naija comics & cartoons

3D BOOTCAMP

2011-07-20T06:47:00.000-07:00

DESIGN AND DREAM ARTS (DADA) ACADEMY

3D BOOTCAMP

August – September 2011

Design And Dream Arts (DADA) Academy, presents a 4 Day 3D Bootcamp scheduled for four weekends between August and September 2011.
Course content: The workshop course content will cover introduction to the creation and manipulation of 3D models with the Bonzai 3D interface, including understanding of texturing, and the principles of lighting, rendering, and project workflow.
This intensive training is ideal for beginners, proficient 3D artists who would like to switch to the Bonzai 3D interface, as foundation training for those interested in architectural visualizations, character modelling and animation and as foundation training for more advanced 3D training, especially with Form Z- an industry standard 3d modelling and animation programme from the same manufacturers as Bonzai 3D. Reference will be made to other 3D software like Maya, 3D Studio Max and Revit, however, Bonzai 3D, a lighter and exciting 3D programme with a shorter learning curve from Auto-des-sys will be the training platform in focus.
Participants will be provided with lecture notes, training software, training videos, and internet resources. Lunch will also be provided on the four days.
Facilitator: The training will be led by Nnamdi Akubuiro, a director of Mind’s Eye Ltd, Nnamdi Akubuiro studied architecture at the University of Lagos and founded Mind’s Eye – an architectural visualization company - in 1998 with a couple of colleagues. Since then, the company has grown to be an industry leader in Nigeria in the field of architectural visualizations. He has over 12 years experience in the field and is proficient in the use of Sketch-up, Autocad, Bonzai 3D, Revit, 3D Studio Max, Mental Ray and V- Ray. He has worked on projects for top architectural firms and advertising agencies in Nigeria.
Details:

Dates: Batch 1: 20-21 August (modeling & texturing)

27-28 August (lighting, rendering & project workflow)

Batch 2: 3-4 September (modeling & texturing)

10-11 September (lighting, rendering & project workflow)

Venue: CORA House, 1^st Floor, 95 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos.
Time: 9am – 6pm each day + 1 hour lunch break.
Participation Fee: N40,000 only.*
* Participants are expected to come with their own Laptops.
Contact for registration:

Dream Arts & Design Agency

CORA House, 1^st Flr, 95 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos.

Telephone: 017451990, 08033000499.

Send an e-mail to: dreamarts.designagency@gmail.com for a registration package or

Visit: http://www.dadaenterprises.net/dadaacademy.htm for more information and to download the registration form.

Procedure: Fill the form, make the payment as directed, (scan) and mail back the form together with evidence of payment and you will be contacted with confirmation of your registration.

Account Details: Guaranty Trust Bank

Account Name: Design And Dream Arts Enterprises

Account Number: 213772344110 (NUBAN No: 0008250008)

Limited spaces available. Get your 3D Groove on!

System requirement for a laptop:
- Operating System: (at least) Windows XP / Mac OS X
- At least 10 GB of free HD
- At least 1024 MB of Ram
- Graphics Card: ATI Radeon Family, Intel Graphics, Nvidia Geforce
- 3 button optical Mouse

Software: Quick Time 7.1 or greater, VLC player, Acrobat reader, Photoshop / Coreldraw

This training programme is organized by DADA Academy, a training division of the Dream Arts & Design Agency with the support of the Committee For Relevant Art (CORA), Positive Development Foundation (PDF) and Architects’ Collaborative Enterprise (ACE). A percentage of the fees will go to the Committee For Relevant Art (CORA) and Positive Development Foundation (PDF) in support of their art and culture and technological education advocacy efforts.

Professional Portfolio Review for Young Comic Artists at the 4th Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival

2008-10-31T13:34:00.000-07:00

The Centre For Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA Lagos) will be facilitating during the 10th Lagos Book and Art Festival an interactive session and creative exchange for young cartoonists and comic artists with visiting comic professionals from Africa and Europe at the 4th Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival. This programme is part of the educational component for the Picha. African Comics, an international touring exhibition featuring 19 comic artists from all over Africa opening at CCA,Lagos on the 8th of November and continues to 20th December 2008.

Young cartoonists and comic artists are invited to come with their portfolios to the main exhibition hall, by Entrance 'C' of the National Theatre Iganmu, Lagos, venue of the 4th Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival (which holds from the 7th till the 9th of November 2008) on Friday 7th November 2008 from 3pm till 6pm.

Two of the artists Kola Fayemi (Nigeria) and TT.Fons (Senegal) with curator of Picha Joost Pollman (Holland) and Caroline Vedhuizen (Holland) will take turns reviewing and discussing individually the works of the young cartoonists and comic artists in attendance after which will be held an interactive session with the general audience. This is a capacity building / cultural exchange initiative from the CCA in collaboration with the Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival and the Committee for Relevant Art.

The Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival (LC3) is an annual self styled ultimate gathering of admirers, lovers and downright fanatics of comics, cartoons and animation, organized by Revolution Media with the support of the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA). It is held within the annual Lagos Book & Art Festival organized by Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) and is designed to reflect Revolution Media's passion for youth empowerment through creativity. CCA,Lagos's facilitation of this interactive session for young artists (alongside their hosting of an African Comics Exhibition) is thus well sited within LC3.

Thanks to the Prince Claus Fund and NCDO Netherlands.

To Register Free and For further information, please contact:

Phone: 234-803-3000-499, 234-806-7421-215
Email: revolutionmedia@yahoo.com,lc3_05@yahoo.co.uk
url: www.naijacomics.blogspot.com
Secretariat: CORA House, 1st Floor, 95 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos.

The 4th Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival

2008-10-31T13:32:00.000-07:00

The Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival is a self styled ultimate gathering of admirers, lovers and downright fanatics of comics, cartoons and animation. The 4th edition of the Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival holding at the National Theatre, Iganmu Lagos from the 7th – 9th of November, 2008 as a part of the 10th Lagos Book & Art Festival organised by the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) and is themed: Youth and the Creative Revolution.

Youth and the Creative Revolution
This year’s theme captures effectively the mandate assumed by LC3’s organizers to harness the creative energies of young people towards positive development particularly through socio-cultural and economic empowerment. In that regard, this year, we have tagged on to the ever vibrant, ever youthful and ever revolutionary hip-hop movement in our programme for the LC3 through our different collaborative activities which we have lined up with our partners for the three days.
PROGRAMME

Day One (Friday 7th November 2008)

8:00 am – 9.00am: Participating exhibitors / collaborators set up their stands.

10:00 am – 10.30am: Official opening of the 4th Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival.

10.30 am - 3.00pm: Graffiti workshop and talks on creativity and the environment. Organized in collaboration with The British Council Lagos, Children And The Environment (CATE), Dream Arts & Design Agency and the African Artists’ Foundation. School children will get to practice their hands at graffiti under the guidance of visiting international graffiti artists and their home based peers.

3.00pm – 6.00pm: Interactive sessions / exchange for young artists with International Comic Book Artists from France and across Africa facilitated by the Center for Contemporary Art.

11.00 am – 6.00 pm Screening of animated short flicks will hold for older folks who are not engaged with the children. Participants will talk shop on the screened flicks and the talks will be moderated by leading lights in the industry.

Day Two (Saturday 8th November 2008)

8:00 am – 9.00am: Participating exhibitors / collaborators set up their stands.

10:00 am – 4.00pm: Words and Pictures (WAPI) The free expression event organized by the British Council Lagos will berth at LC3 with a major focus on hip-hop and its influence on comics, cartoons and animation.
Day Three (Sunday 9th November 2008)

8:00 am – 9.00am: Participating exhibitors / collaborators set up their stands.

10:00 am – 2.00 pm: Fashion show in collaboration with Kowrie Kreations Media featuring the works of young Nigerian designers and of course, costumes inspired by comics straight out of Nigeria. All attendees are encouraged to wear the costumes of their favourite local / international super-heroes.

