Iβm nowhere near the 3D animation space, but it really is incredible how different your relationship with generally any craft will be for the rest of your life just by starting young.
I started video editing around 8/9 years old. Even though I now use other, later-learned skills FAR more on a day-to-day basis, I still immediately tap into a flow state like no other when I do edit, and I understand new techniques more intuitively.
Iβm sure itβs not actually the same mechanism biologically, but it really does remind me of how children taught a second language will excel and retain the ability exponentially better than an adult starting from scratch.
I started 3D training 3D when I was 10 years old. Jurassic Park blew my mind. I would just sit at home 3D modelling ALL the time. I got my first 3D modeling day-job at 20 years old, after 10 years of constant training.