Technical Artist vs 3D Artist?

Skinner3D

Heyo all,
My mom just sent me an indeed post to a job that is hiring a technical artist. $100k a year for 3-5 years of experience. Whether or not its real isn't the point. The point is it says hiring technical artist, and at the very bottom it says 3D Artist applicants will not be considered.

Is there an actual difference?

pior

There you go.
https://polycount.com/discussion/68788/tech-artist-what-are-you-working-on-forever-edition#latest

another caveman

additionally:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS3uMpMOpa0&t=1650s

the map from that video sums it all very well :

https://i.imgur.com/P084oOD.png

Skinner3D

Thanks both of you. This is what I expected to hear. The post also says 'Model exteriors, interiors, and characters' which is why I came asking. It looks like they want primarily a tech artist, who then can also model or something like that.

Meloncov

Skinner3D said:

Thanks both of you. This is what I expected to hear. The post also says 'Model exteriors, interiors, and characters' which is why I came asking. It looks like they want primarily a tech artist, who then can also model or something like that.

A tech artist is generally expected to know how to moded and texture stuff. That's a key part of what makes them a tech artist instead of an engineer. Though they're unlikely to be as good at it as a non-tech artist.

Klunk

 Though they're unlikely to be as good at it as a non-tech artist.

oi we'll have less of that but yes understanding the pipeline and issues faced in asset production ie "doing the job" is part and parcel of being a technical artist.

oglu

For me a Tech Artist is more a coder than a modeler. 

https://youtu.be/kr7XYXMM7-U

Klunk

coder undersells it a bit.... in a smaller studios (and larger ones depending skill levels), they could well be dealing with lighting, rigging, special effects, art side of physics, art pipeline, technique development and solutions etc

sacboi

Kept these tech art writeups handy ever since I'd stumbled upon them a while ago, over at TechArtists.org discourse, imo well worth a read:

http://ericchadwick.com/img/techart_guidelines.html

https:/jobs.ea.com/search/view.do?id=a0z50000000dg4aAAA

(dead link, I'll search through some drives for that specific article)

...in fact the entire discussion, as well.
http://discourse.techart.online/t/technical-artist-job-description-at-your-company/75

Eric Chadwick

A couple more links that might also help

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Technical_Art
https://tinyhydra.com/technical-art-niche/

poopipe

Technical artists are there to make sure artists can do art without getting confused by programmers.  

At worst we solve problems , at best we make sure there isn't a problem in the first place. 

You can't define the role with a list of skills because you're looking for someone who can work out how to do things you don't know you need yet.