After data annotators, another AI assembly line position has emerged.When it comes to drawing cards, many people’s first reaction may be the fanatical live broadcast of card removal, or it may be the interactive plot in B-game that makes people excited and makes their wallets bleed. But who would have thought that in 2026, card drawing could become a serious career listed on recruitment websites.
If you have paid attention to the film and television industry in the past two years, your ears are probably scratched by the words "AI changes the industry."
"AI is going to change short dramas" and "the film and television industry is going to change"... Similar statements are rampant. AI comics have not been fully studied yet, and now there is an AI simulation short drama. The trend is coming one after another, and people from all walks of life are also flocking to it.
AI card drawing artist, also called animator in some companies, is a new position that emerged in this wave.
Search around on the recruitment software and you will probably be able to understand what this card draw artist does.
To put it simply, it isGenerate based on scriptAIvideo.
Browsing through a few positions, you will find that the requirements for a card drawing artist are actually not very high.
Even if you don’t have a professional background in digital media, art, or animation, but just like to watch short dramas and comics, or are interested in AI video production, some companies can still recruit you, but the salary will be lower.
The reason is very simple. The threshold for making AI short dramas is very low, and there are a lot of tutorials online.Regardless of the effect, even a complete novice can master the basic workflow in a short time and create a work.
At first glance, it seems that even an ordinary person can seize the opportunity of the limelight, but to put it bluntly, if it is just a matter of drawing cards, this job may not have much gold content.
Anyone can do it" "cyber assembly line worker" "screws, consumables"...This is the true feelings of many current and retired card draw artists about this job.
Let me first give you a brief introduction to the current general production process of AI short dramas.
Generally speaking, the screenwriter first writes out the script and writes the story, then the director breaks down the storyboards and pre-generates some visual assets (in order to ensure the consistency of subsequent generation). The card artist then generates the video through prompt words according to the tasks assigned by the director. After the director nods, he finally performs editing, dubbing and other operations.
There may be slight differences in the work content of card drawing artists in different companies, but the overall difference is pretty much the same.It’s more like a supporting job for a director.
Because current generative AI is essentially a process of opening blind boxes. The task of the card draw artist is to constantly train the AI until it generates something that meets the aesthetics of the director and Party A.
To some extent,It is because the current AI capabilities are not stable enough that card draw masters are needed to fill in the gaps with human flesh.
Therefore, this also leads to the actual working status of the card drawing artist, which is actually an extreme duplication of manpower.
Picture source Wuxi Short Drama Company’s visit
Li Tong (pseudonym), who majored in big data, had been an intern in the AI video generation position for a period of time.
Every day's work is to design sub-shots based on the plot of the novel, draw cards to generate videos, and also edit and dub.
"The company doesn't look at professionalism when recruiting people. After teaching you how to operate, it depends purely on the quality and speed of the video after personally designing the split shots. "
The price of this kind of personal practice is usually multiple reworks. Because videos are not up to standard, it is common for them to be sent back for repeated revisions. Li Tong revealed that if he reworked too many times, he would be persuaded to quit by the company.
Two days later, I visited an AI short drama company in Wuxi and gained a deeper understanding of the job of a card draw artist.
The on-site operation process does not seem complicated. The card draw artist needs to upload the reference pictures of the characters, scenes, and props generated in advance, and then write the prompts as accurately as possible, which shot is what, and what the scene is in a few seconds.
A card draw artist told us that in literary dramas, one usually needs to be drawn from 3-4 pieces, but for plays involving complex actions, the number of card draws may be ten times that of ordinary content.
Some of the trashy films were ridiculously overturned, such as the acceptance letter sticking to the protagonist's face for no apparent reason, and another protagonist suddenly appearing in the picture.
Therefore, in order to find a usable video among these waste videos, the card draw artist must mechanically repeat the process of inputting, waiting, confirming, and starting over.
Besides being boring, working overtime is also normal.
Wang Jing (pseudonym), who is an intern at another comic company, told me that when I was working on a project a few years ago, I had to work overtime until three or five in the morning. Drawing cards and adjusting prompt words day after day made her feel like a screw.
