The South African animation sector is set for a major boost from a new partnership between Triggerfish, Africa’s leading animation studio, and the German government-funded Employment for Skills and Development in Africa (E4D) Programme.
The ambitious three-year partnership aims to expose 10,000 school leavers to the animation industry, empower 6,000 creatives with enhanced portfolios and market access, and create 200 more jobs.
Triggerfish chief executive, Gqeberha-born Stuart Forrest, said the partnership was aimed at combating the shortage of higher to expert-level professionals in the industry.
“There are quite a few people wanting to get into the industry but it’s hard to get in and stay in the industry long enough to see the real benefit when you become more of an expert.
“What we’re trying to do with the way we’re training is to try to bring people up to that expert level, but obviously you have to start somewhere and we have to encourage people at all levels,” Forrest said.
Forrest, a former Victoria Park High School pupil, said while the animation industry was booming globally it was still difficult to find qualified and adequately experienced people in SA.
Through the partnership, Triggerfish Academy — a free digital learning platform that is opening up access to African animation industry experts — recently launched an online course on editing for animation.
Moreover, the partnership recently announced a 10-second animation competition for 18- to 35-year-olds, whereby animators are invited to create a 10-second character-driven animated clip based on an audio clip provided, to show off their artistic originality and technical animation skills.
Entries may be submitted by visiting www.triggerfish.com/academy/.
With smaller cities such as Gqeberha offering fewer educational and development opportunities in the animation industry, Forrest said the opportunities brought about by the partnership were open to all.
This would expose the industry to a pool of talent in remote areas and vice versa, he said.
“In smaller cities, there are fewer opportunities to develop people in media and arts [careers] because of a lack of [adequate] facilities to provide quality training.
“This is a legacy issue that is going to be changing over the future as the internet does democratise the ability to work wherever you want in the world,” Forrest said.
The partnership with E4D is one of a number of Triggerfish initiatives to train and diversify the next generation of African animators.
Other Triggerfish initiatives include sponsoring 20 bursaries to The Animation School with MICT SETA for 2021, sponsoring the 2021 Women in Animation World Summit and running the Mama K’s Team 4 all-female writers lab with Netflix and the pan-African Triggerfish Story Lab, supported by The Walt Disney Company, which led to Mama K’s Team 4 selling to Netflix and Kiya to Disney.
Triggerfish was recently awarded the Mifa Animation Industry Award for “the pioneering role that the company has played in animation in Africa” at the 2021 Annecy International Animation Festival.
The company was also announced as the lead producer on the Disney+ Original animated anthology, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire.
Triggerfish Academy chief executive Colin Payne said they aimed to help build a diverse industry to tell stories to the world.
“We want to remove the gap between animation training and the animation industry, so that our training is by industry experts and aimed at skills gaps identified by industry.
“In the past, animation had a high barrier to entry, but through free online training we are opening up both access to skills development and to the industry itself,” Payne said.
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