Paint and Prep
Career
Complete overview about the career path, level of roles, responsibilities, salaries, and experience requirements in the VFX Paint and Prep Department.
Roles & Positions
Progression in the VFX Paint and Prep department requires a combination of technical expertise, meeting deadlines with quality output and team collaboration skills.
As roles progress, focus shifts from hands-on execution to mentorship, team management, and strategic decision-making.
Regularly update yourself with latest tools and techniques and challenge yourself with complex shots to showcase growth and sharpen your skills and readiness for promotions.
Fresher
Experience
0-1 Years
Salary
₹10,000 - ₹15,000
Role
Artist
Junior
Experience
1-3 Years
Salary
₹15,000 - ₹25,000
Role
Artist
Mid
Experience
3-5 Years
Salary
₹25,000 - ₹45,000
Role
Artist
Senior
Experience
5-8 Years
Salary
₹45,000 - ₹70,000
Role
Artist
Team Lead
Experience
8+ Years
Salary
₹70,000 - ₹1,20,000
Role
Leadership
Supervisor
Experience
10+ Years
Salary
₹1,00,000+
Role
Management
Fresher
Experience Required: 0-1 Years
Salary Range: ₹10,000 – ₹15,000
Primary Focus:
Learning and adapting to VFX pipelines and tools (Nuke, Silhouette, etc.).
Key Responsibilities:
Learning and understanding industry workflows and assisting in basic tasks such as minor rotoscoping or cleanplates under supervision.
Growth Tips:
Actively seek feedback, improve speed and quality, and understand industry standards.
Promotion Criteria:
Demonstrated proficiency in basic tasks and ability to work independently.
Junior Artist
Experience Required: 1-3 Years
Salary Range: ₹15,000 – ₹25,000
Primary Focus:
Delivering simple shots with guidance from senior artists.
Key Responsibilities:
Handling straightforward paint and rotoscoping tasks while maintaining quality and supporting mid and senior artists.
Growth Tips:
Learn advanced tools and techniques, participate in team discussions, and improve problem solving.
Promotion Criteria:
Consistently delivering high-quality work.
Mid-Level Artist
Experience Required: 3-5 Years
Salary Range: ₹25,000 – ₹45,000
Primary Focus:
Independently delivering complex shots and supporting junior artists.
Key Responsibilities:
Working on advanced cleanup and paint shots, reviewing junior artist work, and meeting tight deadlines.
Growth Tips:
Focus on refining skills, mentoring juniors, and learning time management.
Promotion Criteria:
Exceptional handling of challenging shots and contributing to team efficiency and mentoring.
Senior Artist
Experience Required: 5-8 Years
Salary Range: ₹45,000 – ₹70,000
Primary Focus:
Ensuring high-quality outputs for the most challenging shots.
Key Responsibilities:
Training mid-level and junior artists, maintaining quality standards, and troubleshooting technical issues.
Growth Tips:
Strengthen leadership abilities, enhance technical expertise, and contribute to team development.
Promotion Criteria:
Leadership qualities with consistently maintaining project quality and supporting team management.
Team Leader
Experience Required: 8+ Years
Salary Range: ₹70,000 – ₹1,20,000
Primary Focus:
Managing teams and project timelines effectively.
Key Responsibilities:
Assigning tasks, ensuring smooth project delivery, mentoring team members, and resolving complex issues.
Growth Tips:
Build strong communication and people management skills, and prepare for supervisor roles by handling multiple projects.
Promotion Criteria:
Proven leadership abilities with successfully managing teams and projects and preparing to oversee multiple teams.
Supervisor
Experience Required: 10+ Years
Salary Range: ₹1,00,000+
Primary Focus:
Managing multiple teams and projects, ensuring client satisfaction, and maintaining overall quality.
Key Responsibilities:
Providing technical and creative direction, optimizing workflows, and meeting client expectations.
Growth Tips:
Stay updated with industry trends, focus on team-building, and maintain a high standard of project delivery.
Promotion Criteria:
Extensive experience in managing large teams and complex projects and exceptional problem-solving and leadership.
VFX Working Structure
Working Timings
The VFX industry operates on a time-sensitive and deadline-driven schedule, requiring flexible work timings to deliver shots.
Working Culture
The VFX industry has diverse work schedules, breaks, and leave structures tailored to meet the needs of employees.
Working Process
VFX companies operate through a structured and collaborative workflow, ensuring smooth management and high-quality outputs.
Bidding Process
The bidding process is a critical aspect of VFX, determining how much time and effort a project or shot is worth.
Working Timings
Working shifts in the VFX industry exist to accommodate the global nature of projects, enabling collaboration across time zones and ensuring a continuous workflow to meet tight deadlines and client expectations. These shifts also prioritize employee well-being by minimizing burnout and supporting work-life balance, while offering additional benefits such as night shift allowances and overtime pay for extended hours.
