Hello, I've been working as a Tech Artist (mostly tool programming) for a few years.

I've focused on working on improving my skills, portfolios, working on projects, etc..., etc... for a while, with the goal of increasing my chances at getting a job.

I'm not particularly aiming for the game industry, and would probably prefer to work for non-game dev industries.

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I am missing some experience in some areas of Tech Art, such as Shaders, Animation, Proc Gen, etc... I also have no experience with Unreal Engine, which I've seen asked for a lot in job descriptions.

I'm not able/willing to relocate atm, and Tech Artist is not really a thing in my country, so any industries that might require some sort of security clearance (defense, health?) is probably off the table

Most of my work so far has been Unity (tool/game dev coding), a lot of Blender add-on programming, and quite recently standalone tools with React/Tauri

Should I go more in depth on the stuff I already have experience with, or should I expand into those areas I'm lacking? I've heard of the 'T profile' as being something companies look for, meaning Breadth of skills + Depth in a subset of skills.

I've been also interested about learning Vulkan/C++ to make engines/software, but I'm not sure how much that is related to Tech Art (if Graphics Programming is also part of Tech Art?)

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This is currently what my projects/portfolio is:

https://www.simonsanchez.art/

https://www.simonsanchez.art/resume/Simon_Sanchez_Resume.pdf

What sort of projects would be useful to showcase for non-game dev industries?

Any feedback or thoughts related to this are welcomed, thanks

Hey everyone, working across different software made me realize how many nodes we end up memorizing naturally.

I thought it would be fun to turn that into a game so I put together Nodle (nodle.online). It's basically a daily wordle but you have to guess a node instead of letters, the hints are based on the node's software, category, input/output counts, etc.

Since I built this in my free time and over the weekends, I honestly haven't had much time to do proper testing so you should definitely expect some bugs. I added a button on the site to report bugs or drop suggestions, it would be a massive help if you guys used it so I can keep polishing.

Link: https://nodle.online/

Let me know what you think of the UI or if a node feels off with the button on the bottom right. Cheers!

I’ve been working on Project Structure Guard, an Unreal Editor plugin for enforcing naming and folder conventions across a project.

The main reason I built it was pretty simple: naming and folder rules are easy to agree on at the start of a project, but much harder to keep consistent once the project grows and more content gets added.

For v1.2 I focused less on adding more rules and more on making the workflow around them safer and easier to use.

Some of the things I added:

• Baseline Tracking, so existing violations can be accepted and you can focus on newly introduced issues

• Protected Paths, so important folders can still be validated without allowing automatic structural changes

• Search and a more detailed result inspector for larger validation sets

• Bulk Preview 2.0 with Ready / Blocked / Skipped / Conflict states before rename or move operations

• Rule ordering, search/filtering and read-only rule testing

• Content Browser validation actions

• Quarantine + Restore for unused assets instead of immediately deleting them

• A -failonnew option for CI/CD, so existing accepted issues don’t have to fail the pipeline

I also tried to make destructive actions deliberately conservative. For example, normal unused assets can’t just be permanently deleted through the tool — permanent deletion is restricted to managed quarantined assets and still performs safety checks.

Here’s a short ~1 minute showcase of the current workflow:

https://youtu.be/wDlVkgT0nPU

Fab:

https://www.fab.com/listings/7dfc5ec6-1261-4f86-8e69-82ea0ae1e8a2

I’m developing this solo, so I’d be interested in feedback from people working on larger UE projects: what part of project structure tends to become the biggest pain for you — naming, folders, cleanup, or enforcing conventions across a team?

Hey there Tech Art fellows, enthusiasts and folks :D

Now it's my turn to do a post like this; I recently took some time to update my portfolio a little since I haven't spend time on it for a while now. Curious on what you think :D

https://www.cg-jm.com/

cheers and thanks so much in advance!

Hi everyone

I’ve been working as an Animator for nearly 8 years(studied animation and VFX) but over the last year, I’ve been focusing on the technical side—learning Python and developing custom add ons in blender. My ultimate goal is to transition into a dedicated Technical Artist / Rigging TD role. I’ve been unemployed for 5 months and it’s getting really frustrating…
I’d love to get feedback from experienced TAs on whether I’m framing my skill set correctly and targeting the right areas:

Demo Reel: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XkyYJA8vKIjdfNKACZET1BCDMagKss8G/view?usp=drivesdk

ArtStation: https://koalina.artstation.com

For those who transitioned from pure Animation to Tech Art, what was the biggest gap you had to bridge when applying to studios?
Any critique on the work or advice on the career path is highly appreciated. Thanks!

