Also called: Tech Artist, Shader Artist
Bridges art and programming, building tools, shaders, and pipelines so artists' work looks great in the game engine.
An artist's beautiful dragon is making the game lag; you optimize the model, write a shader for its glowing scales, and script a tool that fixes the problem for every future asset.
Estimate.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in game art, CS, or animation.
Ways in: 4-year college, Self-taught. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Game Art, Computer Science, Animation.
Growing about average. In demand but tied to industry hiring cycles.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI generates shaders and assets faster; tech artists who build AI tools into pipelines stay in demand, others less.
Classes: Art, AP Computer Science A, Physics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 27-1014.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.