2pm – 4pm: Music, dance, networking till close.

What interested participants should do:

Comic / cartoons publishers and artists are encouraged to book stands to exhibit their comic books, cartoon collections or portfolios by contacting us through the email addresses / phone numbers below. Networking is key to LC3.
Artists who are already involved / who have interests in comics and cartoons are invited to bring their portfolios on Saturday the 8th of November for the Interactive sessions / exchange for young artists with International Comic Book Artists from France and across Africa facilitated by the Center for Contemporary Art where they will have one-on-one interaction with these facilitators.
All lovers of comics, cartoons and animation – children and adults alike- are encouraged to wear their favourite super-heroes’ costumes on Sunday the 9th of November for the fashion show. Home made costumes are also most welcome and the most ingeniously dressed attendees will get to strut their stuff down the catwalk, right on television!
Spread the word.

CONTACT US

For further information, please contact us though the following means:

Phone: 234-803-3000-499, 234-806-7421-215
Email: revolutionmedia@yahoo.com,lc3_05@yahoo.co.uk
url: http://www.naijacomics.blogspot.com/
Secretariat: CORA House, 1st Floor, 95 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos.

RevolutionMedia unveils its VisualAsylum

2008-05-19T12:32:00.000-07:00

RevolutionMedia, one of Nigeria's most dynamic media companies, is set to unveil its VisualAsylum, a series of multimedia workshops aimed at equipping participants with critical, cutting-edge knowledge and skills in areas like 2D animation, 3D communication, desktop editing and general visual communication. The inaugural edition will take place from the 31st of May to the 2nd of June at the Julius Berger Hall of the Engineering department, University of Lagos.

"RevolutionMedia has always been about youth empowerment", offers RevolutionMedia's CEO, Sewedo Nupowaku, "and this initiative is no different. If we can train more young people to be adepts in these areas, it can only help them take their financial destinies in their own hands. In many other countries around the world, visual design and communication is almost the exclusive preserve of young people".

This particular installment will feature classes in Disney-style 2D (two dimensional) animation and 3D (three dimensional) design and animation, both spanning 3 days of intense training. Ibrahim Ganiyu, lead animator on Lagbaja's groundbreaking, animated music video amongst other works and Deji Victor, a director of ImageStudios, based in Cape Town , South Africa will handle the 2D and 3D classes respectively. The 2D class will cost N15,000 and the 3D class will cost N20,000 only per participant.

"We are aiming at building capacity in this country through these series, adds Nupowaku. The fields of marketing communications, especially advertising, architecture and indeed Nollywood, stand to benefit with more people becoming more knowledgeable in these areas. More advertising agencies will be able to produce more high quality 3D jobs here in Nigeria rather than spending a fortune outsourcing abroad. As for Nollywood, it can only help drive its cultural imperialism imperative across Africa".

This workshop will however, be the second in a series of collaborative capacity building projects between Revolution Media, Image Animation Studios and Committee for Relevant Art (CORA). Participants will be provided with course materials, refreshment and a cetificate of participation at the end of the workshops and are expeced to come with their own laptops of the following recommended specifications:

System requirement for laptops-

Operating System: windows XP / Mac OS X- At least 10 GB of free HD- At least 1024 MB of Ram- Graphics Card: ATI Raedeon Family, Intel Graphics,Nvidia Geforce- 3 button optical Mouse. Software: Quick Time 7.1 or greater, VLC player, Acrobat reader, Photoshop

These workshops are strongly recommended for students and professionals of the mass communication, creative arts, architecture, engineering, advertising and motion picture industries who have aspirations towards cutting edge visual communication.

Payment details:

GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 213-769902-110
ACCOUNT TITLE: REVOLUTION MEDIA LIMITED
BRANCH: SURULERE, LAGOS, NIGERIA.

Contact for registration:
Revolution Media, CORA House, 1st Flr, 95 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos.
Telephone: 017416644, 017451990, 08067421215.
Email: revolutionmedia@yahoo.com, revolvingmedia@gmail.com
url: www.naijacomics.blogspot.com

Meet the Animator.

2008-04-25T02:21:00.001-07:00

He has lived the dream that remains in the realm of wishful thinking for many of his generation, training as an animator and working with some of the best in the industry.
Oladeji Victor Bamidele studied Civil Engineering before signing up at the Media Village, Kalk Bay, Cape Town to train in 3D communications as an animator. After working on several projects with South African animation houses like Character Matters Animation Studio, Ambient Animation Studios, Telegenic Production amongst others, Deji- who has been privileged to work with the likes of Tom Roth (from Disney) and Eric Lessard (Dream works) among other South African animators- came back to Nigeria for the first time in three years in January to run some workshops in 3D communication and to create awareness for his training programme in Cape Town –Animation for Africa - whose six months training and internship programme at Image Animation Studios has kicked off this week with four Nigerians in attendance.
With intelligence reports indicating that he’s keen on cooking up a storm on these shores, the design sleuth tracked down the mild mannered animator for questioning while he was on a cross country awareness / training tour of duty before heading back to Cape Town.
Ayo: What are the early influences that led you down the path of animation?
Deji: As a Kid I used to be fascinated by cartoons like Voltron, Ninja Turtles; Tom and Jerry; they were so captivating that I would remain glued to the TV for hours watching them...growing up; then life became more interesting with the introduction of video games and 3D cartoons like The Incredibles, and Toy Story. I was always wondering how those things were created...and why there wasn’t anyone in Africa producing the movies…so, I decided to take a dive into the world of 3D.
Ayo: Despite your training as an engineer, you still went ahead to learn to be an animator, has the career change been worth it?
Deji: I feel fulfilled and excited; frankly speaking I think its related; because the work of an engineer is related to creating things and making them work; the difference would just be that as animator we do everything on our computers. Animation gives you more flexibility to express your creative ideas which could be easily viewed around the world, thanks to the power of media. However, my background as a Civil Engineer has really been helpful in working in 3D space, drawings and modelling.
Ayo: The animation industry in South Africa is fairly young isn’t it? So Why Cape Town?
Deji: When I was leaving the country (Nigeria) in search of an animation school, I couldn’t find any in the country; my search led me to some schools in the UK, United States (of America) but they were quite expensive. I then started looking for options in Africa. When I discovered that Cape Town was offering some affordable animation courses, and that most of our good visual effects or animated commercials where done in Cape Town, South Africa, it became my natural choice.
Ayo: Talking about Cape Town, does the city really live up to its billing of being one of the finest in the world? What do you think gives Cape Town its edge…the natural scenery or the design scene out there?
Deji: Hmmm…believe it or not, its one of the most beautiful places in the world; I mean the combination of white sand beaches and lovely mountains just make it a place to visit. And for a fact, it’s one of the floral kingdoms in the world; nice scenery; certainly a great place for animators.
Ayo: In what ways would you consider 3D modelling and animation to have contributed significantly to the growth of critical design in fields outside of the film industry like engineering, architecture, product design and even graphics design globally?
Deji: Tremendously. It has now become a language; its the best way to communicate to clients, I mean you can walk through your structure before it’s built; it has also given artists confidence in their creative licence...today if you can imagine it, you can create it, then see it. That’s why we can talk about and design futuristic structures and models. It has taken the world of design to a new level.
Ayo: The 3D fever has really caught on in Nigeria over the past few years, but 3D Max has been the benchmark platform to work with for most modellers and animators. You on the other hand work with Maya. What are the features that make Maya so unique?
Deji: I have also worked with Lightwave for my modelling and Messiah for animation. They are all good software, don’t forget it’s not the software; it’s the artist; the man behind the software that makes the difference. It’s like your preference for different cars, someone might prefer a Benz to BMW; its all about the artist choice and what he/she is comfortable with but my preference in based on the fact that Maya is the industry standard; it’s quite robust; from animation to visual effects it’s just excellent; it’s an oscar award winning software; which is evident on works like Spiderman; Happy Feet, and Final Fantasy....another reason any one might want to work with Maya is the fact that you can hardly be stranded using it because of tons of tutorials and materials available online.
Ayo: With your experience in South Africa and having worked with animators from frontline American animation studios like Dream Works and Disney, what future do you see for animation in Africa, especially when you consider the infrastructural and technological challenges - like poor power supply and ICT facilities - faced in these climes?
Deji: We will take the world by storm; because Africans are hardworking; we are about to join our colleagues in the rest of the world but our greatest challenge now is more of the infrastructural than the technological side of things because we have the resources to acquire any technology we want; but we cant go any where without constant and stable power supply. God- the first thing He created was light...it’s the beginning of everything. We need electricity; once we get it right in this sector; the opportunity will naturally roll in; it will change the face of Africa.
Ayo: Bringing it home to Nigeria now, knowing that animation is a particularly laborious, time consuming and expensive art form, whether 2D or 3D and keeping in mind the path the film industry in Nigeria has taken in finding the fastest and cheapest techniques to tell our stories, what chances do you see for the evolution of a cheaper and faster style of animation in Nigeria that makes it easier for the African story to be told to the global audience by Africans themselves?
Deji: Usually when you opt for fast and cheap techniques; you end up compromising your quality; if we must make impact on a global scale then we can not afford to rush our productions; believe me it always reflects in the work of the artist or producer- those times of research, bringing in a talented crew, right setup and fine tuning. We must put in those quality hours to get the desired quality out; which translates to good wealth. We are at an advantage because we have the stories that the world is waiting to hear; and the only way we can attract a global audience is to push up our quality. I look forward to a time when our movies will première in about 3,000 cinemas in the US and Africa while yet produced locally, mind you, it’s already happening in South Africa. The last movie I worked on - Lion of Judah, you can check it out on www.lionofjudahthemovie.com - will be showing in about 2,000 cinemas in the US because of the quality of work we put into it. It’s taken us about 2 years to produce, so we must look at the big picture and go all out for it.
Ayo: Where do you see the animation industry heading to globally in the next twenty years?
Deji: Wao! It’s going to be crazy and scary; photorealism and hyper realism will be the order of the day; we would have found cheaper and efficient ways of doing things; the motion capture technology would have been perfected; and I think traditional animation would also return; we would see combination of 2D, Stop Frame, 3D animation in a single shot; and a lot of African countries would have joined in the global trend of events.
Ayo: Where do you see Oladeji Victor Bamidele in the next twenty years and what would he most likely be doing?
Deji: By God's grace; I would be concentrating more on family and purpose; developing other areas of my life to full potential.

