The Rise of the Creative Technologist
A new role for 3D Artists
The job title is Creative Technologist. I first noticed it at Adobe. Then I started seeing it pop up at other companies. And now I see it everywhere, and I think it might be the most accurate description of what a lot of us actually do.
Let’s get into it.
Why this title matters
I have branded everything I do around the idea of being a 3D Artist. This newsletter, the community, the deep dives. And I am not changing that today or anything but the more I think about it, the more I realize that calling all of us 3D artists is actually selling what we do a little short.
Because we are not just people who open one piece of software and make things in it. Think about what your actual workflow looks like on any given day. You might be modeling in ZBrush, rigging in Maya, painting in Substance, rendering passes in various render engines, compositing those images in another, managing file structures across a pipeline, writing the occasional script to automate something tedious, and figuring out how to make all of it talk to each other without everything falling apart. That is not “doing 3D.” That is creative problem-solving at an extremely high technical level. And the tool you use to do it happens to often be 3D software.
Wouldn’t Creative Technologist describe that job better than 3D Generalist?
Who is already using this title?
Apple has been quietly building out an entire Creative Technology group inside their Marcom division, which is their global marketing communications team. They have an active listing right now for Creative Technologists in the UK, and the job descriptions are worth reading. One of them describes a “nimble, multidisciplinary team of creative technologists, artists and designers” working to “drive innovation in rapidly evolving fields such as spatial and generative computing.” Another says the team is “prototyping forward-thinking experiences that leverage emerging technologies to advance Apple’s global marketing communications.”
The skills they are asking for are a mix: Python, ML tooling, generative AI, interactive prototyping, web development. But the through line is not any one skill. It is this: “ability to cut through ambiguity and find a path forward, despite uncertainty or challenges.” That is a mindset requirement. And that should sound very familiar to anyone who has spent time in a 3D pipeline.
Beyond Apple, the role is showing up across industries. Creative Technologists are working on interactive installations for museums and events, AR and VR experiences, brand activations, physical-digital hybrid experiences, experimental prototypes for R&D teams, and AI-powered creative tools. Pay attention and you will see it popping up everywhere.
What is the actual role?
The short answer is there isn’t one.
Some listings lean technical. They want Python, scripting, ML experience, front-end development. Others lean creative. They want prototyping, visual thinking, the ability to translate a fuzzy idea into something tangible. Most of them want both, in different proportions. One listing I came across described the role as “a hybrid of creative technologist, motion designer, and visual futurist.”
Another emphasized that the person needs to “quickly grasp and distill highly complex, ambiguous concepts of nascent technologies and turn them into simple, useful and delightful experiences.”
What all of these have in common is that they are looking for someone who can operate at the intersection of creative and technical while maintaining focus on finding a solution. Someone who is not waiting for the engineer to tell them what is possible or for the designer to tell them what it should look like. Someone who figures it out.
Why 3D artists are a natural fit
When I first got into this industry, I thought 3D software would consolidate. Things would keep getting easier, pipelines would simplify, and eventually there would be one big unified tool that handled everything. That is where I thought things were heading.
That is not what happened and I was surprised.
(I mean…I wasn’t really that surprised…I’m just digging these Doc Brown gifs.)
If anything, the opposite occurred. The toolset has gotten more fragmented. More specialized applications, more individual use case tools, more things that do a couple of specific things extremely well and hand off to the next thing. The pipeline has expanded, not simplified.
And the people who thrive in that environment are not the ones who know all the tools, it’s those who can learn a new tool in a week because they have learned a new tool a hundred times before. Those who understand how assets move through a pipeline, why files break, and how to troubleshoot when something is not working, and they cannot tell if it is a bug or user error. Who can sit in a room with engineers and designers and translate between them.
That is the Creative Technologist. And most of us have been doing that job for years without having a name for it.
What to do with this
I am not saying you need to run out and change your LinkedIn title. And I am definitely not saying that having “Creative Technologist” in a job listing means you need to know Python or have a computer science background before applying. Some of those roles will want that. A lot of them will not.
What I am saying is: just start Googling it when you are thinking about exploring a new role. Start watching where it shows up. Pay attention to the companies using this language and what they are actually asking for, because right now those job descriptions are all over the place, which means the role is still being defined. And when a role is still being defined, that is exactly when the people who show up with a strong point of view get to shape what it becomes.
Also, start thinking about yourself this way. Not as someone who knows a specific piece of software, but as someone who solves creative problems using whatever technology is available. So in your portfolio, document your process and show how you think, not just what you made. Be clear about how you navigate complexity and find solutions and be more than any specific tool skill, is what makes someone compelling for a role like this.
So to my two readers out there….
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Hello! Michael Tanzillo here. I am the Head of Technical Artists with the Substance 3D team at Adobe. Previously, I was a Senior Artist on animated films at Blue Sky Studios/Disney with credits including three Ice Age movies, two Rios, Peanuts, Ferdinand, Spies in Disguise, and Epic.
In addition to his work as an artist, I am the Co-Author of the book Lighting for Animation: The Visual Art of Storytelling and the Co-Founder of The Academy of Animated Art, an online school that has helped hundreds of artists around the world begin careers in Animation, Visual Effects, and Digital Imaging. I also created The 3D Artist Community on Skool and this newsletter.
www.michaeltanzillo.com
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“Marcom”? Really?
“Hello, my name is Shubham Satiwal. I am an experienced 3D Artist with 4+ years of experience in hard surface modeling, texturing, and game-ready assets. Currently looking for job opportunities in 3D Art, Environment Art, Props Art, and Hard Surface Modeling.”