Human vs Robot: The Shape of VFX and Post Production in 2025

It’s been a heavy week for the post-production industry. Beginning with rumours surrounding the potential closure of Technicolor Creative Studios, parent company of The Mill, MPC and Mikros, thousands across the globe faced an uncertain future. Just days later, it was confirmed that the company had begun shutting down the majority of operations across multiple countries.

Where possible, Technicolor aims to remain in business, salvaging roughly 100 US employees of The Mill so far through a joint venture with Dream Machine FX to launch a new venture, Arc Creative. In the UK, while The Mill has been closed, Technicolor itself has gone into administration.

Having long been a giant in the post-production landscape, the closures will have a huge impact on the future of the industry. In an effort to support those affected, LBB is offering ex-Mill employees a free Pro User membership. This will help talent now looking for new roles by giving them the ability to upload their best work and share it with our global creative community.

So, while we hope for the best as events unfold, how do industry experts see the year shaping up for the wider VFX and post landscape?

“The VFX and post-production industries have undergone significant evolution in recent years,” Simon Dewey, co-founder and ECD at Covert tells LBB. “This is largely due to shrinking budgets, the introduction of new tools and workflows (such as AI, Unreal Engine, and Blender), and the growing number of boutique studios. 

“The industry once had a high barrier to entry and was heavily location-dependent. However, the covid lockdowns, increased access to information and software, and budget constraints have resulted in a landscape where boutique studios thrive alongside major players. The way work gets done needs to change, and I fully embrace that.”

“VFX studios have become the industry's tech experts – essentially the ‘nerds’ everyone turns to for visual technology challenges,” says Piotr Stopniak, creative director at Heckler Sydney. “This simply happened by necessity as ultimately we are in charge of delivering the final visual quality hence our tools evolve and change very quickly, in line with whatever the latest and greatest tech is available.”

“With commercial schedules and budgets tightening, we’re finding that great generalists are more important than ever,” notes Simon Mowbray, creative director and VFX supervisor at Where The Buffalo Roam. “This is a shift from the large pipeline models with big teams of mid-level specialists and a few supervisors at the top. The squeeze is real, but the upside is that software like Houdini and C4D keeps adding functionality at an astounding rate, and artists who’ve stayed abreast can do a whole lot more with these expanding toolsets. The challenge is to find artists who have remained curious about all aspects of the software and process.”

For Rick Nelson, founder of Cadence Post the evolution of the industry is clear: “VFX and post production are now key players in shaping the narrative from the very beginning. Teams are collaborating more closely with directors and cinematographers, which means post isn’t just a safety net – it’s a vital part of the creative process. I’d like to see less focus on quick fixes and more emphasis on storytelling and genuine innovation.”

“Over the past year, I’ve witnessed our discipline evolve into a more collaborative, story-centric art form where every visual element is integral to the narrative,” agrees Diego de la Maza, chief production officer at Deutsch. “A standout example is our ‘Genius Beluga’ Super Bowl spot for NerdWallet. By leveraging advanced VFX techniques, we were able to infuse the sassy beluga whale with a distinct personality and eccentric mannerisms that resonated with audiences. This project not only showcased the creative power of integrating VFX with character-driven storytelling but also highlighted how our teams – from directors to VFX artists – are now working in unison to ensure that every detail enhances the overall narrative and elevates the creative content.”

Cody Amos, creative director at Heckler Singapore has noticed the boundaries between traditional roles blurring: “There's a lot of experimentation in how we go about filmmaking now, driven both by increasing budget constraints and changing technology. Shooting on stages in front of screens has become par-for-the-course, and so the ways that we integrate animation and live action has never had so many different options. Now designing a pipeline for a project is a creative process in itself.”

This is something that flame artist Dean Wyles of GATE+, a Tag company, has also experienced: “To stay ahead and meet client needs, we’ve had to make our workflows more flexible with creative and technical teams collaborating from the start. This smoother approach not only helps us work faster and more efficiently but also makes it easier to bring big creative ideas to life – even when budgets are tight and there’s a growing need for content across multiple platforms.”

When it comes to workflows, Atmos Studios VFX and animation supervisor, Andreas Wanda has seen growth in cloud-based collaborations. “Having architected many studios myself, I’m heavily focused on streamlining this process using our projects as testbeds.”

