2018 was a rough year for me personally, with my baby daughter being so sick from cancer treatments and the rest of my lift hanging by a thread, but for my work and career, it was actually going pretty well. Unexpectedly, there seem to be a guiding hand keeping me busy on all sorts of cool projects, which really helped my mental and emotional state, as I needed to feel useful even though I couldn’t really do much to practically help my daughter’s medical situation other than to provide materially.

Anyway one such cool project was doing storyboards for the THE LAST OF US 2 trailer/teaser. I got to check out the offices at MPC which was pretty cool, minus the the fact that due to the secrecy of the project, I was shuttered in secluded room with just a couple other guys directing. There were like 30 workstations in this room, but at the moment it was nearly entirely vacant, since the project was still just in pitch phase. In a few weeks it would be full, but for my time there, it was kinda lonely. But they kept me too busy to fret, and anyways, I was fighting a bad cold, so it was for the best I was kept to myself. Catered lunch is always nice too.

LOU is one of those IPs you feel fortunate to work on because of it’s lasting cultural impact- obviously, they eventually made a smash hit TV show off the franchise, and its all been critically acclaimed. So I’m proud of my teeny tiny contribution to boarding a section of the hype trailer… despite having never played the game at all myself.

The story is pretty straightforward- main character Ellie is running away from bad guys and there are some close calls- but she breaks away into a dilapidated street scene where she is able to turn the tables on her pursuers. Here’s the boards!

One thing I remember about this project was my initial rendering of Ellie was determined to be “too hot,” which was fair, because I usually try to draw women as being conventionally attractive in appearance, and that wasn’t appropriate for the character. Of course, I had no problem essentially erasing the eyelashes and shaving down her hips, and that did the trick.

The story and project went under a few changes after my short time there, but my boards were well received by client and helped advance the ball under a tight timeframe.

Thanks!
Max