Digital Domain and the success of The Last of Us, while the wait for the second season grows

Born from the famous video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog (38 million copies worldwide between the first and second chapter), the TV series The Last of Us has achieved incredible success with 24 EMMY nominations and 8 final awards, including Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie. The president and CEO of HBO and Max Content, Casey Bloys, has provided some previews on the debut of the second season of the adaptation of the video game The Last of Us. While he didn’t specify an exact release date, he indicated that the new season is expected.”in the first half of 2025″. In partial support of Bloys’ statement, HBO recently released the teaser trailer announcing the new season, filmed and translated by Sky Italia which we leave you to view here.

The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic drama series that takes up the atmosphere of the video game and was It was the focus on creating a believable and realistic environment for the cast that pushed production VFX Supervisors Alex Wang and Sean Nowlan to turn to Mitchell Drain and the Digital Domain team.

With over 30 years of experience in the special effects industry, Mitchell Drain specializes in real-world effects and Digital Domain is known in the industry for creating stunning environments, thanks to their specialization in creating photorealistic landscapes that are believable to viewers. When they were approached to start work on the show, the team only had six weeks to complete the necessary footage.

One of the key elements which allowed the Digital Domain team to move the project forward so quickly it was the in-depth knowledge of V-Ray, a photorealistic ray-traced rendering software created by Chaos. V-Ray is the team’s rendering solution of choice for creating nearly all of their recent creative projects. V-Ray’s versatility and ability to deliver stunning photorealistic results made it a natural choice for the project, and its integration into the Digital Domain pipeline ensured not only speed and efficiency, but also unparalleled visual quality. “Compared to many other software, V-Ray allowed us to reach the goal in much shorter times, obtaining 80% immediately and perfecting it little by little. In contrast, with many other rendering software, you need to work on the project before reaching that result, which requires much longer time that is rarely afforded when you have a deadline”, said Bob White, Head of CG at Digital Domain. With Maya as the main modeling and texturing tool and Houdini available for special effects, the synergy between the software components laid the foundation for the project’s success.

At the base of the creative vision was the concept of beauty in decadence, a fundamental thematic element of the world of The Last of Us, both in the television series and in the video game. The team meticulously crafted environments that portray nature’s relentless destruction of man-made structures. Mitchell Drain, VFX Supervisor at Digital Domain commented: “the environment had to look beautiful and at the same time convey the feeling that nature was taking over man. Not so much destroying it, but building on it. One of the main characteristics we wanted to achieve was the idea that it should be beautiful in its own way. Decadence exists, but in that decadence they wanted beauty”.

Regarding the transition from game to seriesDrain commented: “many of our artists were familiar with the game and wanted to respect its characteristics but the truth is that the series is different. It is an intense and dramatic photographic story, a portrait or an interpretation of what the video game brings with it”.

Krista McLean, Environments Department Supervisor of the Digital Domain, said: “I think one interesting thing is that, in a way, it’s almost taking a step back. The goal is to take something that you know is really immersive, in the game world, and turn it into something that has the realism that you need for the episodic series”. One thing the team had to do to respect the source material was the depiction of the Cordyceps mushroom, the iconic element of the franchise which was created through collaboration with providers to ensure flawless continuity between each mushroom variant in the series.

The team faced numerous challenges in realizing the project, choosing to combine traditional 2D compositing techniques with more advanced rendering methods to enhance the digital landscape. These are lessons that Drain is eager to carry into future projects: “The process allowed us to be flexible enough to adapt to the needs of the director and manager. It was beautiful and worked very well and I plan to remember it for future projects that may be equally complicated”.

Among the project’s many successes, certain shots stand out as a testament to Digital Domain’s artistic and technical ability. The breathtaking panoramic flight over the bridge, which symbolizes the transition from urban decay to wild nature, quickly became a standout shot of the series. This footage also appears in the main trailer, giving fans a preview of the series. Drain commented: “What I like about this scene is that it encapsulates everything we were asked to do in one shot”. This convergence of disciplines helped bring the footage to life for the public.