Deadline is reporting on hundreds more layoffs incoming at one of the VFX top firms, DNEG, which is the VFX company behind major blockbusters like Dune: Part Two, Oppenheimer, The Last of Us, and many more. Because of AI?

DNEG: Top-tier VFX company

DNEG (formerly known as Double Negative and stylized as D N E G) is a British visual effects, computer animation, and stereo conversion studio that was founded in 1998 in London, and rebranded as DNEG in 2014 after a merger with an Indian VFX company Prime Focus; it was named after the letters “D” and “Neg” from their former name. The company has received seven Academy Awards for its work on the films Inception, Interstellar, Ex Machina, Blade Runner 2049, First Man, Tenet, and Dune. In addition, DNEG has received BAFTA awards for Inception, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Interstellar, Blade Runner 2049, Tenet, Dune, and Black Mirror’s “Metalhead”, and Visual Effects Society awards for its work on films such as The Dark Knight Rises, Sherlock Holmes, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Blade Runner 2049, Altered Carbon, First Man, Chornobyl, Last Night In Soho, Foundation and Dune. It has also received Primetime Emmy Awards for its work on Dreamkeeper, Chornobyl, and season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery. Now the company suffers from a major layoff, as Deadline reports.

Hundreds of VFX specialists are getting fired

Deadline is told that the outfit has kicked off a consultation process in at least the UK and Canada, which could see an exodus of around 5% of DNEG’s circa-10,000-strong global workforce. According to Deadline, the layoffs are understood to be somewhat concentrated within R&D teams and are a response to the challenged market (AI?). “We know this will be a very worrying time for anyone working at DNEG, compounding what has been a very difficult year for UK film and TV workers,” an employee stated. Indeed, it was recently reported that Hollywood unions representing animators and visual effects workers are gearing up to demand rules governing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the entertainment industry, fearing widespread job displacement. Now it appears that the wave of tech layoffs has hit the VFX industry. That’s a hard time for the VFX sector.