As a budding tech artist myself, having considered myself a full time artist and animator up until a couple years ago when I picked up programming and writing my own tools, This has made a profound impact on me just to see and hear people doing what I do everyday. It’s just as good, if not better than being there to talk to them in person.

Really big thanks to the person who put this together. It really solidifies the meaning of an integral part of the industry that is a bit esoteric to most people. Just ask anyone what a tech artist or technical director is and listen to the varying responses you get, even from seasoned veterans.

What I’ve come to understand is that people that have been in the industry since beta Maya and Max and SGI is that they were riggers and other artists by trade and just as the scope of technology broadened had to naturally be good technical problem solvers. Now, the breadth of gaming technology and workflows is getting so vast and evolving so rapidly that Tech Artists are very valuable especially to smaller companies that can’t afford to hire specialized teams.

Hence, I naturally flowed into becoming a Tech Artist myself the past few years after working at a smaller company for so long and getting tired of working with the software and it’s limited capabilities but vast potential to optimize workflow and make art on computer fun!

If you are a similar artist starting to make your own tools in mel and python for “DCC” then put your eyes and ears on what these people have to say.  It may be one of the only times you get to hear all of these people that work behind the scenes in the public forum all at once!  But thanks to the wide variety of forums on the internet you can communicate and learn with them and join the ever growing Tech Artist collective.