TA Tools is an overall tool application that allows current and future TAs to add their own tooling to the app as desired. This was created with PySide & PyInstaller.
The SDK Updater tool was created to allow artists to edit the JSON files in production as needed without having to find the underlying file.
The Maya joint tool was created to streamline the process of joint creation and ensure the team can better follow our desired naming conventions.
The Maya joint tool also allows artists to easily rename all their joints as desired after they have already been created.
The preview animation tool allows artists to quick load any of the created animation takes in a given FBX.
The Set Manager tool allows artists to very quickly create & organize sets that aligned with our naming standards and project file conventions to be able to use our other tooling more effectively.
Problem: Artists reported that there were a lot of redundant steps occurring in their everyday workflows as they worked on effect production for the TikTok app that were wildly inefficient. Some artists had ideas for general tools that they could use in their everyday lives, but weren't sure exactly what they wanted or needed. There had not been any tooling infrastructure that was not done solely in Maya before.
Solution: I met 1:1 with several artists to understand how they went about their current workflow, and identified what additional gaps could be solved with additional tooling. Using a mix of python (PySide & PyInstaller), bash, and shell scripting, I created a whole suite of various tools for our in-house designers that they were able to download for both Mac and Windows machines.
Outcome: Implementing these various tools streamlined our 40+ artist team's workflows to be able to bypass tedious work and resolve the work in seconds. This way, each artist was more able to focus on the actual art portions of our projects instead.