Regular Day Shift
Timing: 9:30 AM – 6:30 PM
This is the standard working shift for most VFX studios.
Ideal for routine tasks and coordination with team members, clients, or supervisors working within regular business hours.
Provides a balanced work-life schedule for employees.
8-Hour Day/Night Shift
Morning: 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Afternoon: 3:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Night: 11:00 PM – 7:00 AM
These shifts consists of 24-hour work timing, ensuring uninterrupted operations for global projects.
Employees alternate between shifts to avoid prolonged night work and reduce burnout. Shifts are changed weekly or monthly between day, afternoon and night shifts.
12-Hour Day/Night Shift
Day: 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Night: 11:00 PM – 11:00 AM
This shift structure is common in high demand or tight deadline scenarios.
In some cases, only the Day Shift is followed if there is no night work requirement. Employees typically work fewer days per week in 12-hour shifts to compensate for extended working hours.
Working Culture
The VFX industry has diverse work timings, breaks policies, leave policies, and weekend work culture tailored to meet the needs of both employees and clients. Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of benefits and policies to expect.
Working Days Per Week
Some companies follow a 5-day work week (Monday to Friday), giving employees Saturday and Sunday off. Others operate on a 6-day work week, where Saturdays are considered regular working days.
Sunday Work Policy
Employees may occasionally be called to work on Sundays for high-priority projects or last-minute fixes. In such cases, companies often provide paid compensation or compensatory time off.
Working During Festivals
In many VFX studios, working on festivals like Holi, Diwali, or Christmas is common, especially for high-priority international projects. Some companies provide extra compensation or leave adjustments for working during festivals, but this varies across studios.
Lunch Break
Employees are typically given a 30-minute to 1-hour lunch break during their shift, depending on the company's policy.
Snack/Tea Breaks
Many companies allow 15-minute breaks for snacks, tea, or coffee. These are often provided mid-shift or during long work hours.
Extra Breaks
Some companies allow employees to take a break from their work to go outside while other companies restrict to only sit on desk all time till shift end.
Paid Leave
Employees can get up to 24 paid leave days per year, depending on company policy.
To avail paid leave, prior notice is mandatory This ensures proper scheduling of works in the team.
Unpaid Leave
If no paid leave days are remaining or proper notice is not provided, the leave will be unpaid and salary will be deducted for those absent days.
Emergency Leave
Companies may accommodate emergencies, but these are often considered unpaid if not pre-approved.
During critical project deadlines, leave requests may be restricted, even with prior notice.
Shift Adjustments
Flexible timing adjustments and additional breaks are often allowed during extended shifts or peak deadlines.
Compensation for Extra Work
Working on weekends, holidays, or extended hours is compensated in many studios through overtime pay or compensatory leave.
Free Meals
Companies may also provide free meals like lunch, pizza, fruits or snacks based on the project deadlines and companies' policies. On festivals working companies may give sweets as gifts.
Working Process
VFX companies operate through a structured and collaborative workflow, ensuring smooth project management and high-quality outputs. This structured workflow ensures a streamlined process where every shot is checked at multiple levels before reaching the client, maintaining the highest standards of quality and efficiency in VFX production. Here’s how the typical structure functions:
Team Members
Each department consists of multiple teams, with each team comprising up to 20 artists.
A team is a mix of freshers, junior artists, mid-level artists, and senior artists, creating a balanced hierarchy of experience and skills.
Artist Shot Assignment
Every team is managed by a Team Leader who oversees the workflow.
The Team Leader is responsible for assigning shots to the artists based on the complexity of the work and the artists’ seniority levels.
They also manage shot schedules, ensuring timely completion of tasks.
Team Leader Review
Once an artist completes a shot, they submit the render to the Team Leader for initial review.
The Team Leader checks the shot for quality and adherence to project requirements. If approved, the shot is sent to the Supervisor for final review.
Supervisor Review
The supervisor checks the shot again and ensures quality of the shot meets the client's demand.
The Supervisor ensures proper quality and consistency in the final review of the shot, they maintain high standards and approves the shots for final delivery to the client.
Client Review
The client reviews the shot again and checks if the shot output is as per the work they expected. The delivered shot may also be verified with the film directors again for the quality and consistency.
The client may be a third-party studio or the main film production house.
Feedback and Kickback
If either the Team Leader or Supervisor or the Client identifies issues or suggests improvements, they provide detailed feedback to the artist.
Artists revise their work based on this feedback until the shot meets the required quality standards.
This feedback loop continues until the shot is fully approved by the Team Leader, Supervisor and Client.
Bidding Process
The bidding process is a critical aspect of VFX production, determining how much effort and time a project or shot is worth. The bidding is the very important and fundamental part of the VFX production that every artist, teams, and management is connected together with. Here’s the complete breakdown on how it works and how it impacts artists and teams.
