Hey guys, So I've been thinking quite a bit about this yesterday. And got a little scared, a little anxious. Because I was thinking: "How can I go from zero, not knowing anything about a software like After Effects, to being confident selling this to clients ? There are people who know this tool like the back of their hand, how can I compete with this ?" There was a big imposter syndrome growing, and I have not even started yet. Having to learn a tool from basically zero, to make things that I'm not really used to, and hoping to sell work from that is SCARY. But then, I tried to think about it from another angle. Is there any tool, any software that I know, that I am familiar with, that I can use to create motion design ? The answer is yes. The answer is Blender. I've been using Blender professionally for 3D animation for around 5 years now. I won't say that I know everything about it, quite far from it actually. BUT I had opportunities to use a bit of everything for various projects and tests during my last job. Even did some light motion design like work with it. So I looked at what can be done with Blender regarding motion design, motion graphics, 2D cutout animation. And found a few promising and reassuring results: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QaW7oI5rTw Blender VS After Effects - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yCBpdNeOnk Motion Graphics in Blender from the good reliable Ducky3D, who's videos already helped me a lot in the past for work. And he is teaching geometry nodes, which is a VERY powerful tool inside Blender that I was always interested in, and used a little in my last job as well. - https://youtu.be/AONniAlLjLg A few examples of some simple effects - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ke0qX4dB1M This is what convinced me. Kurzgesagt style animation in Blender. I love Kurzgesagt, both their content and 2D animation style, and seeing that it's this easy to do something similar in Blender, all with tools I know, makes me more confident that I can pull this off.

Hey everyone! I've heard from a couple of you that Friday isn't ideal. I'm totally flexible and happy to move our session to a different day if that works better for the group. Since we're still a small crew, let's take advantage of that and find a time that suits everyone. What day of the week would you prefer? Just drop your preference here and we'll figure it out together.

Hey everyone,👋 I built a quick quiz that tells you where you actually stand when it comes to freelancing. 10 questions. 2 minutes. No fluff. It covers the stuff that really matters: pricing, positioning, savings, boundaries, network, client experience, and the one question most animators dodge entirely. At the end you get a clear breakdown of where you're strong and where the gaps are. Not a grade. Just clarity. 👉 Quiz "Are You Ready to Freelance" And if you're up for it, screenshot your result and drop it below. 😊 I'd love to see where this group lands. Could be a fun way to spot patterns and figure out what we tackle first inside the community.

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.

This is something I have been thinking about and had a conversation with Philippe and wanted to put it out here in the community. Other than 3D Animation what other aspects of animation could we add to our business. I was thinking motion graphics I have never done it but am ready to learn something new to add to the business.😀