-Ayodele Arigbabu.
dreamarts.designagency@gmail.com

Application form for Animation Training in Cape Town

2008-02-11T04:34:00.000-08:00

To 'download' form, right-click on image and select copy and paste in a folder of your choice. You may then print the three pages, fill and mail back to the appropriate addresses.

animation training in cape town

2008-02-09T13:20:00.000-08:00

Animation for Africa
Calling all aspiring animators.
Announcing a six months intensive training and internship programme in Cape Town, South Africa.
RevolutionMedia, conveners of the annual Lagos Comics and Cartoons Carnival are proud to announce a call for applications for a six months intensive training and internship programme for aspiring Nigerian animators to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, organized by Animation for Africa with support from Image Animation Studios (SA) and Committee for Relevant Art (CORA). Coming on the heels of the highly successful 3 Day workshop in 3D communication that held in January in Lagos, the six months training programme in Cape Town which is being coordinated by Oladeji Victor, (a director of Image Studios, Cape Town, S.A. and founder of Animation for Africa- an initiative geared towards training hundreds of Africans in visual effects and animation by the end of 2010) is the next phase in a three phase plan that will culminate in a media institute that offers specialized courses in 2D, visual effects and 3D animation.
Deji has worked on several projects and adverts with Character Matters Animation Studio, Ambient Animation Studios, Telegenic Production and some of his work can be found in Issues of Faith - a television Magazine program on SABC 1, a TV commercial for Bank PHB, TV Commercial for Kenyan Power Authority, SABC 1 Anthem, and Cosmopolitan - Fashion Video amongst others. The workshop course content will cover introduction to 3D modelling with the Maya interface, understanding of textures, bump maps and the Photoshop workflow, lights and rendering, principles of animation and project workflow. His most recent work has been on the feature movie "LION OF JUDAH" which is still in post - production and is expected to be out in America this summer. He has been privileged to work with the likes of Tom Roth (from Disney) and Eric Lessard (Dream works) among other South African animators.
This initiative is aimed at opening up the 3D animation industry in Africa (Nigeria in particular); so that it can compliment and service the home videos and the visual effects industry worldwide while growing the capacity to produce (Nigerian) animated feature films. Animation for Africa’s mandate of empowering African animators is already bearing fruits with their training programme at the media village in Kalkbay, Cape Town where they have just graduated a batch of students and will be taking on a fresh batch in February 2008. The programme is designed to involve three months of intensive training and three months of internship with an established animation house in South Africa at a highly subsidized rate, much cheaper than what obtains in Canada, the United States of America or India for that matter where they have partners. Already, four Nigerians have benefited from this arrangement and Animation for Africa hopes to increase that number by ten fold in the present year.

TRAINING SCHEDULE

The training programme is designed to encompass a module of six months of intensive training and internship, however, applicants who are in paid employment or are already engaged in other institutions of learning that will make an absence of six months difficult might be interested in an alternative module that allows for two months of intensive training in Cape Town to be augmented with one extra month training and a balance of three months internship to be done by correspondence with Animation for Africa instructors via the internet. Please note that both modules will be intensive and deep passion and dedication will be required from all applicants.

Premium Module

Duration: April – September 2008
Location: Cape Town, South Africa.
Participants will undergo three months of intensive training in 3D modelling, application of textures, bump maps, lights and rendering, the Photoshop workflow principles of animation and project workflow in Cape Town; followed by three months of internship with an established animation house in South Africa.

Training Cost: N640,000.00
Inclusive of tuition, accommodation and feeding for the six months stretch plus a brand new laptop. This fee has been subsidized by about 40% for Animation for Africa by its partners.

Alternative Module

Duration: April – May 2008 + June – September 2008
Location: Cape Town, South Africa. Correspondence
Participants will undergo two months of intensive training in 3D modelling, application of textures, bump maps, lights and rendering, the Photoshop workflow principles of animation and project workflow in Cape Town; to be complemented by one more month of training via correspondence and three months internship also by correspondence.

Training Cost: N500,000.00
Inclusive of tuition for the six months stretch, accommodation and feeding for the two months to be spent in Cape Town plus a brand new laptop. This fee has been subsidized by about 40% for Animation for Africa by its partners.

Air fares / Visa applications

Applicants should have an extra budget of up to N200,000.00 for air fares and visa applications.

General Course Content

Introduction to Maya - This topic deals with the basic tools available in Maya and its capabilities, while learning to create an effective work flow for every project.

3D Modeling – Welcome to the world of 3D; as participants begin to create their world, with the use of polygons, they will be guided through the creation of models.

Texturing and UV's – Texture application is an important part of 3D communication, the aim of this course is to explore the variety of ways for wrapping a texture round a model; Participants will also be taught the different types of light and their effects.

Kinematics and Animation – The focus of this topic is to be able to animate a camera through motion paths to walk around the scene. This topic will be dealing with cameras and their various attributes.

Lights and Rendering – This is the outputting of the final work. Participants will be guided through the various ways of achieving photo realistic images and the various formats of the rendered images or files.

Certificates

For both modules, certificates will only be issued upon satisfactory completion of the six months training and internship periods.

Instructors’ profiles

Rudi Durand- He is currently the director of Ambient Studio in Cape Town, South Africa. He has worked with several leading studios such as Video Lab and Condor. He was head of commercial department at Character Matters Animation Studio, and spent 8 years in production and training at Media Village. As a visual artist, some of his fingerprints can be found in commercials like MTN, JNB and Pfizer to mention a few.

