Hello, I am a Junior vfx artist and I have question
Is Japan better than China in terms of working as a vfx artist? Because I love China and Japan very much, but I am confused about the choice! I have no problem learning Japanese or Chinese.
I can give context for Japan.
Japanâs working conditions arenât great, and as a junior your pay will be super low. (barring getting lucky with a nice proper company, but those companies tend to only hire top talent)
Labor laws are pretty good but itâs not uncommon to see companies skirting those laws.
You will likely be expected to do overtime and work on weekends, often without extra pay.
I generally discourage people from working in Japan unless you really really want it for some external reason (living with family here etc.)
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1.China is one of the largest gaming markets globally, boasting a massive user base and rapid industry growth.
2.Chinese gaming companies often emphasize efficiency and execution, with a fast-paced work environment and a prevalent culture of overtime. Team collaboration and project orientation are strong.
3.The career development path is relatively flexible, with numerous promotion opportunities, but the competition is also intense. Job-hopping is frequent, and industry mobility is high.
4.In China, artistic innovation in game design is abundant, especially in visuals and aesthetics. Yet, gameplay mechanics suffer from severe homogenization and fierce competition.
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Honestly, I have no problem working overtime or on my days off. I live in Egypt and most of my work is from freelance sites as a VFX artist. For this reason, I want to live in a country where there is a lot of work available in my specialty, and there are only three: America, China, and Japan. Apart from the low salary and extra hours, what do you prefer, China or Japan? I will start as a junior and grow with time.
Good but are there many jobs available for game visual artists in China? Because I searched a lot and found only a few.
I guess it would depend on the company. Personally I prefer working at companies with cool people, but everyoneâs motivation will be different
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While I understand that going the extra mile when trying to establish yourself can feel like a necessary tradeoff to build a career, I wanted to share a few thoughts on crunch and unpaid overtime. First off, I want to acknowledge that I donât know your specific situation or circumstancesâthis is meant as a general statement.
I think some people associate working extra long hours with being âgoodâ or a âhard workerâ or as someone who gets the job done. While working hard voluntarily can be rewarding, particularly if you have a personal stake in a project or the companyâs success, it becomes exploitation when unpaid overtime is expected as part of the company culture.
If a company expects unpaid overtime as a standard rather than an unfortunate exception, itâs usually because theyâre either doing a poor job managing their projects (overscoping) or someone at the top wants to pocket more money while giving less to everyone else. In that latter case, your weekends are essentially making some boss or investor richer so they can buy themselves another luxury car. And sure, maybe working overtime every weekend might help you climb the ranks. But itâs just as likely that theyâll replace you with the next junior hire once you burn out.
Sometimes, of course, we donât have much choice in these situations. But Iâm sharing this to encourage a perspective shift: from âI work hard and will be rewarded for thisâ to âthis is exploitation, and it shouldnât be normalized as acceptable working conditions.â These days, more and more people are aware that crunch (and exploitation) leads to worse products, so not all companies expect that as it used to be.
Again, I donât know your mindset or the reasons behind it, and Iâm not here to judge. I simply want to advocate for healthier work environments, as this benefits everyone in the long run. After all, artistic inspirationâand great workâoften come from living a good life, not from being overworked or exploited.
My suggestion is pretty similar to Niels on Japan:
Unless you are coming to Japan as a foreign student first, it is an incredibly bad idea to attempt to settle in Japan first then look for an offer. You MUST get the offer from any Japanese company before relocating into Japan. Once you get the offer, the hiring company will do most of the paperwork for you for obtaining the working permit in Japan.
Again for junior artists, wage in Japan is not great at all, combined with taxes, health insurance and a weak yen. Also for most junior foreign workers in Japan, they are unlikely to be employed as a âfull-time employeeâ (ćŁç¤žĺĄ) but contracted worker (ĺĽç´ç¤žĺĄ) which is more vulnerable to layoff along with other disadvantages. That said, full-time employee in Japan is not bulletproof.
Another obvious barrier is language. Japanese is not an easy language for most non-East-Asians (similar to Chinese), and most Japanese game studios have pretty high requirement for Japanese proficiency with only a handful exceptions. Junior or senior, the reality is that most Japanese game developers cannot speak work-level English. This is more obvious that most Japanese game devs always switch the UI language of their work-related apps (OS, modelling, graphic software or game engine, etc.) from English to Japanese.
Hi there, I can offer some insights on working in China. I worked in the US as a junior VFX artist for two years before moving back to China. I currently work at a well-established mobile game company in Shanghai.
Getting into the industry as a VFX artist in China is surprisingly easy. Iâve seen people with no experience and only spent 3 months following online courses land jobs in the industry. However, the catch is while the bar is relatively low, the majority of roles are outsourced and you will most likely get hired as a project-based contractor, aka V-positions, with lower pay and less benefits. Itâs hard for you to land a full-time position in a mid to large size studio unless youâre very experienced or fresh out of college(since they are very happy to train you and your pay is low).
Whether you work unpaid overtime depends on the company that hires you. Megacorps like Netease and Tencent are less likely to have you work overtime if youâre a contractor because they need to pay you double for overtime. If youâre a full-time employee however only expect overtime pay during holidays, as unpaid overtime has been normalized for a long time. Companies that donât have overtime will list it as part of the benefit package because itâs rare in the industry.
If you want to look for work in China. Check out Kanzhun Limited and their job board app Bossç´č. You can also ask for referrals if you have some connections. The industry seems to be always hiring and always annoucing new projects. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
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