And because the computing power of Seedance 2.0 is now tight, many card drawers have been forced to find a set of strategies to avoid queuing. Nothing more than working overtime to draw cards in the early morning and weekends.
The sad thing is that the pay of this job may not be as good as working in a factory.
The monthly salary of many on-campus interns is only 2-3k. If they are recruited through social recruitment, the average salary is 4-6k, and it will be slightly higher in first-tier cities.
Zhang Yang (pseudonym), an industry insider, told the reviewer that in their line of work, they basically work on weekends or single days.Workdays can easily exceed 8 hours a day.
Because there is no commission, Zhang Yang’s company’s fixed salary will be slightly higher, but if it is a basic salary plus performance structure, the basic salary may only be 3,000 yuan.
However, despite doing dirty and tiring work, there are still many young people who are willing to do it, because AI short dramas are in the spotlight, and maybe one day a drama will be made that will be popular all over the Internet.
You may not know it yet, but the trend of the short drama industry has completely changed. Live-action short drama projects have been cut off in large numbers, and money and energy have been diverted to AI short dramas/comic dramas.
DataEye data shows that the market size of comic TV series is expected to exceed 24.3 billion yuan in 2026.
Actors in live-action short dramas have seen their pay cut in half, leaving actors below the waist with no work to do. Some actors have to consider "selling their faces", that is, authorizing their likenesses to be used by AI to obtain part of their income.
It seems that AI skits are booming and there are opportunities everywhere.
But the reality is very cruel. There are a lot of popular companies, but there are only a few hits.
Taking comics as an example, DataEye-ADX Industry Edition data shows that,In 2025, there will be 60,946 AI comic series online, of which only 96 will have over 100 million views, with a hit rate of 0.16%.
This year there is another short drama featuring AI simulators. In January’s top 100 comic series list, the proportion of short dramas featuring AI simulators increased from 7% last year to 38%.
Zhang Yang told the bad reviewer that they are now recruiting card players on a large scale purely to increase production capacity through crowd tactics.
Because the industry is too new, there are no ready-made talents on the market, so we can only lower the threshold to the lowest level and recruit a bunch of interns and novices to train.
In their eyes, the current card drawing artists are no different from assembly line workers.Even this position that emerged because of AI may soon be replaced by AI.
"Nowadays, a director needs to be paired with four or five card drawers, but in the future, he may only need one-on-one."
Zhang Yang revealed that some leading companies had already begun to lay off card-drawing artists in batches a year ago. Their company estimates that they will also start to slowly lay off card-drawing artists in one or two months. By the end of this year, only a small amount may be needed.
So I dare to say this because more obedient and cheaper competitors are already on the job.
Some companies have begun to try to use OpenClaw to replace the card drawer, and it is said that the effect is not bad. In Zhang Yang's view, most card drawing artists are not good at writing prompt words at all, and they are more of just a tool for operation and editing. It is better to leave the work to AI.
In addition, a short time ago, Byte Skylark launched a short drama Agent, which can directly upload the script and produce the movie with one click. Storyboarding and editing are not required. Industry insiders say that the threshold for AI comic dramas is about to be crossed.
However, there is no need to be too anxious.
In the AI era, we may face many similar situations. A new profession is born with the flaws of the technology, and then dies with the evolution of the technology.
This time it was a card drawer, next time it would be something else.
AI short dramas are still a huge trend, but no one knows how long this trend will last. For those who want to enter the industry or are new to the industry, there may be no need to worry too much about whether they are low-level consumables at the beginning.
Because no matter how much AI evolves, good movies will ultimately have to rely on people to nod them.
According to the founder of Wuxi Baize Eimeng Short Drama Company, in the future, the core of AI short dramas will still be "people".
Aesthetic intuition influenced by art for a long time is difficult to acquire through short-term prompt word training. Personal unique style and professional ability in vertical fields are more competitive than all-rounders.
Including Zhang Yang and others, they now also intend to train the company's draw artists into directors who can be responsible for the overall production process and final effects.
The understanding of scripts, aesthetic expression, and the ability to tell a story well are scarce at all times.
Even if AI can generate realistic images, it is still difficult to define what kind of story can move people.