include more ferns and coniferous trees to match the vegetation of the Pacific Northwest.
Our Environment team, led by Environment Supervisor Romain Simonnet, designed ivy dressing for individual buildings and sets in Houdini using an updated version of our ivy generation toolset from Season 1. As a lot of our sequences were shot on location, we had to match the wind movement of ground plants and trees in the plate, or replicate this for full CG environments. All of our ground plants, trees and ivy scatters were run through a wind simulation in Houdini, which was updated for Season 2 and led by our Environment Lead, Abe Ibanez.
You recreated iconic Seattle locations like the Aquarium and the Great Wheel. Can you walk us through the process of rebuilding these sites digitally? Were they based on scans, concept art, or a mix of sources?
SJ // We knew these had to be hero builds, so we went all in on reference. We captured LiDAR scans, photography, and drone photogrammetry of each structure, then rebuilt them in CG with added layers of decay and adaptation.
MM // The design of the Seattle Aquarium and Great Wheel was primarily based on the real-world locations for each, with slight design alterations to match the show’s concept art and set design. We worked with Clear Angle Studios on location in Seattle to capture LiDAR from the ground, and we worked with a local production company, Motion State, to capture drone footage of the Aquarium and Great Wheel, which allowed us to create a full photogrammetry scan of each location.
A partial set was built on a backlot for the backside of the Aquarium where Ellie climbs onto the pier in Episode 7. We then lined up the location LiDAR and photogrammetry scans with the set LiDAR and adjusted the design of the building to seamlessly line up with the set. We had a couple of full CG shots of the Aquarium that needed to cut directly with the plate photography, so we built a full CG hero asset of both the Aquarium and the Great Wheel to accommodate this. Small design details were changed to tie into the design of the game – we changed the trim on the Aquarium from green to white, added whale murals to the sides of the Aquarium, added blue detailing to the Great Wheel gondolas and changed the shape and materials of the pier to match the wooden planking in the set design.
How did you use drone photogrammetry, LiDAR scans, and on-site photography? How did you integrate these real-world datasets into your digital pipeline, and what benefits did they bring?
MM // Photogrammetry, LiDAR scans and roundshot photography are really the backbone of building out a full CG city. We spent a week on location in Seattle with our Shoot team, led by Chris Stern, capturing as much data as possible – from LiDAR of specific streets and buildings to texture reference and roundshot photography of the city skyline.
We captured photography at varying times of day from multiple different rooftop locations in downtown Seattle, which we used as both reference for our CG environments and as the base photography for our digital matte painting work. Our drone team captured footage along the waterfront and of the Aquarium and Great Wheel, which we used as shot reference and for photogrammetry. The benefit of capturing all of this data is that it enables us to recreate real-world locations with as much accuracy as possible, from how to layout a city block to replicating the minute details and weathering on the facade of a building.
Weather plays a big role this season. How did you design the dynamic weather systems, and how did they interact with your environments and FX?
SJ // Weather was a key part of the atmosphere this season, especially as we built toward the storm-heavy finale. We had systems for hero rain, distant rain curtains, ocean spray, mist, and gusts. We also had to allow for wind simulations on vegetation, which adds another layer of complexity and a challenge when it came to rendering!
The key to achieving realism meant adding layers and layers of detail. Each hero asset had a wet look variant, which included things like procedural raindrops on top surfaces and water sheeting on each flat side. FX added drips, spray, and water pouring out of areas where it would naturally accumulate. Compositing then took it even further by adding practical elements of drips, rain splashes, which added a final layer of imperfection and believability.
Can you elaborates about your water shots? What made these shots particularly complex from a simulation and rendering perspective?
MM // The water sequences in Episode 7 were quite challenging, but we had a fantastic team that was up for the challenge. Our Layout team, led by Layout Supervisor Sandra Murta, drove the post-vis for these sequences, which allowed us to get shot cameras to FX early on for ocean simulation testing. Our FX team, led by FX Supervisor Roberto Rodricks, started working on ocean spectrums as a starting point, so we could lock down a look for each different angle on the water. The final shots were a combination of ocean spectrum and bespoke FX simulation for the foreground water, waves, rain droplets, atmospherics and boat wake and interaction.
