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
"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". 
