Tech art vs TD/tools

Zoid

My company has an open req for a tech artist but I don't think the title is right and they are going to miss out on attracting the right candidates.

What they want is (IMO) a tools and pipeline engineer since the job responsibility is the intersection of Unity & Maya (a C# & Mel/python guru) I'm asking what do you all think the title would say, a co-worker said : "pipeline unicorn"

I thought this would be called a TD (technical director); what do you think?
tech art engineer?

Zack Maxwell

...Isn't that exactly what a technical artist does? Tool and pipeline development is like the very definition of the title.

Fansub

Yeah a technical artist does exactly that, and so does the technical director, too. Technical Director is a term used mostly in the film industry, while Technical Artist is used more often in games, iirc.

Actually, i don't recall seeing a technical artist working on a movie at all, it's always a TD instead.

Zoid

the roll they full fill with that title varies, I see people with wide ability across the arts with some code ability called tech art, not an IMO full on engineer who works on tools  

I'm seeing "technical developer" as a term

EarthQuake

What a TA does varies quite considerably depending on the studio. It could simply be an artist who is somewhat technically included and defines basic workflow standards. It could be an engineer with art experience who does full on plugin development and the like, and basically anything in between.

As long as the job ad clearly describes the expectations there shouldn't be any problems.

poopipe

TA covers a very wide remit - we've got people with the title working directly on render code all the way through various pipeline tools to straightforward rigging and small scale scripting.  If there's a clear divide anywhere it's that they're payed less than the programmers they work alongside

Like earthquake says,  describe the responsibilities clearly and you'll end up with the right person.