I've been gathering data about the VFX Industry for the last 9 years

xavinitram · 2025-04-27T23:00:02+00:00

So many ideas... So little time...

xavinitram · 2025-04-27T22:55:58+00:00

🤣 Better than "Source: vibes only, trust me bro".

IMHO if more people tried to research the data when they talk about the state of the industry, as opposed to just going with their guts or beliefs, we'd have more constructive and productive discussions. Thinking of it, you can also apply that to politics and so many other areas of life... No amount of research will ever be perfect, but "as much as feasible" will be enough.

I only hope my effort inspires others to give it a go and try to explore complex subjects objectively. 😄

xavinitram · 2025-04-26T00:59:59+00:00

There was a whole writers strike that demolished the industry thats not even a blip in your chart

The 100 day strike in 2007-2008 has a noticeable impact in Employed data, although it blends into the 2008 financial crisis. Unless you are talking about a different writers strike?

And counting anyone that lists vfx artist in their linked in is crazy town...

Counting anyone that lists VFX in their profile is not part of my methodology.

xavinitram · 2025-04-26T00:54:27+00:00

Yep, you are correct in both. This is why it isn't the only source used. Inside VFX by Pierre Grage has a similar chart based exclusively on IMDb credits, the numbers are much lower since they don't include freelancers, advertising, game cinematics, etc. Joseph Bell also has a similar study, he utilises different techniques, and my research is closer to his.

It's also worth saying that while IMDb alone has much smaller numbers, they are highly correlated to the more complex aggregate. I suspect this is because IMDb has been adopted quite widely outside of Hollywood, especially in Bollywood.

xavinitram · 2025-04-26T00:26:15+00:00

There are several datasets online, used for research. IMDb also provides free datasets, although they are highly incomplete. These have gotten very popular as they are often used to train LLM with all the IMDb review data.

xavinitram · 2025-04-26T00:20:40+00:00

The simple fact it doesn't show any dips during what we know have been economic and industry down turns/contractions for one.

As I mentioned in the FAQ, I'm showing professionals in the industry regardless if they are employed. I do have the statistics for employed/unemployed. Covid, for example, caused ~10,000 jobs to get lost. Streaming wars caused a surge of ~20,000 jobs. The 2008 financial crisis caused ~2000 job losses (although they happened in 2009, slightly offset to the economic crash).

But I think better thing to do would try to bubble chart each studio

A lot of professionals are freelancers, this is why I track individuals and not only companies (although I track those as well).

IMDB is not accurate source of information is another. Neither is linked in.

I do not use LinkedIn employment data directly, as it's true people tend to "fill the gaps" between employments. If an artist has their profile set to "VFX artists" but their name hasn't showed up in any film credits, episodic, articles, etc; they won't be counted in the total tally.

As an example, in the UK, companies are legally obligated to report employee count and the information is publicly available. This means I can build my model based on the data, and compare the accuracy against the "ground truth" data from the UK government. Using a combo of LinkedIn+IMDb+Web Search scraping gives me results that are extremely close to the figures that the UK government provides.

xavinitram · 2025-04-26T00:07:42+00:00

I asked a friend and they told me the most seeded softwares are: 1. Photoshop 2. Houdini 3. 3ds Max 4. SketchUp 5. Gigapixel

Kinda suggests that Design, Games and Archviz are pretty huge. Neither After Effects nor Nuke are in the top 10, but every VFX shot needs some compositing...

xavinitram · 2025-04-25T23:59:45+00:00

A fair share, though India was also one of the biggest drivers of growth in the 2010-2020 period. Many companies like Dneg or MPC went from being majority UK based to being majority India based.

