Senior Concept Artist

Senior Concept Artist

Ability to work hybrid from our Santa Monica, CA based studio is required.

For nearly 40 years, Naughty Dog has been crafting best-selling, critically acclaimed games that constantly push the boundaries of narrative, gameplay, and technology. Naughty Dog recently released The Last of Us Part II Remastered as well as a current generation remake of The Last of Us Part I for the PS5. We're also proud to say that The Last of Us Parts I & II are now available for the first time on PC. Currently, we’re busy at the kennel working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and we'd love to find talented individuals to join us.

Naughty Dog games have long been lauded for their evocative, character-driven stories and attention to detail. We are committed to innovation within our games and as such have curated some of the top creative and technically innovative minds in the industry. We welcome diverse candidates and believe that a broad range of cultural and life experiences contribute to the overall well-being and success of the studio and the titles we craft together.

Naughty Dog is looking for an expert Concept Artist to join our team in creating the next generation of award-winning story telling! You’ll be creating compelling characters and environments to fit seamlessly within the narrative-driven worlds we build. By working alongside other departments and teams to advise, inspire, collaborate and develop artistic solutions to technical obstacles, you’ll have the opportunity to create world-class designs integral to our storytelling and gameplay experiences. Are you ready to join a team that is committed to pushing the boundaries of art and technology for AAA game development?

What you will do:

• Create concept art to drive the artistic goals and vision through all phases of the game development cycle from pre-production through final product release. This entails creating concepts for all art assets including environments, characters, props, storyboards, and more, ensuring both the design integrity and artistic vision of the game as a whole
• Collaborate with the Art Director and creative leadership to conceptualize and visually develop the game world and locations, while creating fictional consistency using a visual language to help tell the story of the location or asset and reflects the necessary game play or story moments
• Communicate effectively and accept direction and critical review of your work, demonstrating excellent communication skills
• Work closely with the Art Director, Marketing and PR teams, to provide key materials, including but not limited to, key concept, print and web art and social media assets
• Partner with leads, Art Directors and Game Directors to create environments, characters, props, production callouts, high vision concept art and other visual guides and tasks
• Create mood boards and quick iterative sketches to inspire exciting theme directions for the Game Directors
• Collaborate with Environment Artists, Animation and Rigging departments to address production needs, technical logistics and build artistic solutions
• Providing extensive paint-overs and call-out sheets to assist 3D artists
• Offer feedback on the concepts and 3D models to outsourcing teams
• Manage Miro board and network folder to keep tabs on the latest concepts and streamline the production
• Strengthen intra and inter-team communication to ensure the highest fidelity results
• Share your extensive knowledge of the latest game development tools, techniques, and workflows and ability to share this with the team

What skills you will use:

• Strong art foundations and design skills with the ability to render realistic believable environments, characters and prop concepts using modern industry standard tools and techniques
• Actively improve your skills and maintain awareness of industry techniques, tools, evaluate competitive products, learning new software packages and traditional art methods
• 7+ years of experience as a concept artist, working on at least one AAA title
• Great capacity to receive art direction and perform well within a team setting – collaboration is a fundamental building block of our team
• Demonstrated ability to create high-quality concepts that showcase compelling design, composition, and storytelling, as evidenced by your very strong portfolio
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong organizational and project management skills
• Keen eye and strong foundational art skills to include form, lighting, colors, and composition
• Knowledge of working with various 3D packages, used in concept work and in collaboration with other departments

Bonus Skills:

• Strong understanding of general 3D and game art production techniques. Some understanding of 3D modeling software to create initial mockups or manipulate existing 3D files a plus