Interview of Luc Leture, Technical artist at VIRTUOS

Luc Leture, graduated from RUBIKA in 2016, is a Technical Artist at Virtuos. 
During a visit to RUBIKA students, he reviewed his experience and his daily life in the video game industry.

How did your job search go when you finished your studies ?

Since the end of RUBIKA, thanks to my end-of-study internship and the network I obtained at school, everything has happened naturally professionally ! Many encounters have led me to take the place of technical artist at Virtuos on a permanent contract.

Can you explain the job of Technical Artist to us in a few words ?

If I had to summarize, I would say that the Technical Artist is the person who will solve all the technical problems of the artists and all the artistic problems of the programmers.

What is a typical day / week for you ?

A typical day starts with what is called a "stand up meeting", my whole team meets outside of the open space to get a glimpse of everyone's work in progress. The opportunity to take stock, to follow the missions on which everyone is working. Then I join the open space to move forward on my missions which can be solving bugs, creating shaders, improving GPU or CPU performance… And above all, I archive everything I do on a daily basis explaining my procedures on a shared platform which is of great use for the collective memory of the studio.
At the end of the week I take stock individually with my producer to define my missions for the following week. 

What do you like best about your job ?

What excites me about my job is that each day can be completely different from the last. Due to my position in a co-development studio, I am faced with very different games over the same year. Above all, the technical artist greatly contributes to the visual beauty of the game. It is a key role which has a real impact on the player's experience and which raises ever more exciting challenges of improvement and development. 

Can you tell us about a specific project ? Which are you particularly proud to have worked on ? 

There are several, but too few that I have the right to talk about today !
For the 1 year and a half that I spent at Virtuos, I have been counting my participation on 3 big AAA projects and on the prototype of another big game. I can tell you about the Assassin's Creed Liberation project, of which we took over the whole of the game materials to give them a realistic physical rendering.

What qualities do you need to become a Technical Artist ?

A good mathematical mind, or at least wanting to develop it. But also, a lot of concentration and the desire to continue learning and renewing oneself to keep up with the evolution of the technologies that one manipulates. A keen eye for detail and aesthetics. 

Which advice would you give to a young person who would like to have this job ?

Stay proactive and on standby on software and programming languages ​​with which a tech art is confronted. 

Is going abroad a plus, in Montreal for example ?

An experience abroad is always rewarding. Montreal is a breeding ground for incredible opportunities. Today all of the biggest studios are located there. At Virtuos we work with studios located all over the world and this interest in what is done in all studios around the world is of real importance. 

Are there a lot of job opportunities in this job ?

Without a doubt yes ! Since my LinkedIn profile shows that I am a technical artist at Virtuos, I receive an average of 2 job offers per week all year round for positions in France and abroad. 

What is the salary range for a beginner and after 5 years of XP ?

In France we have the AFJV platform which is an excellent tool for providing information on salary scales in the video game industry.