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Special Effects Artists and Animators

SOC 27-1014 · 2024-2034

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.

How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.

What California expects of this job

Typical pay in California
$134,194per year
Projected openings
17,760
Projected change
+7%
Usually needs
Bachelor's degree

Skills this work uses most

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.

  1. Active Listening
  2. Critical Thinking
  3. Reading Comprehension
  4. Speaking
  5. Writing
  6. Judgment and Decision Making

Pay by region

RegionTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openings
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties)$162,366890
Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County)$134,06720
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County)$132,87910,080
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County)$130,8951,080
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County)$124,82340
Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)$123,587720
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties)$123,5873,000
San Rafael MD (Marin County)$123,587390
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties)$114,499130
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County)$110,94570
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County)$99,770450
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)$88,933110
Chico MSA (Butte County)Not reported20

What the pay actually ranges across

The lowest-paid tenth earn under
$73,717
A quarter earn under
$102,059
Half earn under
$134,194
Three quarters earn under
$169,413
The highest-paid tenth earn over
$211,931

A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.

Similar work

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.

OccupationTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openingsProjected change
Graphic Designers$77,23324,970+1.2%
Art Directors$141,63730,370+5.5%
Film and Video Editors$90,96710,010+7.9%
Web and Digital Interface Designers$139,92023,940+13.9%
Producers and Directors$133,42331,850+12.2%
Photographers$49,17921,270+6.4%

Programs that train for this job — 23