About a couple of days ago, the Naughty Dog Vice President and Creative Director for The Last of Us: Part 2, Neil Druckmann, revealed that The Last of Us 2 had finished shooting the game's final scene, bringing the PlayStation exclusive that much closer to finishing development. Now, it looks as if production is still moving steadily along, as Druckmann has declared that Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, the actors for Joel and Ellie, respectively, have completed motion capture work on the game.

Accompanying this announcement from Druckmannis a picture of the two The Last of Us: Part 2 actors celebrating, with Baker holding a champagne flute in his hand. While the Naughty Dog Vice President didn't reveal any details related to the content of what had been filmed, he did state that it was "the most ambitious cinematic shoot we’ve ever done," and that "tears were shed".

There's no doubt that myriad fans of Naughty Dog's survival-horror series will be speculating about what made this The Last of Us: Part 2 cinematic shoot so ambitious, and whether or not "tears were shed" as a result of Baker and Johnson wrapping up work on the project, or if crying was done within the context of a certain scene. For those unaware, Druckmann has previously teased that not even Joel and Ellie are safe from death.

Of course, even though Baker and Johnson are done with motion capture work for The Last of Us: Part 2, there's likely plenty of work left to do on the game before it's ready to be played by the public. After all, while Naughty Dog has released several cinematic trailers for the title, the company has only provided a single video depicting The Last of Us: Part 2 gameplay footage, which presumably only showed the most polished portion of playable assets at that point in time. So, it stands to reason the development team will be refining the gameplay as much as possible right up until release.

Speaking of The Last of Us: Part 2's release, there's still no clear sign as to when Naughty Dog intends on launching the forthcoming sequel for fans to enjoy. There have been rumors that The Last of Us: Part 2 will have a 2019 release date, but that has yet to be confirmed. Hopefully, though, with both Baker and Johnson having finished motion capture work for Joel and Ellie, it puts Naughty Dog on track for a launch this year.

The Last of Us: Part 2 is currently in development for PlayStation 4.

Source: Neil Druckmann - Twitter