Outside being a web developer in a vfx/feature animation studio (IMS developer) there are programming-centric roles where experience with python, http APIs and dbs/orms comes in handy.
Roles like Assistant Technical Director (ATD), Pipeline Technical Director (Pipeline TD) and Pipeline Developer require familiarity with the applications used by 3d/2d artists (Maya, Nuke and Houdini to name a few) and their APIs to deliver the kind of functionality presented in the article.
Almost all those applications have a python interpreter that they use to expose their scripting api, and have a C++ SDKs as well. Most of them use Qt (and PyQt/Pyside) as the ui framework, which is the core skill for roles like UI Developer.
it's interesting that there are seemingly so many different kinds of jobs in the field that happen to involve python.
is the level of proficiency / familiarity with maya the same as an artist position? (i.e. how crucial is it that you are very familiar with all of it's functionality, not just the APIs)
how does the pay compare to a python job at an internet company?
how common is it to have someone move from a role like assistant technical director (or something more senior) to R&D programmer type position?
In my experience a clear understanding of how the applications work and how are used by artists is very important, so being able to complete simple tasks with them-independently of the quality of the results-is pretty important.
Pay should be comparable.
Companies are generally pretty supportive of their employees moving between positions internally. Demand for new developers and workload heavily affect the timing of internal moves.
Roles like Assistant Technical Director (ATD), Pipeline Technical Director (Pipeline TD) and Pipeline Developer require familiarity with the applications used by 3d/2d artists (Maya, Nuke and Houdini to name a few) and their APIs to deliver the kind of functionality presented in the article.
Almost all those applications have a python interpreter that they use to expose their scripting api, and have a C++ SDKs as well. Most of them use Qt (and PyQt/Pyside) as the ui framework, which is the core skill for roles like UI Developer.
We are hiring across all of those roles: http://www.dneg.com/jobs/