An Evening with Naughty Dog: Artists discuss their craft

Ten of Naughty Dog’s talented artists were a part of a series of panels for students at Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood. The event was designed for students to grow their skillset and mingle with professionals. During the panels, Naughty Dog artists discussed the working in the industry and the efforts that go into video game environments, VFX, and character creation.

While the artists were unable to give spoilers about Uncharted 4, they did showcase some of their techniques for designing one of their most detailed games yet.

Texture artist Ana Cho discussed how she added textures to games. Cho mentioned that Uncharted 4 has significantly more texture layers than The Last of Us.These layers add depth to the environment and give the overall world a realistic feel.

She noted that in the PS3 version of The Last of Us, artists were limited on the amount of texture layers that they could blend. Though now with the PS4 processing power, they can blend many more layers – which adds to the realism.

Cho also stated that in the past, Naughty dog texture artists used Photoshop for textures. But now they use Substance Designer, which is much easier for workflow.

Yibing Jiang, a character shading artist, showed her demo reel – which included some of her work on Uncharted 4.

Jiang also discussed the method she used for effective character shading. It involves having a reference, creating a breakdown of materials, making texture layers, and shading models, as well as blending and lighting.

Artists also took questions from the audience and online. They answered inquiries about the industry, how to move forward in your career, artistic references, and how they aim to make games more immersive. The event was live-streamed, and you can watch it in full here.

As for how realistic Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will look at release, we’ll just have to wait and see in 2016.