Senior Character Artist

This is a hybrid position based at our studio in Santa Monica, CA.

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.

The Character Art team is looking for a highly technical and artistic Senior Character Artist to join our team in creating the next generation of award-winning story telling! We are looking for an artist who can help create characters, creatures AND develop pipelines that help streamline and push boundaries to create compelling characters that 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 pipeline is at the forefront of AAA development.

What you will do:

• Work with artists, technical artists, and engineers to design, implement and maintain new workflows that will help streamline and enhance our tools, shaders, and processes
• Use provided concept art and references to create highly detailed character and creature models
• Create high poly models, UVs, in game topology and textures to ensure high quality in game characters that work within our technical constraints, while also looking for areas to develop and push past our current boundaries
• Monitor the needs of rigging, animation, and design to ensure clear characters in game
• Maintain a clear and consistent workflow under an established schedule
• Work closely to FX and Lighting artists to create characters that meet artistic and technical requirements
• Provide direction to character artists for aesthetic and technical considerations
• Work closely with the Tool and Engine Team to develop new or improve upon old techniques to improve character model quality
• Work closely with Leads, Principals and Directors to keep quality and style consistent across all characters
• Help document new and existing pipelines to streamline processes for internal and external artists
• Act as a power user to evaluate and demo new software and tools from 3rd party developers for the character pipeline

What skills will you use:

• Highly skilled at working with and defining standards for PBR materials, topology, and in game character pipelines
• Experience developing shaders with technical artists and programmers
• Intermediate knowledge of python scripting, not required, but a plus
• Highly skilled at sculpting, modeling, texturing, shading characters and assets for games
• High level knowledge of hair curve and card creation for next gen games
• Keen eye to form, lighting, colors and composition
• Very strong portfolio showing high quality characters
• At least 5 years of experience as a character artist, working on at least one AAA title

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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The estimated USA base pay range for this zone (Los Angeles area) is listed below. This role may be eligible for additional compensation packages that includes annual bonus and other incentive plans.