How to Enter the VFX Industry in 2026

Do you dream of working in VFX? Aren’t sure how to get into the VFX industry, or what a VFX career path even looks like?

VFX is a world that’s always changing but the core of the job stays the same. While tools are ever evolving, the VFX landscape looks much the same now as it did years ago only with one crucial difference. It has never been easier to start a career in VFX than in the 2020s and today we’re going to talk about why.

What Qualifications Do You Need to Become a VFX Artist?

None.

Seriously, the VFX industry does not care about your qualifications anything like as much as they care about your portfolio. In fact, this is true for basically any artistic discipline. If you can prove that you have the skills to do the work, then that’s all they need to see. VFX hiring managers are most interested in finding someone who knows the tools inside and out and will fit into their pipeline. In other words, you’re being judged on what you can do, not where you learned it.

Of course that’s not to say going to college is worthless. While you can get into the VFX industry without going to college, you shouldn’t underestimate the sheer value of networking. Colleges can offer a direct insight into the professional world as well as great opportunities for gaining experience and making contacts.

The bottom line is that if you pick the right course at the right institution then VFX qualifications can be useful but you don’t need them and for many, their time will be much better spent building a strong portfolio. Ultimately, it’s not a question of what degree you need for VFX but a question of which software you’ve learned and how well you can prove it.

How To Become a Visual Effects Artist

If you want to be a VFX artist then your best investment isn’t an expensive school. It’s a good PC and a handful of software packages.

First things first you’ll want to pick a specialisation. Don’t try to become a generalist because nobody hires generalists. What hiring managers want is people who are very good at one thing.

Once you’ve picked that specialisation do your research. Find out what the industry standard tool is and learn it. If you want to be a modeler, learn Maya. If you want to sculpt, learn Z-brush.

It can also help to learn a few tools as some studios don’t use the industry standard. For example, Blender – which is more of an open source grab bag of tools – isn’t the standard for any single job but many studios like to use it to fill in the blanks for applications they may not wish to pay for. As such, it’s worth having a solid working knowledge.

It’s also worth learning up-and-coming tools in your specialisation if you have time/inclination and studios will sometimes hire experts in a particular workflow/software to help them build a tool into their existing pipeline.

The point is, learn, learn, learn. Make projects and post them on Art Station. Build a portfolio that proves you know your specialist area inside and out. When all’s said and done, the biggest competition is between your portfolio and someone else’s, so that’s where most of your time should go.

How to Get into The VFX Industry

At the start, we said it’s easier than ever to get a job in VFX and this is true with one major caveat. If you’re strictly looking to get into big budget film and TV, then now is a difficult time.

During the COVID lockdowns a lot of people were looking for entertainment at home. This led to a massive boom for the film/TV industry as well as the games industry – which is not strictly VFX but has a lot of overlapping skills. Put simply, big companies got bigger, taking on more staff than ever before. This proved to be a bubble and when the lockdowns ended and everyone went back to work, the bubble burst.

All of this to say that if you’re looking to work for a major studio like ILM, DNEG, or Weta, then you’re likely to struggle. The industry has been in a state of bust for several years now. On the other hand, the indie industry is bigger than ever and only continuing to grow.

The tools for making high quality VFX are more accessible than ever before and this means that smaller studios all over the world are now becoming more viable to run. So while the high end jobs may be difficult to find, the mid-level roles may represent the future of the industry.