After Seth posted on G+ about a blog post he found of mine about being a Lead (well his quote was specifically about code katas), and talking to some people about the responsibilities and tendencies of tech artists, I thought it’d be interesting to create a ‘tech artists creed.’
Is this a good idea?
What are some ideas for the creed?
What do we forget/need to be reminded of the most?
I like the “fight for the artists” thoughts. We’re the middle-men of game development… advocating for artists, ensuring quality and efficiency but understanding limitations of tech, balancing it all, cleaning up “other peoples” messes, etc. I’d like to see those concepts (phrased much more elegantly) woven into the oath.
[QUOTE=Drachis;11356]I think that the creed should be something similar to Tron’s;
I am a Tech Artist,
I fight for the artists.[/QUOTE]
Too general to be a creed but that will make an awesome T. Can you get me a giant version cleaned up (and with transparency instead of a black background) and I’ll make a new T for the spreadshirt site?
For everyone else, keep the ideas coming, I’ll phrase something up when I get some more ideas (if no one is inspired to first).
I’m still really stuck on the idea of “good tech art serves artists, proper tech art serves the production.” I think it becomes really easy for us to forget there’s a bigger picture than the immediate wants of the art team and we need to figure out how best to serve the production by making everyone’s life easier, for example, taking the time to build proper tech art infrastructure and foundation so it becomes easier for us to serve both art and production by being able to respond to art needs quickly and not get bogged down on little issues because we’re stuck trying to figure out one-offs and minutia.
“Being invisible, but making the difference”
“We are not the stars, we making other stars shine brighter.”
“Solve the problem of today but design the answer of tomorrow”
“You don’t know us but we are everywhere”
Yeah, i gotta go with Seth on this one. Of course we fight for the artists, but thats just one of the many duties as a tech artist…we also clean the art, optimize & simplify/streamline for production. It’s often balancing multi-departmental needs. Engineering, Art, & even Design…while still “fighting fires”.
“The easiest fires to put out are the ones that were never started.” (i’m getting further off-base, but it liked it )
[QUOTE=Proteoz;11370]also clean the art, optimize & simplify/streamline for production. It’s often balancing multi-departmental needs. Engineering, Art, & even Design…while still “fighting fires”.[/QUOTE]
When i say “serve the production”, i’m thinking much bigger picture than just the day-to-day content support bitch type tasks. Again, the best way good technical artists can support the production is by building the necessary infrastructure to build a pipeline on. Doing this makes tech art a foundation, being a content bitch just makes tech art a crutch.
I’d say tech-artists should put the process (production) ahead of the customers, as per seth’s suggestion.
As for a creed? I’d say Tech-Artists are the stewards of the content creation pipeline. Regardless of what EA, MGS and ATVI think; TA’s do not embody the pipeline and workflow, we craft the pipeline and workflow.
[QUOTE=djTomServo;11372]…Doing this makes tech art a foundation, being a content bitch just makes tech art a crutch.[/QUOTE]
i totally get you man lol …and that’s exactly what i getting at. It’s not just the Artists.
a crutch is what it is AT BEST. If the company doesn’t initially understand the role, they want/expect a work horse, or as you eloquently put it a “content bitch” (which is a better way to describe it). To some great extent we have to sell our theories of developing the necessary infrastructure, reach compromises between depts and integrate those into our tools/pipeline for the greater/common good or “bigger picture” (which i actually got reamed for doing on an occasion, believe it or not lol …but thats for a totally different rant, we can finish on twitter :-P)
I like the ideas Nysuatro mentioned, of standing comfortably in the shadows and getting shit done.
I will learn something new today.
I will teach someone something new today.
I will speak to everyone on my team this week.
I will never say “no” when you ask for help.
I will ask lots of questions.
I will observe without interrupting.
I will spend time thinking before I act.
I will make small changes that have big impacts.
I may not give you exactly what you asked for, but I will give you what you need.
I will always have a plan “B.”
How does that sound? Too general? Is it missing something fundamental?
[QUOTE=Bronwen;11386]I will learn something new today.
I will teach someone something new today.
I will speak to everyone on my team this week.
I will never say “no” when you ask for help.
I will ask lots of questions.
I will observe without interrupting.
I will spend time thinking before I act.
I will make small changes that have big impacts.
I may not give you exactly what you asked for, but I will give you what you need.
I will always have a plan “B.”
How does that sound? Too general? Is it missing something fundamental?[/QUOTE]
The only other thing i can the of is,
“I will make a button for that.”
Most used phrase. :D: