Being a VFX Artist in the Age of AI Images

Ximena
9 may
3 Min. de lectura

AI-generated imagery isn’t just a trend—it’s already reshaping how visual effects are produced. Specific roles are being squeezed, streamlined, or phased out from preproduction to post. If you’re working in VFX today, you’ve probably seen it up close: fewer gigs in concept art, tighter deadlines, and new expectations that you know how to work alongside AI. The shift isn’t subtle—it’s structural.

The Disappearing Concept Artist

It used to be standard practice for studios to bring freelance artists to develop creatures, environments, and character looks. Now, tools like Midjourney and DALL·E 3 can generate a dozen high-quality options in minutes. While there’s limited public documentation of studios like Warner Bros. using AI for pitch decks, many developers and designers quietly incorporate these tools into their early workflows (The Verge, 2023).

The result? Fewer early-phase jobs and less time to develop visual ideas with a human touch.

Matte Painting Meets Automation

Traditional matte painters once spent hours building digital landscapes, skies, and cities to match cinematic shots. Today, tools like Adobe Firefly and Stable Diffusion can create these visuals with minimal human input. Adobe has even showcased how set extensions can be generated using Firefly in under two hours (Adobe Blog, 2023).

Studios are hiring fewer matte painters and relying on AI-generated content for simpler or static background needs.

Rotoscoping Is Now a Button

Rotoscoping was an essential entry-level task—tedious, but steady work. Tools like Runway ML, Kiri.AI, and Roto Brush 2 in Adobe After Effects now offer frame-accurate automation. Netflix teams tested Runway ML’s Gen-2 model during 2024 pilot episodes, achieving significant time savings (FXGuide, 2024).

For junior artists, this means one less reliable way into the industry. For studios, it means leaner teams and faster turnaround.

Previs and Storyboarding Go Synthetic

Directors increasingly turn to tools like Kaiber, Wonder Studio, and Cinematica AI for quick previs passes. Instead of full 3D layout builds, rough shots are now composited with AI-generated imagery or motion-mapped actors. Even tools like Storyboarder AI turn scripts into rapid visual drafts, cutting weeks of manual layout work (Hollywood Reporter, 2024).

Pitch Frames? AI Does That Too

Pitch decks, style frames, and campaign previews—once the domain of motion designers—are now often built using generative tools. Agencies such as Ogilvy and Publicis Groupe have openly integrated AI into their internal design processes to reduce time and cost (Adweek, 2023).

What AI Still Can’t Do

Despite its speed, AI still struggles with the demands of real production. It can’t manage continuity across scenes, match lens distortion, or maintain accurate lighting in 3D environments. It doesn’t troubleshoot, revise on feedback, or understand the narrative arc of a shot.

These tasks still require human craft, where experienced VFX artists continue to shine.

The New VFX Role: Hybrid Artist

Studios like Blur Studio and The Mill are increasingly hiring artists who can both create and direct—people who use AI tools, but know when to override them. According to supervisors at both companies, the most valuable artists today are the ones who can make AI-generated content feel handcrafted (Art of VFX, 2024).

Studios Want Artists Fluent in AI

Studios aren’t just adopting AI tools—they’re restructuring hiring around them. Epic Games, for example, now prefers applicants with “AI-assisted design literacy” for world-building roles in Unreal Engine (Epic Games Careers, 2024). Artists who can blend procedural generation with intentional design are leading the next wave.

Final Thought: Cut Corners or Cut Friction?

Right now, the industry is splitting into two. On one side, people are using AI to shortcut their craft. On the other hand, professionals are using it to streamline workflows while elevating quality. The first group may be fast, but the second group will last.

Automation is here. That’s a fact. But the core of visual effects—the storytelling, the seamless integration of real and imagined—still needs a human hand. If you’re a VFX artist in 2025, your job isn’t to compete with AI.

Learning how to make it work for you, not vice versa.