Oladeji Victor Bamidele - Has a Degree in Civil Engineering before venturing into media; as graduate of 3D Communication, Media Village, Kalk Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, as an animator, he has worked on several projects and adverts with Character Matters Animation Studio, Ambient Animation Studios, Telegenic Production. He also worked on over 40 mins of the previz for the LION OF JUDAH (first animated feature film in Africa). Oladeji has a passion for training and is currently working with in Animation for Africa as the Technical Director.

Martin Studnicky- He has been working for 5 years, teaching 3D animation at the University of Nations, making use of the award winning Autodesk Maya, and with 5 years of research and testing on 3D softwares. He is presently working for an architectural company doing 3D visualization of buildings.

Application / Payment / Resumption

Application forms can be downloaded from www.naijacomics.blogspot.com and can be picked up at RevolutionMedia, 1st Flr, 95 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos. Completed forms may be submitted at the same address or sent by email to revolutionmedia@yahoo.com on or before Wednesday 27th of February 2008.

Success applicants will be notified and informed of payment details by Wednesday 5th of March 2008. Success applicants will be expected to fill a comprehensive registration form upon payment of a non refundable registration fee of N2,000.00 only and will be required to proceed with visa applications immediately.

All successful candidates are expected to be at the media village in Kalkbay, Cape Town, South Africa by Thursday 3rd of April 2008.

About Cape Town
Cape Town is a city in southwestern South Africa, the legislative capital of the country and the capital of Western Cape province. Cape Town is one of three national capitals, along with Pretoria (the executive capital) and Bloemfontein (the judicial capital). It is situated at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, about 50 km (about 30 mi) north of the Cape of Good Hope. The city has a spectacular setting, cradled by the steep slopes of Table Mountain to the south, Devil’s Peak to the southeast, Lion’s Head to the southwest, and Signal Hill to the west. Table Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, lies to the northwest. The site of the first European settlement in South Africa (founded in 1652), Cape Town is today a major port, an industrial hub, and a center of culture and tourism. The city has a Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters.
Cape Town and its surrounding areas also hold many recreational attractions. The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront on Table Bay, revitalized in the early 1990s, contains many shops, pubs, and restaurants. Canal Walk, located in a part of Cape Town known as Century City, is a modern, multistory shopping complex complete with stores, cinemas, restaurants, and a children’s science center. South of Table Mountain, the Kirstenbosch National Botanic Gardens were a gift to the nation from British colonial statesman and financier Cecil Rhodes. There are many walking trails on Table Mountain, which is also served by a cable car, and in the mountains of the Cape Peninsula. The peninsula also contains numerous wineries and many protected areas, including the 7900 hectare (19,400 acre) Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Table Mountain Nature Reserve is the natural habitat of the silver tree, a species native to this area.
Cape Town has a municipal Symphony Orchestra, and the ARTSCAPE Theatre Complex stages operas, plays, ballets, and concerts. Culled from Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation.

About RevolutionMedia
Though incorporated in 2006 as RevolutionMedia, this media and entertainment company has existed as Evolution Media since 2002 and has made brave inroads into theatre, publishing, film and marketing communications within the past five years. Fashioned primarily as an avant-garde media and communications company with keen interests in creating state of the art media content, RevolutionMedia depends upon its uncanny capacity for channeling cutting edge creativity and talent in refreshing directions and hopes to ignite an entertainment revolution of no mean proportions. RevolutionMedia is the creator and coordinator of the annual Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival. The company which is currently developing a dedicated television programme for comics, cartoons and animation called Action TV is proud to collaborate with Animation for Africa in facilitating capacity building programmes for the budding animation industry in Nigeria.

Contact

For submissions and enquiries:

Sewedo Nupowaku
Ayodele Arigbabu
RevolutionMedia
1st flr, 95 Bode Thomas Street,
Surulere, Lagos.
234-01-7416644, 2348033000499, 2348067421215
revolutionmedia@yahoo.com, revolvingmedia@gmail.com, www.naijacomics.blogspot.com

From Cape Town to Lagos, Animation blossoms.

2008-01-04T02:16:00.001-08:00

Revolution Media, conveners of the annual ground breaking Lagos Comics and Cartoons Carnival have announced their plans in collaboration with Image Animation Studios- A Cape-Town, South Africa based powerhouse for multimedia communications to present a 3 Day workshop in 3D communication from Friday 18th January till Sunday 20th January 2008. The workshop is being supported by the culture activist organisation- Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) and stage design and lighting maestros- Total Consult Ltd.
The training will be led by Oladeji Victor, a director of Image Studios, Cape Town, S.A. and founder of Animation for Africa- an initiative geared towards training hundreds of Africans in visual effects and animation by the end of 2010. Deji has worked on several projects and adverts with Character Matters Animation Studio, Ambient Animation Studios, Telegenic Production and some of his work can be found in Issues of Faith - a television Magazine program on SABC 1, a TV commercial for Bank PHB, TV Commercial for Kenyan Power Authority, SABC 1 Anthem, and Cosmopolitan - Fashion Video amongst others. The workshop course content will cover introduction to 3D modelling with the Maya interface, understanding of textures, bump maps and the Photoshop workflow, lights and rendering, principles of animation and project workflow.
Oladeji, a representative for Autodesk will be launching a campaign in Nigeria later in March 2008 to create awareness about the latest Autodesk products. His most recent work has been on the feature movie "LION OF JUDAH" which is still in post - production and is expected to be out in America this Summer. He has been privileged to work with the likes of Tom Roth (from Disney) and Eric Lessard (Dream works) among other South African Animators.
“Participants will be provided with lecture notes, Maya PLE 8.5, Training DVD’s, Software, and free Registration for internet resources”, he says, “We are planning to open up the 3D animation industry in Nigeria; so that it can compliment the home videos and service the visual effects industry worldwide while we produce our own (Nigerian) animated feature Films”, he explains further.
Towards this end, training and internship programmes are being planned through the year in a three phase plan that will culminate in a media institute that offers specialized courses in 2D, visual effects and 3D animation. Animation for Africa’s mandate of empowering African animators is already bearing fruits with their training programme at the media village in Kalkbay, Cape Town where they have just graduated a batch of students and will be taking on a fresh batch in February 2008. The programme is designed to involve three months of intensive training and three months of internship with established animation houses in South Africa at a highly subsidized rate, much cheaper than what obtains in Canada, the United States of America or India for that matter where they have partners. Already, four Nigerians have benefited from this arrangement and Oladeji hopes to increase that number by ten fold in the present year.
Sewedo Nupowaku of Revolution Media is particularly excited about this collaborative effort at the very start of the year and is convinced that it portends an exciting year for the entire industry. His media and entertainment company had made efforts to stand in the gap as regards capacity building for the animation industry in November 2007 by holding an introductory workshop on animation at their 3rd annual Lagos Comics and Cartoons Carnival which exposed the wide enthusiasm people had for animation. “Now through this collaboration with Image Animation Studios, we can take that initiative to a whole new level and quicken our dreams for mass empowerment”.
The three day workshop will run from the 18th till the 20th of January 2008 at the CORA House, 1st Floor, 95 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos and will cost N15,000.00 per participant. “Interested participants may mail revolutionmedia@yahoo.com, revolvingmedia@gmail.com or call 017416644, 017451990, 08067421215, 08033000499 for more information”, Nupowaku, who’s company is currently developing a dedicated television programme for comics, cartoons and animation called Action TV, reeled off with gusto, “This workshop will be the first in a series of collaborative capacity building projects between Revolution Media and Image Animation Studios”, he offered, grinning from ear to ear with infectious enthusiasm.

