Happy 2015 everyone!
Even though I have been a tech artist for a little while now, I still find myself struggling in figuring out what tech art really is in the game industry. This is such a broad discipline that seems to have very different meanings in different companies, and other disciplines never seems to know what we really do.
I am really interested in you all’s take on this question – What is Tech Art to you? What is it today and what should it be?
Thanks in advance for any insight.
Happy 2015!
That is a very good question. A couple of years ago on the forums we formed a Technical Artist’s Creed. Many things that we all felt we did were included in that creed.
What is Tech Art to you? What is it today and what should it be?
I think that the creed says it best, it captures how I feel how TechArt is now and how it should be in the future. We make it what it is today, and we can only strive to make it what the creed sets out to proclaim.
what tech art really is in the game industry
I personally do a lot of problem solving atm, increasing stability of the tools, coming up with ways to improve the pipeline and reduce human error. I still get to design and create new systems but not as much as I can atm. There are so many different areas to TechArt that border on other areas; it can be a little hard to define what work rolls we all do. I would say that the creed is what makes us TA’s, what we want for Artists primarily and then the rest of the team, how we view the process and what is important.
If people are unsure of what we do, the creed is a good place to start. Other good words to throw around are: Force multipliers, Workflow Optimizes, Stress reducers… etc…
The creed is good mantra and it can always be changed and improved, so if you feel that there is something missing or it needs to grow, feel free to continue the thread.
~B)
One thing that I want to add to Butters’ post. Tech artist’s come from so many different disciplines in our industry. So what they are is also defined by what expertise they bring to the team. Riggers, environment artists, softwareally engineers, vfx artists. All of the TAs that I know who have come from these disciplines brought in something new, knowing that they wanted to address the issues facing their teams.
In short, the creed is what to be and strive for. What you are is defined by what drove you there in the first place from where you were before.
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