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Boston Career Explorer

Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and 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.

Also called: 3D Animator (Three-Dimensional Animator), 3D Artist (Three-Dimensional Artist), Animator, Artist, Digital Artist, Graphic Artist

Median pay in Greater Boston
$80,640
$38.77/hr
Jobs in Greater Boston
Not published
Massachusetts 2024–2034
−6.3%
50 openings a year
Typical U.S. entry requirement
Bachelor's degree

Greater Boston: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, May 2025. Growth and openings: Massachusetts statewide projection.

Pay range in Greater Boston

Yearly pay in Greater Boston by percentile
10th25thMedian75th90th
$57,900$63,090$80,640$98,370$105,370

10% of workers earn less than the first figure and 10% earn more than the last.

What you’d do

  • Design complex graphics and animation, using independent judgment, creativity, and computer equipment.
  • Create basic designs, drawings, and illustrations for product labels, cartons, direct mail, or television.
  • 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.
  • Create two-dimensional and three-dimensional images depicting objects in motion or illustrating a process, using computer animation or modeling programs.
  • Make objects or characters appear lifelike by manipulating light, color, texture, shadow, and transparency, or manipulating static images to give the illusion of motion.
  • 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.

AI and this job

AI exposure: how much of this job’s work AI tools can do or help with, based on national research. It is not a forecast of job loss.

Moderate exposure66 of 100

The index averages three national research measures, each shown as a percentile of all jobs:

  • AIOE 63
  • Language-model AIOE 58
  • GPTs-are-GPTs 76

Observed AI use today: Substantial (Anthropic Economic Index)

AI tools can already speed up parts of animation and post-production work, and the job has moderate AI exposure with substantial observed AI use. Federal projections expect fewer of these jobs as technology speeds up tasks, and Massachusetts is projected to see a 6.3% drop from 2024 to 2034. Tasks that call for creative judgment, such as designing complex graphics, and for coordinating campaigns with budgets and schedules still depend on people.

Likely to change

  • Making and adjusting 2D and 3D images
  • Adding motion, light, and texture to images

Still relies on people

  • Creative judgment on complex designs
  • Coordinating budgets, schedules, and production teams

What federal projections say

“Productivity change - share decreases as more animation and post-production tasks are accelerated by the use of technology, including generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools.”
BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, factors affecting this job (U.S.)

Written with AI from the data on this page. Check with a career coach before making a decision.

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Training near Boston

College and school programs in the Boston metro area that lead to this job, with 2023-24 completions (IPEDS).

31 programs near Boston (plus 5 graduate)

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