-Ayodele Arigbabu.
http://www.designpages.blogspot.com/
dreamarts.designagency@gmail.com

More photos from LC3 '07

2008-01-03T08:25:00.000-08:00

Shhh...judges at work (Members of the Cartoonists Association of Nigeria)

Sola Alamutu, CEO of CATE presenting prize to overall winner of cartoon contest

Ouch! Pandora's Aisha is ...well, a knockout!

IC Studios' Ibrahim Ganniy has all ears at the animation workshop

Photos from the 3rd Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival, Nov. 2007

2008-01-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

Revolution Media Stand @ the carnival

winning participants in the contest with workshop facilitators, judges and organisers

winners of the cartoon contest being announced by Mr Dada Adekola of Vanguard newspapers

Members of the Cartoonsts Association of Nigeria supervising workshop participants

Revolution Media's Sewedo nupowaku addressing the audience at the animation workshop

Will there ever be a Nigerian Incredible Hulk...

2008-01-03T07:48:00.000-08:00

Will there ever be a Nigerian Incredible Hulk, a Batman from Abuja or Judge Dredd on the streets of Lagos? A new generation of Nigerian graphic artists say no: their comic heroes will be homegrown, writes Waldimar Pelser from Lagos.

The reincarnation of Nigerian dictators and democratic activists, Lara Croft-like super-heroes, and the kings and warriors of Nigerian legends has begun – between the covers of comic books. From Secrets of Allen Avenue, where male prostitutes lurk near the shadowy Orchid of Sin, to June 12, a graphic novel about the annulment of Moshood Abiola's election victory in 1993, a new breed of comics is giving young Nigerian readers a fresh take on what their country is about and what it could become. Their creators, driven partly by the success of Hollywood blockbusters with roots in the comics world(Batman, Superman, Sin City, Stardust), want to immortalise Nigeria's own heroes in graphic novels that may one day too hit the silver screen. A dearth of funding is hampering the realisation of this dream. Their work was at display this month at the thirdLagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival, where school children were taught the basics of the art, and some of the industry's young masters showed their work.

"We want to start something here," says Sewedo Nupowaku (30), a six foot plus Lagosian who studied law until creative urges drove him into the arms of animation art and comic strips. "Lots of kids are hooked on MTV and don't know anything about their culture. We as Nigerians, our fathers were kings, our mothers warriors. Everybodytalks about Churchill and (Napoleon) Bonaparte. Where are our own heroes?" Hoping to inject TV-watching youth with a sense of history, Nupowako conceived a comics series which includes The Legend of Moremi, the tale of early settlers from Saudi Arabia in the Nigerian town of Ile Ife, said to be the oldest town of the Yoruba people. This is a fabled world where forest demons live and boys listen as their mothers recount stories of bravery and conquest.

In the same volume Nupowaku tackles contemporary Lagos in Secrets of Allen Avenue. Based on an actual street in Ikeja, the Lagos state capital and part of today's metropolis, Allen Avenue is home to Linus the gun runner, The Orchid of Sin (where bar girls leave customers "fully satisfied"), and a cast of sleazy characters. "It used to be called 'cocaine avenue'," Nupowako says, referring to the Ikeja street, and his fictional rendition. "The good, the bad, the ugly, people with financial clout, banks; we want to chronicle howdifferent facets of Nigerian life interweave." What emerged is a world he calls "Tarantinoesque", after Quentin Tarantino, director of Pulp Fiction (1994).

The comics at the Lagos carnival tackle anything from futuristic fantasy to questions of ethnicity and identity, and most are presented in a racy style pitched at young readers of between 10 and 25 years old. What would Nigeria look like in 2145 AD? Nupowako's ACE Comics takes a guess in Naija Hardkore, with its totalitarian but orderly world where Lagos's yellow Molue taxi buses are jet-powered and fly, but policemen still accept bribes. In several other series, characters are saved from desperate and often realistic situations by the intervention of superhuman powers, as if nothing elsecould save the day. Pandora includes two such stories. Aisha, an orphan, is a computer sales lady to herfriends but morphs after hours into a Nigerian Lara Croft – a fearless street-fighter with exposed abdomen, a spandex suit, mask and a gun. In S.I.E.G.E., also in Pandora's story box, police commissioner Chiduem Okoro's daughter is kidnapped in Nigeria's oil rich Port Harcourt, until a flying hero snatches her from the hands of an armed gang.They may resemble the Ninja Turtles, but are far from mere fiction: kidnappings in the Niger Delta around Port Harcourt grab headlines here every other day. Nigeria's most brutal civil war also gets a mention in Kenway Oforeh's Kinetic. It is the story of a troubled young man whose father had been a soldier in a "civil strife" in 1967 (thesecessionist war in Biafra that claimed a million lives). He saves passengers in a hijacked Lagos public bus from murderous robbers by invoking supernatural powers inherited from his father, the retired major. Ofore (29) never mentions Biafra, the name given tothe eastern part of Nigeria by Igbo secessionists, some of whom still campaign for independence today. Also, he refers to Nigeria as a "marriage of convenience", so-called because of the belief that the country actually contains numerous distinct nations,united merely for the sake of convenience by British colonial rulers.

But by building into his narrative a character with roots in the Igbo east, Ofore feels he is doing his bit for integration and tolerance. "The trouble with this country is that most people don't know much about each other. If I tell people my middle name is Afam, short for Afamefuna, most of them will not know it is Igbo. The best way to educate people is to excite them; once I can excite them, I can educate them," Ofore says. "We have too many Yorubas in this country. Too many Igbos and Hausas. We don't have enough Nigerians." Sales of Kinetic are still modest, and like Nupowako, Ofore craves proper funding to increase his printing run and quality. In this vast market where distribution channels are mostly informal and artists rely on street vendors and a handful of bookshops to sell their work, few comics sell more than 2,000 at a time. But if a story is strong enough, it will find a way of being told, even at huge cost. Arguably the most ambitious project in recent years has been a graphic novel by Abraham Oshoko (27) which documents events around the 1993 presidential election in Nigeria.

June 12, The Struggle for Power in Nigeria shows how a northern political élite, led by the former Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, pressurised the military regime of genl. Ibrahim Babangida ("IBB" as he is known) into annulling the results. Despite promises he would hand over to civilian rule in August that year, IBB allowed the election results to be annulled after it became clear a Yoruba, the business magnate Moshood Abiola, had won. Five more years of military dictatorship followed. The story has been told, but never in graphic form. Oshoko, who did the research, story and drawing, calls it a "non-fiction work of art".

"People, even elderly people, read it now and can't believe that all this happened. It is a warning to African leaders: whatever you do will be recorded." Will audiences in Johannesburg or Cairo or New York one day watch full-length animated movies produced by the likes of Oshoko, Nupowako and Ofore? Or will the soap opera-style video movies produced in their thousands in Nollywood, the vast local filmindustry, continue to dominate? "Abroad, comics and animation is a legitimate medium of expression," says Nupowako. "Japanese and Europeans are very serious about their comics. In the third world people still sometimes see comics as a kiddy medium." Institutional support is also sometimes lacking.

Ofore, a former psychology student, had "never seen an invoice before" when he started his comics business, and had to teach himself business skills. And then there's the funding hurdle, which often means comics like Naija Hardkore, Pandora and Kinetic remain paper-bound. The medium has its advantages, Nupowako believes. "It makes for muscular mental athletics. Comics have a way of igniting the mind."

As published in SA's CITY PRESS by Waldimar PelserLagos bureau chief, Media24 (South Africa)c/o Media24 Nigeria11A Adeola Odeku StreetVictoria Island, LagosMobile 1: +234-805-477-6310 (MTN)Mobile 2: +234-703-406-3150 (glo)waldimar.pelser@media24.com waldimar@gmail.com

The Next President Should be a Super Hero!

2007-11-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

In search of authentic Nigerian Super - Heroes.

By Ayodele Arigbabu.