At Significant Others, creative director and senior flame artist, Thom Reimerink says, “A streamlined, cloud-based pipeline allows us to collaborate with talent and creatives worldwide, giving us the flexibility to work with artists and teams from all over the globe. This shift to cloud-based workflows is already proving invaluable, especially when it comes to asset management and real-time collaboration. 

“I’ve seen an increasing trend of work leaving traditional hubs like Los Angeles and the US, which is pushing the need for global collaboration. With cloud technology allowing teams to work seamlessly from different locations, the ability to work with creatives and talent from around the world is becoming a necessity. This shift is reshaping not only where the work is done but also how we approach projects and the people we work with. The traditional borders of production are dissolving, and as artists and creatives, it’s essential to embrace this global perspective.”

Unsurprisingly, the biggest topic on everyone’s minds is AI. “The roles in VFX and post have, in a way, stayed exactly the same and, in a way, have changed entirely through the emergence of AI after numerous town halls, meetings, videos, pondering, discussing, and ultimately fearing,” reflects Alicia Cargile, executive producer at Jogger Studios. “However, it does not have to be a source of fear! AI is proving to be a powerful tool for artists to use to free themselves from tedious tasks, making more room for the higher-level creative work – the strategic thinking, the emotional storytelling, the artistic nuances that make a campaign truly resonate with their viewers.”

“AI is fundamentally changing the game by handling repetitive tasks like tracking and rotoscoping,” says Rick. “This not only saves time but also allows our teams to concentrate on higher-level creative decisions, though human oversight remains essential.”

At Heckler Sydney, Piotr explains that “rather than relying on AI to create most of the image in a single step, we’re trying to use it to generate smaller steps along the way – textures, lighting references, models, assets – this way we accelerate our process but don’t undermine our workflow that has always been about craft and fine control.”

“The skillset of VFX artists is shifting towards a blend of traditional artistry and technical adaptability,” notes Michał Dwojak Hara, managing director at Juice, Tokyo. “It’s not enough to specialise in compositing or modelling, you need to understand AI-assisted tools. Look at A$AP Rocky's ‘Tailor Swif’, directed by the duo Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia. It’s distinctly human in its creativity, using a uniquely Western European aesthetic and storytelling that AI alone wouldn’t dream up. Sure, AI boosts speed and quality, but genuinely memorable ideas still come from human imagination.”

“At Juice, we’re actively training our teams in both Tokyo and Shanghai to navigate this shift. But it’s not just about learning new software, it’s about developing a critical understanding of AI’s limitations. Where does it enhance workflows, and where does it fall short? When can we trust AI-generated outputs, and when do human artists need to step in? The reality is, AI isn’t perfect, and knowing its strengths, and its blind spots, is now a key skill for any VFX professional.”

Over at The Embassy in LA, managing director Kenny Solomon shares the launch of a new division, Embassy AI, with an overseas development team building custom AI-driven workflows to push VFX and post further. “We’re integrating platforms like Midjourney for rapid concept art, Stable Diffusion for texture generation, and Runway for real-time video prototyping – to name a few – directly into our pipeline. Another bit of dev we’re excited about is AI-assisted upscaling. It’s already shaving days off 4K and 8K delivery schedules while keeping visual fidelity high. But that’s just the start. It’s early in the process as we just launched but we’re in development and rolling out custom tools.”

Developments such as these across the industry underline the importance of staying ahead of the curve, which Simon Dewey emphasises as particularly important with AI. “The biggest challenge moving forward is the need to continuously adapt. As automation takes over certain aspects of post production, there will be a growing demand for creative-first thinking. The key to success will be agility – adopting flexible workflows while prioritising strong creative direction and excellent service.

“Without a doubt AI has made a huge splash in the last 12 months,” adds Andreas, “but we’ve all seen the shot-in-the-dark results most individuals are achieving as well as the lacklustre performances. We’ve heard all the concerned voices out there but personally, I’m excited for this new tool to evolve. 

“Some of the results from AI are certainly interesting but I was surprised Coca-Cola (and a couple of others now) released a global campaign based on AI generated imagery. It was full of flaws but a fantastic media stunt if nothing else. Maybe it was an example of how even the large corporations are cutting budgets in these tough times. If the tools become so good that anyone can just generate exactly what they want – and this is entirely plausible – then I think many companies will be in for some serious challenges.”