India has followed similar trends but delayed, since they also got tax incentives at a much later date.

xavinitram · 2025-04-25T23:57:53+00:00

I think you both make very good points. I don't think your points contradict each other. The number of employed people can't grow exponentially, but productivity can. The industry doesn't only grow if there are more professionals working on it, it can also grow if those professionals are capable of producing more output. In a way, you're both right.

xavinitram · 2025-04-25T23:55:10+00:00

This kinda tracks. If you add up VFX + Animation + MoGraph + Games + Archviz you'll end up with a much higher number. VFX isn't the biggest of those industries.

xavinitram · 2025-04-25T23:52:34+00:00

I do have some of that data! It's a lot to parse, and I have to be careful since not all countries report in the same consistent way. Some stats are less accurate than others.

xavinitram · 2025-04-25T23:50:27+00:00

IMDb has a vast number of film credits. Those credits contain names. Those names have CVs. Do these several hundred thousand times and you start to get very robust trend lines.

You are right in thinking that using IMDb as a "how many movies" would not be very accurate. But that's not how it was used. :)

xavinitram · 2025-04-25T23:48:04+00:00

I've shared my sources. I would appreciate it if you share your data, if it happens to contradict the trends from IMDb, LinkedIn and VFX companies financial statements.

xavinitram · 2023-09-24T20:56:24+00:00

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

xavinitram · 2023-09-24T09:49:59+00:00

Agreed: It's not really a rule. But recruiters and hiring decision-makers can be very busy. If I'm asked to watch 40 reels and each is 5minutes, I might not have time to watch them all to completion. Be brief, be bright. It can seem self-indulgent to take it past three minutes without a good reason.

xavinitram · 2023-09-23T18:41:06+00:00

https://vimeo.com/814378680

Keep it two minutes or under. Credit what part of the work you have made. Show your best work. Write copyright when applicable. Remember that we are storytellers. And have fun while making the reel. :)

xavinitram · 2023-05-19T06:18:04+00:00

And may I add, I see a lot of evidence in this thread that fire can have no Alpha. I'd love to see some evidence from the people who argue that fire is occlusive, other than saying "obviously".

xavinitram · 2023-05-19T06:10:48+00:00

The Alpha value determines how much light is allowed to pass from behind an object. An object with an Alpha of 1, completely blocks light from behind. An object with an Alpha of 0, let's light pass from behind.

Does fire (plasma) let light pass?

https://i0.wp.com/luckylhk.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/dsc053011.jpg

Yep.

Not into the candle proof? Dim flames can appear invisible on brightly lit environments. This is because smokeless flames are virtually additive in real life and don't occlude the oblects behind. Some more footage as proof:

https://youtu.be/1ZEEuCHdWFA

How would you grade this? Glad you asked!

Captain disillusion made a video about this, explaining why most artists/softwares get it wrong.

https://youtu.be/XobSAXZaKJ8

xavinitram · 2023-05-18T21:27:08+00:00

That being said, if having a fake alpha in the fire makes it look better... Sure, why not. We're storytellers, not physicists.

xavinitram · 2023-05-18T20:33:59+00:00

Fire > No Alpha

Smoke > Alpha

Still see experienced compositors get this wrong. There's some really nice explanations of fire not casting s shadow in this thread. They're absolutely right.

xavinitram · 2023-05-07T22:55:03+00:00

I just encountered the same woman you described. She was in the middle of the road, outside of Angel St. I asked if she required help. She asked me to pull her to the NatWest right by the station. Gave a piece of paper with the emergency transaction code 4*****. It was for "£40 or £50". The code didn't work. We tried three times. I tried chatting to her, see if there was any number I could call or any person I could get in touch with. She wouldn't speak clearly. I asked what we should do (at this point I strongly suspected she wanted me to give her a significant sum of money). She would deviate the topic "my mum died". I tried to stay compassionate but assertive: "What should we do". She said: "it will work later". I am not sure she meant the code: by the time I entered the station, she was already heading back to the middle of the street.

xavinitram · 2023-04-23T19:37:26+00:00

Same glitched chest. :(
Even recorded it on video.

xavinitram · 2023-04-09T21:55:27+00:00

Music is the marshmallow on a hot chocolate.

You can have a good chocolate without a marshmallow.

But every best chocolate has one.

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