Hire Remote Technical Artists

Hire Technical Artists Who Bridge the Gap Between Art and Engineering

Technical Artists are the people who make ambitious art direction technically achievable. They translate the visual vision into render pipeline constraints, build the shader graphs that give materials their distinctive look, optimize assets that are too heavy for target hardware, and create the procedural tools that let artists produce more with less manual effort. Without them, art teams hit walls — and the choice is either visual compromise or missed schedules.

We match you with senior Technical Artists who’ve shipped AAA and AA titles across PC, console, and mobile — engineers-who-draw, artists-who-code. Professionals who understand PBR material workflows, rigging and skinning optimization, LOD systems, particle system performance, and the Houdini procedural pipelines that generate content at scale.

Start in days, not months. Pay 50% less than equivalent US-based technical art talent.

What Our Technical Artists Do

Shader & Material Development

PBR material authoring in ShaderGraph (Unity) and Unreal Material Editor — complex multi-layered materials, terrain blending shaders, cloth and skin subsurface scattering, water and fluid materials, and the stylized shading that defines a game’s visual identity. Custom shader code (HLSL/GLSL) for effects the node graph can’t achieve.

Asset Optimization & LOD Pipelines

Mesh optimization (polycount reduction, UV unwrapping for mobile budgets), LOD generation and configuration, texture atlasing, texture compression format selection per platform, draw call reduction through mesh merging, and the systematic optimization process that brings art within hardware budget without visual degradation.

Rigging & Skinning Systems

Character rigs for realistic and stylized deformation — joint placement, skin weight painting, corrective blend shapes, cloth and secondary motion simulation (constraints vs. simulation trade-offs), and the rig architecture that animators can work with efficiently across large cast sizes.

VFX & Particle Systems

Unity VFX Graph and Shuriken, Unreal Niagara — high-performance visual effects within GPU particle budgets, sprite sheet animation, fluid and smoke simulation, environmental VFX (rain, fog, fire), and the hit effects and ability visuals that define action game feel.

Procedural Content & Houdini Pipelines

Houdini-based procedural terrain generation, modular asset generation, automatic LOD generation, vegetation distribution, and the Houdini Engine integration that brings procedural generation into Unity and Unreal editor workflows for content teams.

Technical Art Technology Stack

DCC Tools: Houdini (PDG, Houdini Engine), Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, ZBrush, Substance 3D Engines: Unity (ShaderGraph, VFX Graph, Animator), Unreal Engine (Material Editor, Niagara, Control Rig) Shaders: HLSL, GLSL, ShaderGraph, Unreal Material Functions, Amplify Shader Editor VFX: Unity VFX Graph, Unreal Niagara, Houdini simulations, EmberGen Rigging: Maya rigging, Control Rig (Unreal), Unity Animation Rigging, corrective shapes Pipeline: Python (Maya/Blender scripting), Perforce/Git LFS, FBX/USD workflows

Client Success Story: Console RPG — Art Optimization Enables Platform Certification

A mid-size studio’s console RPG was failing memory certification on PlayStation 5 — their texture and mesh memory budget was 40% over the hardware limit due to artists working without hardware-constrained guidelines. Our Technical Artist conducted a systematic optimization: defined texture budget guidelines per asset category (characters, props, environments), wrote a Python script that audited all assets against the guidelines and reported violations, reduced character texture resolution from 4K to 2K with custom compression settings that preserved visual quality, merged 600+ small prop meshes into 12 atlased mesh groups, and restructured UV layouts for 3x better texel density per hardware budget. Memory budget went from 140% to 87% of target. The game passed platform certification on the next submission. Art team time spent on individual asset requests dropped 60% once guidelines and tooling were in place.

Client Success Story: Mobile Game — Shader Optimization Adds Two Additional Device Tiers

A mobile game studio’s visually distinctive shader-heavy art style was running at 22fps on mid-range Android devices — limiting their addressable market to premium devices. Our Technical Artist rebuilt the material system: redesigned the hero character shader to use 40% fewer texture samples with visual parity via improved UV packing, implemented platform-specific shader variants (high, medium, low quality) triggered automatically by device capability, replaced overdraw-heavy particle effects with sprite-sheet animated quads, and reduced the fill rate cost of the background by 55% through render order optimization. Frame rate on mid-range Android improved from 22fps to stable 60fps. Addressable device market expanded from premium to include mid-range and upper-budget tiers — 3x larger audience.

Why Companies Choose Our Technical Artists

• Art + Engineering fluency: They speak both languages — they can discuss art direction with directors and rendering budgets with engineers
• Asset pipeline ownership: They build the systems and guidelines that keep art assets production-ready at scale
• Proactive optimization: They catch budget overruns during production, not in final certification testing
• 50% cost savings: Senior technical art expertise at a fraction of US market rates
• Fast start: Most engagements begin within 1–2 weeks

Engagement Models

• Individual Technical Artist — One senior TA embedded with your art team for optimization, shader development, VFX, or pipeline work.
• Technical Art + Tools Pod (2 engineers) — Technical Artist paired with a Tools Programmer for teams that need both art pipeline optimization and editor tooling.
• Full Technical Art Teams — Multiple TAs for large studios managing complex art pipelines and content teams of 20+ artists.
• Contract-to-Hire — Evaluate a TA’s optimization approach, tool-building skills, and artist collaboration style before committing long-term.

How To Vet Technical Artists

Our vetting identifies TAs who solve real production problems — not just make things look good in isolation.

1. Hardware platform knowledge — Memory budgets, texture compression formats (BC7, ASTC, ETC2), draw call limits, fill rate, and the platform-specific constraints that make technical art necessary. Over 85% of applicants do not pass this stage.
2. Shader authoring assessment — Build a specific material in ShaderGraph or Unreal Material Editor (e.g., a layered terrain blend with wetness parameter). Evaluated on visual result, node graph organization, and performance considerations.
3. Optimization portfolio review — Show us a before/after optimization: original asset budget, what was done, final budget. We look for systematic approaches over individual heroics.
4. Pipeline scripting — How have they automated art pipeline tasks? Python for Maya/Blender, editor scripting for Unity/Unreal. We look for tools-minded thinking.

What to Look for When Hiring Technical Artists

Strong TAs are the rarest hybrid in game development — they make art better AND make it run.

What strong candidates demonstrate:

• They discuss hardware constraints spontaneously — they know texture compression formats and when each is appropriate
• They’ve built tools that art teams actually adopted — they have user empathy alongside technical skill
• They proactively audit assets against budgets instead of waiting for performance problems
• They can communicate with both art directors about visual quality and engineers about performance trade-offs

Red flags to watch for:

• “Art and engineering should stay separate” — no bridge mentality
• No shader code experience — only node graph usage without understanding the underlying math
• No optimization track record — hasn’t reduced memory or GPU cost on a shipped project
• No pipeline scripting — can’t automate repetitive art pipeline tasks

Interview questions that reveal real depth:

• “Walk me through how you’d audit a game’s art assets for memory budget problems and implement a systematic optimization process across a 20-person art team.”
• “Describe a complex shader you’ve written or directed — what visual effect did it achieve and what were the performance trade-offs?”
• “How would you implement a Houdini-based procedural vegetation distribution system that integrates with Unreal Engine for content team use?”

Related Services

• Graphics Programmers — Rendering engineers who build the pipelines Technical Artists use to create visual effects.
• Shader Developers — Dedicated shader specialists for complex HLSL/GLSL shader code beyond node graph tools.
• 3D Game Artists — 3D artists who create the base assets Technical Artists optimize and pipeline.
• VFX Artists — Visual effects artists who work alongside Technical Artists to create optimized particle and simulation effects.

Want to Hire Remote Technical Artists?

We source, vet, and place senior Technical Artists who bridge the gap between art ambition and hardware reality — engineers-who-draw who make visual goals achievable within real render budgets, build pipelines that keep art teams productive, and optimize assets so games ship on schedule and pass certification.

Get matched with Technical Artists →

Ready to hire Technical Artists who make your art direction achievable? Contact us today and we’ll introduce you to senior technical artists within 48 hours.