Naughty Dog has undergone a number of high-profile staff departures recently, but now we're able to report some cheerier news: Jonathan Cooper, animation director of Assassin's Creed 3 and lead animator for Mass Effect 1 and 2, has now joined the studio.

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GameInformer spotted Cooper's change of job through his LinkedIn account. Previously, he was working on an unannounced project at Ubisoft Montreal, "Prototyping a revolutionary new kind of navigation system for next-gen systems."It's unknown yet what exactly his new role at Naughty Dog will entail. Cooper's LinkedIn profile lists his new position simply as "animator."A number of staff changes have happened at Naughty Dog the past few months, beginning with the departure of Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig , who has since joined Visceral Games to work on an unannounced Star Wars project . She was followed soon after by Justin Richmond , who left to take up a position at Riot Games. Most recently, art director Nate Wells announced his departure to join Unfinished Swan studio Giant Sparrow.

Katie Williams is a freelance writer and games journalist. She tweets at @desensitisation and hopes that one day, a bird will tweet back.