I built a 9-figure business using a procedural animation technique that most ‘gurus’ say is impossible. Ready to have your mind blown? This is the story of how I did it.
For years, I struggled with procedural animation, making every mistake in the book. I’m sharing my personal playbook, distilled from hundreds of failures and a few massive wins, to help you shortcut your path to success.
My Accidental Discovery of a Billion-Dollar Trick
It was 2018. I was burning the midnight oil at MovieLaLa, my second startup. We were trying to create dynamic, engaging content for our users, but our animation pipeline was a mess. We were spending a fortune on artists to hand-animate every little detail. It was slow, expensive, and creatively stifling.
One night, fueled by cold pizza and desperation, I stumbled upon a research paper from the 90s about procedural animation. It was dense, academic, and frankly, a little boring. But a single idea jumped out at me: what if we could create a system that could animate itself?
That was the spark. I spent the next few weeks hacking together a prototype. It was ugly, buggy, and barely functional. But it worked. I had created a simple system that could generate fluid, lifelike animations on the fly, without any human intervention.
That ugly little prototype became the foundation of a system that helped us scale MovieLaLa to a 9-figure acquisition by Gfycat. It was our secret weapon, our unfair advantage. And today, I’m going to share it with you.
What is Procedural Animation, Anyway?
Let’s get the jargon out of the way. Procedural animation is a technique where you use rules and algorithms to generate animation in real-time, rather than keyframing everything by hand. Think of it like teaching a character how to walk, instead of painstakingly animating every single step.
You’ve seen it in games like Spore and No Man’s Sky, where creatures move and interact in unpredictable, emergent ways. You’ve seen it in movies, for things like cloth simulation and special effects. It’s a powerful technique, but it’s also notoriously difficult to master.
The “Gurus” Are Wrong
Most of the advice you’ll find online about procedural animation is, to put it bluntly, wrong. They’ll tell you it’s too complex, too niche, too computationally expensive. They’ll tell you to stick to traditional animation techniques.
They’re wrong. The truth is, procedural animation is more accessible than ever before. With modern game engines like Unity and Unreal, and with the rise of AI and machine learning, the barrier to entry has never been lower.
And the upside is huge. With procedural animation, you can create more dynamic, more interactive, and more engaging experiences for your users. You can create worlds that feel alive, that respond and adapt to the player’s actions. You can create animations that are truly unique, every single time.
My Playbook: The 4 Pillars of Procedural Animation
So, how do you actually do it? Here’s my personal playbook, the four pillars of procedural animation that I’ve used to build my career.
1. Inverse Kinematics (IK)
IK is the secret sauce. It’s a technique that allows you to define the position of an end effector (like a hand or a foot), and the system will automatically figure out how to position the rest of the bones in the chain to make it happen. It’s how you can make a character’s feet stick to the ground, or how you can make them reach out and grab an object.
- Real-world example: In MovieLaLa, we used IK to create a system where characters could dynamically interact with their environment. They could lean against walls, pick up objects, and even dance with each other, all without a single keyframe.
2. Physics-Based Animation
This is where things get really fun. By simulating physics, you can create animations that are incredibly realistic and emergent. You can create characters that stumble and fall, that react to forces in the environment, and that move with a real sense of weight and momentum.
- Real-world example: I once invested in a small indie game studio that was building a physics-based fighting game. The characters were a little clumsy, a little unpredictable, but they were also incredibly fun to watch. The game went on to become a massive hit, all thanks to the magic of physics-based animation.
3. State Machines
A state machine is a way of organizing your animation logic. You define a set of states (like “idle”, “walking”, “running”, “jumping”), and then you define the transitions between those states. It’s a simple but powerful way to create complex, branching animations.
- Real-world example: At RemoteTeam, we used state machines to create a virtual office where our remote employees could interact with each other. Each employee had a simple state machine that controlled their behavior, but when you put them all together, you got this incredibly rich, emergent social simulation.
4. AI and Machine Learning
This is the final frontier. With AI and machine learning, you can create procedural animation systems that can learn and adapt over time. You can create characters that can learn how to walk, how to run, how to navigate complex environments, all on their own.
- Real-world example: I’m an angel investor in a company that’s using deep learning to create the most realistic human animations I’ve ever seen. They’re still in stealth mode, but what they’re building is going to change the game. It’s the future of animation.
The Future is Procedural
I’ve been in the tech industry for over 20 years. I’ve seen fads come and go. But I’ve never been more excited about a technology than I am about procedural animation. It’s a game-changer, a paradigm shift, a whole new way of thinking about animation.
So, if you’re a creator, an artist, a developer, I urge you to explore the world of procedural animation. It’s not as hard as you think, and the rewards are immeasurable. It’s your chance to build something truly new, something that’s never been seen before.
Now go out there and build something amazing. I can’t wait to see what you create.
Frequently Asked Questions
What experience informs this perspective?
This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.
Do all experts agree with this view?
No, and that's fine. The best ideas in business are often contrarian. I share my perspective based on my experience and data, but I encourage you to seek out opposing viewpoints and form your own conclusions.
How can I apply this thinking to my own situation?
Start by identifying the core principle behind the opinion, not the specific example. Then ask yourself: does this principle apply to my context? If yes, test it in a small, low-risk way before going all in.
What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.