Issue #124 | November 8th, 2026
Hey Reader 👋
I need to tell you about something I’m very, very excited about.
Not just this week, either. I’ve felt this way ever since I found out you could vibe code things… actually build stuff, with AI.
These last few days I’ve been kind of ecstatic. I’m starting to see how much I can become. And all the things I can build.
Let me take you back a bit.
A book of 100 games
I grew up glued to computers and guitar. I never had a console. No Game Boy, no PlayStation, no Mega Drive. My first machine was a Canon V-20, an MSX computer. Games came on cartridges… and I didn’t have the money for cartridges.
So I bought a book with 100 games inside, all written in BASIC. You had to type every single line by hand.
And I did. Character by character, without understanding a word of it. I’d save it to tape, and suddenly there was tennis on my screen. Football. Some kind of Pong. Chess.
Text going in. Pictures and motion coming out.
That was my very first relationship with code. And honestly? It felt like magic.
We couldn’t afford an Atari ST or an Amiga after that, so I’d go play at friends’ places, with those insane graphics for the time. We played Bomberman until my fingers hurt 😅 Later I jumped straight to an IBM PC and dove into 3DS Max, animation, Photoshop… and I was gone. Never left.
The door I closed
When the iPhone came out, and especially the App Store, something clicked. One person could build software, sell it and make a living. Not a company. Not a publisher. A solo developer.
Wait, what? You can get paid to do that? It’s a real job?
But the friction was huge. You had to learn to code, properly. And I was already deep into 3D, animation, music… there was no room. I would have had to drop everything.
So I closed that door. Told myself it wasn’t for me.
…and then it blew open
Fast forward a couple of decades. Now there’s Claude Code and Codex, and you don’t need to type code anymore. Lots of my developer friends don’t write a single line by hand these days. That’s where we are.
That door I’d locked and sealed? The seal exploded. The lock flew off. And behind it… a million opportunities.
No way I’m not going in.
Citron was my first attempt, you know that one. Make 6.3 K with it so far. But this week I started building things just for me. And it’s incredible.
I’m dictating these words right now. Usually I’d write this newsletter by talking into Wispr Flow. Not this week. I didn’t want to keep paying $15 a month, so I built my own. It’s called Murmur. It does the same thing, works great, costs nothing, and sits right there in my dock. Nobody else has it, and I won’t sell it because it’s basically a Wispr Flow clone. But I built it.
And I’ve got a bunch of ideas.. Chrome extensions, iOS apps, Mac apps…
Why I’m hanging out on X now
If you want to learn this stuff, X is incredible. There’s a huge community of solo builders, indie devs, vibe coders, SaaS and iOS app makers, all building in public. They show the wins. And they show the $0 months too. Everything.
It feels fresh. People ask questions, give answers and share exactly how they sell their apps. I’m learning a ton.
LinkedIn, honestly, has become a pain. You weigh every word, someone yells “AI-written!”, and the feed is drowning in tech bros and lead-gen guys. I have 8K followers there and I’m not leaving… but after 3 years, it’s not my main home anymore. My feed there just feels heavy.
I’ve updated my X profile too. It’s less about animation now and more about solo building (Citron is there, obviously). If you want to follow along, I’m at @philippeduvin.
But here’s what I really want you to take from this.
Everyone has a door like that. Something you decided “wasn’t for you” because the jump looked too big. Go check it again. The jump might be a lot smaller now.
Alright. Let’s get into this week’s issue. 🔥
This week's sponsor
The Spotlight
A fluffy white cat named Ditto has one goal in life: find the comfiest spot in the universe. She finally finds it on the sofa… and then a turbo-charged little moth decides it wants the exact same spot.
That’s it. That’s the whole story.
And honestly? It doesn’t need more. The story is just a great excuse to make some of the most fun animation and graphics I’ve seen in a long time.
The cat
I’ll be honest, the first thing that pulled me in was Ditto. The design is just so good. A big poofy ball of white fur with a huge personality, and every pose reads instantly. You could almost say the film is about that cat, and I’d be fine with it.
Is this even a 3D film?
Technically, yes. It’s built in CG, in a doll-house-like set that feels handmade. But I can barely call it a 3D movie, because there’s so much 2D in there.
And I don’t mean a couple of 2D shots sprinkled here and there. Whole sequences switch to 2D. Even in the CG shots, there’s 2D FX everywhere. It’s hand-drawn animation, but drawn with total control of moving cameras, objects turning in space and characters that hold their volume, plus great color and art direction on top. I’m not sure there’s a single shot that’s only 3D.
It goes way past mastery. It feels like a virtuoso performance… animation, graphic design and art direction all firing at once, and everything is right on point.
The pacing
It’s 7 minutes and 20 seconds, and it flies by. The rhythm is spot on, the gags land, and a jazzy score by Liv Muir Wilson carries the whole thing. It made me laugh so much.
