Naughty Dog is hiring: Senior Environment Concept Artist in Santa Monica

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 and Part II are 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 would love to find talented individuals to join us.

Naughty Dog is looking for a Senior Environment Concept Artist to join our team in creating the next generation of award-winning storytelling! You’ll be creating compelling environments to fit seamlessly within the narrative-driven worlds we build.

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, 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 reflect the necessary gameplay 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, 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, Lighting, FX, and Foreground departments to address production needs, technical logistics, and build artistic solutions.
• Provide 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, cinematic keyframes, and prop concepts using modern industry-standard tools and techniques.
• Actively improve your skills and maintain awareness of industry techniques, tools, evaluate competitive products, and learn 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.

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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.

$143,700 — $179,600 USD