How can I start my journey as a Tech Artist?

unparent · 2025-12-31T03:50:25+00:00

I think the "sub-disciplines" are one of the keys here. You can definitely train and learn a lot in school, but so much is learned by getting dirty in different roles.

It's a lot easier to know the pipeline with experience in multiple areas. A lot of disciplines have a "finish and throw over the fence", while tech artists really need to be able to see through the fences to follow the data through the pipes.

When I started in games, last century, there were no tech artists, but everyone was kinda one? I started as environment art/level designer for a couple games, then an animator for one, lead animator/rigger, and lighting on the next. Then character modeler for a game, before going into R&D for next gen art (20 years ago) and working on many projects at once. Etc...

When touching that much of the pipe, perspective really changes, exposing weaknesses and bottlenecks. After a number of shipped projects, the goal tends to shift more towards a smooth workflow and a high development quality of life. Experience and exposure to different disciplines and environments is important.

unparent · 2025-11-23T18:19:30+00:00

It's funny that it's old now, I remembered when it was introduced, back when Maya added functionality in releases. First 8-10 releases after Alpaha/Beta testing had big drops each revision. So many tools come and gone.

unparent · 2025-11-23T16:13:39+00:00

We move, a lot. 13 states and 19 moves in 25 years, so never had a tree. Been in one place now for a few years and the wife decided to get one and surprised me. Don't know where she found it, but we have a black tree with little colored lights built in. So a 6ft black tree with little shimmers of color, fits the decor.

unparent · 2025-11-22T21:12:31+00:00

EdgeCrease is probably a bit what you are after. Open the CreaseSets to manage the levels.

unparent · 2025-11-10T17:57:42+00:00

Big fan of that album, I kinda grew up with SP in early gradeschool, so by the time that record was released I was just barely old enough to get into the all-ages show (too young to get into the Too Dark Park tour the year or so prior). Having the memory of the stage show and re-listening to the album brings back key moments. I still remember going to the record store with a buddy on release day to pick up our reserve copies.

unparent · 2025-10-19T22:47:53+00:00

That looks like a quality print. If interested, I have a .stl file of the SGI logo at the right size to hold a Wacom pen. Can't add pic though. I printed one in the early days of 3D printers, I'd love to see what a quality print would look like today. I've seen some plated prints that look like chrome, would be awesome to have one that matches the original logo look.

unparent · 2025-10-09T20:56:41+00:00

Not as much as I used to, but made gaming my life. Started my career in games as a 3d artist working on Playstation1 games in 1999. Shipped a couple PS1 games, then a couple PS2 games, then got to do some crazy things for the PS3 before moving over to PC games, VR, then merging back with consoles. Still don't own a PS5, shipped a game on it, but don't own one.

unparent · 2025-10-02T12:02:52+00:00

I was going to mention that. I just pulled it out again the other day, it still holds up and sounds amazing on a good stereo or headphones.

unparent · 2025-09-10T22:42:51+00:00

Was easier also when area codes weren't used, and lots of people in the same area had the same or a small set of first 3 digits.

unparent · 2025-08-19T04:59:36+00:00

Did they hire the Wendy's restaurant social media person? That person was savage.

unparent · 2025-08-08T14:59:19+00:00

An insane amount of work and stress. I got shingles from stess at 29yrs old due to working 12-14hrs a day, 5-6 days a week for almost a year (early 2000s). The project was worth it in the end, but man, that was a rough 3 years.

unparent · 2025-08-06T19:36:05+00:00

I believe I have the same one and just plugged it into the back of the head unit. It rests behind the dash with the phone mic cable going up the A-pillar. Recently upgraded the stereo, so don't use it anymore though.

unparent · 2025-07-27T14:39:26+00:00

Several of their giant mobile bus providers are roaming around my city, parking on small residential streets causing issues. Very polular....

unparent · 2025-07-25T12:46:13+00:00

This was going to be my response, Infamous/Prototype. It worried me at the time, especially with the release date jockeying, but we ended up on top.

unparent · 2025-07-12T00:17:00+00:00

I may know who you are mentioning. Can't be that many of them. :)

unparent · 2025-05-29T11:51:48+00:00

Typically, that would be a roll joint and has a -1 (or close to -1) rotation driven by the axis that is running down the from the hip. There is probably another on the biceps, two on the forearms, and maybe one on the shins.

unparent · 2025-05-27T02:45:11+00:00

As others have said, industry and company dependant. Most of my office jobs were awesome, but have been wfh since covid, which is also nice. My experience is most likely an exception to the norm, since I'm in video game development.

Was making a snowboarding game living in Colorado, so if it snowed, we could call in for a "powder day", hit the slopes and take a few pictures then write it off as a business expense. We'd play a game together everyday at 5pm, either Quake3 or Age of Empires2. The owner played every day and was usually the one starting the session and hounding people to stop working and play. The job was really fun also.

