Road to Technical Art

You'd need to know where you stand on the tech art spectrum! And what soft skills and hard skills you need to develop to get to there!

ART TO TECH ART PATH

PROGRAMMING TO TECH ART PATH

Actionables:

• Talk to an Artist if you're a programmer! Ask about their day-to-day; how do they problem solve?
• Talk to a Programmer if you're an artist! Ask about their day-to-day; how do they make art?

Dip your toes ( For Artists ):

This path assumes you have some understanding of creating Game Art Assets; and you are also familiar with Unreal Engine!

You will probably need to install Houdini Apprentice, Unreal Engine and some version of Python!

1. You can start off with Houdini to ease yourself into the code mindset, this playlist will teach you the very basics of Houdini! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsv8UGqDibc&list=PLhyeWJ40aDkUDHDOhZQ2UkCfNiQj7hS5W

2. Then sprinkle some basic Python introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b093aqAZiPU

3. Once you're a little bit more comfortable with Houdini and have some idea of coding you can continue on to discover more about the coding-equivalent in Houdini, which is VEX: https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/vex-isnt-scary/

4. Now that you are familar with VEX, Python and Houdini; you can try to combine it all into one; this teaches you how to utilize Python within Houdini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4O0mtUTJdk&list=PL5V9qxkY_RnJstgKRPN8cCErK4oYB8Fax

5. Hopefully, by this point you are comfortable with manipulating geometry with code and have some idea of 3D Math; now you can start playing with the shading languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsXB1PQdGx0&list=PLoHLpVCC9RmMMmW5eP1aAyJrTjxd46rx_

At this point what you've learnt should be enough for you to utilize in your daily work and start creating tools or shaders; or at the very least be able to understand the Programmer perspective!

Dip your toes ( For Programmers ):

This path assumes you can code and are also familiar with Unreal Engine!

You will probably need to install Houdini Apprentice, Unreal Engine, Blender and some version of Python!

1. You could start off creating shaders in Unreal with HLSL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsXB1PQdGx0&list=PLoHLpVCC9RmMMmW5eP1aAyJrTjxd46rx_

2. Then sprinkle some basic Python introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b093aqAZiPU

3. It would be quite essential to learn the Game Art workflow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iu88tZ9utE

4. Once you're a familiar with the game art workflow, you can try diving into Houdini and apply that knowledge to procedural modelling! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsv8UGqDibc&list=PLhyeWJ40aDkUDHDOhZQ2UkCfNiQj7hS5W

5. Now you're familiar with Houdini, you might want to try out VEX which should feel very similar to C: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4O0mtUTJdk&list=PL5V9qxkY_RnJstgKRPN8cCErK4oYB8Fax

6. Now that you are familar with VEX, Python and Houdini; you can try to combine it all into one; this teaches you how to utilize Python within Houdini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4O0mtUTJdk&list=PL5V9qxkY_RnJstgKRPN8cCErK4oYB8Fax

At this point, you should be equipped with some skills to create tools and shaders for your artist; or at the very least be able to understand the artist perspective!

Now that your toes are dipped; you can look at some advanced materials for the various pillars of tech art and see if any interests you!

Tools and Pipeline inspiration:

You can take a look at this polycount thread by Marina Alexandra Bade where she goes into detail of how she created her Procedural Shanty Town!

https://polycount.com/discussion/203089/unity-shanty-town

Matt's CGWiki site offers a treasure trove of TA Knowledge!
https://tokeru.com/cgwiki/

If you have some Houdini specific problems that you need help with, you could check out: https://forums.odforce.net/

Shader work inspiration:

You can check out Panagiotis' blog where he goes indepth with the rendering techniques he used:

https://panthavma.com/

As well as his talk on stylized rendering within Godot:

https://media.ccc.de/v/godotcon2023-57824-from-watercolors-to-mechs-stylized-rendering-and-asset-pipelines-in-godot

VFX inspiration:

Thomas has some very detailed breakdown on how he created his VFX!

https://www.artstation.com/thomasfrancis

Realtime VFX is a treasure trove forum for aspiring VFX Artists!

https://realtimevfx.com/

CGHow will teach you how to make VFX in unreal! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDoa4bBCuKE

Tech Animation inspiration:

The three pillars of technical animation!

Rigging:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN_JHIw0zGtCIWMTQGNqbmg

Pipeline:

https://zurbrigg.com/

State Machines:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwKuinJCJyI&list=PL8H8v3x5ytAF18PFvMLKf_w_93U7GawF7

Check out these forums for some advice and mentors!

Tools, Tech Anim and Graphics: https://discourse.techart.online/

VFX: https://realtimevfx.com/

Feel free to update this readme if you feel there are any corrections that should be made or you have any suggestions! :)