It’s a Saturday morning, I’m taking my nephews home after two hours of Karate practice and they are having a serious discussion on the back seat. Joshua is eight years old and is keen on animated movies, football and computer games. Ini and Timi are seven year olds with similar interests. They’ve got in tow Joshua’s five year old sister- Esther and Ini’s four year old brother- Ibukun who both sit back and chew biscuits when the conversation from the older boys gets slightly above their heads.

Grown boys that they are, the conversation starts with politics. Joshua had been a staunch supporter of the current Lagos State governor- Babatunde Fashola during the election campaign period, Ini his cousin on the other hand stood solidly behind Jimi Agbaje, same as Timi who lives in the same block with Ini - albeit that Agbaje happens to be Timi’s uncle - the boys’ choices were largely influenced by the campaign posters, television commercials and radio jingles which they still recite with vigour months after the elections. These boys are faithful supporters, their dedication to their governorship candidates is as fervent as their dedication to their favourite international football clubs, that however is a story for another day. The conversation begins with the expression of a mutually shared desire for there to be another round of elections pretty soon so they can chant the campaign songs again, at the top of their lungs like before. Joshua restates his dedication to the Fashola brand, insisting that even if there are fresh elections, he will still support Fashola. Ini asks- ‘What if Fashola turns out to be a bad person…will you still support him?’ ‘God forbid,’ says Joshua. Timi, precocious kid that he is, extols Agbaje’s virtues at one hundred words per second and gets Ini’s affirmation on each point. Then the conversation takes an interesting direction.

Joshua wonders aloud what it would be like if Superman became President and Wonder Woman was first lady (and the Justice League were in charge of the senate – I thought to myself). Ini seems to prefer the idea of Batman being president, Timi has his own preference as well but all agree that the crime rate would drop if their favourite super hero ruled the country. They said a lot more, but my mind wondered at this point. The profundity of the scenario struck me, here were these boys wishing that comic book characters of American citizenship would come and rule their country. Let’s not focus on the complexity of their politics but on the vibrancy of their imagination…the sort of imagination that knows no barriers and can only be nurtured in the world of comic book fiction and its younger cousin- the world of animated movies, where absolutely anything is possible.

Comic books and animated movies are potent tools for instilling age old virtues like courage, patriotism, selflessness, friendship, and civic responsibility. But they go beyond that, they chronicle the travails of man over different time frames, they plumb the political depths of different generations and they dare to predict where our abilities in science and technology and our deficiencies as social animals could lead us in the near future. Even the most ardent comic book follower is likely to limit the history of the art form to the 1930s when modern comics as we know them today were first published starting with the Superman series that was first published as a newspaper strip in 1939 forgetting that the art form had actually been under development for centuries, starting with the Egyptian hieroglyphics and Greek and Roman frescoes of yore.

The modern American comic books took good cognisance of the politics of their time and the characters tackled real issues even if against a backdrop of science and fantasy. That is why young Americans could read about a Superman who could fly but then had to worry about coping with the exerting demands on his abilities by the very same people he sought to protect, or a Captain America who encapsulated the quintessential American soldier and hero and captured the imagination of several generations of Americans amongst many other examples.

It’s most ironic therefore that young Nigerian boys in 2007 will look to American (fictional) Super heroes to take their country out of the woods while their own culture is actually steeped with heroes and legends of comparable strengths and socio-political relevance to their American counterparts. The tragedy is that they don’t know it. They are not exposed to the ancient carvings, poems, chants, and folklore which have codified these legends, and even if they were, they’d be hard pressed to decode them.

Enter the modern day Nigerian comics. It has been a great pleasure to interact with some of the brightest minds in this country who have been at the forefront of the development of a new awareness for comic books in the country but not of the American ilk, we are talking about Nigerian comic books here. They are not new to us…

Sewedo Nupowaku of Revolution Media insists at every opportunity that Wale Adenuga’s widely acclaimed Super Story television series had first debuted in Nigeria as a comic book series in the 80s. He usually extols in the same breathe, the names of great Nigerian cartoonists like Cliff Oguigo and Boye Gbenro who had done great work in the past, paving the way for the likes of Kaycee, Leke Moses, D.D. Onu, amongst many others who now hold fort. In an attempt at keeping that sort of history from being forgotten it seems, Nupowaku’s organisation is collaborating with other enthusiasts like Imperial Creation Studios, Design Jockey Sessions, Children and The Environment, Cartoonists Association of Nigeria and Pandora Comics under the platform of the Committee For Relevant Art (CORA) organised 9th Lagos Book & Art Festival to stage the third edition of their annual Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival (from Friday 9th – Sunday 11th November 2007 at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos) which sets out to raise the awareness and sensitivity of the public (especially the youths) towards the vast field of cartoons, comics and animation creation and publishing while adding a boost to the nation’s reading and entertainment culture. The event is set to be a convention of sorts involving an exhibition of works of leading comic book, cartoons and animation producers in the country, workshops on cartoon creation and animation for children and young adults and opportunities for networking between talented young people and the industry leaders who require their talents.

Even more heartwarming to Nupowaku is the fact that Pandora Comics, one of the leading comic book publishers in the country is going one step further this year in supporting the effort with some well needed funds. According to Sunkanmi Akinboye who is Art Director at Pandora Comics, their journey began in early 2002, when a group of young enterprising artists were brought together by Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin to fulfill a collective dream; to produce a comic book that would rival the biggest and the best of comic books. ‘There was no doubt it could be done.’ Five years down the line, it is being done in style. Pandora Comics have three titles under their belt which will be introduced to the public at the Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival.

As my mind wonders back to the chattering young guns on the back seat, I smile to myself that Joshua, Timi and Ini might have to change their minds about importing American super-heroes to set the country right. Three days mixing with the creators of authentic Nigerian Super-Heroes at the 3rd Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival should do the trick, if that fails then the Justice League (of American Super-heroes) could very well become our representatives at the Nigerian Senate….now imagine if a bunch of Super-Heroes with powers untold resort to fisticuffs over some misappropriated funds on national television??? As Joshua would say…God forbid!

Culled from The Guardian Life of October 28, 2008.

MORE COOL IMAGES FOR LC3 '07 COURTESY ICSTUDIOS!

2007-11-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

REVISED PROGRAMME FOR LC3 '07

2007-11-01T11:24:00.001-07:00

PROGRAMME

Day One (Friday 9th November 2007)

8:00 am – 9.00am: Participating exhibitors / collaborators set up their stands.

10:00 am – 10.30am: Official opening of the 3rd Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival.

10.30 am - 3.30pm: The 3rd Green Comic & Cartoon Strip Contest (Themed: Plant an idea, watch it grow). Organized in collaboration with Children And The Environment (CATE), and The Cartoonists Association of Nigeria, the Green Comic Strip contest is targeted at Secondary School Students between the ages of 13 and 20 years, the programme is geared towards young people who have a flair for writing and illustrating comics. Winning entries to the contest will be awarded prizes after a workshop that will be held for the children on how to create comics.

11.00 am – 6.00 pm Screening of short listed entries of animated short flicks will hold for older folks who are not engaged with the children. Participants will talk shop on the screened flicks and the talks will be moderated by leading lights in the industry.

Day Two (Saturday 10th November 2007)

8:00 am – 9.00am: Participating exhibitors / collaborators set up their stands.

10:00 am – 12.00 noon: Workshop on Animation with focus on 2D.

12:00 noon – 12.30 pm: Break / Interaction.

12.30 pm – 2.30pm: Workshop on Animation with focus on 3D.

2.30 pm – 3.00pm: Break / Interaction.

30.00 pm – 5.00pm: Workshop on Animation with focus on motion graphics.

5.00 pm – 6.00pm: Re-cap / Question & Answer session / presentation of certificates.

Day Three (Sunday 11th November 2007)

8:00 am – 9.00am: Participating exhibitors / collaborators set up their stands.

10:00 am – 1.00 pm: Screening of short listed entries of animated short flicks will continue and participants will talk shop on the screened flicks as was done on day one.

