Technical art
Unreal Engine Technical Artist
A Technical Artist is the bridge between what the art team wants to see and what the engine can do in time. That’s what I do every day in Unreal Engine 5 for live television, with the eye of someone who has been animating for more than 11 years.
What I do
Production Blueprints
Tools that solve specific problems: camera systems, scene logic, live control and links to external data.
Materials and shaders
Custom materials that are efficient and easy for the rest of the team to tweak.
Rigging and Control Rig
Rigs in Unreal with Control Rig, layers and additive layers, to animate straight in the engine.
VFX and simulations
Niagara, fluid simulations with Embergen and effects that fit the performance budget.
Optimisation
Scenes that meet their frame budget, like the 20 milliseconds of a live show at 50 fps.
Pipeline and good practice
Project structure, conventions and workflows that keep a project from breaking as it grows.
Recent work
Virtual camera and camera switch
Tools to control Unreal live from Viz Arc: a virtual camera that leaves the set and returns to the real tracking, and a signal switch.
Read the case →
Tadeo Jones in augmented reality
An animated character set up with Control Rig to appear live on a real studio set.
Read the case →
What a Technical Artist does in broadcast
The everyday work: rigs, effects, simulations and tools for live production.
Read the case →Frequently asked questions
Which Unreal Engine version do you use?
I work in Unreal Engine 5 every day and adapt to your project’s version, because in production you can’t always upgrade.
Can you help an animation team move to Unreal?
Yes, it’s exactly the path I took. I can help set up the pipeline, prepare rigs and tools and walk the team through the real-time workflow.
Do you only work in broadcast?
No. Broadcast is where I work every day, but the same skills apply to games, cinematics, commercials and interactive experiences.
Need a Technical Artist on your Unreal project?
Tell me what you’re working on and what’s getting stuck, and we’ll see how to solve it.
Tell me about your projectOr email me at contact@rubenbarrocal.com
Other services
3D animation for film and TV
Character animation with acting, weight and timing for TV series, film and commercials. Game of Thrones, Happy!, Pocoyo, Wind in the Willows.
See service →Game animation
Gameplay, NPCs, bosses and cinematics. Sackboy: A Big Adventure and the marketing cinematics for Raid: Shadow Legends and Mech Arena.
See service →AR and virtual production
Augmented reality, virtual sets and virtual cameras for live TV, integrated with the channel’s broadcast system.
See service →