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Technical Artist career advice?

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This discussion was created from comments split from: Tech Artist - What are you working on: FOREVER Edition!.

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  • aallen
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    aallen null
    Hello everyone! I'm new here, and unfortunately I don't have anything to show as of right now. I do have aspirations to make tech art a career path for me, and was wondering what paths I could take based on my current expertise.

    I just recently graduated with a Computer Science degree, so I know a fair bit of coding. This coding knowledge mainly extends to areas of scripting, automation, and game programming. I'm also an avid 2D artist and draw/paint on the regular. I have aspirations to become a professional character designer/illustrator, but I feel my 2D skills aren't at a level I'd like them to be at right now. I'd like to become a technical artist for the time being because I want to find a way to bridge the gap between my coding and artistic skills, and I feel that tech art would be able to do that for me.

    Considering my skills and desires, what would be some good paths I could take? I was thinking of getting into rigging and muscle systems, because if I can code scripts for muscle systems, I would coincidentally be learning about anatomy, and the anatomy knowledge would greatly help my character design aspirations. What do you guys think? Any advice?
  • Meloncov
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    Meloncov greentooth
    So "tech art" is a bit of a catch all term used to describe roles that don't have much in common with each other beyond requiting more technical skill than other jobs. An incomplete list (and be aware that some people might do more than one of these things):

    1. Pipeline technical artists. They write tools inside of digital creation programs to make the artists lives easier. Stuff like scripts to quickly get a model into the game engine. Coming from a computer science background this is probably the easiest transition, but it is important to develop a deep knowledge of whatever 3D application you're using.

    2. Character technical artists. Sometimes "technical animators" or just "riggers". They're primarily responsible for getting character models ready for animation and working properly in the game engine.

    3. Shader technical artists. Responsible for the technical side of material creation. 

    4. Environment technical artists. Responsible for ensuring that environments are properly optimized to run smoothly. Likely also works on procedural asset placement or creation.


    So first, figure out which of those interest you. Then start learning a 3d program; there isn't as much work on the intersection between 2D art and programming. Once you publish a couple useful plugins, or some cool shaders or rigs, you'll get plenty of attention from studios.


    Also, if you're interested in a tech art job at a non-games but still 3d-art-related company in San Jose, send me a private message. We definitely need more people with combined art and programming experience, and might be able to train you in the 3D production side of things after you're hired.
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