@DAX | Digital Arts Xchange connects with Joseph Bell - Founder of the Visual Effects & Animation World Atlas.

Here Joseph shares why he and his team developed the Visual Effects & Animation World Atlas and the value of context driven data.

Welcome to The Visual Effects and Animation World Atlas!

Ever find yourself wondering about the bigger picture in VFX and Animation? You're not alone!

Picture this: you're chatting with a colleague and someone mentions that Vancouver's super busy right now, or perhaps Sydney. Maybe you've heard there are thousands of VFX artists in India…but nobody seems to know how many. Or perhaps you're curious whether we really are seeing fewer studios around these days, or what kind of impact AI is actually having on jobs in VFX and Animation.

These kinds of questions are tough to answer without reliable data. Without it, we're left piecing together stories, opinions (some better informed than others), and whatever marketing spin happens to be floating around.

That's where the Visual Effects and Animation World Atlas comes in.

What Makes The Atlas Different?

The Atlas taps into the wealth of publicly available data scattered across the internet about our industry. This approach lets us look behind the curtain at studios and talent from all corners of the globe – something that would be nearly impossible to achieve through traditional surveys. (Can you imagine trying to survey tens of thousands of people across dozens of countries… and doing it every three months? That's essentially what we’re pulling off here!)

The result? We now have a dataset that's giving us our first real glimpse of the global VFX and animation landscape. Individual countries and regions often collect their own excellent data, but it’s often gathered for different purposes and in different ways, making it difficult to compare internationally. The Atlas changes that by cleaning and standardizing data for all regions consistently.

The Numbers Keep Growing

Since launching the first edition in 2024, the Atlas dataset has grown from around 550 studios and 55,000 VFX professionals to over 2,500 studios and 125,000 professionals spanning both VFX and animation. Does this capture absolutely everyone, everywhere? No, of course not! But in data terms, we're talking about a rather impressive sample size.

Here's the thing, though – I always say the raw data itself isn't what makes this special. It's the insight, care, and industry expertise that goes into cleaning it up and making it useful that counts.

Much of the VFX industry analysis out there comes from people who aren't really industry insiders. (Just Google "how big is the VFX industry" and check out what comes up – the AI summaries and top results can be pretty eye-opening.)

The truth is, you don't just need data – you need context to understand what it's really telling you.

Keeping It Real

I'm constantly cross-referencing our findings with independent data sources to make sure we're on the right track. Those countries and regions with excellent local data collection? They're brilliant for checking how complete our coverage really is in those regions.

We know, for instance, that the Atlas data draws heavily on English-language internet sources.

This means our sample isn't as comprehensive for countries where English is less common or where studios work primarily on domestic rather than international productions. The good news is that independent data from these regions helps us see exactly how to account for that.

What This Means for You

The Visual Effects and Animation World Atlas gives us something that’s never been publicly available before: an unprecedented view into how many people are doing this work around the world, where they're located, and what skills they bring with them to work. Thanks to some cutting-edge tools and a streamlined data pipeline, we can now turn around quarterly updates fast enough that you're looking at global data for June by the time we release the new Atlas in July.

Best of all, you don't have to dig very deep into the Atlas to find information that can help you make smarter career moves, business decisions, investment choices, even better decisions production that could help your projects creatively. Plus the Atlas is free to download, thanks to the support of generous industry sponsors who support the research.

Your Window Into the Global Industry

The next time you're curious about how your colleagues are doing in that VFX hub halfway around the world – or maybe even how it’s going in your own backyard – those answers are finally going to be a lot easier to find.

Welcome to a more connected, data-driven view of our industry!