So The Last of Us was always going to be One of those rare video games that Screamed make me into a show and it Actually be a good idea for once and While the characters are the uh meat of The show man The Last of Us zombies are Fantastic for nearly a decade we had Nothing but rage zombies where the plot Would just go I don't know rabies I Guess so echolocating fungus zombies was A breath of spore-filled air for me at Least if you don't know me I'm Abby Sparza and I've been doing a digital art For over 10 years now and all the Resources featured today can be found Over on envato elements I get unlimited Downloads of photos and fonts all with a Super simple commercial licensing a plus A no locking contract means you can Cancel that anytime go ahead and Subscribe now with the link down in the Description so my soon-to-be clicker is Already a prepped I just removed the Skylights and added some general Darkness and contrast we always want to Use either adjustment layers or smart Filters so if we need to come back to Make any small changes we can so you'll See me use those throughout this Tutorial but I really want to jump right Into the best part of the fungus face We'll be using this kind of tree fungus It does an excellent job of really Replicating The Last of Us zombies look
Now when placing our fungus we want to Look for interesting shapes so here I Liked how this area fit around her eye And folded onto her forehead now we can Always move this around later but we Definitely need some color correcting First so let's bring the saturation down To around negative 70. I'll be using Smart objects like I said but feel free To use clipped adjustment layers instead If you don't like using smart objects Next let's darken the mushroom and Remove some of its contrast using a Curves adjustment Of replicating something like you see Here Now with this a mushroom matching her Skin tone a bit better a we can add a New layer mask so merge a layer mask if You need to and further refine the shape We're going to use a hard round brush to Remove any bigger chunks or sections of This mushroom and a softer brush to Slowly blend some of the inner edges Onto the skin Now you don't have to use a brush if you Prefer let's say the pen tool or any of The selection tools then go for those we Just want to carve away some of the Mushroom so it flows better with her Face Also feel free to add little rips and Tears into the sides of the mushroom Which gives it much more character
And we're actually going to repeat that Step at least two more times further Building up her face I'll be using the Same mushroom duplicating it deleting Its layer mask and then adding a new Fresh one so I can mask it into a new Unique shape oh when using the same Stack element we want to make sure we Flip resize and mask it in a way that Doesn't make it look overly repetitive To its other copies we don't want it to Be noticeable that it is a copy just try To take your time when masking out the New shapes And if you can find different versions Of the same mushroom or mix and match Different mushrooms that will also work Even better than trying to copy paste The same mushroom But I think this is looking perfectly Fine for now we're going to duplicate Our mushroom One Last Time deleting any Layer mask it might have And bringing it below the previous Mushroom layers And then we're going to go ahead and set That layer to Overlay and place the Mushroom over the face of the zombie and This is going to bring in those same Colors and a little bit of texture that That mushroom has onto the face a Helping with blending And we could stop here but the last of Us zombies have these really distinct
Mouths I feel so we're going to borrow The mouth and teeth from this zombie And paste it over our Zombie's mouth Making it slightly bigger than the Existing mouth next we're going to use The warp transform to warp the mouth and Kind of fit it to the face a little bit Better oh really don't be shy about Warping and wrapping and pulling the Mouth into a more zombie like grin here We have a lot of room for stylistic Choices In fact for my zombie specifically I Want her mouth to start and go into the Folds of the fungus so I'm making sure It really wraps and pulls into the Creases on the right side of her face And then we can finish off the mouth but Just by blending away the edges with a Layer mask and a soft round brush Luckily there's not too much exact Extraction we need to do because of all The mushroomy textures And we can help that skin tone match a Bit better by creating and clipping a Color lookup adjustment layer and then We're going to set it to tension grain Set that layer to multiply and bring Down the opacity to around 65 and this Will just make the mouth look darker and A bit more green tone it doesn't match It perfectly yet but again once we add In all our color grades it will blend Together very nicely
Again if you use Smart objects you can Actually come back and adjust this later Because warp transform is saved on Smart Objects And a quick Shadow just to blend the Mouth into the folds of the mushroom Right here just on a normal layer placed Above the mouth and we'll use a very Dark red color And this is just a quick Shadow that'll Look a much better once we add our color Grade And now we have a base zombie to add all Kinds of details to more than anything Though I think she's lacking color so Here is my go-to trick for adding color And detail any character or image really First let's create a new layer placed Above all the current layers and let's Set that to multiply Now we'll take a grungy or any textured Brush and paint Browns and reds all over The zombie shirt now multiply will make Any color you paint on it look darker so If you want a darker red try and choose Maybe a more vibrant a medium red Instead But of course you can use all different Kinds of tones and test different colors Out This is looking nice and dirty so now Let's double click the layer to open the Layer Styles panel and we're going to go Down to blend if we're going to use
