Triggerfish swims with the sharks

Triggerfish celebrates it's 15-year anniversary this year and was featured in the last issue of The Animation Magazine for its special issue on anniversaries.

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Animation conference held at Triggerfish

Partnering with Services SETA and CFC, Animation SA recently brought out  Kevin Geiger – a world renowned consultant to major studios across the globe, including The Walt Disney Company and Dreamworks - to host a special 5-day conference held at Triggerfish animation studios in Cape Town. 

The invaluable conference was offered free to members of Animation SA and was attended by over 50 members of the animation community from across the country. In addition to the many benefits of the conference itself, the event provided a wonderful opportunity to members of the local industry to network, discuss issues facing the industry and for companies from Joburg and Cape Town to mix in an informal setting. 

Kevin is considered internationally as an authority on the Business of Animation. He specializes in Pipeline Efficiency and Budget Management and offers invaluable advice on a project for project basis.

Kevin Geiger has over 15 years of technical, artistic and organizational experience in the animation and special effects industry, including 12 years with Walt Disney Feature Animation and Cal Arts. Mr. Geiger has supervised and consulted on successful animated feature film productions with budgets of more than $100 million USD to less than $10 million USD, and is a highly-regarded expert on production pipelines and workflow efficiencies.

Currently resident in mainland China, Kevin Geiger is the acting President & CEO of Magic Dumpling (Beijing) International Cultural Media Corporation Ltd., an original entertainment content development company. Kevin also serves as Chairman of the China Animation Business Association, and International Department Chairman of the Beijing Film Animation Association.

A huge thanks to Tim Argall, David Whitehouse and all the members of Animation SA who helped make the event possible. 

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Animation wraps

It's a wrap. Animation on Zambezia finished this week! Congrats to the whole team for reaching this massive milestone!

They are (Left to Right, back to front) : Jac Hamman, Roberto Pita, Kane Croudace, Nathan Brown, Francois Maree, director Wayne Thornley, Abigail Kwan, Gareth Thomas, Kevin van Kraayenburg, Matt Lowry, Jean-pierre Leroux, Keenan Manshon, Tessa Comrie, Tumelo Selamolela, Quentin Vogel, animation director Lindsay van Blerk, Jako Tromp, Hayley Smuts, Harold  Courchay, Aibe Elukpo. Absent: Remi Abrahams, Greg Murray, Maahir Pandie, Nur Dreyer, Ruaan Grobler, Sue-marie Sauer
(ten points for spotting the future animator... erm tree hugger... in the background).

Good luck to the rest of the team who's job it is to now finish lighting, rendering compositing... whose idea was it to make a feature anyway? Pin It

Soopadoopa heroes

For one day....and one day only, we revealed our true identities....

Step aside Ironman! This is the real deal.


Kaptein Kaas: 'There's no use crying over spilled milk'

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A sneak peak into Khumba's (pre-prod) world....

As the Director, Anthony has many important creative decisions to make every day.....

It's a fur test, can't you tell?


Meet Rick, storyboard artist extraordinaire! Unlike most of us, he is not easily distracted and very rarely turns around - even when we're making a racket.

Daniel and Matt are the formidable duo responsible for bringing Khumba's world to life.


Matt: What would happen if we made his ears this much bigger?
Dan: Mmmm....not too big!
Anthony: Arrrg!

What's wrong with loving pangolins? Pin It

Xmas Triggerfish styleeeee!

Big thanks to Cathy, Andiswa and Shune for organising a 'secret santa' Xmas party at the studio. As you can tell from the snaps, there were mixed reactions when it came to the opening of presents.








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The Wild Card

This week, the D.O.P. on Khumba, Joe de Kadt arrived from L.A. via the U.K. (yes, that's a lot of acronyms) and has been fearlessly immersing himself in the wilds of Africa.




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Mo(oooo)ve over

Having our studio on Dreyersdal Farm really makes us feel that we're in the country and out of the rat-race. But it does mean that sometimes we have to compete for parking space....with cows.

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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

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.

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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.

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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.

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