Author and VFX veteran Joseph Bell talks about his unique research report, published as a free downloadable eBook, that organizes and charts data on more than 55,000 individual artists who work in the global visual effects industry.
Released late last year by Joseph Bell, who was unhappy and frustrated by the lack of clear, objective information about the VFX industry, the “Visual Effects World Atlas” provides a unique, comprehensive research report and overview of artists who work in the global visual effects industry, an industry that supports the creative works of film studios, streamers, and branded content creators.Bell provides a unique voice in visual effects, combining 20 years of hands-on experience at some of the most respected studios in the field – including Industrial Light & Magic, The Mill, and FuseFX – with a global view of industry trends and business dynamics.
Available free of charge in the hope that it will help foster a sense of global community among VFX artists, the atlas can be downloaded here or at vfxatlas.com.We recently had a chance to chat with Bell about his sorely needed, unique research efforts, how the atlas was produced, and what his plans are for updates and related industries.AWN: Joseph Bell: Visual Effects have grown into a multi-billion-dollar global industry in a relatively short span of years.
And yet we rarely talk about VFX as an industry.It’s much easier to find information on how state-of-the-art VFX are created than it is to find information about global trends impacting hundreds of VFX studios and tens of thousands of VFX professionals worldwide.There are conversations that we’re simply not having as a professional community.
My goal with the Atlas is to start building a shared understanding of the VFX industry, one that is grounded in data rather than hearsay and marketing.I hope the Atlas will foster a sense of community that spans borders and time zones.I also want to make it normal to talk openly and publicly about important industry trends, and how VFX businesses are responding to them.
The Atlas is a first step in that direction. AWN: JB: The Atlas was created almost entirely using publicly available data from the internet.This allowed me to identify over 55,000 individuals around the world who work in visual effects, including their job title, location, and company affiliation.Obviously, the data doesn’t include every person in the VFX industry globally.
But it is a rather large and detailed sample! There’s an idea that VFX companies are the only source of accurate information for something like this.To be honest, I think that’s a naive view.Many companies would have concerns about revealing details of their internal staffing, and, from a marketing perspective, they all want to look as large and as capable as possible.
The approach used for the Atlas sidesteps these issues entirely.I wanted to leave plenty of room for readers to draw their own conclusions from the data.That’s why there’s a limited amount of commentary and interpretation in the pages of the Atlas — but there are plenty of data tables to browse.
I avoided extrapolating the data as much as possible, trying to be totally upfront with readers about what it does and does not show. AWN: JB: The Atlas itself took about three months to produce.I started gathering data in May 2024, but it wasn’t until a few months into the project that I realized there was enough to share in an ebook rather than a few charts and graphs. This first edition of the Atlas was created by a very small team.I cleaned the raw data personally, combing through a 55,000-row spreadsheet line by line several times.
Did you know that many photographers around the world call their shingle Blur Studio? And a lot of heavy machinery operators work for companies named MPC? I screened out over 12,000 extraneous entries from the data to get to the 55,000 that were used for the Atlas.I then used Tableau software to generate the maps and charts. My wife did all the design and layout work for the Atlas and the website.I also hired two researchers, one in India and the other in Vietnam, to contribute to the coverage of those countries (you can hear from them directly in the Atlas).
And, of course, several people kindly wrote pieces, including the foreword by Jeff Okun and various “spotlight” articles on specific countries.AWN: JB: The Atlas should be useful for anyone who wants an overview of the VFX industry.Students planning their careers in VFX, investors and journalists trying to grasp the shape of the industry, recruiters looking at demand for and availability of talent, perhaps even managers at VFX studios navigating the business landscape.
I think of the Atlas as being like the first ever photograph of the Earth from space.We’ll certainly be able to capture higher resolution images in the future, but they probably won't have quite the same impact.If people take away just one thing from the Atlas, I hope it’s that Visual Effects is a truly global endeavor.
Whether you are in Sydney, Mumbai, Toronto, London, or somewhere else entirely, you have industry colleagues around the world who share your passion for the work, and face many of the same challenges. My other suggestion is to use the information to get comfortable talking with colleagues about data.People are rightly skeptical of questionable data and data-driven decision-making that flies in the face of common sense.Data is never perfect, but it can still provide crucial insights.
We’re at a disadvantage as an industry if we turn our back on tools that thrive in other sectors. AWN: JB: I’ll produce an expanded second edition of the Atlas this year, assuming there’s enough interest.Between now and then, I plan to refresh the data every few months, tracking movement across the industry over time.I think this will be fascinating.
People are also asking for a similar treatment of Animation and Video Game studios — rest assured, that’s on the way.My bigger project is shifting the conversation in the VFX industry.I hope to do some traveling in the coming year, present the work at conferences, and find industry colleagues around the world who see value in opening up discussion of VFX as an industry.
The Atlas is just the beginning.Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
VFX Veteran Joseph Bell Releases the ‘Visual Effects World Atlas’
