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How to Train Your Technical Artist

Jeff HannaSenior Technical Artist

THQ/Volition, Inc.

Who am I?

Making games since 1995Worked as an artist, art director, and

now a technical artistMember of the GDC Advisory Board

Who have I worked with?

What will be covered in this talkA brief history of how Technical Art

became a valued disciplineAn overview of the skills all Technical

Artists should possess.Ways that Technical Artists can

increase the efficiency at your studio.

To understand the value Technical Artists provide we should first look at how the discipline has evolved.

How did it all start?

One person with a problem to solve…

If he worked at a smart studio they might have promoted him.

He made tools and solved problems, but did not craft pipelines.

Where is the discipline currently?

We’re growing in skills and in number.

We’ve proven our worth to the industry.

We’re included in future product planning.

Where is technical art headed?

We’re becoming specialized

Technical AnimatorsVehicle specialistsLighting specialistsShader authors

Technical Artists are displacing tools programmers.

What skills should you look for and foster in a Technical Artist?

Do they need to have good communication skills?

They must be able to build relationships.

Do they need to possess art skills?

It depends…

They need to be understood by artists.

They need to know the art creation packages the artists use.

Do they need to possess programming skills?

They don’t need to know low level languages like C++.

But knowing how to use scripting languages will help them tailor your pipeline.

Wait...TAs don’t need to know art or programming?

Don’t they need to know both?

Let’s review> Technical Art has grown from simple scripting

to complex pipelines.> The game development industry recognizes

us and what we do.> As we’ve grown we’ve specialized into

numerous roles.> Technical artists should understand what the

artists do and the tools they use.> Technical artists should be able to speak with

programmers on their terms.> While a TA doesn’t need to be good at both

aspects of the role, most are.

How can Technical Artists bring value to your organization?

They can retroactively improve existing workflows to save time and money.

They can fix problematic pipelines.

An example....20 racesArmor all hand modeled1 artist, 1 monthIdentified standardized

measurements per raceAutomated the

conversion1 month became

30 seconds

They can provide support services to the art department.

Artists can get back to working as quickly as possible.

Helps foster Artist -> Technical Artist relationships.

Decreases the response time on bugs sent to other people.

They can provide important skills early in a project’s development.

Collaborate with rendering engineers on features

Provide valid time estimates for art workflow tasks

Design and implement art tools to support new rendering features

...and one more thing they can do...

Contact Information

jeff.b.hanna@gmail.comhttp://www.tech-artists.org