Jonathan Cooper, the former Animation Director of Assassin’s Creed III and the Lead Animator of the first two Mass Effect games has joined the ranks of Naughty Dog.

As spotted by GameInformer, Cooper’s LinkedIn account shows that he has moved to Naughty Dog, and his position has been listed as an animator. After moving from BioWare to Ubisoft and working on Assassin’s Creed III, he was known to be working on a navigation system for next-generation consoles.

 

This is a good change following several departures from Naughty Dog, including Amy Hennig, Nate Wells, Michael Knowland and others.

 

My Opinion:

 

This seems to be a new segment I would like to call “What in the World is Happening at Naughty Dog.” While it is nice to see someone actually go to the studio for a change, the news just keeps coming. With everything that I have heard about the Uncharted, having Cooper come in as an animator is great. The Assassin’s Creed games, while not the great powerhouses of visuals, still look good and play well. Now, let us see what news comes from Naughty Dog next week.

---

Shawn Richards studies games to understand how they work. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.