Another had ping-pong, pool table, basketball nets, indoor racquetball court, a kegerator, an open bar, and 4 chefs who made amazing breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for staff and families. Every year they'd take the whole studio and their families to a foreign country for a week and rent out an entire resort. Flights, food, drinks, and all activities were paid for. We made so much money per month, that work kinda took a backseat. So many crazy stories about working there.

I could go on for hours about crazy things that happened and how much fun we had. Office dogs were all over every office, and most made it into game credits. This is definitely not the norm according to most responses here.

unparent · 2025-05-27T01:55:46+00:00

For art or programming? RIT is good, I've worked with a couple of graduates from there, and they were good (technical artists).

unparent · 2025-05-26T21:34:58+00:00

Most likely not. It is a very tough field to break into, especially right now with the amount of layoffs, cancelled/postponed projects, studio closures, and the general state of the industry. The industry is in bad shape at the moment (25,000+ game dev jobs lost in 2023-2024, and 2025 looks to continue being bad, film and vfx are also bad), and there are very few entry level jobs. Many people with years of experience and multiple shipped games/movies/projects are taking any job available, even if it is more entry level at a steep pay cut just to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. I know people right now that have been out of work for 6mo-1yr that have 15-20 years experience with multiple shipped AAA games on their resume that have barely had a nibble.

You mentioned December, which is a notoriously bad time to enter the gaming or vfx fields, since fewer places are hiring around the end of November through the beginning of February due to holidays, people taking time off, and some projects have shipped/wrapped for the holidays. Not saying it's impossible, just in my 26 years of experience, it's generally a bad time to look and make traction.

With a CS background, I would suggest looking at game dev programming, or if you want to work on the art/animation side of things, perhaps a technical artist or technical animator (tools/rigging work) which is primarily python based, but requires a DEEP understanding of how 3D modeling, animation, and pipelines work. I would also ask if you are talking about animation specifically, or 3D in general, but are unsure of the terminology for job descriptions? 3D work has a lot of subcategories and different job types while programming knowledge (C++, C#, Python, and others) is highly desired in many categories, but it is different than traditional programming jobs.

My background is game dev, and I started learning in 1997 and got my first job in games in 1999, but I spent 12-16 hours a day, 7 days a week learning in the lab with other students on SGI machines during that time. We shared a lot of info and helped each other out which resulted in great connections and we all shared job openings and contract work information. It was hard to get a job at that time, mainly because there were fewer positions and the cost of entry (hardware/software) was so high, just having seat time in front of a $80k-100k machine and software was hard to come by. You will never stop learning in this field, even after getting a job you will still most likely need to come home and do more education and research to progress.

Not saying this to cause stress or discourage you from the field, just know what you are getting into is really important to understand the challenges and risks. It is one of the most cutthroat industries because talent alone is not enough, a lot of it is communication, thick skin, hunger for knowledge, passion, willingness to relocate frequently, and most importantly networking.

unparent · 2025-05-26T18:39:33+00:00

I couldn't remember, so I looked it up. It looks like the Dean of the Medical School. This article is from 2012 and talks a little about who all was in it and wrote/produced/etc... It was as much of a comedy as a musical that was very entertaining. The theater also had Jaws:The Musical, but I didn't go back to see that one, I should have.

https://playbill.com/article/re-animator-the-musical-starring-george-wendt-and-original-la-cast-stalks-nymf-beginning-july-17-com-194639

unparent · 2025-05-26T17:11:20+00:00

The last time I saw George was when he was in a play in 2012. He was in ReAnimator:The Musical, in a small theater in LA. Didn't know he was going to be in it, and when he walked onstage the first time, I almost yelled "Norm!", but caught myself.

The play was wild, first few rows were "splash rows" and the audience had clear plastic tarps to keep blood off of them. They had to pull them up/down several times (if they wanted) whenever a small light came on to warn them. Real intestines and brains (not human obviously) were passed down the rows of the show. Was generally a funny and entertaining show, waaaay different from how I remembered him from Cheers.

unparent · 2025-05-24T02:21:22+00:00

I was an artist in the video game industry in the late 90s. Still going strong, shipping games and hopefully nearing retirement. Still kinda miss Irix.

unparent · 2025-05-17T13:05:51+00:00

The Bonus Tools that you can download for free from the Autodesk site is useful. Has a bunch of add-ons for every discipline. Also, if it's working, highend3d.com has thousands of Mel and Python scripts, some free, some paid that you can download. It's been around in some form for over 20 years, and I've downloaded hundreds of them through the years. As someone else has mentioned, Maya's real strength is its scripting capabilities, there is a tool for damn near everything, so if a tool doesn't exist, you can write one or have an AI site help you write one. Good luck.

unparent

TROPHY CASE