1:00 pm – 3.00 pm: Workshop on 'story development for comic book & animated film writers' organized by Pandora Comics.

3.00pm – 6.00pm: Mini-Launch by Pandora Comics, dance party / closing celebration with an ‘A’ list disk jockey on duty.

From then till now......

2007-11-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

WELCOME TO THE PARTY

The Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival is a self styled ultimate gathering of admirers, lovers and downright fanatics of comics, cartoons and animation. This 3rd edition of the Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival holding at the National Theatre, Iganmu Lagos from the 9th – 11th of November, 2007 as a part of the 9th Lagos Book & Art Festival will have a strong focus on animation with the theme: UNLEASHING THE POWER OF ANIMATION. The first edition held in September 2004 and we still remember that first outing with great euphoria as ‘Kareem Baba Aminu’s review of the event which has been reprinted in this brochure would show.

‘Imagination: The weapon of the future?’ Thus ran the theme for the opening talks for the 2nd Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival held at Terra Kulture in Victoria Island in September 2006, where we insisted that:
Music has been suggested in the past to be the weapon of the future. We choose to make a broader claim that imagination in its entire gamut is the weapon of the future. Few other creative enterprises demand such a high level of imagination from both the artist and the audience as the field of comics and cartoons…thus it is understandable that the music industry should thrive on animated videos and comic book - centric - graphics and visualizations; the movie industry is dovetailing more and more into the world of fantasia that comic books had created decades ago.

Advanced economies give a lot of attention to their creative industries, not as some sort of philanthropy but as a vital part of nation building – an exercise which in itself requires imagination in great doses. In Nigeria, can imagination serve as the weapon of the future? Or will the nation’s creatives remain a bunch of nerdy egg heads, relegated to their own world of self inflicted dreams?

Our insistence has not changed in the past one year, if anything, our resolve is strengthened that imagination is indeed the weapon for winning future (socio-economic) wars, which is why this year, the carnival is focused on equipping the future generals with the right sort of ammunition. Because images tell stories but cartoons and comics tell even greater stories because they combine words with art thereby communicating simultaneously on two fronts, last year, LC3 featured an exhibition that included members of the Cartoonists Association of Nigeria (CARTAN) who have held sway over the years with regular exhibitions of topical cartoons, members of Imperial Creations Studios, a frontline animation studio and publisher of comics, members of Virtuo Comic Company, a budding Comics house, members of Pandora Comics a leading publisher of comics and graphic novels and a solo contribution from freelance cartoonist- Chiagozie Akannihu.

This year, LC3 ’07 has been planned to have a high capacity building content with major focus on trainings and workshops for up coming creatives in the comics and cartoons trade. Participants in the training seminars and workshops are drawn from secondary schools, higher institutions of learning, independent practitioners and practicing professionals in established advertising / media related agencies, newspaper houses, etc that could be interested in a refresher course of sorts. Facilitators are drawn from a shortlist of highly skilled professionals and the sessions will be highly interactive. The first two days of LC3 ’07 are dedicated to these workshops and seminars running alongside the exhibitions and sales while the third day will be dedicated fully to a multimedia exhibition of works by major players and emerging talents in the comics, cartoons, animation and motion graphics trade, a workshop on 'story development for comic book & animated film writers' organized by Pandora Comics which will dovetail into a mini-launch by the comic book company and dance party to close the event.

LC3 ’07 is thus designed to cater for the multiple needs of exposition, networking, marketing and entertainment.

You are welcome to the party!

It's the big one alright!

2007-11-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

we are revving up for the carnival...no kidding, really!

2007-10-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

Had a few concerned pals like Frank Amenechi - that crazy architect who wrote in from the Gambia and CNN Award winning Energy Journalist Toyin Akinosho from Nigeria complaining that for a group of comics and cartoons enthusiasts, our buzz had too many words and too little in colour and illustrations...Ah...we are vexed! This is the first of many to come in a season of vexation!

2007-09-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

3rd LAGOS COMICS & CARTOONS CARNIVAL (LC3)

LC3 is a unique event initiated and coordinated by Revolution Media and is geared towards raising the awareness and sensitivity of the public (especially the youths) towards the vast field of cartoons, comics and animation creation and publishing while adding a boost to the nation’s reading and entertainment culture. The first edition of LC3, held in September 2004, was a collaborative effort of 3 enterprising young men (who firmly believe that Nigeria is a fertile ground for the emergence of a richly rewarding and potentially booming comics pop-culture) facilitated by Evolution Media (now Revolution Media), Design Jockey Sessions and with support from CORA (Committee for Relevant Art) as a part of the 6th Lagos Book and Art Festival.

LC3 ’04 recorded considerable success, which points out the fact that there is huge potential for the emergence of a comics and cartoon industry. This year, we plan to make LC3 ’07 bigger and better than the last effort in September 2006. The event is slated to hold from 9th to 11th of November 2007 as a part of the 9th Lagos Book & Art Festival at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.

Programme

The third installment of LC3 will have a high capacity building content with major focus on trainings and workshops for up coming creatives in the comics and cartoons trade. Participants in the training seminars and workshops will be drawn from secondary schools, higher institutions of learning, independent practitioners and practicing professionals in established advertising / media related agencies, newspaper houses, etc that could be interested in a refresher course of sorts. Facilitators will be drawn from a shortlist of highly skilled professionals and the sessions will be highly interactive. The first two days of LC3 ’07 will be dedicated to these workshops and seminars running alongside the exhibitions and sales while the third day will be dedicated fully to a multimedia exhibition of works by major players and emerging talents in the comics, cartoons, animation and motion graphics trade, which will dovetail into a dance party at the end of the event headlined by an ‘A’ list Disc Jockey.

LC3 ’07 is thus designed to cater for the multiple needs of exposition, networking, marketing and entertainment.

Day One (Friday 9th November 2007)

8:00 am – 9.00am: Participating exhibitors / collaborators set up their stands.

10:00 am – 10.30am: Official opening of the 3rd Lagos Comics & Cartoons Carnival.

10.30 am - 3.30pm: The 2nd Green Comic Strip Contest (Themed: Plant an idea, watch it grow). Organized in collaboration with Children And The Environment (CATE), Cowrie Comics and The Cartoonists Association of Nigeria, the Green Comic Strip contest is targeted at Secondary School Students between the ages of 13 and 20 years, the programme is geared towards young people who have a flair for writing and illustrating comics. Winning entries to the contest which would have been collated and judged will be awarded prizes and a workshop will be held for the children on how to create comics.

11.00 am – 6.00 pm Screening of short listed entries of animated short flicks will hold for older folks who are not engaged with the children. Participants will talk shop on the screened flicks and the talks will be moderated by leading lights in the industry.

Day Two (Saturday 10th November 2007)

8:00 am – 9.00am: Participating exhibitors / collaborators set up their stands.

10:00 am – 12.00 noon: Workshop on Animation with focus on 2D.

12:00 noon – 12.30 pm: Break / Interaction.

12.30 pm – 2.30pm: Workshop on Animation with focus on 3D.

2.30 pm – 3.00pm: Break / Interaction.

30.00 pm – 5.00pm: Workshop on Animation with focus on motion graphics.

5.00 pm – 6.00pm: Re-cap / Question & Answer session / presentation of certificates.

Day Three (Sunday 11th November 2007)

8:00 am – 9.00am: Participating exhibitors / collaborators set up their stands.

10:00 am – 3.00 pm: Screening of short listed entries of animated short flicks will continue and participants will talk shop on the screened flicks as was done on day one.

3.00pm – 6.00pm: Dance party / closing celebration with an ‘A’ list disk jockey on duty.

Collaborators

In achieving the set goals for LC3, and as a direct benefit of having done this before, we shall be facilitating this carnival in collaboration with front line creative art and graphics companies and individuals; some of whom we have collaborated with in the past, who will also exhibit their publications and artistic offerings. Co-facilitators will include Children And The Environment (CATE), The Design Jockey Sessions, Imperial Creation Studios, Pandora Comics, Cowrie Comics, the Cartoonists Association of Nigeria and Komikwerks, a US based comic book publisher amongst many others.