Monthly Bid Targets
Artists have monthly targets based on their roles and seniority levels:
For example If a junior artist consistently delivers only 10 bids per month instead of their target of 15, their performance may come under scrutiny.
Junior Artist
15 bids per month
Mid-Level Artist
25 bids per month
Senior Artist
30 bids per month
Team Leader
Total Teams bids
What is Bidding in VFX?
- A bid represents the agreed value of a shot between the VFX studio and the client.
- The supervisor evaluates the complexity of the shot and assigns it a bid value during discussions with the client, either via meetings or emails.
- Example of bid pricing:
- 1 Bid = ₹1,500
- A shot worth 10 bids = ₹15,000
- The client pays the studio based on the agreed-upon bids for each shot.
- Once the bids are finalized, shots are assigned to teams and artists to complete them within the allocated bid budget.
How Artists Work with Bids
- Each artist must plan their workflow to complete their assigned shots within the bid limits.
- Failure to complete a shot within the bid may result in a financial loss for the studio, as clients do not pay more than the agreed bid value.
- Proper planning, skill, and execution are essential to meet bid expectations.
Bid to Man-Days Conversion
- 1 Man-Day = 8 Bids
- Example: A shot requiring 1 Man-Day is worth 8 bids.
- A shot requiring 5 Man-Days is worth 40 bids.
- Supervisors and team leaders plan shots accordingly to ensure they can be completed within the allocated man-days and bids.
Responsibility of Supervisors and Team Leaders
- Bidding Discussions: Supervisors communicate with clients to finalize the bid value of each shot.
- Planning and Allocation:
- Shots are carefully planned and assigned to artists based on bid value and complexity.
- Teams must collaborate to ensure that work is completed efficiently and on time.
- Budget Management:
- The company cannot charge clients more than the agreed-upon bid value, so careful planning is essential to avoid exceeding budgets.
Consequences of Not Meeting Bid Targets
- Artists who fail to consistently meet their monthly bid targets may face repercussions, including:
- Performance reviews
- Loss of projects
- Layoffs in extreme cases
- Consistent delivery within bid budgets is critical to an artist’s job security and career growth in the VFX industry.
Why the Bidding Process Matters
- Ensures Efficiency: Encourages proper planning and efficient use of resources.
- Financial Accountability: Helps studios manage their budgets while meeting client expectations.
- Performance Benchmark: Serves as a measurable standard for artists and teams.
- Career Growth: Meeting bid targets consistently contributes to career advancement.
Advice for New Artists
The VFX paint and prep offers incredible opportunities for creativity and career growth, but it also demands dedication, time management, and adaptability. As a new artist, stay focused, be proactive, and continuously hone your skills to excel in this exciting field.
Stay Disciplined and Organized
Always plan your work according to the bids and deadlines. Use checklists or project management tools if needed.
Communicate Clearly
Keep your lead and supervisor informed about any challenges or delays with your assigned shots so they can plan accordignly.
Embrace Continuous Learning
Stay updated on the latest software and techniques to improve efficiency and meet industry standards.
Adapt to Shifts and Schedules
Be flexible with your work timings, especially during rotational shifts or extended hours.
Learning and Skill Development
Early in your career, focus on improving your technical skills and understanding time management to handle your targets effectively.
Fast-Paced Environment
Deadlines can be tight, and you'll often work under pressure to deliver high-quality results on time.
Team Collaboration
Supervisors and team leaders will assign you shots. Be prepared to communicate and collaborate effectively with your team.
High Accountability
You’ll be accountable for completing your assigned shots within the bid budget and timeframe. Missing deadlines or exceeding bid limits can impact your performance review.
Long Work Hours During Deadlines
Project deadlines may require overtime work or extended shifts, especially during critical phases.
Growth Opportunities
Meeting targets and delivering consistent results can lead to promotions. Junior artists can advance to mid-level, senior, and beyond with time and experience.
Be Prepared for Industry Challenges
The VFX industry is rewarding but demanding. Be mentally prepared for irregular schedules, tight deadlines, and high expectations.
Understand the Company's Policies
Learn about your studio’s specific policies for shifts, breaks, leave, and compensation. Knowing these details will help you manage your time and expectations effectively.
Join Us at PaintVFX
Academy
The VFX world is vast and full of opportunities. Your dedication and creativity can leave a lasting impression on films and shows seen by millions. Success in the VFX industry is built on persistence, passion, and the willingness to learn. Every shot you work on brings you closer to becoming a master of your craft.
If you’re looking to start your journey in the VFX Paint and Prep industry, we are here to guide you every step of the way. Our online course is designed to provide you with the comprehensive Training, Industry Relevant Skills, Affordable Learning, Continuous Support and all the skills and experience you need to shine.
If you need help, guidance, or have any questions about the VFX industry or our courses, we’re always here to assist you.
🎉 Good luck on your journey to becoming a VFX Paint and Prep artist!