Are "riggers" technical artists?

I had always taken for granted that character riggers were simply specialized members of the tech artist discipline. For whatever reason though at my present employer, the title “technical artist” is rarely applied to my character rigging co-workers. Instead, we use the title of “technical artist” for anyone tasked with either game performance optimization or animation tree work. It seems more appropriate to me to call the tree specialists “technical animators”. I realize, of course, that there is considerable variety in how these terms are used in the industry. That said, I would love to hear any thoughts on the subject that you guys/gals might have. In particular, are “riggers” technical artists?

I should also clarify, the “riggers” at my studio also write/maintain MAXScript based tools, provide technical support to modelers and animators, assist programmers in debugging asset-related issues and handle the integration of many types of assets into the Unreal Editor.

We have three breeds:
“Technical Art Generalists” on the Tools/Engine team (tools programming, these are traditionally the coolest and most handsome)
“Character Technical Artists” on the Character/Animation team (complex character and set piece rigging)
“Design Technical Artists” on the Physics/Prop team (dynamic prop/asset setup and simple mechanical rigging)

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Thanks for sharing, Joe. Based upon your description, that seems like a logical way to break tech art down into sub-groups with reasonably descriptive titles. If I’m not mistaken, the “Design Technical Artists” group might be further broken up in FX TAs and Environment TAs at some studios.

As an aside, I’m slowing making my way toward the cool/handsome crowd myself (each day I get slightly more handsome and just a tiny bit more cool, which is a sure sign that I’m on the right track). : )

Sometimes riggers are also called Technical Animators, specially when they can also do animation content work. I agree that Tech Artist is starting to turn into a nebulous term, it can range from “dude that knows how to import the assets in this 10 year old engine” to “jr graphics programmer”

The term is getting really vague.

Shader TA
Character TA
Environment TA
Technical Animator=
‘Tech Artist’

[QUOTE=JoeFerfecki;28016]
“Technical Art Generalists” on the Tools/Engine team (tools programming, these are traditionally the coolest and most handsome)[/QUOTE]

can confirm

[QUOTE=JoeFerfecki;28016]We have three breeds:
“Technical Art Generalists” on the Tools/Engine team (tools programming, these are traditionally the coolest and most handsome)[/QUOTE]

I see this Joe. And it hurts. I thought we were friends. :frowning:

Riggers don’t really have a single title, and depending on the needs of the employer this can also change. I’ve been called a Technical Animator and a Character Technical Artist. I’ve seen postings for Technical Artists (that are rigging only) and it also being called things like Setup Artist/Technical Director (in film/vfx) and a range of other names. Because tech artists have such a generalist skillset with often a specific speciality, lots of employers and recruiters are confused on what term to use where. I also think this is cause it was only quite recently recognised as a distinct important discipline, rather than someone who had another skillset that happened to be able to rig/write tools (especially in games.)

[QUOTE=JoeFerfecki;28016]We have three breeds:
“Technical Art Generalists” on the Tools/Engine team (tools programming, these are traditionally the coolest and most handsome)[/QUOTE]

Actually, research was that confirmed the fact that Technical Animators/Characters TA’s are the best and most brilliant sort of people.

Just saying…

>_>

A lot of the terminology depends on the the nature of the company – in smaller outfits most TA’s have to wear a lot of hats, in bigger studios there is more specialization. In some companies TAs are parcelled out so that animators ‘own’ the riggers, designers ‘own’ the tech designers, and environment artists ‘own’ their pipeline people. I personally prefer having TAs be their own department since the alternative tends to lead to a lot of confusion about how things really work – but the danger there is that the TA’s end up as isolated as tools programmers often are.

There’s no perfect solution, it’s wisest to treat all the titles and org charts as very crude approximations.

[QUOTE=Theodox;28052] in smaller outfits most TA’s have to wear a lot of hats, in bigger studios there is more specialization.[/QUOTE]

Yup. The handsomeness imbued by my tooling skills is compromised by my Rigging efforts.

I came from an animation background and got into scripting and rigging. As there were evolving Tech Artists in the studio, those of us who became more adept with the technical aspect of animation, including rigging became Technical Animators. Sure, we could have easily been character technical artists but we were more directly connected to the animation team, so it made sense to us. I think since I could still do animation, maybe, I like the title of technical animator.

[QUOTE=Mambo4;28078]Yup. The handsomeness imbued by my tooling skills is compromised by my Rigging efforts.[/QUOTE]

I second that statement. : D That said, rigging isn’t half bad either.

The role I was given is a Junior Technical Director and My Super is Senior Technical Director.

My Jobs daily are to go over his code manipulate the crap out of it while keeping the functionality going (Old Tools)
Revise his new tools and ideas with him, Rig what ever is given to me to a professional standard by hand and skin (I’m not allowed use NgTools yet).
create pipeline fixes and stability, facial rigging, small tool dev for myself and the animators and other little odds and end like set up the nix servers etc