Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Slipper Cycle premieres in Stuttgart


Triggerfish partner Anthony Silverston's The Slipper Cycle has been selected to screen in the prestigious Stuttgart Animation Festival. It will show in a supporting programme focusing on animations from South Africa on May 8th. The stop-motion piece was Anthony's first film. Completed late 2003, it won Best Independent Animation at the Independent's Film Festival in Florida and has already shown in numerous animation festivals worldwide. Pin It

Judging BANFF


Triggerfish producer Stuart Forrest has been selected to judge the Animation Program in The Banff World Television Awards which takes place June 13-16 2010. The 2009 competition attracted more than 800 entries from 30 countres around the world. The specific category includes programs made for television, either as part of a series or as a one-off television special. Pin It

Monday, March 29, 2010

Triggerfish Studio in 3D!


As you can see from these photos, the last 2 weeks we've been learning a lot from L.A.- based Digital Stereography expert and 3D Cinema author Bernard Mendiburu.

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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Press Release: Job creation in SA animation industry



Triggerfish, along with other prominent home-grown animation studios, is playing an integral role in what has become known as the Animation Industry Development Initiative (AIDI).

The Cape Film Commission (CFC), together with Animation SA launched the first phase of AIDI last year by recruiting fresh, young talent within the Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha communities to undergo animation-related training. The CFC and Animation SA, with the support of the Services Seta, are committed to creating a strong and competitive home-grown animation industry. The overall aim of the AIDI is to create 10 000 jobs within the animation industry by 2020.

All five interns that were placed at Triggerfish for a 6-month period, are now employed full-time to work on the studio’s first animated feature film, Zambezia.

“We’ve been very impressed with how quickly the interns were brought up to speed and both the studio as well as the interns have benefitted enormously”, says Mike Buckland, senior producer at Triggerfish. “The initiative is a great opportunity for talented, young animators to work with the some of the best people in the industry”, he adds.

Four of the interns are graduates of the Animation School in Cape Town (Langa Ntombela, Ivan van den Heever, Sean Wilkins and Jovan Janari) while Thabe Ntebe studied animation for 2 years at Boston Media House in Johannesburg.

"I think the programme at Triggerfish is extremely useful because it offers specialised training which is essential to skills growth and finding your niche”, says Thabe Ntebe.

Triggerfish is synonymous with industry development in South Africa and co-founded the first national animation body, Animation SA, which now has over 1800 members across southern Africa. Pin It

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

And the winner of this year's (T)oscar is.........

The (T)oscars have become a bit of a Triggerfish tradition and this year's ceremony at the studio was a great opportunity to acknowledge the time, creative energy and hard work that everyone has put into making our first feature, Zambezia! Some of the awards included:

Kane - The 'Fantastic Mr Fix' Award


Karen - 'Mother of All Hens' Award (for taking all her chicklets under her wing and showing them the ropes).


Lindsay - 'Silent Movie' Award (for wanting to cut copious amounts of dialogue).


Mike - 'Stop, You can’t do that!' Award (for his less is more approach: “You can’t have so many characters, landscapes, camera moves....”)


Thabe - 'Pumpkin Patch' Award (for creating pumpkins you would sing for – “oh, oh, oh…”)


Edelgard - The 'Blackberry' Award (for keeping our director Wayne in touch and organized).

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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Big up to Clockwork Zoo!

Well done to Clockwork Zoo for winning the Imbongi Award for Excellence in Animation. Pin It

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Meet....the layout artist, Keenan Manshon


“I am ambitious and determined to make a contribution to animation, especially when it comes to changing people’s perceptions that animation is something only for kids.”


For as long as he can remember, Keenan has been inspired by animation. His love for animation began as a child watching Disney movies and then when Pixar came along... well then he just knew that a career in 3D animation was for him! Keenan is currently working on the feature film, Zambezia, and is responsible for setting up the final camera shots using storyboards as well as placing characters within the scene and adding rough animation to get a sense of timing. Keenan first joined Triggerfish as an intern after studying at The Animation School and then spent a few months freelancing before starting to work as a layout artist on Zambezia. If he had to choose one animation character he most identifies with, it would be Remy from Ratatouille because he was also determined and ambitious. Pin It

Monday, March 1, 2010

It's a wrap...

well, when it comes to recording voices, anyway. Here are some pictures from our recording sessions held at Tonic Studios in Cape Town and at the SABC studio in Gauteng.



The full cast of Zambezia: Adam Behr (Land of the Lost, Sushi Pack), Freshly Ground’s Zolani Mahola, Lali Dangazele (Rhythm City, When We Were Black), David Dennis (Disgrace, 10,000 B.C., Red Dust, Soul City, Charlie Jade), Lee Duru (Zola 7, In My Country, Home Affairs, Mama Jack), Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I, Corpse Bride), Keeno Lee-Hector (Fame, Montana, Khulululeka Siyavota ), Khanya Mkangisa (Yo-TV presenter, Mthunzini.com), Nik Rabinowitz (SA comedian of the Year 2008), Leeanda Reddy (Isidingo, Mr Bones 2), Brent Palmer (Charlie Jade, The Silent Fall, The Flood, Mercenary for Justice) Tema Sebopedi (Angel’s Song, Parliament) and Royston Stoffels (Stokvel, Interrogation Room, Erfsonder), and director Wayne Thornley. Pin It