Senior Environment Concept Artist

Naughty Dog•Santa Monica, CA

19h

About The Position

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 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 Senior Environment Concept Artist to join our team in creating the next generation of award-winning story telling! You’ll be creating compelling 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?

Requirements

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, 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

Nice To Haves

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

Responsibilities

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 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, 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