For now though, it doesn’t seem to be posing a threat. “I’ve been surprisingly underwhelmed by some recently lauded gen AI-created ads,” admits Simon Mowbray. “While impressive in scope, they’ve still fallen into the uncanny valley: sweaty, plasticky humans moving in a disconcerting double-jointed manner, lit with a strangely ethereal yet off-putting sci-fi quality. This leads me to wonder if the AI models perhaps used for this work were trained from data without the breadth and diversity necessary for truly realistic and natural results. I don’t really know, but if I were a director, DP or actor, I wouldn’t quit my job just yet.”

“There’s a real risk of everything blending into a homogenous AI-generated pool, where everyone is using similar prompts,” Piotr says. “The question is how AI fits into our industry while maintaining the uniqueness of our craft. How do we ensure our work stands out, that we essentially own the look? Maintaining originality and artistic distinction is crucial.”

“Despite all the hyperbole about AI advances, I’ve been surprised and disappointed that many new AI production tools don’t have anywhere near enough fine control and qualitative fidelity for realistic, high-quality, art-directed VFX,” Simon Mowbray adds. “But this will surely change with newer models, more intuitive prompting, etc. At Siggraph last year, we saw lots of effort spent by many very smart people simply to tame this new AI monster, trying to make it more predictable and controllable. Currently, however, you ‘get what you get’ with many available AI tools, often making them more frustrating than useful for high-end work.”

Piotr agrees: “You ‘get what you get’ and if you don’t like it, there’s not too much you can do about it other than turn to traditional compositing, but with even less source material making the job far more labour intensive than it might have been via traditional means. Educating clients on when and where to use AI is a big part of our process.”

On the topic of AI’s pitfalls, Cody says: “If you try and produce high quality work that doesn't look like AI by just using AI, you find out pretty quickly that it doesn't work. Not yet anyway. There has been some decent work done with AI where the creative approach really leans into what it's good at, and doesn't try to hide the obvious AI aesthetic. There was a surreal spot done for Whipnotic where they used AI to generate a lot of the source imagery. It wasn't trying not to look AI, it just happily embraced the crappy AI aesthetic and combined it with solid design work, and that made it work really well.”

As tools become more sophisticated, Diego mentions “there’s a risk of overloading content with effects that may distract rather than support the narrative. Our task is to harness these innovations while maintaining a disciplined focus on the story’s essence, ensuring that each visual element is purposeful and contributes to a more straightforward, emotionally engaging experience.”

“And there are also legal concerns,” Piotr adds. “One significant reason agencies hesitate to fully embrace AI is due to uncertainties around ownership and copyright. A major issue is the source of these images. Where does the data come from? How were these models trained?” 

Alicia points out that “as a community, we have a responsibility to use AI ethically and transparently. It’s crucial to maintain human oversight to ensure it enhances, not diminishes the creative process. It also means having open and honest conversations with our clients about how AI is being used in their campaigns. By embracing ethical practices, we can unlock its full potential while still preserving the human element that is so essential to the preservation of our industry as we know it.”

“AI is only as good as the guidance we give it,” Michał sums up. “Relying too much on AI-generated outputs without critical oversight leads to generic results, and that’s the last thing any high-end studio, brand or agency wants.”

At Uncovered, head of production Jordan Paterson says that “AI has shifted the way audiences perceive VFX. It’s interesting to see comments like ‘this is AI’ on VFX-heavy ads – does this signal a change in how people view the artistry behind these effects? Are we losing sight of the intricate, hands-on craftsmanship that has long defined VFX work? These are some of the questions I’m considering as AI becomes more integrated into our industry.”

Piotr meanwhile predicts a public rejection of AI in the coming years. “Even when not exactly true or necessary, ‘we shot this in camera’ has never been said more often. The reality is, the best work will come from somewhere down the middle but I think that in time, ‘authenticity’ will once again enter the vernacular.”

As traditional broadcasters’ markets continue to decline in the age of streaming services, in advertising Adreas believes “we’ll continue to see more and more growth in OOH, social and experiential platforms. This in itself challenges our creative and technical minds on how to grab our audience's attention.”

“A standout trend in the VFX and post-production space last year was the convergence of traditional advertising and social media platforms,” says Jordan. “Maybelline’s FOOH (fake out-of-home) campaign was a major milestone, blending cinematic advertising with social storytelling. If audiences believe – just momentarily – that a surreal element exists in the real world, the results can drive powerful engagement.”

