Agora.Community

Ready to hear the origin story for Agora. Community ? 💙🙌⁠ In the latest episode of our podcast, Alejandra sits down with the one-and-only David Hubert (CEO & Co-Founder at @ Agora.studio -mtl )⁠ David has over two and a half decades of experience in both the VFX and animation industries. He spent a lot of his early years at DreamWorks working across multiple projects, and moved on to direct...

In our latest podcast, Alejandra chats with Nicholas Cabana, Founder and Co-Creative Director at Claynosaurz 🦖🦕 Nic has helped establish studios like MPC and Rodeo FX (Montreal), and has a long history with visual effects and animation. Recently, he and his team have ventured into uncharted waters with Claynosaurz, reshaping the way original content is created and reimagining IP development. Thi...

In our next conversation with animation industry professionals, Alejandra sits down with Agora Animation Supervisor, Marco Foglia. Marco has been in the industry for over two decades and has worked on some hit franchises such as Transformers, Planet of the Apes and the Tomb Raider video game reboot. In this episode, Marco and Alejandra discuss leaving the VFX industry, how work from home and the i...

The next guest of our podcast is Fernando Herrera. Fernando is an Annie Award winner and VES Award nominee, currently working as a Senior Animator at ILM. In this conversation, Fernando give his perspective on the anti-VFX movement and shares his perspective on what its like to animate for films like Detective Pikachu, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, and the hit TV show His Dark Materials. As a...

Agora Animation Supervisor Alejandra Alvarez was lucky to sit down with Virginie Lavallée, a Producer from The Happy Producers. This is definitely an interview not to miss if you've ever wondered what's going on in the production side of things. Virginie answers all the questions we have been wanting to ask a producer. She has a team-centric approach to production. She takes us through how to buil...

We have another fun interview in store for you this month! This time it's with Agora Animator, Valerie Lim . With a decade of experience in the animation industry, Val has worked in both games and feature film, her most recent project being none other than Nimona. In this chat, Val discusses fighting against "grind" culture, the pride of working in an environment that supports representation, alon...

If you've been around the gaming industry for a while, you should have heard of Richard Lico. Richard is an Annie Award-nominated Animator having worked at Bungie, Polyarc, and teaching online with iAnimate, along with his own set of tutorials through his website Animation Sherpa. In our latest interview with Agora.studio ’s Animation Supervisor, Alejandra Alvarez, Richard discusses the transforma...

Ere Santos is an Animation Supervisor at Walt Disney Animation Studios, ex-Pixar animator, Instructor at Animation Mentor, and TEDx Speaker. He and Alejandra dive into a variety of topics, including what it was like working on Across the Spiderverse, the future of AI in the animation industry, and more!⁠

If you missed our live Q&A with the animation supervisors of Love, Death & Robots Season 3 episode, Jibaro, you can catch up here! Some great questions are asked about the time that went into reference vs animating, was any mocap used and how long did it take to finish the facial animation? Don't miss our next live stream, and follow us on Twitch. https://www.twitch.tv/agoracommunity/ Also...

In this conversation, Brent and Jacob catch up with Tomáš Jech, indie game developer and co-founder of Studio Tandemi. Tomáš is currently developing the spooky, top-down, co-op game, Begone Beast (link below). In this chat the gang discuss Tomáš' rocky beginnings as a pixar intern, through to animating at studios such as Riot and Blizzard, and the current state of being a game developer. You can l...

Pierre Perifel, Director of The Bad Guys, joins us again for a deep dive into the making of the fil and talks about creating the style of the film, developing the characters and answer questions from the fans! Also, check out Agora. Community for daily content, free rigs, and assets, and order an animation review from one of our industry experts: https://www.agora.community Thanks for listening!

Get ready to meet video game actor, Shawn Baichoo. Shawn has provided a large amount of work for Assassin's Creed II from motion-capture work to voice acting, as well as starring as Antonio Maffei in Assassin's Creed: Lineage. Other games in Shawn’s CV include the Watch Dogs series, Outlast, Far Cry. In this conversation we chat about Shawn's career in both film and video games, the differences be...

In our conversation with Aaron Gilman, CEO of Steamroller Studios, the gang speak on some great topics like leadership in animation, not taking things to heart as an artist and answer some questions from the chat. Also, check out Agora. Community for daily content, free rigs, and assets, and order an animation review from one of our industry experts: https://www.agora.community Thanks for listenin...

In this episode of our ‘A Conversation With’ series, David and Brent catch up with video game actor, Amber Goldfarb. In this chat the gang cover topics such as recognizing predators in positions of power, overcoming self-doubt as an artist and what life is like as an actor in video games! Also, check out Agora. Community for daily content, free rigs, and assets, and order an animation review from...

In this 'A Conversation With', we’re catching up with Dony Permedi! Dony is currently Animation Director with Nickelodeon. HOWEVER, you most likely know Dony from the 2006 animated short film KIWI. (Yes, we are shedding a tear as well). Dony was the mastermind behind this touching short film that won Youtube’s ‘Most Adorable Film’ in their first Annual Youtube Video Awards, going on to receive wid...

Our next guest on our ‘A Conversation With’ series is Mary DeMarle. Mary is the Executive Narrative Director of Eidos Montreal. She's recently finished up on the Guardians Of The Galaxy Video Game and helped introduce a new generation of gamers to some of the industry's most amazing franchises. We’ll be having a chat with Mary about her 20 years of experience working as a writer in video games, ho...

If you're considering kickstarting your career in animation and want to know more about animation schools, this is a stream not to miss! We'll be hanging out with industry veteran Wayne Gilbert, current Head Of Animation at VanArts, Vancouver BC. Even if you're in the industry, this is one not to miss! Wayne has worked on some amazing franchises throughout his career such as Star Wars, The Mummy,...

In this live event, we'll be caught up with Emile Ghorayeb, Animation Director at MPC. Emile is taking time out of his busy schedule on Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts to chat with us about his career spanning over 20 years working on some amazing projects such as the Shrek and Transformers franchises, the epic Avengers: Endgame, and his time in video games working on Halo 3 and Batman: Arkham Or...

In this ‘A Conversation With’ we’re hanging out with Stephanie Desforges, Cinematic Director at Ubisoft, Montreal. Stephanie started her career in games in 2004 working as an animator on trailers and cinematics. Her most recent project is Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, directing over 16 hours of design content, directing mocap shoots, and establishing pipeline tools and guidelines to ensure a smooth...

Khai Nguyen has been working as a professional artist for pretty much forever! He started his career as a 2D Animator on projects such as All Dogs Go To heaven II and Space Jam. In the early 2000’s he transitioned into Video Games where he has pretty stayed ever since, working as a senior concept artist and now Art Director/Animation Director. In this conversation, we’ll be discussing his beginnin...

Films and Game development can go for a LONG time! It can be hard to keep perspective and motivation. Steve talks about how to keep perspective when working on a project that might not be as well-received as the team would hope!

Working in games is a huge task and can be quite a stressful environment. Steve doesn't lie in this clip when he talks about his experiences in the stress of making a video game.

A lot of the time, we get an idea in our head that has to be the way we want something to be. However, it's important to remain open to other possibilities. Steve shares his experiences on this.

Steve gets asked where do you even begin to learn scoring for games and film. Some great tips in here for anyone musically inclined and want to navigate their career in this direction.

The team talks about what happens when things suck and you're beginning to lack motivation. A topic that often comes up in our conversations. This is the take from an audio director!