LogInRafael Grassetti will help the studio create its "next big thing."
A month after being caught in Netflix's shutdown of its AAA gaming studio, Team Blue, and losing his job as a result, Rafael "Raf" Grassetti, the Principal Artist for God of War (2018) and Art Director for God of War Ragnarök, is starting a new chapter in his career, announcing that he will be joining Naughty Dog as an Art Director.
Revealed through an Instagram post and a tweet featuring a still image of the studio's logo – and, for some reason, disabled comments – Raf's new position marks his return to the larger PlayStation family, something the artist himself is "super excited" about. As Raf explained, he'll be art directing the studio's "next big thing," presumably referring to Naughty Dog's rumored new game, which is expected to be announced next year and released in 2026.
"I'm super excited to be joining the amazing crew and project over at Naughty Dog, and to be back to PlayStation," the artist wrote on Instagram. "A huge thanks to everybody who was involved in making this happen and all my friends from sister studios. I'm hyped and can't wait to share more about it! Cheers!"
Just last week, Raf also caught our attention – not as an Art Director, but as an accomplished 3D Character Artist – showcasing a series of highly-detailed Dragon-Ball-Z-meets-traditional-Japanese-Oni-mask models created using ZBrush, 3ds Max, and Photoshop:
We highly encourage you to visit the artist's ArtStation page to see more of Raf's fantastic 3D projects. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.