Naughty Dog is hiring: Lead Character Concept Artist in Santa Monica

Content Summary: Lead Character Concept Artist at Santa Monica, for Naughty Dog

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 Part I is now available for the first time on PC. Currently, we’re busy at the kennel working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PC 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 a diverse pool of 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 a Lead Character Concept Artist to join our team in creating the next generation of award-winning storytelling! You’ll be responsible for leading and managing a team of character concept artists and collaborating in creating compelling characters who fit seamlessly within the narrative-driven worlds we build. By working alongside other departments and disciplines to inform, inspire, collaborate and develop artistic solutions to technical obstacles, you’ll help ensure our character concept pipeline is at the forefront of AAA development. This is a hybrid role.

What you will do:

• Communicate with Directors to bring directions to the character concept team
• Lead and support the character concept team with a balanced workload and proper tasks, ensuring character concept team’s wellbeing
• Support the internal concept team with paint-over feedback on tasks when needed to ensure the concepts are set for success
• Manage individual concept artists to keep their work on schedule
• Build and modify schedule based on team and studio needs
• Maintain a clear and consistent workflow under an established schedule
• Work closely with lead, Principals, and Directors to keep quality and style consistent across all characters
• Provide direction/feedback to concept artists for aesthetic and technical considerations and help set the quality bar for the characters
• Work with Principals to improve or solve workflow or pipeline issues and overall create strategies to achieve departmental goals
• Understand other department's workflows and dependencies related to the character concept team
• Monitor the needs of Character 3D, Animation, Tech/Rigging, VFX, and Design to create characters meeting artistic requirements and to ensure alignment of characters in game
• Share extensive knowledge of the latest game development tools, techniques, and workflows
• Contribute individually to make character concepts in the highest quality across the industry

What skills you will use:

• At least 8 years of experience as a concept artist, working on at least one AAA title
• Great capacity for managing a character concept team in terms of art and building achievable and realistic schedules according to the studio's needs
• Expert knowledge in Character design pipeline and ability to discern Director's needs then apply that information to guide the character concept team
• Ability to develop and maintain strong creative and collaborative partnerships across teams to help further develop the game's characters and visual language
• Actively improve skills and maintain an awareness of industry techniques, tools, evaluate competitive products, learning new software packages and traditional art methods
• Very strong portfolio showing high quality concepts
• Expertise in concepting great character designs, high vision concept art, character illustrations, and storytelling in scenes
• Keen eye and strong foundation art skills to include Human/Creature anatomy, gesture, clothing designs, lighting, human face illustrations/likeness
• Knowledge of working with various 2D/3D packages, used in concept work and in collaboration with other departments

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression, and gender reassignment), race (including color, nationality, ethnic, national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy or parental status, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category.

We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees, and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond.

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