If you’ve been keeping up with HBO’s The Last of Us (like half the world at this point), and you’re blown away by how realistic the worldbuilding really looks, you have the handy-dandy VFX crew to thank for bringing a post-apocalyptic America to life. We’ll give full credit where it’s due; the VFX was handled by DNEG (VFX Supervisor: Stephen James), Weta FX, Distillery VFX, Zero VFX, Important Looking Pirates, beloFX, Storm Studios, Wylie Co., RVX, Assembly, Crafty Apes, UPP, RISE, Framestore, Digital Domain, and MAS. And if you’re thinking to yourself, “that’s a lot of names,” then you’re absolutely right. That’s how many individual teams it requires to make or break every single episode. All that hard work seems to have paid off because The Last of Us is a massive hit worldwide, garnering the kind of attention that we’ve only ever seen before with the likes of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.
For those who aren’t fully clued-in on the lingo, VFX stands for visual effects, describing images that are rendered, manipulated and enhanced outside of a live-action shoot with handmade sets and props. VFX creates scenes that would otherwise be impossible without the help of digital technology, adjusts scenes or shots for creative and correctional purposes and expand the horizons of filmmaking beyond what we, as humans, can craft by hand. VFX is often confused with CGI, which does not require a specific software to operate, where VFX only works with specially developed software. The main goal of VFX is to take something that would otherwise look fake and make it look as real as possible.
In the case of The Last of Us, VFX is largely used to generate environments using green screens and blue screens. Artists will digitally render backgrounds, buildings and surroundings that are otherwise impossible to film in a non-post-apocalyptic America. Unless a real cordyceps outbreak occurs any time soon, the crew wouldn’t be able to film decaying buildings or overgrown foliage in 2023 Boston — so that’s where VFX comes in.
Our helpers over on Reddit sourced out before and after images of The Last of Us crew’s VFX efforts. In them, we see Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie navigating an environment almost entirely formed using VFX. Many of the set’s props or basic obstacles have been handcrafted, but the buildings in the distance or particularly tricky factors — such as overgrown leaves — have been digitally inserted.
It’s rather impressive, when you think about it. These actors are using their imagination most of the time to picture a worn-down Boston and place themselves in the mindsets of survivors venturing through it. There’s actually a harmonious balance of practical and visual effects, which one Reddit user pointed out immediately.
Another user mentioned the obvious: The Last of Us is a very expensive show.
And another fan commented on how the VFX in The Last of Us don’t look fake at all. In fact, there was never a moment that they thought to themselves: “that looks fake.” And that is a sin committed by far too many other over-ambitious television shows.
We’re truly living in a progressive era of filmmaking and it’s only getting better from here. As The Last of Us approaches its season finale, the VFX team will be pulling out all the stops to make it as epic as can be.