# uk salary
3D artist salary UK, 2026.
What a UK 3D artist actually earns, by seniority, by discipline, and by location. Numbers pulled from Glassdoor UK, Indeed UK, LinkedIn Talent Insights, and the ScreenSkills 2025 Pay Survey. Bands are gross annual GBP, PAYE, London or regional as marked. Freelance day rates in a separate row so the two do not get confused.
By CGT Editorial Team. Last verified 2026-07-06. Sources cited inline.
TL;DR verdict
- Junior modeller: £24,000–£32,000 London / £20,000–£28,000 regional.
- Mid animator: £34,000–£45,000 London / £30,000–£40,000 regional.
- Senior lighter / FX artist: £48,000–£65,000 London.
- Lead / supervisor: £65,000–£95,000+ (VFX-heavy discipline; see VFX salary page).
- Freelance day rate: £250–£450 junior, £400–£650 mid, £600–£900 senior.
# the table
3D artist pay bands, 2026.
Four disciplines that studios hire separately: modeller (assets, characters, environments), animator (keyframe + motion), lighter / lookdev (shading + render), FX TD (sims + procedural). Pay ladders vary by discipline; FX TD pays more at every level because the pool is smaller.
| Discipline | Level | London PAYE | Regional PAYE | Freelance day rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modeller | Junior (0–2 yrs) | £24,000–£32,000 | £20,000–£28,000 | £220–£350 |
| Modeller | Mid (2–5 yrs) | £33,000–£45,000 | £28,000–£38,000 | £350–£550 |
| Modeller | Senior (5+ yrs) | £46,000–£62,000 | £40,000–£55,000 | £500–£750 |
| Animator | Junior | £26,000–£34,000 | £22,000–£30,000 | £250–£380 |
| Animator | Mid | £35,000–£48,000 | £30,000–£40,000 | £380–£600 |
| Animator | Senior | £50,000–£70,000 | £42,000–£58,000 | £550–£850 |
| Lighter / Lookdev | Junior | £28,000–£36,000 | £24,000–£32,000 | £300–£420 |
| Lighter / Lookdev | Mid | £38,000–£52,000 | £32,000–£44,000 | £420–£620 |
| Lighter / Lookdev | Senior | £55,000–£72,000 | £46,000–£62,000 | £600–£850 |
| FX TD | Junior | £32,000–£40,000 | £28,000–£35,000 | £350–£500 |
| FX TD | Mid | £45,000–£60,000 | £38,000–£52,000 | £500–£750 |
| FX TD | Senior / Lead | £65,000–£95,000+ | £55,000–£78,000 | £700–£1,100 |
Bands cross-referenced across Glassdoor UK London 3D artist listings, Indeed UK 3D artist salary data, and the ScreenSkills 2025 workforce research pages. Freelance day-rate bands sanity-checked against posted UK studio contracts on LinkedIn Talent Insights and public Bectu rate guidance.
# london vs regional
London vs regional, honestly.
London PAYE roles pay roughly 15% to 25% more than regional roles at the same seniority. That premium disappears once you factor in London rent (£1,200–£1,900 for a room in Zone 2 in 2026), transport (£180/mo Zone 1–2 travelcard), and the fact that most Soho VFX studios still require on-site attendance three or four days a week. A junior modeller on £28,000 in Manchester with a £700/mo room is typically better off month-to-month than a junior on £32,000 in Peckham with £1,600 rent.
The genuine London-only premium exists at senior level. FX TDs and comp supervisors at Framestore, DNEG, and MPC London earn 20% to 35% more than the same title at regional VFX houses, and the promotion path to supervisor is faster because the shows are bigger. Below £45k, moving to London for a 3D role rarely pays back. Above £55k, it usually does.
# progression
How long does each promotion take?
Rough UK studio ladder, from a first junior contract to lead. Assumes continuous employment; freelance-heavy paths run 20% to 40% slower to the same title because credited work is harder to accumulate.
- Junior to mid: 18 to 30 months. Trigger is usually a second full show credit plus one specialism (character rig, hard-surface prop pipeline, cloth sim).
- Mid to senior: 3 to 5 years post-mid. Requires shot leadership on a named show and one full sequence signed off with light supervisor oversight.
- Senior to lead / supervisor: 3 to 6 years post-senior. Requires people management (typically 3 to 8 direct reports) plus a supervisor credit on IMDB Pro. This is where careers plateau if leadership is not the goal.
- Lead to CG supervisor / VFX supervisor: 5+ years post-lead, film-by-film. Fewer than 300 people in the UK hold this title at any given moment (ScreenSkills 2024 workforce estimate).
The single strongest predictor of pay progression in the UK is credited-show count on IMDB Pro. Above £70k, hiring managers filter for it directly. Portfolio work that is not tied to a released, credited show weighs less than most learners expect.
# what changes the number
What actually moves the offer up.
- Second software. A modeller who ships in Maya and ZBrush earns 5% to 10% more than a Maya-only modeller at the same level. A comp artist who runs Nuke and Houdini FX earns 10% to 15% more (source: LinkedIn Talent Insights 2025 salary bench).
- Credited show count. Named credit on any BFI-registered film, Netflix streaming series, or A24 title carries more weight than five unreleased personal projects. Junior conversion at Framestore, DNEG, and MPC is highest when the runner or trainee already appears on one credited show.
- Specialism narrowness. Fur groom, cloth sim, crowd, hero-character rigging: each pays a 10% to 25% premium over generalist 3D at senior level. The tradeoff is fewer employers.
- Union / Bectu awareness. Bectu VFX rate cards are advisory, not binding, but referencing them in a rate conversation moves offers up 5% to 15% at junior and mid level. See bectu.org.uk.
# regional maps
Where the regional 3D jobs actually are.
Outside London, four UK clusters employ 3D artists at scale. Salary bands sit 10% to 20% below Soho equivalents at every level, but disposable-income maths often favour the region.
- Bristol: Aardman-anchored animation cluster plus Bomper, Boulder Media, and Films at 59. Animator and modeller-heavy. Junior bands £24k–£30k; mid £34k–£45k. See the Bristol studio map.
- Manchester + Salford (MediaCityUK): broadcast-adjacent motion + VFX. Realtime UK (Cheshire, commutable) is the northern anchor for games cinematics. Junior bands £22k–£28k; mid £32k–£42k.
- Edinburgh + Dundee: games-heavy (Rockstar North, 4J Studios, historic Abertay pipeline). Junior bands £24k–£30k; mid £34k–£46k. Cost of living roughly Bristol-equivalent.
- Guildford: Sony Bethesda, EA-adjacent games clusters. Games-art bands slightly above general 3D because games studios pay a small premium at senior level.
# gender + diversity signal
What the ScreenSkills data actually shows on pay gaps.
The ScreenSkills 2024-25 workforce research documented a persistent pay differential in UK VFX and animation across gender and ethnicity lines, particularly above mid-level. At junior and mid level, bands are effectively identical across demographic groups (variance under 3%). At senior and lead, the median gap widens to roughly 8% to 14% depending on the discipline and dataset. Access:VFX and Rise Up (women in animation) both publish annual sector reports that confirm the same directional finding.
The practical implication for anyone reading this page for negotiation prep: senior-level offers are negotiable. Sector data shows the median offer to under-represented applicants sits below equivalent-CV peers; asking for the number in the top third of the published band is reasonable and typically accepted.
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