All this is putting pressure on smaller US special effects companies, like The Orphanage, a San Francisco-based company that shut its doors in February, laying off 100 people.
"The average cost of a shot gets lower and lower every year," said co-founder Scott Stewart. "If they keep driving the prices down, it will keep driving it offshore. Fewer and fewer artists will be working in the US"
Even the Orphanage had outsourced work to India to save on costs, he said.
"Everyone's doing it," Stewart said. Indian companies have already established themselves doing low-end work and are now moving up the value chain, he added. "They're starting to get good at everything."
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