Special Effects Artists and Animators

High Risk
61%
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Vote Comments (82)
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AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
70%
(High Risk)
POLLING
53%
(Moderate Risk)
Average: 61%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
4.3%
by year 2033
WAGES
$99,060
or $47.62 per hour
Volume
29,940
as of 2023
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
4.8/10

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Calculated automation risk

70% (High Risk)

High Risk (61-80%): Jobs in this category face a significant threat from automation, as many of their tasks can be easily automated using current or near-future technologies.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Originality

User poll

53% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, the automation risk level we have generated suggests a much higher chance of automation: 70% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Special Effects Artists and Animators will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?






Sentiment

The following graph is included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (quarterly)

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Special Effects Artists and Animators' job openings is expected to rise 4.3% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2024.

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Special Effects Artists and Animators' was $99,060, or $47 per hour

'Special Effects Artists and Animators' were paid 106.1% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 29,940 people employed as 'Special Effects Artists and Animators' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 5 thousand people are employed as 'Special Effects Artists and Animators'.

Job description

Create special effects or animations using film, video, computers, or other electronic tools and media for use in products, such as computer games, movies, music videos, and commercials.

SOC Code: 27-1014.00

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Comments

Leave a comment

Ele (Low) 4 months ago
As an artist, I'd give some doubt to this because I've seen the ropes done behind animation. Sure, AI can recreate animation, but at the same time it will not hold a candle to the quality human-made animation has. The way it constantly shifts between several art styles because it farms stolen media it's been fed which leads to major inconsistencies. Much more, it's rather impossible to make an "original" animated short made entirely out of AI. Why? Consistency (and originality) are the reason. I find that AI "generalizes" images to be able to create an image, which is difficult especially when it comes to pushing facial expressions because AI needs to farm hundreds of images to "understand" how to recreate the image. I don't think it's possible in the long run either because at some point in time IF society and the industry as a whole decides to just USE AI for everything, there's gonna be a lot of "inbreeding" happening. AI will feed on other AI because there's not gonna be anymore human-made images it can freely farm off of which results to the most whacked quality you'd think of. AI will make the most general looking animation that can ever exist, but that thing will lack the soul, the humanity, human-made animations have.
9 0 Reply
Sundew (Moderate) 4 months ago
Because a.i can already generate videos n stuff
0 4 Reply
August Nelson (Moderate) 4 months ago
With all the art AIs we already have, it is inevitable.
0 3 Reply
human (Low) 4 months ago
originality and high quality
2 1 Reply
Moss (Uncertain) 4 months ago
Ai is smart, but also stupid. In time it could, but we dont know for sure.
1 2 Reply
bob (Moderate) 5 months ago
ai is getting better at making automated vidseos
0 2 Reply
Aaron (No chance) 5 months ago
This requires soul and robots can’t replicate the soul that humans produce. Bad or otherwise.
5 1 Reply
Aizen 5 months ago
I saw a lot of highly likely comments, so as an artist I thought I should give my point of view.
I don’t think ai can replace these types of jobs as if you wanted to actually make a movie or series, you would still need a good plot and a storyboard and color for at least one frame and for the ending and beginning scene or else how would you make a movie that follows the exact plot and looks that you want. (if your an in-between artists.. uhhhh-)
an example would be any ghibli film. even if ai were to create a movie and make it look exactly the same, it’s not as appealing because every ghibli film not only takes years to make but uses traditional animation and hand draw each frame and that’s what makes it appealing and different from other films not because an ai made it in just 5 seconds.
4 0 Reply
Ahmed (Highly likely) 5 months ago
Simply because of the hyper realistic AI that’s making these videos it’s becoming hard to tell what is real and what isn’t personally I think it’s going to be worse but it’s a high chance it may take over
0 3 Reply
Jason Chen (Highly likely) 5 months ago
sora ai and generative video models can have a text input create any video or film imagery now, hence no need for armies of humans creating these works of digital art.
0 3 Reply
P3S4NT (Highly likely) 5 months ago
ai art, it steals pieces of art without permission and merges them into something else.
1 2 Reply
Max Sky (Moderate) 6 months ago
ai animation could become super avalible from OpenAI Sora, ngl its scary, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YEX4t79e0Q
0 2 Reply
no >:( (Low) 6 months ago
copyright and laws and stuff
2 0 Reply
Max Sky 6 months ago
it could change in the future you never know.
0 2 Reply
Bryan (student) 7 months ago
With the amount of new technology and AI coming through the years, people may think about robotic replacement in the industry of artists/designers. I don’t completely agree with them (maybe because I do want to make it my job in the future) but there will always have a limit and as we all know, technology, AI, computer, programming, etc… are made by humans. For me, technology should assist humans, doing daily task for example. But not replace them. And as we all says, they don’t have the originality, creativity of human being.
0 0 Reply
Ro (Highly likely) 9 months ago
Sora AI
0 2 Reply
james adamson 10 months ago
Everyone here is looking at this from the perspective of a creative. I am also in that bucket, but when the bean counters see something cheaper and more efficient the little nuances and facets of human beauty and creativity will not be considered.
A powerful and forceful director/CEO/MD on board could swing that in human creativity's favour, but look at all the areas in production where the money goes for the lowest common denominator.
Art and money are not good bedfellows and AI art like plastic and industrial streamlining are where we are headed unfortunately.( IMHO.)While we got a bit cleverer at being efficient we will also get A LOT cheaper a lot saddder and A LOT more unpleasant on the eye!

From DaVinci to plastic impressions and AI interpretations of beauty.
I'm thinking of the film Brazil and a horrendous retail park I visited in LA! Gaudy gossip magazines cheap toy shops and the show Black Mirror!
0 0 Reply
armando camero 10 months ago
you'll be replaced by AI if the client is okay with 'good enough' . but you won't if the client needs minor detail adjustments and lots of precision and control
0 0 Reply
Navarone (Highly likely) 1 year ago
Im a 3D rigging artist with 5+ years in the industry and if things keep going the way they are, i think that by 2040, 3D art is going to be just a few directors and producers using AI instead of a pipeline.
Art is dead.
0 1 Reply
JD (Highly likely) 1 year ago
AI art is already being embraced in small ways. the complexity and quality is only going to grow out of convenience to bigger animation companies, and demand from film production studios.
0 1 Reply
Joe 1 year ago
If you'd posed this question to me just two years ago, my response would have been a firm "absolutely not." However, given the emergence of advanced AI generative models, my current perspective leans towards a scenario in which the role may not vanish entirely, but instead undergo a substantial reduction in workforce. So the hundreds of visual effects artists typically employed in a film's production might dwindle down to 5-10 individuals
0 1 Reply

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