The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), as in the past, shall provide a broad platform at the 9th Lagos Book and Art Festival at which LC3 can draw from a large pool of book and art enthusiasts.

Glossy Brochures branded by our sponsors and containing general history and information about the speakers and exhibitors at the carnival will be made available to participants and visitors to further aid the networking we hope to sustain.

With your support…

The 3rd Lagos Comics and Cartoons Carnival will be a resounding success. Key partners to the carnival shall benefit from the extended media exposure, unique selling point presented by the comics and cartoons trade, the opportunity to leverage off a highly creative crop of young people who can communicate with their peers- a target market, and the rare chance to cash in at the early stages of an entertainment revolution.

We look forward to your active participation.

Yours Faithfully,

…………………………..
Ayodele Arigbabu
234-0803-3000-499
revolutionmedia@yahoo.com

Sewedo Nupowaku
234-0806-7421-215
revolvingmedia@googlemail.com

Imagination- The weapon of the future?

2006-09-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

2ND LAGOS COMICS & CARTOONS CARNIVAL (LC3) :
Day 1: INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION FORUM

LC3 is a unique event initiated and coordinated by Evolution Media and is geared towards raising the awareness and sensitivity of the public (especially the youths) towards the vast field of cartoons and comics publishing while adding a boost to the nation’s reading culture.

Programme

Scheduled to run from Thursday 14th September through Sunday 17th September 2006 under the auspices of the 8th Lagos Book & Art Festival, we have designed this year’s carnival as a week long event to cater for the dual needs of exposition / networking and marketing / entertainment. In this light, the first part of the event will feature an interactive talk shop on industry related matters to be led by key resource persons.

As a follow-up to that, the second part will have a comics and cartoons trade fair running simultaneously with an exhibition of works by major players and emerging talents in the comics and cartoons trade.

The Talks:

We wish to invite you to a discursive forum on the comics and cartoons trade and other related matters. The talks will involve a panel of discussants drawn mainly from the creative industries, with an equally diverse audience offering comments and asking questions.

Theme: ‘Imagination: The weapon of the future?’

Music has been suggested in the past to be the weapon of the future. We choose to make a broader claim that imagination in its entire gamut is the weapon of the future. Few other creative enterprises demand such a high level of imagination from both the artist and the audience as the field of comics and cartoons…thus it is understandable that the music industry should thrive on animated videos and comic book - centric - graphics and visualizations; the movie industry is dovetailing more and more into the world of fantasia that comic books had created decades ago.
Advanced economies give a lot of attention to their creative industries, not as some sort of philanthropy but as a vital part of nation building – an exercise which in itself requires imagination in great doses. In Nigeria, can imagination serve as the weapon of the future? Or will the nation’s creatives remain a bunch of nerdy egg heads, relegated to their own world of self inflicted dreams?

Lanre Lawal, the 2005 winner of the British Council organized International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year and CEO of front line design agency- Design Jockey Sessions will set the tone for the talks with a 15 minute introduction. Evolution Media’s Sewedo Nupowaku will moderate the discussions.

Animation Presentation:

To spice up the talks, an exhibition of works of some leading animation and multimedia artists will be presented to the audience.

Date: Thursday 14th September 2006.
Time: 11am - 3pm
Venue: Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island.

Join The Party!

2006-08-22T00:19:00.000-07:00

2ND LAGOS COMICS & CARTOONS CARNIVAL (LC3)

LC3 is a unique event initiated and coordinated by Evolution Media and is geared towards raising the awareness and sensitivity of the public (especially the youths) towards the vast field of cartoons and comics publishing while adding a boost to the nation’s reading culture. The first edition of LC3, held in September 2004, was a collaborative effort of 3 enterprising young men (who firmly believe that Nigeria is a fertile ground for the emergence of a richly rewarding and potentially booming comics pop-culture) facilitated by Evolution Media, Home Made Cookies and with support from CORA (Committee for Relevant Art) as a part of the 6th Lagos Book and Art Festival.

LC3 ’04 recorded considerable success, which points out the fact that there is huge potential for the emergence of a comics and cartoon industry. This year, we plan to make LC3 ’06 bigger and better than the last effort which by the way, was entirely self funded. This year, the event is slated to hold in September to coincide with the 8th Lagos Book & Art Festival.

Programme

Scheduled to run from Thursday 14th September through Sunday 17th September 2006, we have designed this year’s carnival as a weeklong event to cater for the dual needs of exposition / networking and marketing / entertainment. In this light, the first part of the event will feature an interactive talk shop on industry related matters to be led by key resource persons; coupled with an exhibition of works by major players and emerging talents in the comics and cartoons trade.

The key aim for the first part of the carnival is to provide an avenue for prospective investors, facilitators, practitioners, enthusiasts, government officials and the general public to interact in a highly stimulating environment with all the inherent possibilities for business and networking.

As a follow-up to that, the second part will combine a comics and cartoons trade fair with an art exhibition featuring front line comics and cartoons artists.

Our experience has shown that the burgeoning hip-hop culture currently holding sway across the whole of Nigeria could serve as a veritable launch pad for a simultaneous comics and cartoons culture as both trends are steeped in pop culture and are appealing to all young people and the young at heart.

Collaborators

In achieving the set out goals for LC3, and as a direct benefit of having done this before, we shall be facilitating this carnival in collaboration with front line creative art and graphics companies and individuals; some of whom we have collaborated with in the past, who will exhibit their publications and artistic offerings. Exhibitors / co-facilitators will include The Design Jockey Sessions, Imperial Creation Studios, Pandora Comics, Cowry Comics, the Cartoonists Association of Nigeria and Komikwerks, a US based comic book publisher amongst many others.

The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) shall provide a broad platform at the 8th Lagos Book and Art Festival at which LC3 can draw from a large pool of book and art enthusiasts.

Side Attractions

With the range of resource persons and organizations with whom we shall be collaborating we have planned activities such as:

Graffiti Xtra where massive panels are made available for guests and practitioners alike to let go in artistic self expression.

Childrens’ Creative Academy to be facilitated by Imperial Creations Studios, one of our key collaborators on this event.

Talent Hunt Competition fascilitated by Design Jockey Sessions.

Glossy Brochure branded by our sponsors and containing general history and information about the speakers and exhibitors at the carnival will be made available to visitors to further aid the networking we hope to sustain.

Book readings, Multimedia presentations and Autograph signing sessions will be arranged to further boost the appreciation of comics and cartoons.

Extensive Press coverage on the print and electronic media will be ensured as the event has been packaged to command maximum media attention.

…We remain confident that come this September, the 2nd Lagos Comics and Cartoons Carnival will be a resounding success. Key partners to the carnival shall benefit from the extended media exposure, unique selling point presented by the comics and cartoons trade, the opportunity to leverage off a highly creative crop of young people who can communicate with their peers, a target market for any pro-active corporate affairs executive and the rare chance to cash in at the very beginning of an entertainment revolution.

You are hereby invited to participate in the 2nd Lagos Comics and Cartoons Carnival by taking up a stand at the 8th Lagos Book & Art Festival under the LC3 umbrella, to expose your art / published works to the public, to network with like minds or sponsor / support a unique programme. You may also wish to participate in the carnival exhibition planned for the same period. Please register your interest / intention via email: arigbs @gmail.com or lc3_05@yahoo.co.uk. For more information / sponsorship consideration please contact the undersigned.

Contact:

Ayodele Arigbabu
234-0803-3000-499
arigbs@gmail.com

Sewedo Nupowaku
234-0803-3520-149
234-0806-7421-215
sewetronica@yahoo.co.uk

Lanre Lawal
234-0803-5202-508
mailto:arigbs@gmail.com