These underlying layer toggles to blend The dirt and blood away from the lighter Values of the image in this case the Shirt so we're taking the white toggles Here Holding alt to split the toggles and Then pulling them to the left the more We pull to the left the more that dirt Will blend away from the lighter values On the shirt and the further the toggles Are from one another the smoother the Blend will appear Her shirt is pretty light so we're Bringing them over quite a bit but Really just play with the toggles and Tell you like how it looks I feel like Blendif is a very visual tool don't get Hung up on the exact locations or any Numbers you see And we're going to use this same exact Method on a new layer to create blood Coming from her mouth onto the chin and Shirt the only thing we'll be changing Is our blend if setting so feel free to Try and replicate mine like I said but It's really best to play with the Toggles until you land on something you Like Also you can always come back and change Up these toggles they are Non-destructive This is looking good but blood and dirt Isn't the only thing this works with we Can use the same exact method once again
To add colors to the zombie itself so The last of the zombies have varying Shades of blue yellow and almost a pale Green to their skin tone so using the Same techniques we just learned we can Paint those same colors onto our Zombie's face a fungus and all any place Where there would be skin or skin like Texture You also want to play with the opacity Of this layer you'll likely want to Bring it down to maybe 75 maybe even Lower And of course you'll want to play with Those blend if settings And we can always come back to this Layer a little later even after we've Added our shadows and color grade since That'll affect these colors um pretty Heavily So I do think this is looking fine for Now let's finish off our details by Adding just a little bit of slime spit And goop a kind of a bit of wetness You can find brushes that replicate Things like drool I think brush packs That cater to making monsters animals Werewolves or dragons things like that But you can also paint your own by Making just very thin lines of an off Blue color on a regular normal layer The trick is just to make it very very Thin and make some areas missing like The Slime has stretched so thin that it
Broke or the light isn't hitting it now This is easier with a tablet which I am Using but if you only use a mouse you Can use the Eraser brush to taper out Your lines or drag them out using the Smudge tool oh you just don't want solid Lines And really you can skip this step Entirely some of the last of the zombies Are slimy and some aren't I'm just Partial to a bit of wetness to my images Let's move on from color and details and Talk about eyes real quick The Last of Us zombies have a typical glossy milky Zombie eyes which I have a super fast Trick for we just need a new layer set The screen Then a semi-soft round brush at around 70 hardness And next a pale yellow color or whatever Color you want the eye to be And finally we want to set our brush Size to the size of our subject's Iris And we're going to place a single dot of That pale yellow color right over the Iris Now let's bring that opacity of the Layer down to 30 or so and finally let's Take a soft eraser brush and blend away The top portion of the eye just to bring Back some depth to the eye Depending on how much of the new eye Color you blend away and the layers Opacity you can actually get a few
Different effects here ranging from dead Eyes like I'm kind of going for two more Glowing and bright eyes so it really Comes down to personal preferences And things are looking good but the Lighting is definitely super flat so Let's create a curves layer and bring up Those highlights And then we're going to invert its layer Mask using Ctrl I and this will turn the Layer mask black Because then we can use this layer mask And a soft round brush to mask in some Light on the subject's face and upper Body just to brighten things up a bit And once we are happy with that lighting We can add some Shadows also using a Curves layer And this time we're going to lower the Highlights and actually bring up some of The Shadows we want her to have a lot of Contrast and detail but be surrounded by A more foggy or Dusty like Darkness And once we have these curves dialed in This is looking pretty good we can mask It away from her face and her body And I'm just using a soft round brush You don't have to be overly accurate Here This is basically a fancier vignetting Effect And I think we're going to finish up With just a quick color grade using Adjustment layers I'm going to paste
Mine in really quick and click through Them you can get the exact settings in The written version linked down below Or you just have a few color lookup Layers And then I'm actually going to go ahead And brighten up her face just a little Bit using a new layer Set to soft light and let's add a bit of Pale blue color over her face to create Almost a flashlight effect Definitely bring the opacity of that Down There are literally millions of Different types of fungus all of them Waiting for their time to shine and take Out Humanity so feel free to play with Different designs and colors there's Tons of room for that at least a small Part of the success of the last of us Both the game and the show for me at Least is just how varied and creative The zombies are and can be but while You're thinking up your zombie ideas in The meantime check out some of the other Awesome videos that envirotest plus has To offer if you liked this video Consider giving us a like and even Subscribing if you still need to and Remember to click the little bell icon To be notified of all new videos Including tips tricks and of course Tutorials and now I'm going to go binge Watch The Last of Us and replay both
Games happy designing see you next time
