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Animation starts with imagination, not keyframes
Is there anything I love more than creating animations?
Oh, yes! Coming up with ideas!
For me, it’s an energy-intensive process that takes a lot of focus, creativity, and dedication.
But that’s where the magic happens!
The idea for this little elephant popped into my head in a brainstorming session - literally within seconds.
I was invited to join a rather time-sensitive project for KTG Research & Innovation, so we had to hit the ground running.
And honestly? I think this little guy turned out to be a perfect fit for
the app’s goals and its young audience.
The mission was to create a character who would guide children through their activities.
As they progressed from one level to the next, the character needed to keep their curiosity alive and encourage them to keep going, helping their curiosity take root and their confidence blossom along the way!
That’s when the idea of a tiny garden came to life.
A garden the character could grow, nurture, and water as the children progressed through the app.
But wait… who could possibly be better at watering plants than an elephant with its wonderfully functional trunk?
And just like that, our elephant friend came to life!
From there, the process was pretty straightforward: a paper sketch, a vector character in Sketch, and animations in Rive. My usual workflow, from the first doodle to the final animation!
And now… drumroll, please!
Meet the adorable cute elephant!
He jumps with joy, dances like nobody’s watching, and, of course… waters his garden!
I truly hope he’ll bring an extra joy to the app’s youngest users and inspire them to keep growing, exploring, and learning, one level at a time.
agree the idea part is the fun bit. the elephant has so much personality before it even moves
Thanks a lot!
adorable!
Thank you!
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A Friday pick from the archives. I made this for Whale a few months ago, and it’s still close to my heart.
The task was to explain a product with several features without making viewers work to understand it.
I kept the structure simple: the problem, the main solution, then the extras.
First, scattered company knowledge and the same questions being asked repeatedly. Then, how Whale puts answers inside the tools teams already use. Recording processes and training quizzes come later, once the main value is clear.
That order matters. Viewers should understand why they need the product before learning everything it can do.
I took the same approach with the animation: calm transitions, focused UI, and time to follow each action.
Still proud of this one. Not because I squeezed everything in, but because I gave the important parts enough room.
Open Shop: a 3D storefront ad that opens itself.🏪
I read through SVGator's template gallery and found plenty of cards, carousels and logo reveals, but nothing a local shop, café or online store could use to say "we're open" or "new drop". So I built it.
In 10 seconds an empty lot gets a location pin, a shop in your brand colour rises from the ground, the awning unrolls, your logo sign goes up, the lights come on, your products appear in the window, and your headline lands with fireworks and a delivery van pulling up.
To make it yours you change 1 colour, 3 images and 6 lines of text. Every label is live text and every layer is named (logo, headline, product-image-1 and so on). The video shows it as a café, then as a record shop: same animation, no keyframes touched.
Built with the SVGator MCP from Claude. All artwork is original.
Love that you went through the gallery first and built for what was missing 💜 Small shops and cafés really are underserved. Such a cool concept. Nice to see you here too Mayank, good luck!
Your third mascot shouldn’t cost as much as your first.
These three share the same animations: walk, run, think, type, wave. The motion is built once, and each new character just swaps the look.
So adding a new agent, a seasonal outfit, or another species becomes a design task, not a new animation project.
One character system, one Rive file. Built for an open-source Mac AI app.
Which one would you put in your app?
The reusable motion system is a smart way to scale a mascot family.