FlightWay / Careers / Special Effects Artists and Animators

Creative & Media

Special Effects Artists and Animators

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.

Sector: Creative & Media
Preparation: Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed
O*NET code: 27-1014.00

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Working with Computers

central to the job — rated 96/100 for importance.
Thinking Creatively

central to the job — rated 96/100 for importance.
Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates

central to the job — rated 94/100 for importance.
Getting Information

central to the job — rated 89/100 for importance.
Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge

a major part of the work — rated 84/100 for importance.
Processing Information

a major part of the work — rated 77/100 for importance.

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.

What it takes

Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.

Skills

Active Listening

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Reading Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Critical Thinking

Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Speaking

Needed at a solid working level (50/100), and rated 56/100 for importance.
Active Learning

Needed at a solid working level (48/100), and rated 53/100 for importance.

Knowledge

Computers and Electronics

Needed at a high level (74/100), and rated 99/100 for importance.
English Language

Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 85/100 for importance.
Design

Needed at a high level (61/100), and rated 81/100 for importance.
Communications and Media

Needed at a high level (65/100), and rated 78/100 for importance.

Abilities

Oral Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 78/100 for importance.
Oral Expression

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Visualization

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Written Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.

How people get in

O*NET places this occupation in Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.

Education

A four-year bachelor's degree is the usual entry ticket.

Experience

Two to four years of related work, internships or research on top of the degree.

Training

Most of the learning happens before you are hired, not after.

What it pays

These are typical creative compensation bands by employer tier — sector-level figures, not a measured salary for Special Effects Artists and Animators specifically. Treat them as the shape of the market, then check a real posting for the number.

WPP · Pentagram · Google

$100k – $180k

Mid-size Agencies

$70k – $110k

Freelance & Boutique

$45k – $80k

How the work tends to run

Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.

Most of the day happens at a screen.From “Working with Computers”
Long-running relationships carry the work; the same people come back.From “Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships”
Part of the job is other people’s output, not only your own.From “Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others”
There is real room to invent — the answer is not in a manual.From “Thinking Creatively”

How FlightWay scores your fit against this

No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.

1. You answer a short quiz: Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
2. We correlate the two profiles: Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Special Effects Artists and Animators. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
3. The number you see is personality fit only: "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
4. Every factor is visible: You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.

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Occupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.