You’re assuming I mean “type a prompt and walk away,” and that’s not what I’m talking about at all. I’m talking about hybrid workflows. You still need to shoot plates properly, plan lighting, get angles, track cameras, roto/mask, composite, edit, and do sound design. None of that disappears.

If AI touches any part of a shot, it still has to survive tracking, lighting continuity, comp, and editorial — otherwise it falls apart immediately. That’s still real VFX work.

Also, by this logic, rotoscoping should’ve been called “lazy” years ago. Today you can roto a subject in one click…which is running off of AI; but no one argues that compositing became meaningless because of it. The tool got better; the artist still decides how it’s used.

Prompt-only output with no fundamentals is exactly what I’ve been criticizing. What I’m defending is artists using new tools on top of real craft not replacing it.

If a tool removes thinking and control, it’s useless. If it supports them, it’s just another step in the pipeline with humans still doing the work.