Community Sentiment
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Do you agree with the AI automation risk score calculated for this occupation?
AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Special Effects Artists and Animators?
Task-level automation exposure for Special Effects Artists and Animators: 13 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
53%
weighted task index
13 of 13 tasks scored
Median Salary
$102,030 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
19,970 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
-0.3%
employment change
4,200 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 31 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$47,530 – $133,480
Highest medians
Washington $133,480
California $130,540
Nevada $97,350
New York $96,770
Colorado $91,290
Lowest medians
Iowa $47,530
Nebraska $50,830
Kentucky $50,970
New Mexico $54,000
West Virginia $60,940
State figures come from the 27-1014 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.
What the score is made of
Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.
Automation potential 53%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 13%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 82%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 0%
Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.
Rewritten by O*NET 0%
Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.
Consequence of error 25/100
Moderate
O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.
Constituent Task Mix
13 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.
High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 65%
8 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 22%
3 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 13%
2 tasks
How would you survive?
Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.
Simulate Upskilling →Constituent Tasks
#6882 · Core · 60% automatable
Design complex graphics and animation, using independent judgment, creativity, and computer equipment.
visual inspection — Generates CG and animation; art direction and rigging human
Create computer-generated graphics or animation.
#6888 · Core · 60% automatable
Create basic designs, drawings, and illustrations for product labels, cartons, direct mail, or television.
text generation — Concepts generated; commercial curation human
Develop artistic or design concepts for decoration, exhibition, or commercial purposes.
#6893 · Core · 45% automatable
Participate in design and production of multimedia campaigns, handling budgeting and scheduling, and assisting with such responsibilities as production coordination, background design, and progress tracking.
decision support — AI aids logistics planning; on-site event execution human
Coordinate logistics for productions or events.
#6883 · Core · 60% automatable
Create two-dimensional and three-dimensional images depicting objects in motion or illustrating a process, using computer animation or modeling programs.
visual inspection — Generates CG and animation; art direction and rigging human
Create computer-generated graphics or animation.
#6884 · Core · 60% automatable
Make objects or characters appear lifelike by manipulating light, color, texture, shadow, and transparency, or manipulating static images to give the illusion of motion.
visual inspection — Generates CG and animation; art direction and rigging human
Create computer-generated graphics or animation.
#6886 · Core · 60% automatable
Apply story development, directing, cinematography, and editing to animation to create storyboards that show the flow of the animation and map out key scenes and characters.
visual inspection — Drafts storyboards; visual narrative and production judgment human
Prepare production storyboards.
#6895 · Supplemental · 20% automatable
Implement and maintain configuration control systems.
physical manipulation — Software side AI-assisted; hardware maintenance is hands-on
Maintain equipment or systems to ensure proper functioning. Maintain computer equipment or software.
#6887 · Supplemental · 55% automatable
Script, plan, and create animated narrative sequences under tight deadlines, using computer software and hand drawing techniques.
visual inspection — Generates CG and animation; art direction and rigging human
Draw detailed or technical illustrations. Create computer-generated graphics or animation. Develop artistic or design concepts for decoration, exhibition, or commercial purposes.
#6890 · Supplemental · 60% automatable
Develop briefings, brochures, multimedia presentations, web pages, promotional products, technical illustrations, and computer artwork for use in products, technical manuals, literature, newsletters, and slide shows.
visual inspection — Generates CG and animation; art direction and rigging human
Create computer-generated graphics or animation.
#6885 · Supplemental · 10% automatable
Assemble, typeset, scan, and produce digital camera-ready art or film negatives and printer's proofs.
physical manipulation — Developing and print equipment operated by hand
Assemble equipment or components. Prepare film for distribution or use. Operate photographic developing or print production equipment.
#6894 · Supplemental · 90% automatable
Convert real objects to animated objects through modeling, using techniques such as optical scanning.
data analysis — Format conversion fully automatable
Convert data among multiple digital or analog formats.
#6889 · Supplemental · 45% automatable
Create pen-and-paper images to be scanned, edited, colored, textured, or animated by computer.
visual inspection — AI aids illustrations; precise technical drawing human
Draw detailed or technical illustrations.
#6891 · Supplemental · 60% automatable
Use models to simulate the behavior of animated objects in the finished sequence.
visual inspection — Generates CG and animation; art direction and rigging human
Create computer-generated graphics or animation.
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How this was scored
- 1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
- 2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
- 3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
- 4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.
Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.
Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast
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