Character Artist

Naughty Dog; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

Naughty Dog in Santa Monica, CA, seeks a skilled Character Artist for an on-site role. You will sculpt outfits, characters, and animals, texture clothing with grime to add backstory, and support skin shading to achieve realism.

You’ll collaborate with concept art, shading, and rigging to keep a high-quality production pipeline. Required: a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, 2+ years in character art for AAA games, and proficiency in ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, and Photoshop.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required.
• Minimum 2 years as a character artist or related role.
• Experience on AAA titles as a character artist.
• Knowledge of clothing folds and human anatomy.
• Understanding of game production pipeline.
• Ability to texture clothing with wear and grime.
• Ability to create natural skin shading with color variation.
• Proficient in ZBrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Photoshop.

Responsibilities

• Sculpt outfits, people and animals for realistic world setting.
• Texture clothing with grime and wear to tell a story.
• Texture skin with subsurface scattering, discoloration, imperfections.
• Perform retopology and UV layout for efficient pipelines.
• Create hair cards/fur and set up shaders.
• Collaborate with Concept art, shading and rigging to develop a high-quality pipeline.

Skills

AAA titles experience

2+ years experience

Clothing & anatomy knowledge

Game production pipeline

Texturing worn clothing

Skin shading realism

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

ZBrush

Maya

Substance Painter

Photoshop

Job description

This is an on-site position in Santa Monica, California.

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. 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.

What you will do:

• Perform sculpting/modeling different outfits, people and animals as needed for a realistic world setting
• Texture for clothing with an emphasis on wear including grime, giving each asset a backstory through damage and dirt
• Texture for skin including sub surface scattering, discoloration, imperfections, etc
• Conduct Retopology and efficient UV layout
• Create hair cards/fur and setting up shaders
• Work with other departments such as Concept art, shading, and rigging to develop a high-quality production pipeline

What skills you will use:

• Bachelor’s degree in any field, or foreign equivalent degree
• Two (2) years of experience as a character artist, or in a related occupation
• Experience/knowledge/ability must include the following:
  • Experience working on AAA titles as a character artist
  • Knowledge of clothing folds, and human anatomy
  • Understanding of game production pipeline
  • Ability to create clothing assets which feel "lived in" through texturing (demonstratingColor fades, tears, grime, etc.)
  • Ability to make skin feel natural by applying color variations that show veins, discoloration, imperfections, etc.
  • Relevant software proficiencies: Zbrush, Autodesk Maya, Substance Painter, Photoshop

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.

$85,000 - $135,000 USD

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights.

U.S. Standard Demographic Questions

We invite applicants to share their demographic background. If you choose to complete this survey, your responses may be used to identify areas of improvement in our hiring process.