I think there really needs to be more talk around "visual development" roles in this part of the world. In my experience, I have NEVER seen a purely visual development role. The way it's done, in my experience, is that designers and artists are hired for the whole production,

as a production artist. If they have "visual development" skills or potential, they are simply hired/cast early on in the production to help out.

I see so many students or young artists saying they want to go into "visual development". and I understand! It's exciting and cool, but sadly, it doesn't exist as a stand alone job. You gotta learn to do (and enjoy!) production designing and artwork too.

"Visual Development" is also not an entry level task, except in extremely rare circumstances. It was years before they let me near any development stuff haha.

Rant over, just a subject that really gets on my tits because I think it's massively misunderstood.

Also, apologies for how many times I said "in my experience", this is absolutely an invitation for people to chime in with their own! Maybe I'm wrong!