The demand for visual effects artists in the industry has always been a concern of everyone around me while working on 3 different continents at 7 different companies. Throughout a decade i have watched people around me making a living working as freelancers and moving around all over the world to be hired on a project basis to work on some of the biggest movies of the year. It is a competitive and demanding environment but not just for artists, companies as well are competing for the best talent to achieve the best results in the least amount of time.

The demand for Visual Effects artists has grown continuously in the last few years and is only expected to grow further with more daring productions and more money flowing into high-quality TV shows like Game of Thrones or The Mandalorian. 

So while demand is growing, there are several influences that one might consider before getting into this field. Be it automation through AI or outsourcing either to a more junior team or cheap labor in developing countries. All in all, there are lots of unknowns in this business and it is worth its while to take a deeper look.

How high is the demand for Visual Effects Artists really?

Before taking a subjective view, let’s look at some stats.
In this report, we can see that most segments of the industry are growing at about 2% a year.
The report also states that it is one of the fastest growing segments in the global media and entertainment market. This has a lot to do with production costs dropping and technology, as well as the workforce, being easier available.

With the rise of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Twitch as well as Disney+ and Apple’s new streaming service, we see an ever expanding field of opportunity for digital artists. Recently Netflix has even opened its own animation studio and has started hiring.

I personally have never received more inquiries and offers than in 2019. Most of them came from Montreal and London, however, there was a surprising amount of decent offers out of China as well. Companies there offer relocation, transportation, accommodation as well as salaries between USD 100k – 150k for Mid to Senior level artists.

This is only from an animator’s point of view, however, it is very unlikely that this is an isolated observation.

People are finding work easier than ever these days and especially junior artists are also seeing a rise in opportunity due to companies like MPC adopting the business model of hiring an army of junior artists lead by a small team of experienced people.

I am not going to look at the morality of this model in this article as that is the topic for a long discussion in another place. What can’t be denied is the fact that models like this absolutely provide a stepping stone or so called “foot in the door” for young artists who are hungry and eager to initially trade time and energy as well as low paychecks for experience so they can move on to better managed less sweatshop style studios.

As we see Visual Effects getting more and more elaborate for TV and streaming productions, Youtube is the logical next step where large content producers will invest in more high quality post production of any kind.

Lastly, developing countries like China and India are only just coming online now. There is a huge market that is largely untapped that will increase demand for highly skilled VFX artists for decades to come. 

Which disciplines are most in demand?

Talking to recruiters and from personal experience, it seems that skill might not be as important at a certain point. If someone has worked in the industry for a certain time, they clearly have the skill and i personally have only seen an increase in callbacks and inquiries after I had gathered experience at studios like Weta Digital or ILM. Any other studio didn’t seem to matter as much.

What seems to matter much more these days primarily, is finding people who:

• Communicate well
• Take notes well and don’t need a lot of supervision
• Have the best interest of the project at heart
• Don’t have an ego that might influence the mood within the team

Almost all the positions I got hired for in the last few years were influenced by getting good references from superiors who liked me and had a good experience working with me as a person and artist. Not so much because they vouched for my skills.

If it comes down to skills nonetheless, these are likely the most important things people in hiring positions will be looking for (ordered by importance):

• Experience
• Having worked on projects that are similar to the one they are hiring for
• A nice demo reel
• Complementary skills like coding, rigging, etc.
• Degree

A Degree is absolutely at the very low end of the list as no one ever cared about the fact that I do not have a formal degree in the field.

Future trends in the industry

Automation and AI

There is a growing concern in regards to automation in the industry that needs to be addressed.
Looking at the influence of AI, there aren’t many jobs that can be replaced completely.
Tasks can be sped up, tools can be made easier to use but in the end, there is always artistry involved.

Some might say that there are even algorithms who create art these days, however, once the novelty of that fades off, I don’t see why this would be interesting in the same way as art is interesting today.
Art is an expression of its creator’s world view and of the message that he or she is trying to convey or the feeling that he or she is trying to evoke in the observer. As this is such a deeply human thing to do, it can never be fully replaced by an AI.

Certain tasks might get less technical, which might decrease the demand for skill, which in turn might reduce salaries. Especially in fields like Roto/Paint or FX as well as production roles.

Machines are good at repeatable tasks. Bringing something unexpected to the table that’s still human and relateable is nothing that a machine will ever be able to replace.

Alternative uses of VFX

There are more and more alternative fields profiting from the easier accessibility of Visual Effects.

Mining, Real Estate, Aerospace and Event planning are only a few of them. With the growth of skill and knowledge in visual effects and economic growth in all these industries, there is likely increased growth in demand for visual effects specialists as well.

There is also a huge market in AR/VR that is in such an infant stage that it is had to make an estimate as to how much it will grow once its hardware is mass applicable. This is a huge field of real development where people with ideas and a vision can get highly rewarded.

Imagine it kind of like when ILM first made Jurassic Park. None of the technology was there. It was a pain to work with everything and none of it was a straightforward process. The people who persisted and succeeded back then are now legends of the industry.

Outsourcing and cheap labor

As mentioned above, the outlook for wages is likely not as good as for the demand in the labor force. 

It is only a matter of time until large studios realize that quality might not matter as much as they thought. That is likely going to cause a move towards more work being distributed to cheap labor either in developing countries or the aforementioned business model adopted by companies like MPC who hire a lot of junior artists who are willing to work for cheap.

A perfect example that exemplifies this is Black Panther. Without meaning to insult anyone who has worked on the movie, the general consensus within the industry is that the Visual Effects in that movie were mediocre at best. This was mostly due to unrealistic deadline expectations but no matter what caused it, the movie still grossed more than a Billion Dollars at the box office. 

Clearly the mediocre Visual Effects did not stop the movie from being a huge hit. At some point, there will be a producer or an accountant that will bring up the fact that the quality of Visual Effects doesn’t seem to have an impact on their profits, and somewhere at some point, there will be a studio executive who will be willing to give the idea a shot.

Conclusion

Overall though, despite the negative outlooks, there are also positive things to be taken away from this.

Artistic jobs are hard to come by and being able to make a living off it on a consistent basis is highly desirable. Demand overall is not looking to decrease, which means consistent employment and a consistent income. 

People with new ideas and visions, using new technology and mediums will also always create new experiences for the masses to consume which in turn will open up vast new fields for people with deep knowledge to thrive in. This only undermines the point that  Visual Effects is a very solid and future proof field of work and expertise that will stay in demand for years to come.