TAO Mentoring program poll

[Theodox]

draft proposal is up here – discuss in the threed:

Mentorship program proposal

[noelcs]

Yes, I totally agree!

For me the hardest part (or at least the most confusing) is to know what to work on. I am just starting out, so the industry workflows/pipelines/thought-processes are still shrouded in mystery.
A mentor would be great for helping me know if my projects would be useful for professionals (or even make sense), what skills I need to know, what looks good on my portfolio but also things that I am interested in. With a role as broad as TA, these are not the most trivial things to find out.
The “guidance on my path” aspect would be the most valuable to me.

Make that 4 cents

[Ghalban]

A mentorship program sounds really neat!

As an undergraduate at a public university I’m sure people like me could learn a lot more relevant career knowledge and techical skills applicable to TA disciplines from a mentor than from much of university busywork.

I really want to make the most of my time in university and get past the grunt work to focus on the right skills and finding my niche.

I have no doubt a TA mentorship will help people like me do just that

[Theodox]

Since this thread came back to life:

Looking for mentorship program coordinators

We’re looking for some community members to step up and help drive the TAO mentorship program for the coming year. This is a great opportunity to help out the larger TA community – getting these programs off the ground should have a positive impact on the whole field. We’ll need two coordinators for the first phase of the project, which we expect to run for the remainder of 2021 as we learn from experience how to improve on our initial plans. If you haven’t had a chance to read the Mentorship…

[nrhancock]

I agree I go to a University that specializes in the Film/Game industry. I love tech art and I cannot get enough. It’s for sure what I am passionate about. However, there are only two instructors at my university that know their stuff and have a strong background in it. They really know their stuff and can answer almost any question or guide you to the answer you are looking for. The problem is they don’t have all the time in the world to get back to me when I have a random somewhat complex question every couple of days since they have multiple classes they teach on top of holding their own for us would-be Tech Artist.

My point, I could spend all week (or more) on scripting a toolset that an experienced Tech-artist would say can be done an easier way, or find out a month later that someone has already done it, and better, and with a far simpler implementation. And at the very least I would found out if it is the kind of thing that would even fit the scope of my job as a Tech Artist, especially since there are more specialized parts of Tech art like Pipeline, rigging, Technical animation, etc.