The Last of Us Part II - NPC Animation / Supervision Reel

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I was Head of Technical / NPC Animation on The Last of Us Part II. My team handled systemic animation for all NPCs in the game including human enemies, infected enemies, human buddies and dogs and horses.

I was also responsible for spearheading the Motion Matching technology together with John Bellomy. Motion Matching was used mainly for character locomotion but also traversal, melee and player/npc cover system.

I directed or co-directed mocap for all systemic animation for all human and infected NPCs, dogs and horses.

Breakdown:

0:00 - My team was handling player horse as well. I co-directed the horse mocap together with Almudena Soria and Jeremy Yates. Laura Swartz did an amazing job on the horse animations. I did a few more technically challenging animations like the horse running in circles. I worked with programmers (Eli Omernick, Harold Townsend) on the horse's controls and a new custom motion model. I also setup the horse's full body IK parameters and worked on ragdoll setup for the characters on horses.

0:19 - Example of the new traversal system using Motion Matching developed for TLOU2 together with John Bellomy. I did all animation in this shot.

0:21 - Another example of the new traversal system. This time we were able to sequence multiple jumps correctly thanks to Motion Matching. I and Morgan Earl did animation for these jumps.

0:24 - Infected vaulting over a fence is again using the new traversal system. I did all npc animation in this shot.

0:27 - Owen NPC traversing vertical terrain while leading the player. The new Motion Matching technology allows for pretty reliable foot matching when blending into traversal animations. I did all npc animation in this shot.

0:32 - Manny NPC leading the player while having conversation. We've upgraded our "Move Performances" technology with the world information awareness so npcs can execute a performance relative to the player, designer placed marks or other auto generated features.

0:40 - Lev NPC doing a contextual Move Performance when leading a player. I did all npc animation in this shot.

0:44 - Manny NPC performing a "Corner Check" in his uneasy demeanor. Morgan Earl did the uneasy move set and corner check animations and I took care of the Motion Matching tuning.

0:48 - Manny NPC crouch running between covers with a vault in the middle. All animations are fully systemic. Animation by Morgan Earl and I.

0:54 - Enemy NPC on patrol performing a contextual Move Performance. I did all animation in this shot.

0:58 - Enemy NPC performing a Move Performance while having a dog on a leash. Eli Omernick programmed the dogs following their masters on patrol. Taylor Cook did the dog animations.

1:02 - Enemies searching for player. Animations done by Morgan Earl.

1:05 - Enemy performing a contextual Move Performance when searching for player. I did the search Move Performance animations.

1:10 - Enemy performing a Corner Check animation in search demeanor. We did custom Corner Checks for all weapons for the highest fidelity. Morgan Earl did all of them.

1:16 - Clicker ambient walk move set. Jason Lei and Laura Swartz did the animations.

1:19 - Three shots with an example of Stalker locomotion and their cover animations. Animations done by Morgan Earl.

1:27 - Infected can crawl on the ground when their leg(s) get shot off. Morgan Earl did animations for this move set.

1:32 - Shambler aggressive run. Morgan Earl did the locomotion animations for this new infected class.

1:36 - Rat King. I co-directed the move set mocap and Laura Swartz did the animations. I wrote a custom tool for Maya that allowed animators to attach and pre-process the Stalker animation for easier editing. I also did a custom physics rig for secondary animation of the extra bodies and limbs on Rat King's back.

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