Interview with 2D Game Animator: Hanna Abi-Hanna

Hanna Abi-Hanna is a Traditional Animator working in film, television, and games. Some of their most well-known work is on the game Cuphead. I reached out to Hanna on Instagram and was lucky enough to get a reply as well as answers to my questions. Here is the interview:

1: Based on your experience, can you share some of your beginnings working as a 2D animator for games?

My first few jobs in games were for small mobile game projects. I was bouncing around for a few years early in my career between tv work and games. I didn’t enjoy as much the puppet animation process that was used in most mobile games, and so I made a conscious effort to take fewer game jobs and develop my portfolio for tv and advertising work. I was lucky enough to land a job doing traditional hand-drawn animation for a game that never launched, but the portfolio I built from 2 years on that project ended up being a great thing for my career. From there I never had to take another puppet animated job again, and have managed to work in traditional hand drawn animation for games and film ever since.

2: Seeing that the animation and games industries are competitive, in your opinion what do you think helps in getting noticed or landing an opportunity as a 2D game animator?

Build a strong portfolio in the style of work that you hope to get hired for. If your first few jobs are not portfolio building jobs, that’s perfectly fine and normal, as long as you make time to keep building your portfolio with personal work that shows you can animate at the level needed for the jobs you want to get.

3. Lastly, what advice would you give a 2D animator wanting to pivot into the games industry?

2D animation in games is a pretty niche industry. There are not that many companies consistently making 2d games, and even fewer making 2d games that are traditionally animated. My best advice is to focus all your effort on becoming a good and well-rounded animator. Show a variety of physical and emotional acting skills in your portfolio, and strong foundation in drawing and animation fundamentals. And lastly I would advise to show polished and fully tied-down work. There was a time when it was enough to show rough animation as a portfolio, but in today’s industry, there is so much competition, and much more expectation for one person to be able to finish scenes without assistance, so a portfolio with polished work is going to stand out much better over those with rough and unfinished work.