Becoming a Tools Developer

djbedford

Hi all,


I'm not sure if this is in the right section, if not please feel free to point me to a more suitable location.


I've recently made a decision that I want to become a tools developer. I get the general idea of what a tool developer does and I conducted some research but there seems to be little out there on the subject. A couple of job postings I did find suggested I should know C++ and a scripting language plus familiarity with various 3D/pipeline packages.


I was wondering if any of you wonderful people had any pearls of wisdom, what would you suggest I need to learn? My background is in multimedia and web development, would I need to go back to uni? Or take an online course? Are there any resources that might prove useful? Or anyone have any stories of their own personal experience in the field that they wouldn't mind sharing?


Thanks in advance!

PolyHertz

C++ , Python, and math skills. From there you should be able to create your own apps, or get to learning the API for larger programs (3DSMax/Maya/etc.) to create tools specifically for them.

And yes, you'll need to know the creation process/pipelines for 3D art if you want to create tools to help 3D artists.
Also: http://tech-artists.org/

passerby

Skills wise you will want Python and C++, if you know those you can easily learn other things like maxscript or C# if needed for certain studios.

Also you dont need to be a good artists, but you must understand the whole workflow the artists follows, so you can build tools and improve the pipeline. Also depending on the studio you might also be in charge of building rigs and shaders, while in a tech art role.