My turn first — I'll go first 👋 | Harvey Newman, Animation Director

👋 Start Here Introductions
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Hey everyone — Harvey here. Since I’m asking you all to introduce yourselves, it’s only right I go first.

Who am I?
I’m an animation director and educator with over 20 years in the games industry. I’ve worked on titles including Horizon Zero Dawn, Star Wars Battlefront, Fable, and a bunch more I’ll talk about as we get to know each other. These days I spend my time creating courses and resources through anim.works to help animators at every level level up their craft.

Why did I build this place?
Honestly? Because I kept getting the same DMs. “How do I break in?” “Is my portfolio ready?” “How do I make game animation feel alive?” The answers are out there, but they’re scattered. I wanted one place where animators could ask those questions, get real answers from people who’ve actually done it, and feel like they belong — regardless of where they are in their journey.

What excites me about animation right now?
The convergence of real-time tech and filmic quality. Games are producing animation that would have been impossible even 5 years ago, and the bar is still rising. It’s a genuinely exciting time to be in this craft.

Your turn. Drop an intro below and tell me:

What’s the one thing you wish someone had told you earlier in your animation journey?

Looking forward to learning who’s here. Let’s build something great together. :yellow_heart:

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I wish someone had told me that no matter how well you can animate, nothing beats a proper, effective workflow. Clarity lets you see the finish line before you even start it!

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Hey Arvin. You couldn’t be more right…once you learn that it becomes addictive, this is the main reason why I become an Animation Director, maximizing those workflows and pipelines is so sweet. Hard work though

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Halo!

Im Fatwa Amin Rais

I am 3D Animator for the last 5 years exploring various tips and trick to do 3D Animation. I am Mostly Doing Animation for TVC but recently got to work on Game Dev and Animation Series.

For the past year i develóping my Education Circle called Mari Nganimasi in Indonesia to make Animation Education more affordable and accessible.

What’s the one thing you wish someone had told you earlier in your animation journey??

How to learn more properly to make my mindset more structured

Happy to join the community!

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Hey Fatwa so cool to see animators for Indonesia here.

And the thing I would have wished to know earlier on as well in my career is that the most creative work happens in smaller teams. The bigger the team the less creative and more structured things get.

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Hey :smiley: Glad to be here. Site looks Great!

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Hi :waving_hand: I’m a animator with about 5 years in the industry. I currently freelance remotely with an XR game company from Singapore.

What’s one thing I wish someone had told me earlier?

That once you land your first job as an animator, no matter the size of the studio, you’ve already taken the first big step. After that, it’s about continuing to grow and moving toward the kind of animator you want to be. The company you work for doesn’t define you, your skills do. Be proud of your progress and keep focusing on what you love.

Also hoping to meet some new people here and learn from everyone. Always happy to connect with fellow animators!

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Hey Will!! Super nice to see you here dude!

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Welcome to the collective Quinn. And that’s absolutely true!

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Hello community! :waving_hand: :waving_hand: :waving_hand:

I’m Jerome, animator since 2019. I worked on Shows, Movies and games. I’m from Canada and started my animation journey with Animation Mentor. What I live about my journey is that I worked on different media types and I feel like I was able to take the best out of it when working on a different type, giving me better artistic and technical skills in my journey.

What excites me about animation right now?

Right now what excites me about animation is the resilience of my peers. The industry have been in rough waters for a couple of years now but people still creates amazing pieces whether it’s in games or on movies.

In a more specific way, the animations of Arthur Munoz on No Rest For The Wicked has really got me excited. He’s such a talented animator!

What’s the one thing you wish someone had told you earlier in your animation journey?

Don’t be affraid to test and play with it. I feel like it’s a reflex for Modellers to add clay, Scrap, flatten but that reflex is also true while animating. Explore with timing, move keys around, save incremental and try the motion differently and trust the process. It might look ugly at first but in the end, when playing enough with the clay, you end up getting nice results.

My personal goal for the incoming years
My Demo Reel does not reflects what I’m capable of and I really want to rework it with some more personal work. Also I want to be able to help newer artists to grow in their journey. I would like eventually to teach others.

See you around y’all!

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Welcome to the collective Jerome, really great to have you here. And really dig your intro man.
And would be ace to have you help others here in the forums, looking forward to seeing your contributions.

Harvey

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Bonjour !

I’m Esteban Lenquette, freelance 3D Animator for video games, short movies, social medias and hopefully someday in Animation Feature Industry !
While aiming to work on Animation movies, I like to travel, work abroad and change country or city every now and then :wink:

Even in my free time I like to create animation for fun and to get better, to learn new softwares, new tools, new styles and from time to time with a mentor.

I think one of my goal would just be to tell and animate my own stories !

What’s the one thing you wish someone had told you earlier in your animation journey?

Join communities (like this one haha !) on any social medias, find and try some animation/3D challenges and one of the thing that helped me the most, If you can afford it : go to real life animation/video games/artistic… events !
I went to some events (most of the time by myself) like the Blender Conference, IAMAG, Art’n’talk, Annecy Festival, Mundos Digitales and it was always amazing !!

People are so nice and passionate, masterclasses will get you inspired and I can assure you that you’ll go back home with a boost of energy to create and learn !

And most importantly I had new gigs and contacts thanks to those events :wink:

Those can be expensive, but you can also find some weekly artistic events in some cities, and If there isnt any of these near you : why not create your own ?

“It’s a leap of faith. That’s all it is, Miles. A leap of faith.”

See ya !

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Hey Esteban
Welcome to the collective.

Glad you joined and that you find value in communitie slike these :slight_smile:
Funny enough I never been to the events you mentioned but I would like to go, and agree the animations community is always amazing to hang out with.

Loving the Miles quote.

Feel free to browse around and I hope in time this community proves useful in your journey

Harvey

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I just realised I forgot to introduce myself :sweat_smile: . Hello there, my name is Arvinraj. I am from Malaysia. Love and grew up with anime, animations, and video games. Have been self-taught for the past 2+ years, now slowly getting my foot in the industry. As of today, I have decided on the path of a gameplay animator!

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Hey Arvin

Love the fact that you’ve embarked on this journey, I am sure everyone here will agree that gameplay animation is the best!! From an unbiased prespective :smiley:

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