Hey all,
As you can see, my name is Austin.
I recently graduated from school with a degree in Computer Science in March '11. I've always been interested in the art side of game development, but I feel it may be too late for me, so I wanted to get your guys feedback.
I've been reading up on this position and it seems that a lot of technical artists come from an art background and learn the programming afterwards, which means I would be trying to do it backwards. Is this a good idea? Or should I just stick to programming?
I know I'm asking for opinionated answers, but do you think I would be able to learn enough about modeling/rigging/texturing/shaders by trying to teach myself through online tutorials? Or are there things that I just may not learn when I don't have a professor? There seems to be a WHOLE lot to learn when just looking at the UI for Maya or Max, let alone know how everything works.
Also, I've read that there MaxScript, MEL, Python, and C# are good to know as a tech artist. Is there anything else? Like LUA for example?
Anyways, sorry for this long post and bombarding you with questions. I've just been stressing lately over this and thought I would ask the community instead of asking myself everyday. I'm just not sure where to start or if I should start in the first place.
Thank you.
Austin