Vegetation & Lighting Workflows For The Last of Us-Inspired Scene

Introduction

Welcome, dear readers! I'm Tiffanie Gauwe, a 29-year-old 3D artist hailing from France.

For as long as I can remember I have been sitting in front of my screen discovering virtual worlds and their wonders. This passion for creation and, more precisely, for 3D comes from the alliance between my father’s desire to share with me all the video games that caught his attention and the creative drive of my mother. What really turned me towards 3D art, however, was its ability to captivate us and allow us to escape. Thus was born the dream of being able to create universes where everyone finds their place.

I studied 3D in a French school (Esmi/Brassard) where I was able to participate in my first big project (a short semi-realistic movie).

After obtaining my bachelor’s degree, I felt the need to specialize and improve myself, so I turned to Artside School. During an intensive training of 16 months, I was able to quickly review the basics and deepen my knowledge in various relevant projects that are now the best in my portfolio.

During these years of studies, I was able to collaborate with an independent company called Ratel Studio on a very promising project called Toria where I was able to create various props. I also participated in the creation of a small game called Astro'n'Home during a Game Jam as a prop artist. It is for now the first stone to the building, but there will be many more!

The Last Of Us Fan Art

This fan art of The Last Of Us is the conclusion of my training at Artside. It is the most advanced environment I have made so far. 

I like to think that nothing is impossible for a valiant heart. I was looking for something impactful and realistic but bearing a certain sweetness, and when I saw the concept by Maxime Delcambre, I immediately adopted it. 

It wasn’t going to be an easy project as there was so much to do, but I dreamed of an isolated moment from the rest of the world, alone with my guitar like Ellie. 

To be faithful to the games, whether in the textures, the atmosphere, or the props used, up to the winks, I took the time to watch streams, retracing all the levels of the two games. From there, I made a small list of objects to put in my project to enhance the various spaces of my scene as the workbench. The primary references therefore come from games, the personal research I did in order to have other possibilities in terms of texture and shapes, and other objects that can be implanted without problem in the context, an old attic in the post-apocalyptic period. 

In terms of composition, my primary objective was to get as close as possible to my main reference, the concept art. Relying on a Sketchfab model gave me an even more precise idea of the space to consider. 

The blockout thus consisted of an arrangement of the largest objects in the form of cubes and their approximate measurements. It was also a question of defining the limits of the space used by arranging the floor, the roof, and the wall of the bottom. 

It is also at this moment that the first brief lights appear. They structure the whole picture and bring consistency.

When it comes to modeling various objects, it all depends on their nature. To get into the details, garbage bags are a combination of props such as cereal boxes and cans, that form a pile of waste that will be used to give a harder shape to the bags and bring out what they contain. There are also several planes to define the container, all assembled in Marmoset Toolbag.

Other objects are more traditional, such as the floor cabinets, suitcase, cartons, or workbench. I use 3ds Max to model a base while keeping proportions in mind. From there, I established whether or not these props needed to be carved in ZBrush based on their proximity in the image, placement, and the need to feel wear on them. It was crucial to break the edges so that the geometric aspect of 3D does not constantly emerge.

The fabrics on the left of the image are created in 3ds Max thanks to the Cloth modifier, which allows you to simulate the fall of a particular fabric on an object. You must think about subdividing the plane to obtain an interesting result. Nothing prevents you from adding thickness, more polygons, or sculpt.

As the scene is mostly composed of vegetation, I decided to create several modules that would adapt to most situations in SpeedTree. 

There are several climbing ivy modules, sometimes strongly joined, sometimes lighter in order to vary, sometimes with a direction imposed to match the concept, but also plants on the ground to bring a little more volume and shade. There was an exception in my approach to the stone pillar on the left side of the image. Here is a module that is specific to this mesh and grows around. You will find interesting explanations about this in this tutorial:

In order to achieve the final result, we can either start by creating the base in SpeedTree or begin with the texture. 

Here, I started by creating the foundations of my ivy and then made a leaf texture in Substance 3D Designer. Subsequently, I exported the maps I needed: base color, opacity, normal, roughness, and subsurface scattering with an alpha mask. It is only after the textures were imported into SpeedTree and the material was created that the mesh of the leaves could be defined using the SpeedTree Cutout/Meshes tool.  

Retopology

I usually use 3ds Max and the Freeform option, then Conform when I really want to have a low-poly mesh, in other cases I prefer the ZRemesher or Decimation Master in ZBrush to keep the majority of the shape. Here, some objects are mid-poly on purpose to then benefit from vertex painting, in particular, to add moss in a more personalized way.

