CreativeRates tells you how much other people are earning in VFX
Most of us have been in the position of negotiating a salary, and having no idea what figure to give your potential employer. Go too low, and you end up being paid less than colleagues doing the same work; too high, and you risk talking yourself out of the job entirely.
New site CreativeRates aims to address that problem.
The anonymously operated site collates pay data submitted by artists working across different disciplines in concept art, games, animation, motion graphics and VFX, for use as reference.
What pay data does CreativeRates provide?
CreativeRates makes it possible to view pay rates for both freelance and full-time positions, filtering the data in a number of ways.
The most obvious is by discipline: you can select market sectors (concept art, games, animation, motion graphics, VFX), then by job type within a sector (compositing, FX, pipeline TD, and so on).
It’s also possible to filter by seniority level – there are five categories, from Junior Artist to Principal – and by geographical region, again using readymade categories.
The data is broken down into a median figure, plus high and low percentiles, and you can also see how much comes from base pay, and what proportion comes from bonuses.
However, salaries are always displayed in US dollars, even if you’re checking jobs outside the US, so you may need to do some additional math.
How is CreativeRates’ pay data collected?
The data is based on figures that CreativeRates’ users have provided, submitted anonymously.
Although you can use the site for free, you can’t actually view any data until you’ve submitted at least one pay rate yourself.
Doing so unlocks the figures for that discipline for one year, although you can then resubmit the data to renew access.
How reliable is CreativeRates’ pay data?
Obviously, self-reported data isn’t guaranteed to be reliable, or representative.
CreativeRates doesn’t verify salaries independently, so the site is relying on people reporting information about their jobs in good faith.
The number of reports – and therefore, the likely reliability of the overall figures – also varies between categories: it’s higher for common job roles, and mid-level positions.
Coverage is pretty good for the US – where the data is supplemented by public-record salary data from the Department of Labor – plus Canada and the UK, but patchier elsewhere.
How should you use CreativeRates pay data?
In the information about its methodology, CreativeRates advises using its median figures as a “directional starting point, not a final number”.
It’s also worth sense-checking it against other sources of data you have access to: some trade unions collect similar data, and local trade bodies also sometimes organize salary surveys.
CreativeRates describes itself as neither a salary calculator (“those are usually scraped LinkedIn averages”) nor a “directory of aspirational rates that no studio actually pays”, but “the conversation your industry refuses to have [about pay], in a room where nobody’s watching”.
But who runs CreativeRates?
CreativeRates is run by a California limited liability company called Split the Difference.
When we contacted its founder to ask who they actually are, they replied: “Fair question, [but I’m going to] give you a slightly frustrating answer.
“I work in the industry, on the animation side, which is what got me into this in the first place: I got tired of everyone negotiating rates blind while studios held all the cards.
“But I run CreativeRates anonymously on purpose. I think the platform only works if it reads as a neutral utility rather than one person’s project. The moment it’s ‘this animator’s site’, it picks up the baggage of who I’ve worked for and whatever people assume my angle is.”
How much does CreativeRates cost?
You can unlock a free account on CreativeRates by submitting pay rates of your own: each one gives you access to the data for the discipline in question.
Paid Pro accounts cost $39/year, and give you access to all 80 disciplines.
You can find details of the data the site collects in its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Find real-world pay data for game art, animation, motion graphics and VFX on CreativeRates
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