The Last of Us - Art Direction task

   In one of my previous posts, I mentioned the task set in the session held by Chris and Mitch on the Game Art Conference day last Wednesday. I didn't attend that session, however I thought it sounded really interesting and I wanted to give it a go. The task was to to write a small piece of prose, acting as a sort of art director, to give Mitch the necessary information to concept a scene, as if we were creating a film adaptation. It had to fit The Last of Us universe, and efficiently describe the sky, ground texture, characters, smell, light, ambience, taste, feel/emotion, temperature. This is what I came up with.

The vast emptiness above is a foreboding slate grey; a bright day contaminated by the approach of cool dusk. The sky is cloudless and vacant, akin to the wreck of this world. It’s lonely. Underfoot, a crunch. Glass scattered across the floor glitters prettily, crushing into the tarmac with each step. Blood mingles with the shards and dulls the shine. Their erratic breath pollutes the atmosphere like smoke. The heaves and falls of their chests reveal their residing fear and adrenaline as they proceed past the figure strewn over the ground before them. The cold rusty smell of blood and decay pierces and stings their nostrils, taste of iron coating their mouths. They stumble past the huddle. It’s a small girl, or what once was, her face twisted now with madness and disfigurement. Her remains lie scattered in the shadows of the swings, a cruel reminder of what her life probably once was, before the playground echoed silence and the seesaw lay still.

   It turned into a sort of creative writing piece, which I still think is because of fond memories of school. Argh! I miss creative writing so much sometimes! After writing this, I used this information to try and draw out the scene I had written. I've never actually played The Last of Us, but I looked at references here and there and I know the basic themes of the game. 

   This is the digital painting I produced based on my art direction piece. I'm not sure it's entirely in keeping with the description, but I tried to keep as much of it the same as I could. I do actually quite like the piece I came up with, mostly because I think it's helped me understand how to create depth more in my work. Overall I really enjoyed this task, I'd love to do more stuff like this!