DEV Community: Chris Carter

What makes a good 2D Pipeline TD?

Chris Carter — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 20:38:01 +0000

What makes a good 2D Pipeline TD?

There are many good 2D Pipeline TDs and they don't all have the same skillsets.

Do they need to be a coder?

[CODING IMAGE]

No. It is incredibly useful for the TD to have programing ability, but it is not always the case. Many TDs have great technical knowledge of hardware, standards, technology and the ability to communicate effectively with those making the tools without needing to code it themselves.

Those TDs that can code do not spend all of their time writing code. Someone who does that should have a job title closer to : Scripter, Tools Programmer, *or Software Developer*. A TD often has many other responsibilities. For example, preparing resources to teach the team how to use a tool effectively is just as important as making that tool in the first place (and can be even more time consuming).

Do they need to be a manager?

[MANAGEMENT IMAGE]

No. Althought management ability is useful, and many TD's have been a department lead or senior before going into the TD role, management skills aren't essential.

It is however important to be able to lead artists throught a technical process and give them confidence in the workflow you are recommending. A TDs goal is to empower an artist through the tools and workflows they provide, leadership experience is useful in being able to do this, but one can learn these skills without having been a manager.

TDs are often more autonomous than other roles and it is important that they are able to be responsible for their own time. There is lots of juggling between big projects and emergencies, the willingness to plan ways to handle these varing demands is important for their mental health.

Do they need to be an artist?

[ARTIST IMAGE]

No. But its hard to find a TD who is not also competent at at least one artistic discipline in their production's pipeline. The ability to create or design itself is not important, but the experience in understanding 1st hand what kind of obstacles an artist goes through [technical, creative, schedule, managerial] is. I know TD's who have arrived via production or IT roles and those experiences given them that insight into how a user experiences the pipeline.

They don't need to be a coder, manager or artist?

No, they will need to be competent at at least 1 of those aspects, most likely 2, and their experience in a 2D Pipeline TD role will often teach them a lot about the other that they have not experienced.

Their speciffic experiences are less important than their ability to empathise with colleagues. This is so that they can understand a problem and use their technical expertise to reveal a solution.

This all seems pretty vague, can you break it down into speciffic competences?

Ok then:

Broad knowledge of the 2D animation production pipeline
Animation production experience in one or several roles such as: animation, rigging, compositing, production
Scripting knowledge ( or ability effectively brief coding team ) primarily: javascript, python
Deep knowledge of the tools used in the pipeline
Understands each departments file types and naming conventions and why they are needed
Ability to understand the production needs and the impact that each step or action has on the rest of the pipeline (i.e. technical limitations, budget, resources, quotas)
Patience to document knowledge and train the rest of the team

Recomended viewing

There is a particularly good interview with Mark Mullery ( Technical Director at Cartoon Saloon ) where he talks about his experience Assistant Directing on Wolfwalkers and does touch on Technical Direction also

2D Pipeline TD Responsibilities

Chris Carter — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 20:23:44 +0000

The primary responsibilities are:

Set up and document team workflows
Improve workflows through training, tools, automation
Act as communication bridge between art/production/IT/software development teams
Troubleshoot software & hardware issues ( with IT / vendors)
Assist with asset deliveries and archiving

Could you be a bit more specific with the types of tasks a 2D Pipeline TD does?

Sure, I've broken down the task types into 4 categories:

1. Project work	2. Support	3. Troubleshooting	4. Administration
Tool Development	Team meetings [production, studio, technical]	Internal support tickets	License Management
R&D	Technical guidance [onboarding, demonstrations, consulting]	Liasing with vendors [Toon Boom, Tracking software, other production software]	Documentation
	Liaising with IT [maintenance, hardware setup, benchmarking]

The quantity of work time spend on each of these will vary depending on factors such as:

Crew size
Age of studio
Experience level of team
Areas of pipeline studio delivers
Third-party tools used

For example; a studio's 1st Harmony series will need a lot of initial preparation, discussion with stakeholders, set-up and testing. By their 4th series, the wokflows should be established and more speciffic tools can be designed and optimised.

What is a 2D Pipeline TD?

Chris Carter — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 20:03:26 +0000

So Chris, why do you care what a 2D Pipeline Technical Director is?

My team is currently hiring for a Junior 2D Pipeline Technical Director position. It's a fairly specific position within an animation studio so I've been clarifying queries about what the role of a Technical Director ( or "TD" ) is within 2D series animation and what steps people could take if the role is an aspiration.

And why is your opinion relevant?

I have worked in animation for 10+ years, 6 of them with Harmony and the last 4 in a TD or TD-adjacent role. My studio experience is limited to UK & Ireland, but I have dealt with teams in Canada, USA, China, Philippines. I also hire, manage and train TDs. I'm sure there are differing opinions and I will happily update this information from relevant discussions.

Note: This post discusses what, from my experience, a 2D Pipeline TD is, not what it should be .

Definition of 2D Pipeline TD

Is it Harmony TD or 2D Pipeline TD?

Toon Boom Harmony is the principle (and currently most popular) animation software used in the 2D animation productions I work on. There is an element of interchangeability between the terms as there is no real standardisation in the industry, but generally:

A 2D Pipeline TD ( or 2D Animation Pipeline TD ) would refer to a role supporting entire series pipeline. Commonly including additional storyboarding, editing, design, production and rendering software (i.e. Storyboard Pro, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Shotgrid/Ftrack/Google Sheets , Deadline respectively) in addition to Harmony support and custom tools.
A Harmony TD would refer to supporting the departments using Harmony specifically i.e. Scene Build, Rigging, Animation, FX, Compositing. Supporting the Harmony import/export processes as well as workflows within Harmony.

I'll be referring to the role as 2D Pipeline TD from now on as that is the broader role of the 2 and a lot of the responsibilities have parallels.

What about 2D TD, is that the same?

Often not, typically the title 2D TD refers to a role supporting the 2D side of a 3D VFX pipeline i.e. Compositors and Colourists and not referring to 2D Animation. This will be clear when you read the job description.

Lets go back a step, What is a Technical Director?

I'd highly recommend reading Lydia Martinez's blog on All About Technical Directors Part 1 Part 2. It is a great explanation for what a TD is in most 3D, Games and VFX contexts. But I think the 2D Pipeline TD is a very specific subset with very little existing documentation.

So...what is a 2D Pipeline TD

Unlike 3D and VFX TD roles, 2D Pipeline TDs often do have some leadership responsibility. This is probably due to Harmony animation workflows being relatively young in UK & Ireland so the 2D Pipeline TD is needed to set up the workflows and help teach it to production teams and art leads. Essentially, they :

Have a good understanding of both the art and technical world of 2D animation, so can act as a bridge between the two.
Are empathic to artists needs, and work to improve their colleagues efficiency, output or reduce likelihood of errors.