The Last of Us | Season 2 Logo teaser

Challenge & Process

Creating fake 3d volumetric controllable lighting, and have it look semi-realistic is definitely the key thing to this animation. It’ll make or break it.

First thing I wanted to try when creating this, was just to throw in a spot light behind the text, and then have it shine through. Hopefully with me adding some dust, smoke, atmosphere etc, it would then all come together. This method did not work. The way lighting works in After Effects is that the light needs something to catch it (both shadows and the light itself). So shining a light towards the camera doesn’t work. So a lot of trial and error, tweaking, and crying later, I ended up with something that resembles the teaser a lot!

For the nerds: I used a point light, creating the volumetric feel with CC Radial Fast Blur, and then two null-objects to control the direction and position of the light.

For everyone else, I’d recommend just using Blender for this. Literally just import the logo. Add a light behind it. Frame it. Press render (essentially).