I had always taken for granted that character riggers were simply specialized members of the tech artist discipline. For whatever reason though at my present employer, the title “technical artist” is rarely applied to my character rigging co-workers. Instead, we use the title of “technical artist” for anyone tasked with either game performance optimization or animation tree work. It seems more appropriate to me to call the tree specialists “technical animators”. I realize, of course, that there is considerable variety in how these terms are used in the industry. That said, I would love to hear any thoughts on the subject that you guys/gals might have. In particular, are “riggers” technical artists?
I should also clarify, the “riggers” at my studio also write/maintain MAXScript based tools, provide technical support to modelers and animators, assist programmers in debugging asset-related issues and handle the integration of many types of assets into the Unreal Editor.