“One unexpected trend was how quickly this blending of FOOH and social media content became mainstream,” he continues. “Increasingly, more brands began capitalising on the attention-grabbing nature of high-quality VFX within shareable and bite-sized social formats.The most common iteration was a supersizing effect – taking a hero product and blowing it up in a real world environment.

“Over the past year, the role of VFX and post-production has become even more vital in crafting immersive experiences for social audiences. What used to be confined to big-budget films or TV ads is now being reinterpreted for the fast-paced, highly visual nature of our social feeds.” 

For this reason, Jordan says that “one of the biggest challenges ahead is the pressure to balance cinematic quality with the fast, highly iterative demands of social content. Ensuring that VFX work stays innovative and doesn’t get diluted in the pursuit of speed will be key.”

“Social media platforms are quickly becoming the dominant medium for both marketing and entertainment,” Thom notes. “This trend has led to an increase in the use of social media influencers in commercials and brand campaigns, a practice that I believe will only continue to grow.” However, while influencer-led campaigns can provide high engagement, Thom finds himself conflicted. “Oftentimes, these spots require less finishing and VFX work, which, as a VFX artist, can be a tough watch. The younger generation gravitates toward this content, enjoying its immediacy and relatability. They tend to take their advice from influencers more seriously, but as an artist, I can't help but feel that this shift diminishes the value of craft and the artistry involved in the post-production process. That said, it also presents an opportunity – as social media content evolves, there is potential for a higher level of production value that blends the authenticity of influencer marketing with the polish of traditional advertising.”

“In branded social media content, AI-driven real-time character animation has been a breakthrough,” Michał comments. “It’s one thing for AI to automate repetitive tasks, but when it starts enhancing performance capture and animation in real-time, that’s a major shift. Suddenly, artists and production teams can work at speeds that were previously impossible.

“Brands are under constant pressure to deliver high-quality, engaging visuals at an increasing pace. AI is helping us to create dynamic, platform-specific content faster, from hyper-realistic product showcases to interactive campaigns and activations that adapt in real-time to audience engagement.”

“I like that we're in a time of incredibly diverse aesthetics and approaches to storytelling,” Cody enthuses. “I'm sure we're going to see some new experimental approaches to using AI, but we'll also see plenty of CG and VFX that I suppose we're going to start calling ‘traditional animation’ like when 3D animation made 2D cell animation ‘traditional’. And of course, good old ‘traditional’ filmmaking with cameras and humans, telling human stories, with humour and humanity, isn't going anywhere.”

Cody definitely is not alone in his hopes for the future. “The reason many of us got into this industry was to create, craft, experiment, and collaborate,” Piotr says. “We’re always pushed to do things quicker, and while the tools let us deliver, we miss out on a lot of those truly creative and collaborative moments. I want to see more work that makes me think of the talented people who made it. I hope the crafted trend continues.”

“More than ever, VFX spectacle is no substitute for a great human narrative,” Simon Mowbray agrees. “I love working on films where the VFX is simply in service to a compelling message. I want to see more original and more risk-taking advertising. There seems to be a trend toward derivative and metrics-based marketing over the ‘Don Draper’ auteur style of ad creative. I believe the best ads come from original thinkers. I know that some agencies are now required to use an AI-based service to determine how a spot might perform, making robot suggestions about what should change editorially. It’s advertising’s own Skynet.”

“The VFX and post-production industry is at an exciting crossroads,” states Thom. “We are being pushed to evolve with new technologies, while also adapting to the changing demands of the market. The key to success will be flexibility – whether that’s in terms of how we work or the way we collaborate – and a continued focus on pushing creative boundaries while staying true to the craft that makes our work so unique. The next few years are sure to be filled with new challenges and opportunities, and I’m eager to see how our industry continues to innovate.”

“Ultimately,” says Dean, “the real revolution isn’t just about tech, it’s about how the industry adapts to use it. The accessibility of professional-grade tools and the wealth of knowledge-sharing across social platforms means that creative solutions are becoming more innovative and cost-effective than ever. As budgets tighten and content demands expand, the industry’s ability to stay agile, collaborative, and forward-thinking will define its next chapter.”