There are so many descriptions as to what a technical artist is or might be, that it is often difficult to understand, in general, what the title translates to practically and professionally. Some may describe the position as a character rigger, lighting TD, or art tools developer. These titles can all fit the mold of a technical artist, but they don't quite answer the question.
I have had an extremely hard time describing what I do, because it ranges in disipline and scope, and is so often changing. I've chosen, for the time being, to consider myself as an art tools developer. I write code in Python to create tools for 3D applications that game artists use. But...that is not all I do. I can, in some capacity, rig, model, and animate as well, but I always come back to the foundation of those processes...the tools.
So what is a technical artist? Leonardo DaVinci, in my honest opnion, was the first modern technical artist. His passion for life and it's underlying mechanics drove him to create. I believe that is the essence of any artistic venture. The pure artist uses expression and experience to develop a piece, but there is something not mentioned, something so obvious. The brush, the canvas, the tools...the inventor.
As technical artists, we invent. Be it a rig, a pipeline, or a shader, we sketch out ideas, we take what was old and make it new. We make things possible. We invent.
I think simply put, a technical artist is in someway an inventor. What do you think?
