Join Now For Free
A kind of film company

VFX and animation studios

VFX and animation studios: who works there and what each of them does

A VFX house and an animation studio are the same kind of building: a factory with a fixed order of operations, from the plate or the storyboard to the finished frame. Artists make the shots; a production team makes sure the right shots get made in the right order, by the right people, on time.

MFJF's two runner courses describe the same building twice. A VFX house makes the pictures a camera could not capture on the day, most of them invisible; an animation studio makes the whole film frame by frame, in CG, 2D or stop motion. Both run on a pipeline, a daily review schedule and a tracking database that every shot and asset lives in. Both have two ladders out of the runner's chair: production, which asks for no artist skills at all, and the technical or artist route, which is earned by a test.

  1. Studio head or head of production

  2. VFX producer or animation producer

  3. VFX supervisor, animation director and department leads

  4. Production manager

  5. Production coordinator

  6. Compositor

  7. Animator

  8. Lighting artist or lighting TD

  9. Rigger

  10. Roto and prep artist

  11. Pipeline developer and technical director

  12. VFX runnerEntry-level job

  13. Animation runnerEntry-level job

Drawn from MFJF's own Foundations courses VFX Runner (The VFX house and the runner's place in it: what VFX is and how a shot moves through the pipeline; a runner's day in a VFX house; and the map lesson on companies and the two ladders) and Animation Runner (The animation studio and the runner's place in it: what an animation studio makes and how a film moves through it; a runner's day in an animation studio; and the map lesson on studios and the two ladders). The words are My First Job In Film's. © My First Job In Film 2026.

You are not doing this alone

You have your own personal career mentor

That is us, the MFJF team. Book an MFJF Mentor Session with us every month: we guide you through this journey and answer all your questions, from which job is yours to your CV and your next application.

Book my MFJF Mentor Session

Where next

Your recommended next steps

Picked for VFX Runner. Signed in, they follow your stage and the roles your answers point to. See your whole MFJF journey, step by step →

  1. My MFJF JourneyOne page for everything MFJF has built, in the order you need it.
  2. My Reading ListThe books, blogs and bodies you have saved, in one place.
  3. Start the Stage 1 course: VFX RunnerTwo hours on what the job is, how people get in and what to do first.
  4. Get on the HotListPut yourself in front of productions looking for crew.
  5. Join MFJF DayPlayersDay work on productions for crew with the credits and the skills.
  6. The career planner: VFX RunnerWhat to do, learn and be able to do, from no experience to paid work.
  7. The career guide: VFX RunnerThe job, the day, the way in and the pay, in one guide.
  8. See how it all fits on the career maps17 maps of how films get made: the people, the process and the departments.
  9. Who works whereEvery department on a shoot and every kind of film company: who is in each and what they do.
  10. Industry EssentialsThe books, industry bodies, websites and blogs worth knowing, department by department.
  11. Read the MFJF Survival GuidesStraight answers to what everyone starting out asks: how long it takes, what you get paid, and what to do every day.
  12. MFJF Academy workshopsLive sessions with people who do the job, and the monthly career clinic.
  13. Build your CV with the CV BuilderThe industry's format, built from your profile and your current CV.

Matching VFX Runner right now

Live from the job board, the Academy, the mentor programme, the Industry Essentials, the film course directory, Industry News and the competitions open now.

All jobs →
All workshops →
All mentors →
All Industry Essentials →
All film courses →
All Community Blog posts →
All trainee schemes →
All competitions →