Lighting and rendering, led by Lighting Supervisors Casey Gorton and Heather Ruttan, was done in Solaris and RenderMan. Having completed Season 1 in Clarisse, our primary challenge was adapting to a new pipeline and renderer. The next challenge was to fine-tune the look of the lightning and water at night during a storm. We had done a stormy nighttime sequence on Season 1, but adding an FX ocean to the mix was a new challenge. Because we were cutting between shots where we had to match lightning flashes in the plate photography and full CG or near full CG shots, we opted to light the sequences for nighttime with a subtle key light to match the rim light in the plates, and rendered a separate lightning-lit AOV to allow for control of the lightning flashes in comp.
The finale features crashing waves, boats, and digital doubles. How did you coordinate all these elements in terms of layout, FX, animation, and final compositing?
SJ // For the water sequences, we were able to get layout started early and post-viz’d the entire sequence in late 2024. We were very thorough at that stage, as we wanted to make sure that we had a very solid foundation to build our complex environment and FX work on. Layout had to consolidate a variety of set locations, such as a water tank, dry boat rig, and multiple dock locations, into one consistent scene.
The environment team prioritized any areas that required FX interaction so that FX had as much time as possible for simulation work. That meant prioritizing a lot of the most complex areas, such as the collapsing shoreline, the docks and water, as well as fine details such as ships run aground. Once that was handed off to FX, they could shift their priority towards the city and skyline.
We were very fortunate to have an FX team experienced in water, supervised by Roberto Rodricks, as well as many established workflows from our award-winning FX team. That allowed us to hit the ground running with the water work, and gave us some bandwidth to further improve our water FX with improved water shading, and even fine details like each rain drop causing splashes and ripples across the surface.
Each ocean shot started with a base ocean that holds up for distant shots. We buy off on general speed, wave height, and direction, and then that is pushed into hero simulation for any foreground water. FX would then have additional post simulations for boat interaction, which allowed us to quickly adapt and update simulations if the boat animation changed. That allowed Animation Supervisor Andrew Doucette and his team a bit of bandwidth in improving and adjusting boat and soldier animation while shots were progressing.
While any environment, anim, and FX work was ongoing, our lighting team published light rigs that fed back to all departments. That allowed us to focus each department on what mattered to each shot.
With a relatively short deadline, direct lines of communication between department supervisors and each artist team were very important.
What kind of optimizations or tools were key to maintaining both quality and performance across so many large-scale shots for the environments?
SJ // For our hero environments, such as the Seattle city coast, we had a huge variety of assets, such as buildings with interiors, city streets, props, boats, debris, vehicles, and a huge variety of vegetation grown and scattered across all of it. Then we’re adding custom destruction and water FX.
As you can imagine, getting all of that into memory and rendering was a considerable challenge. We had to return to a lot of our Season 1 library assets, such as buildings, vehicles, and optimize them to allow us to push the complexity even further this season.
One additional workflow that we now use at DNEG is that each department automatically outputs a lower quality QC render upon publish. It allows us to check that everything is published correctly, optimized, and will be renderable for final, which flags issues right away that can save much-needed render time in the final stretch.
Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of?
SJ // I’m extremely proud of the city and storm work in the Episode 7 finale. Even though all of the work is larger than life, I think we still maintained a realism that blended seamlessly with the plate photography.
MM // All of it, really – we had an incredibly hard-working team. Our Episode 7 work was certainly the most challenging, and I’m quite pleased with the final shots.
How long have you worked on this show?
SJ // It was about a year in total between production and post.
MM // I was also on the show for a year, from early location scouts to final delivery.
What is your next project?
SJ // Stay tuned!
MM // Undecided – I am taking a bit of a holiday!
A big thanks for your time.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
DNEG: Dedicated page about The Last of Us – Season 2 on DNEG website.
Alex Wang & Fiona Campbell Westgate: Here’s my interview of Alex Wang (Production VFX Supervisor) & Fiona Campbell Westgate (Production VFX Producer).
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025