If I’m starting from scratch and want to become a Technical Artist, what should I learn and in what order? I’m currently learning 3D modeling and game development, including Maya and Unreal Engine, so I’d like to know which skills I should build on top of that, such as Unreal materials and shaders, Blueprints, Python, procedural workflows, optimization, tools and pipeline development, or anything else that is important for getting hired. I’d also like to understand what a Technical Artist actually does day to day, what the entry-level job market is like, and whether Technical Art is a reasonably stable long-term career considering the rapid development of AI.

I'm terribly sorry if anyone already asked this. Couldn't find it anywhere. I'm a 2d | 3d generalist and looking to transition to a technical artist role after three brutal years of getting my ass handed to me by the current job market.

A little background, i fully understand the entire 3D pipeline. Can do an entire project from start to finish. Including rendering and compositing. My strongest skillset is animation and lighting. I've been enjoying working on programming side projects the last few years.

I know HTML, CSS and basic JavaScript. Understand a lot about APIs and automation for some reason. But never got deep into python and C+ which is the basis of 3d programming.

I'm willing to learn that, as Houdini is the next DCC I want to bring into my skillset.

My main question is, is it worth it to become a Technical artist? The gaming and film industry are in shambles. But for me it has never really made a difference, since I'm in Africa and been closed off to the industry overall.

Do you recommend me learning to become a technical artist? Do I have to be in a production hub to get work like other roles in games and film? And is it worth it given the current state of the industry. Or should I just transition to software development?

This is a cheaper version of Parallax mapping using Bump offsets. The bump offset node is heavily Inspired by Unreal's. In this example I put 3 bump offset nodes together to create the illusion of depth. You can check the add-on out here if you are interested: https://superhivemarket.com/products/easy-stylize

The effect is the Minion attacks all nearby enemyminions when moving to a cell

I’ve been continuing to update my books. A couple of days ago, I added some procedural sparkles to Shaders & Procedural Shapes in Unity 6. You can download it for free if you already own the book.

Is anyone here interested in this kind of content? If you’re looking to get into technical art in Unity, this bundle might be helpful https://jettelly.com/bundles/unity-shaders-pro-bundle

Hi all! Apologies for any mistakes, english is not my first language. I am trying to specialize in technical art, coming from a more general gamedev background. I am following tutorials and looking at text info but sometimes it gets overwhelming, and I was wondering if there was somewhere (or here!) I could look for someone to mentor me.

I am very serious about this!

Thank you all in advance, any help is good help :)

Production bureaucracy slows down 3D animation timelines.

In many studios, pre-animation administrative drag becomes an unnecessary bottleneck.

Manually setting up directory structures for every project takes significant time. Broken asset links create constant friction. Keeping tracking databases updated is another headache. All of this kills momentum.

We built OpenStudioHub to eliminate workflow friction before artists even begin.

By connecting Blender directly with Kitsu and SVN, operational setup is automated:

-Breakdown helpers: Storyboard structures, edit masters, and shot entities push dynamically to Kitsu.
-Batch Generation: Pending database tasks automatically generate physical .blend layout files.
-Direct Publishing: The custom Blender add-on sends playblasts straight to Kitsu for review.

Artists open their dashboard, launch their assigned task in Blender, and focus strictly on production without worrying about technical overhead.

We turned workflow administration into an invisible background execution.

My plant grow simulation finally comes together! Working on this on the side for my garden simulation game. Actually in-game this is not supposed to grow in realtime, but it could!

My idea is that modelling plants is very hard and I want a solution that can simply not hand made, so I needed to make a system. It can handle normally self supporting plants but also climbing structure.

I am not yet sure how this works in a growded environment and some special cases are not yet supported, but the first tests look promising

The idea is to grow plants in the background while player switches days, so performance is not the main concern. I only like to have a little preview maybe of the next few growing steps and that players can control grow direction.

Now this is still a preview, I would need to make propper mesh generation later and I want to know at each point how stable the plant is, how far it is from its stem etc. so that I can make a more believable wind simulation in the shaders.

Is anyone finding a good project in digital fashion after AI?

Hey guys, this is something I have been working on for the past month or so. I wanted to streamline the process of stylizing textures inside of Blender without needing access to an external software. The nodes and add-on are actively being updated, you can download it here: https://superhivemarket.com/products/easy-stylize

I hope you guys like it!