And here’s something I love. This is India Barnardo’s directing debut. She’s a character animator (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Sea Beast), and she made this in her spare time, pulling together a crew of 90+ artists working remotely from all over the world.
Nobody’s waiting for permission to make the film they want anymore.
Go watch it. Seriously. 😊
🎬 Credits
Director: India Barnardo
Production: Emily Shinyi Hsu, Sarah Dacey - Stupid Horse Productions
Story: India Barnardo, Amar Chundavadra, Martyn Smith
Creative CG Supervisor: Amar Chundavadra
Visual Development: Pablo Rivera (lead)
Animation: Alex Ferreira Simoes (CG lead), India Barnardo (2D lead), Théo Berthet, Bruno Carias Fogaça, Katie Fabrick
2D FX: Debbie Middleton, Carolina Guadalupe González Sánchez, Brandon Louie, Helen Ahlberg
Layout: Heather Fleischman (lead)
Editing: Martyn Smith
Music: Liv Muir Wilson
Sound: Andreas Russo
Compositing: Dorien Gunnels (lead), Amanda Beals (lighting lead)
The Job Fair
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Animator - Immersive (All Levels)
Industrial Light & Magic · London, UK (Hybrid)
ILM London is hiring animators at every level for an immersive concert project, with the focus on photoreal performance and detailed facial work. They want strong body mechanics, mocap experience, real FACS knowledge and the acting chops to carry emotional nuance, all in Maya. It's a fixed-term contract of up to six months starting early 2027, with at least two days a week on-site.
Posted: November 5, 2026.
- 2D Character Animator (Freelance)
SadTigers Productions · Remote
SadTigers is lining up freelancers for upcoming commercial animation projects and wants junior to mid-level 2D animators who can do cute, expressive character acting. It's project-based, and they ask you to send your flat rates along with your reel, availability and a short intro to apply@sadtigers.com. They're also looking for a color key artist and an After Effects compositor, so pass it on.
Posted: November 5, 2026.
- 2D Storyboard Artist
Animatò · Remote or Turin, Italy
Italian studio Animatò is hiring several mid-level 2D storyboard artists for a new series. You need previous production experience on boards and availability from mid-November through the end of March, working fully remote or hybrid from Turin. The original post is in Italian, so speaking it will likely help. Send your CV and portfolio to contact@anima.to.it.
Posted: November 3, 2026.
The Random Stuff
✂️ Learn to Animate! by Kevin Parry
If you’ve spent any time on animation social media, you know Kevin Parry. He’s the stop-motion guy behind all those mind-bending videos. He spent 16 years in the craft, including feature work at LAIKA, and now he’s made a book. Learn to Animate! is a hands-on stop-motion activity book: 74 pages, 32 guided activities, with squash and stretch, easing and arcs all taught by actually doing them. Some pages are even meant to be cut out and animated.
It’s aimed at kids 8 and up… and curious adults, which is honestly all of us 😊 You can get it in print or as an instant PDF you print at home, and all you need is a phone and the free Stop Motion Studio app. If you have kids, nieces, nephews, or you just want to get your hands dirty again away from the screen, this is a lovely way in. 👉 stopmotionbook.com
👀 The Undoing
Last week I told you about my chaotic Big Little Lies binge. Well… I’m hooked on Nicole Kidman and David E. Kelley now. The Undoing is their next HBO series together: a six-episode limited series with Kidman and Hugh Grant as a wealthy New York couple whose perfect life falls apart after a violent death. It’s directed start to finish by Susanne Bier, and Donald Sutherland plays Kidman’s dad.
This time I watched the episodes in the right order 😅 It’s a tight, twisty one. Hugh Grant playing against type is worth the watch on its own. If Big Little Lies got you too, this is the obvious next one.
🤖 Deep Dive into LLMs like ChatGPT, by Andrej Karpathy
If you’re into AI even a little, you probably know Andrej Karpathy. The guy is a legend. He co-founded OpenAI, ran AI at Tesla, and joined Anthropic back in May. Oh, and he’s the one who came up with the term “vibe coding”… which is pretty funny, given my intro this week 😅 In this video he lays out how ChatGPT, Claude and all these LLMs actually work under the hood. And it’s 3 hours, 31 minutes long.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t watched the whole thing yet. It’s long. But it’s sitting at the top of my bookmarks. Think about it… one of the most talented people in the field, explaining all of it, for free, on YouTube. If you use these tools every day like I do, understanding what’s going on behind the curtain is worth an evening or two. Go check it out.
Like what you're reading? Don't keep it to yourself.
Forward this to one person who'd love it.
That's how we grow this thing. One animator at a time. 🥰
Philippe Duvin
Founder, Animator NOW
