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Tech Art Aid
Tech Art Aid

Technical Artist Job Expectations

··7 mins
Table of Contents

I recorded 2 videos about getting a job already:

These videos covered the job hunt part. They’re still useful but it’s about time to extend them a bit. The circumstances have changed in 2023+, the competition is tighter. It’s still all manageable, I believe, with the right attitude. You need to be more prepared; act with intention. In today’s post, I’ll tell you my personal perspective of what should be expected from employees. In the next one, I’ll cover portfolio tips.

The text is not related in any means to my current or former employers. You have to seek studio-specific information in job ads and with a recruiter.

Why do companies hire
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They want to fill a certain competency gap. They’re not looking for a champion in all categories. If you can’t model or rig characters but the job ad didn’t mention it directly - then apply! No Houdini skills? No problem, if the role is shader-focused.

If you’re anxious about the requirements for promotion in the future - just ask. Actually, asking such question on interview makes you stand out. You show that you care about the long-term.

Of course you can (and hopefully will) improve your entire life - but don’t let any fantastic opportunities miss you. Don’t cut yourself short. Let the hiring manager do their work. Having seen dozens of recruitment processes, I can assure you that you won’t be hired by accident :P So put away that impostor syndrome! Just tell them what you can do and what you’ll love to do when given a chance!

Oh, my pet peeve. I have to repeat it a 999th time: in the email (the cover letter or whatever), don’t focus on what do you want. You’re not hired just to live a dream.

🚫 I’d like to work at a company that will allow me to grow and excel at making RPGs. And then I’ll be able to finally quit and work at a big-budget studio😈

Again, why do companies hire? To solve an issue. To take a game to the market, efficiently.

✅ I believe that my passion for the RPG games, as well as my drive to connect artists with programmers, will be a great fit for you. The procedural tools in my portfolio should align well with the “build fast” culture that you mention on your website ✨

Skills or attitude? Both
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Games are team sport. Use your skills to multiply the potential of others. This is especially important for technical artists. We’re hired to build, to stabilize, to fix gaps, to empower by writing customized tools. We’re not hired to wage wars over an sRGB toggle in the texture editor’s Details panel. If you’re so smart, why haven’t you build a validator utility yet, for everybody to use? Where’s a little piece of documentation describing our best texturing practices?

TA is a bridge between departments too (usually coding and art). Listen, translate, help build technical awareness. That doesn’t mean we’re a servant role. Show technical authority, to be included whenever there’s a talk about memory budgets, frame time limits and the like. Be proactive, warn, confront. Do it on time and you’ll shorten the last-mile panic mode, ensuring a smooth(er) release.

Another useful attitude to consider is creative risk. It’s a matter of balance. As “almost programmers, somehow artists” we’re allowed a bit more creative freedom, because we don’t know shit 😁 Tech requirements are usually less strict for us as well (even though they shouldn’t be!) Use that perceived lack of mastery as way to smuggle risky ideas into the project. Experiment, test stuff, then let rendering programmers clean the mess at the last minute.

Aim for show, not tell in your resume. That means that instead of writing:

🚫 I value ownership, friendliness, initiative and creative risk<3

Write:

✅ Responsible for all asset validation tools in the project. Made out of my initiative, in cooperation with artists, the suite ensured proper data on Perforce submission. Texture, mesh and skeletal animation parameters were checked against Nintendo Switch budgets.

Expectations (in game dev) per level
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Obviously it’s hard for me to tell you the requirements for a role at a particular company :D I only do a private guess here, based on my circle of friends, Discord, personal experience as a manager.

The best thing you can do is to read a lot of job advertisements. Write down the software, skills, carefully. Compare what stuff appears in senior roles that doesn’t appear in lower ranks. Based on that you’ll be able to build a map of what to improve in. Then simply ask on Discord etc for a review of your conclusions.

Of course I understand the confusion when you see “3 AAA titles released, 10 yrs of experience”. These usually bullshit “requirements” are easy to bypass if you show a relevant portfolio :) Don’t treat them as numbers. Think of them as a veeery rough signal what exp level are they’re looking for.

Junior
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  1. Be passionate, have an open mind, curiosity
  2. Tell how you learn - mention courses, fav youtubers (hehe), articles that blew your mind
  3. Understand real time. Know the key terms, broadly (from mid-poly and trimsheets to shadow maps)
  4. Be able to explain basic math (dot, cos, sin, lerp). Have basic but clean(!) code and/or Blueprint in your portfolio

Mid aka Specialist
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  1. Now you’re expected to own a topic, not just to follow instructions. Show a problem solver’s attitude
  2. Tell how you fixed a problem together with artists
  3. Know the cost and limits of your solutions - in milliseconds, number of texture samplers, kilobytes, linear vs squared complexity
  4. Link to your articles about performance optimization or a particular clever technique. The latter doesn’t have to be yours; just do the research and explain well

After that, the path usually diverges. If you’re process- and people-oriented, you can follow a managerial path. If you want to stay focused on the craft, then aim to be an expert.

Senior / Expert / Principal
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  1. Be a recognized authority in your field (to some extent) and a go-to person in general
  2. Mentor others regularly. Do (code, art) reviews. Ask them what they need to grow. Explain importance of stuff like budgets, self-documenting code
  3. Be a manager’s right-hand. Implement their will in the team, by both excellent work and by raising others to your level. (If you believe in the importance of clean code, how can you stay silent and demand less from others?)
  4. Be able to handle any problem. Infinite knowledge is impossible, so instead have a method of learning, assessing and deciding for/against a technique

Lead / Manager
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  1. Oh my… too much🥲 It’s for another conversation, maybe over a glass of a 0% drink…
  2. Multiply again
  3. You don’t have to be the best. You need to make sure your people do the best work

Applying outside games
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Engineering / automotive / simulation companies totally need what real time tech artists can offer. They just, probably, are not very good in hunting for us in the game dev space.

You need to be a very strong generalist. But not necessarily best in class. That’s because you’re probably be the only one, or 1 of the 2, tech artists in the project. When doing, for example, VR visualization for a medical app, you will handle the majority of all tasks in Unreal/Unity, of all kind, by yourself… from skeletal anim to Blueprint.

When such a company looks for a Unreal expert “in 3D graphics”, I think you can safely present yourself as one 🙂 They simply don’t know how to call them. Same if they need an “Unreal engineer” and list scripting & optimization in the requirements. You’ll fill in the details on the actual interview. Or hint your skills already in the email!

✅ I have 5 years of experience with high-performance graphics for video games. I will help to build your solution for the tight memory requirements, make it work with any class of VR headsets and save battery. My skills may be useful in preparing requirements for 3D asset creation.

That’s all for today! In the next piece, I will handle portfolio composition. I’ll also share examples of what tools & assets to make to help it stand out.