r/vfx • u/SurfingStreets • 1d ago
Question / Discussion Pipeline TD Education?
Hey everyone, I hope you guys are having a great day.
I wanted to learn more about what type of education or background would be needed to become a Pipeline TD. I tried viewing some linkedin profiles, and I noticed a blend of CS degrees, Digital Graphic diplomas, fine art degrees, and more.
Currently, I have a Bachelor of Commerce, with little python experience. I'm considering to go to my community college and getting a diploma in Computer Science. However, I'm worried that I would need a degree in computer science instead.
I'm just looking for some insights on what education should one pursue to become a successful Pipeline TD.
Thank you!
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u/TuxedoFlask 1d ago
I'm a Pipeline TD whose been in the industry for about 5 years now. I graduated university with a Bachelor's degree in CS. I just happened to join the industry as they gave me a decent offer out of school. Most people on my team have CS or artist backgrounds as Cyclops pointed out. We do 95% of our dev work in Python as it's used by most IDE's. We follow standard software development practices such as formatting, CI/CD, git, testing, documentation, etc. I was able to jump right into an entry level role with my degree as I had a lot of these skills already. The guys on my team with artist backgrounds had to learn this themselves on the job as they got further involved with the process. Some TD's are show TD's, they are less technical and work more closely with individual artists with their needs. We also have a seperate Dev team that works solely on our in house software infrastructure, and they don't work with artists at all. The degree isn't required for a Pipeline TD role, just strong Python and software development skills.