Monday, November 29, 2010

The BIG move into the Long House


Triggerfish has moved....well a few meters anyway. We're still on Dreyersdal Farm but the studio has expanded to include The Long House as well as The Barn. Although the big move happened about two weeks ago, we've learnt that it takes time for things to find their place. Pin It

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Zambezia takes flight....in stereoscopic 3D

Thanks to Chris Cunnington, our lead stereographer, we've been able to upload the stereoscopic 3D version of the Zambezia promo which is a good excuse for us to watch it again...and again. So put on your 3D glasses and watch it here.
Pin It

Movember....The Horror! The Horror!


It's almost the end of Movember and here are some of the mo's we have in the mix.



This is Wayne's 4 o' clock shadow.


Tom misunderstood the brief and thought he had to shave off all his body hair EXCEPT his moustache.

Jovan thought the exact opposite.

Pin It

Monday, November 22, 2010

Animation ain't no picnic....except if you work at Triggerfish




One of the perks of having our studio on a farm is that you get to have lunch al fresco so in celebration of spring we decided to dust off our picnic blankets and soak up some rays.


Clearly, some have a better grasp of what the function of picnic blanket is......


....while some are still figuring it out.

Pin It

Friday, November 19, 2010

Zambezia takes flight!

Big UP to the Zambezia team for putting together a fantastic promo for the American Film Market. According to our sales agent, Edward Noeltner of CMG, distributors have been very excited by the quality and standard they've seen in the promo, and sales negotiations are underway!




Watch this space for the 3D stereoscopic version Pin It

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Work hard, play hard

After a stressful week AND meeting the deadline for the American Film Market promo, the Zambezia crew headed for the hills. Can you blame them...?


A big thank you to Cathy for organising the much-needed break, and to Andiswa and Shune for helping with logistics.


This is what happens when you work on a movie with an all-bird cast.


What goes up, must come down.

Pin It

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Exposé on Dan


It's official. Daniel Clarke, our Production Designer on Khumba is one of the "finest digital artists in the known universe". Three of his illustrations were selected for the latest edition of Expose. You can see the other two illustrations here and here. Pin It

Monday, November 15, 2010

New horizons - Article in The Callsheet


Image from Zambezia (Copyright of Triggerfish)

Triggerfish Animation Studio has received funding from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), as well as the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) to produce their second animated feature, Khumba. The film stars a half-striped zebra who is blamed for the drought affecting his herd. Teaming up with a sassy wildebeest and a flamboyant ostrich, this unlikely hero sets off on a daring quest through the Great Karoo to find his missing stripes. Last year, Triggerfish produced a 3-minute teaser for the feature-length film. The teaser was used by LA-based sales agent CMG to help generate pre-sales which were then used as security for some of the funding. “It’s great that our hard work on the teaser paid off and that we now have the opportunity to further develop the characters and production design as we go into full pre-production”, says Director, Anthony Silverston.

Khumba will be the studio’s second stereoscopic 3D feature film with Zambezia scheduled for completion in early 2011. Set in a bustling bird city on the edge of the majestic Victoria Falls, Zambezia is the story of Kai - a naïve, but high-spirited young falcon who travels to the bird city of Zambezia where he discovers the truth about his origins and, in defending the city, learns how to be part of a community. Amongst the 70-strong crew working on Zambezia, Triggerfish has employed two rounds of interns with financial support from the Services Seta. The first group of five proved to be so valuable in production that they have all ended up being employed for the rest of the project in various capacities. The second group is already helping out in a number of areas although their internship only starts in November. Depending on their strengths, each individual focuses on a different area of production - be it modelling, texturing or lighting.

“Having a second feature in production is a significant breakthrough for our studio,” says Triggerfish producer Stuart Forrest. “There was a massive learning curve on Zambezia, and Khumba gives us a chance to go back and build on what we’ve learnt – largely keeping the same team that we’ve been working together with for the last few years.”

The team was excited to hear that Triggerfish has also just received funding from NFVF to develop the script for their third feature. Says Forrest, “The whole concept is still confidential at this stage, but all we’re saying is that we’ll show you the Mother City like you’ve never seen her before!” Pin It

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The 7-year scratch



Over the last 2 weeks we've been recording the scratch track for Khumba. Thanks to talented actors like Scott Sparrow, Rob van Vuuren, Zolani Mahola, Francesco Nassimbeni (and even some of the Triggerfish crew) we can finally start putting sound to storyboards.


It's hard to believe that it was almost 7 years ago that Director, Anthony Silverston first conceived of a story involving a half-striped zebra in search of his missing stripes.
Pin It

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Article in The Callsheet

Pin It

Monday, November 8, 2010

Bringing African animation to America


CMG press release on Animation World Network Pin It

'Animators make the circle bigger'


Anthony was recently interviewed by The Callsheet about his trip to Anima Mundi animation festival in Brazil. You can read the article here. Pin It