Scope
Motion
Logo reveal
Semi-realistic look
Challenge & Process
The biggest challenge of this render is definitely how to emulate that fungus growth (hopefully without having to draw it all by hand…). Next is having the logo appear through the growth, without it just looking like a fade-in, and lastly give it a semi-realistic look. I found a picture on Unsplash that looked a little bit like veins, and I figured I could isolate these and then apply a ton of effects to it to make it look like fungus growth. I played around with it a bit and when it came to the fungus-growing-animation, it didn’t look dynamic enough. It looked like someone using a mask and scaling it to reveal a thing – too controlled(???).
So I began drawing the fungus by hand, thinking that this would give me more control (for the nerds: I would then be able to use trim paths and control the growth like that). However, I quickly stopped drawing the fungus because it would take hours. I then went back to the picture from Unsplash, fine-tuned the look, and made the decision to figure out the growing-animation later.
I found the “Last of Us” logo, added some dirt and grime to it, and had it reveal itself in the growth of the fungus. Found a concrete texture on Unsplash and dirtied it up. A few more tweaks and couple of extra effects later, I ended up with something, I think looks pretty cool (and gross, but mostly cool).
End notes
This was a super fun project. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do since the first season of the TV-show released, I just never got around to it. I’m happy I finally did it.