29d • 💬 General
I'd like to introduce myself, by sharing my background, goals, and general thoughts.
Hey everyone !
I thought I would share a bit of my personal reasons for being here, where I come from, where I'm at, where I'd like to be, etc...
Maybe some of you have had similar experiences, similar questions, doubts, goals and so on. Please share you thoughts, opinions or personal experiences as well, let's grow together
For those who were not here during the first call, hi, I'm Pierre, I'm French, I have a 3D character animation background, with a bachelor in game animation from a Belgian school (Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard in Namur). But life and opportunities made it so that my first (and so far, only) job in animation was not in games. (not counting the 3 months internship I did for the end of my studies, in a small indie games studio).
I worked for 4 years in a small, slowly growing studio in Brussels, as the first and only animator, and most of the time, rigger as well, until I was laid off in 2024. I worked on projects that were at first, not very thrilling. Mostly for European institutions, satellites programs, airports, etc... I animated lowpoly planes and satellites on these projects for 2 years, then we started our first character animation project in the shape of a short movie for kids.
And after that, character/storytelling animations projects started, slowly.
I had to help on some 2D projects as well, despite having no experience or skills in that field. A small explanation video for a French institution (ANCV) on After Effect. And on a tv series, on ToonBoom Harmony. For both, I had no 2D skills, no previous experience using either software.
And then comes the lay off, because there were no ongoing projects, we were waiting for the funding, but with no money I was paid for basically doing nothing, because there was nothing to do.
The last months in the studio were a bit weird and mentally exhausting because of small tensions on the latest project, and I was getting a bit bored of basically going to work to do almost nothing interesting, so these first few months of unemployement were a bit of a breath of fresh air.
Now, I realise that this job did not help me a lot regarding my animation skills, as I was basically a one man junior animation team, with no lead, no supervisor, no senior, no one to mentor me on a technical level. And I felt that when I realised I had no real improvement to my showreel (at least to me, I was not really satisfied with the animations I did, except for a select few that I could not share because NDAs). But it paid the bills for 4 years.
I almost got rehired on contract in the same studio in June 2025, but this ended up not happening because project delays, and I got no answer or news from them since that, despite asking a few times. So that was a bit annoying.
I made mistakes and lost some time, during these 2 years with no job. I wanted to explore Blender rigging more, so I followed a great course, but I'm not planning to be a rigger in a studio, this was more a secondary skill that I built for myself (in that case). Maybe I should have focuses more on animation, since I want to be an animator, so I enrolled in a 3 months mentorship in early 2025. After that I had two more shots for my demoreel. Still no job tho, and I was not feeling confident enough in my animation skills or ability to find a job.
Then I enrolled in a 12 months mentorship in June 2025. I still have 3 months left in this, and it's honestly the best decision I made last year, for purely animation. It made me enjoy it again. And as a small group, we are constantly giving and receiving feedback (like I hope we will be doing here, the power of community is really something great), it made me grow as an animator quite a lot. And made me more confident on how to look for and apply to jobs, how to be consistant in the when I present myself as a professional.
But still no job. I applied, applied again, answering to offers or sent speculative applications. Either no answer or "We don't have any opening that fits your skillset" or "We went forward with another candidate", etc... you probably have seen these before as well.
And here I am now, in 3 months I won't have access to unemployement money anymore because of a new law in Belgium. So there is financial pressure. And I can't wait on the industry to notice me or give me a chance. So I'll try to create this chance.
But it's scary. I've never freelanced before. I don't know how to handle a business, I have a million questions in my head, freezing me. What do I do ? How do I do it ? When do I do it ?
I want to be a creature animator. That's the dream. When I watch Pacfic Rim or Godzilla: King of the Monsters, when I play Monster Hunter, I tell myself "Yeah, that's amazing, I want to do that". I've been fascinated by animals, zoology and paleontology since I was 4 years old, it never left me. I have a ton of ideas for animations. I want to learn Unreal for filmmaking, and bring my ideas to life. But that won't pay the bills (at least not now).
I also would like to learn the skills I need to be a 3D generalist as well, to be able to to almost everything. I know animation, I know basic rigging in Blender. I need to go back in sculpting, modeling, texturing, etc... But that takes time, and probably money for courses.
The end goal would be to have freedom to develop what I love doing in animation, eventually, maybe making a living out of it.
I want to get a dog, I want to move out with my girlfriend and my two cats, out of our small appartment. Right now I'm stuck, because no jobs. So no dog, no better house, no ideal life, because no money to fund all of that.
I'm willing to expand outside of 3D and go in motion design and 2D animation, but I basically have no portfolio for that, because I almost never did it before. So how do I convince anyone to work with me on something I never did ? Do I learn first ? How much can I fake it until I make it ? And softwares like After Effect cost money. For money I need work/clients. But I probably need the software and some skills to get the clients.
These kind of questions going in circles are what is blocking me, making me doubt the choices I could make.
I hope that, by the end of the month, I'll have these questions answered, and a clear idea of what I want to build, where I want to go for my freelance career.
So that's my story. What about you all ? (that is, if you reached the end of this long wall of text, sorry about that 😅)
Looking forward to see what we will all build !
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I'd like to introduce myself, by sharing my background, goals, and general thoughts.
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