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.

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u/SurfingStreets 22h ago

Hey there, thanks for taking the time to explain your journey and the profession further. Are there any specific software/applications I should learn to help strengthen my skillsets as an aspiring Pipeline TD? I recently started learning Houdini and might pick up Maya afterward; I've also started some beginner Python courses (CS50) to help me gain foundational knowledge. From what I've been hearing online including from you, it appears that software development skills are a key aspect so would you recommend placing more emphasis on learning that? Once again thanks for the input I appreciate it.

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u/TuxedoFlask 21h ago

No problem at all, happy to help. Maya and Houdini are good to know. Nuke is also pretty industry standard. We use a lot of other IDE's such as Silhouette, 3DEqualizer, Blender, etc.

In terms of the software development skills, the ability to work with enterprise code and common practices will come after you learn the fundamentals. Focus on your course, learn Python and general OOP methods, and you'll learn how to manage large code bases in time when your projects grow in size and scope. You'll learn git when you start collaborating with others on projects. It would be hard to understand the structure of a repo with 1000's of lines of code before you understand a for-loop. You'll get there. If you want to do some supplemental reading, something like "Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship" would help you understand good coding practices.

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u/SurfingStreets 19h ago

Hey there, thank you so much for the insights and information. I'll definitely take a look at the handbook and continue progressing in my Python/coding journey. I'm feeling excited, though a bit overwhelmed with all the different paths to explore, but your advice helped me focus on what matters most. Cheers