This scene includes objects with specific UVs unfolded in 3ds Max with the Unwrap UVW modification but also tileable textures that are found in wooden foundations such as beams, boards, and tiles.  

Texturing

Once the UV maps are finished, I usually use Marmoset Toolbag to bake the different maps. The group system is very powerful and allows you to avoid having some artifacts before I switch to Substance 3D Painter to create textures.

For this project, I grouped the props of the workbench on several UV boards according to their size and importance, other boards grouped the remaining objects like cardboard, cabinets, and fabrics.

For tileables textures, I went to Substance 3D Designer.

The material I used for this scene is a Swiss army knife since it allows me to use the VTC, specific textures, and tileables, but also to go through the triplanar or to add a specific normal map. It also provides control over the main maps used if some adjustments are needed. 

It is easier to achieve a clean texture than one that will give off the feeling that the object is damaged and worn. I first equipped myself with various references specific to each material to better understand how wood and metal end up getting worn and dirty but also how paper is torn, damaged by time.  

The texture of the workbench is a good example of the dual use of wood and damaged paper. It is also on the latter that I was able to take advantage and add some references to The Last of Us with, for example, the portrait of Joel drawn by Ellie, posters found in the games, and even an almost unusable map.

Once the main props were placed and the textures applied, I gradually refined the lighting, then it was a question of adding details specific to the concept and the view of the camera, such as the vegetation in the foreground, the books under the workbench, and other props. I redid several textures to make them more impactful, like those of the cabinets on the floor, the texture of the guitar, or the tools on the workbench that were not dirty and damaged enough.

I also added a lot of vegetation throughout the scene, especially at the roof level so that it overflows and frames the view. 

Many decals came with these changes to bring diversity in shades and patterns. This is the case with moss decals and dirt. It was around this time that I became more and more detached from the concept to bring my personal touch (the cap, chains, nails on the boards, etc.), correct props that stand out better or seem more consistent on the concept than in 3D, make the shapes more varied on the horizon, that is to say, at the level of cereal boxes on the cabinets at the bottom, books on the left shelf, for example.  

In my quest for detail and proper design, there is a balance between too much and not enough. So I came to lighten some places like the floor to the right of my scene, which at that time, was too full and quite unreadable, while my cabinets in the foreground were too simple and erased. There is a middle ground and the stage should not be too busy for it to be pleasant to watch. 

Afterward, I added the last layer of details on the floor and on the workbench, with blood decals, and moisture zones to add storytelling and consistency with the fact that there is so much vegetation.

Lighting & Rendering

Regarding lighting, I used several spot lights to create different god rays, several rect lights come to add pockets of light in too-dark places where objects were not seen enough. 

There are a lot of pointlights present in the scene to add light on some small objects, some finer areas but also at the windows to accentuate the light outside the directional light.

In this scene, the Exponential Height Fog also has some importance since it allowed me to create softer transition zones mixing surrounding dust, natural haze, and outdoor light. 

As a result, my rendering was tinted with contrasts between shadow and light. Where the concept is much brighter in the background, I preferred to attenuate the lights that were previously too strong and did not allow you to appreciate the details of the textures and objects. Moreover, these strong lights were a defect since they attracted the eye to the wrong places. 

As for post-production, I added a little sharpening and vignetting while accentuating the contrast. For the final rendering, I released my images in 4K in PNG and compiled the video in Premiere Pro. 

Conclusion

I was able to start the project in Artside before continuing it on my side more interspersed, so it took me four or five months to really achieve this result. 

For me, one of the biggest challenges is not to let it go. The longer and more complex a project is, the more we can scatter or end up investing less. 

The fact that there were a lot of objects to make was also a challenge, it needed a lot of textures, modeling, and other things to consider. Transcribing the atmosphere of an existing work is a challenge for all those who try the experience.

By experimenting and making mistakes during this project, I revised my way of designing a level, I also learned a lot about the use of decals to bring many details to the visual, I consolidated my knowledge on the creation of textures, which allowed me to make them more complex. 

Here is my advice for other artists: 

• If you want to make something big, don’t forget to take breaks to catch your breath. Staying too focused on something can end up being harmful and no longer make you want to continue. 
• Be kind to yourself, mistakes make us better, even if they are not easy to accept at the moment. In the end, they can bring us much more than we had at the beginning. 
• Planning your goals for the future or what you are doing can be a good source of motivation. Similarly, when you see a concept or have an idea in mind, do not hesitate to ask yourself what it can bring you in terms of knowledge, what you will be able to improve and learn.

I would like to thank 80 Level for allowing me to write this article. I am really happy to be able to present my project in more detail. I hope you enjoyed it and the article allowed you to learn a few things.

Tiffanie Gauwe, 3D Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine