Animation director vs technical artist

The differences between animation directors and technical artists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an animation director and a technical artist. Additionally, a technical artist has an average salary of $90,692, which is higher than the $71,266 average annual salary of an animation director.

The top three skills for an animation director include animation, maya and motion capture. The most important skills for a technical artist are python, animation, and C++.

Animation director vs technical artist overview

	Animation Director	Technical Artist
Yearly salary	$71,266	$90,692
Hourly rate	$34.26	$43.60
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	4,968	70,696
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 76%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	2	2

Animation director vs technical artist salary

Animation directors and technical artists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Animation Director	Technical Artist
Average salary	$71,266	$90,692
Salary range	Between $43,000 And $117,000	Between $57,000 And $141,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Novato, CA
Highest paying state	New Hampshire	Nevada
Best paying company	Microsoft	Meta
Best paying industry	Technology	Technology

Differences between animation director and technical artist education

There are a few differences between an animation director and a technical artist in terms of educational background:

	Animation Director	Technical Artist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 76%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common major	Animation	Graphic Design
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Animation director vs technical artist demographics

Here are the differences between animation directors' and technical artists' demographics:

	Animation Director	Technical Artist
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 75.1% Female, 24.9%	Male, 75.9% Female, 24.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.3% Asian, 7.7% White, 67.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.2% Asian, 7.6% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between animation director and technical artist duties and responsibilities

Animation director example responsibilities.

Manage animation department, promote to manage video and animation departments.
Lead a team of artists to create the art and animation for motion comics aspects of the show.
Translate storyboards into rough previz animations and work with director adjusting cameras and actions.
Assist with QA of code within Xcode environment.

Technical artist example responsibilities.

Manage Unity3D assets for game prototype.
Write tools in Maxscript, MEL, javascript, python, and vbscript to automate repetitive processes.
Create 2D / 3D art assets for PC and PlayStation 3 video games.
Fill numerous roles as needed from UI & FX, to environment art, implementation, and tool authoring.
Design, develop and support software tools for animation production pipeline.
Write tools in Mel for the art team.

Animation director vs technical artist skills

Common animation director skills

Animation, 37%
Maya, 16%
Motion Capture, 6%
Unity, 5%
Medical Care, 5%
CG, 4%

Common technical artist skills

Python, 17%
Animation, 10%
C++, 8%
Unity, 7%
MEL, 6%
Game Development, 4%

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Animation Director
Animation Director vs Technical Artist

Updated January 8, 2025

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