Everybody is looking for an opportunity, everybody wants to cash-in, on the next Big thing. Either by way of setting the pace or dominating, the truth is there is always one thing in mind that is constant and that is "making money".

Animation is beginning to scratch the surface of our hearts in terms of acceptance in this part of the globe. And people tend to limit it to cartoons alone like the "tom and jerry's, flintstones and scoobies. But your Transformers movies wouldn't be possible without Animations and the same goes for a lot of other Hollywood movies especially the action type ones. So Animations is important.

The Anchor to this post is however not on animations per se, rather it's about how people perceive it in Africa especially from this parts. Here you'll find someone wanting to invest N1M in animations and is hoping to make fifty times that in the next six months by looking for and pairing animators together to churn out a video wont solve that problem either. This is not something you can readily get answers to on youtube ordinarily and by any means unless you probably want to know how to use a tool or something, in other words you'll have to be grounded for that to work for you.

The Mistakes

People think because ok, it's computer generated imagery, all you have to do is type in bullshit, press enter and voila "jerry is beating tom" or scooby is eating bananas. Seriously? Well i wouldn't by any means blame you if you fall into this category because i used to think like that too. But after testing the waters i've come to know the difference between wine and vinegar. Also because you use the computer, one man can do a ten to fifteen minute video within a week or two. Yo, guess what, if you were "Richard friggin Williams or Jeff the Bleep Lew, you aint churning out that volume of work by your self in six months. Again, even if you had a team of four, you still wouldn't do that in a frigging month and it's really that bad and i'm talking at least twelve hours a day.

The Challenges
A lot comes into play while animating and it's not that fun as people think bro. Animation is work. Mentally, Phisically and all other-cally. Do you even have the slightest idea of what you are trying to do? You are trying to mimic God's creations so, in a way you could see yourself as a god, breathing life into these cartoons and while doing that you think, plan, animate, criticize, test out, clean up, apply the principles, remember to apply the principles, know when to apply the principles etc. It's plenty to chew and not pretty, believe me. There are a lot of times where i'll have to erase about a hundred frames of animations or more and that's close to a day's job on an average of common moves and that means you've succeeded in creating nada for that day. It means you dont have nothing to show but does that mean you shouldn't be paid for that day? NO. At other times you try to create just one complex move and for some reasons, it's just not coming along like you thought it would. I mean you could spend more than a day thinking about how to go about it alone or maybe not come with the speed you think it would because it's new, challenging, different and unique. sometimes it's the animators block that you have to deal with and who takes all these into accounts in Africa? There are other factors that delimits output that will apply here as well and if you are a manager, you'll know what i'm talking about especially in the construction sector.

In Conclusion

There is money in Animation and it's coming up fast but as an investor, you must understand how these business is run. Yes, Mtn, Etisalat, Consat and a lot of others are doing animated commercials, also i hear that there is a Nigerian animation that's about to be premiered and i'ld love to see. But keeping one artist or two in your Studio and thinking they'll do magic in a month is just not the way to go about it and if you ask me, that's like planning to fail. You want to have an idea how it's done, then check the credits on major films. Animations are expensive and you can't change that.

reidkrugger:
Everybody is looking for an opportunity, everybody wants to cash-in, on the next Big thing. Either by way of setting the pace or dominating, the truth is there is always one thing in mind that is constant and that is "making money".

Animation is beginning to scratch the surface of our hearts in terms of acceptance in this part of the globe. And people tend to limit it to cartoons alone like the "tom and jerry's, flintstones and scoobies. But your Transformers movies wouldn't be possible without Animations and the same goes for a lot of other Hollywood movies especially the action type ones. So Animations is important.

The Anchor to this post is however not on animations per se, rather it's about how people perceive it in Africa especially from this parts. Here you'll find someone wanting to invest N1M in animations and is hoping to make fifty times that in the next six months by looking for and pairing animators together to churn out a video wont solve that problem either. This is not something you can readily get answers to on youtube ordinarily and by any means unless you probably want to know how to use a tool or something, in other words you'll have to be grounded for that to work for you.

The Mistakes

People think because ok, it's computer generated imagery, all you have to do is type in bullshit, press enter and voila "jerry is beating tom" or scooby is eating bananas. Seriously? Well i wouldn't by any means blame you if you fall into this category because i used to think like that too. But after testing the waters i've come to know the difference between wine and vinegar. Also because you use the computer, one man can do a ten to fifteen minute video within a week or two. Yo, guess what, if you were "Richard friggin Williams or Jeff the Bleep Lew, you aint churning out that volume of work by your self in six months. Again, even if you had a team of four, you still wouldn't do that in a frigging month and it's really that bad and i'm talking at least twelve hours a day.

The Challenges
A lot comes into play while animating and it's not that fun as people think bro. Animation is work. Mentally, Phisically and all other-cally. Do you even have the slightest idea of what you are trying to do? You are trying to mimic God's creations so, in a way you could see yourself as a god, breathing life into these cartoons and while doing that you think, plan, animate, criticize, test out, clean up, apply the principles, remember to apply the principles, know when to apply the principles etc. It's plenty to chew and not pretty, believe me. There are a lot of times where i'll have to erase about a hundred frames of animations or more and that's close to a day's job on an average of common moves and that means you've succeeded in creating nada for that day. It means you dont have nothing to show but does that mean you shouldn't be paid for that day? NO. At other times you try to create just one complex move and for some reasons, it's just not coming along like you thought it would. I mean you could spend more than a day thinking about how to go about it alone or maybe not come with the speed you think it would because it's new, challenging, different and unique. sometimes it's the animators block that you have to deal with and who takes all these into accounts in Africa? There are other factors that delimits output that will apply here as well and if you are a manager, you'll know what i'm talking about especially in the construction sector.

In Conclusion

There is money in Animation and it's coming up fast but as an investor, you must understand how these business is run. Yes, Mtn, Etisalat, Consat and a lot of others are doing animated commercials, also i hear that there is a Nigerian animation that's about to be premiered and i'ld love to see. But keeping one artist or two in your Studio and thinking they'll do magic in a month is just not the way to go about it and if you ask me, that's like planning to fail. You want to have an idea how it's done, then check the credits on major films. Animations are expensive and you can't change that.

Thank you very much.

reidkrugger:
Everybody is looking for an opportunity, everybody wants to cash-in, on the next Big thing. Either by way of setting the pace or dominating, the truth is there is always one thing in mind that is constant and that is "making money".

Animation is beginning to scratch the surface of our hearts in terms of acceptance in this part of the globe. And people tend to limit it to cartoons alone like the "tom and jerry's, flintstones and scoobies. But your Transformers movies wouldn't be possible without Animations and the same goes for a lot of other Hollywood movies especially the action type ones. So Animations is important.

The Anchor to this post is however not on animations per se, rather it's about how people perceive it in Africa especially from this parts. Here you'll find someone wanting to invest N1M in animations and is hoping to make fifty times that in the next six months by looking for and pairing animators together to churn out a video wont solve that problem either. This is not something you can readily get answers to on youtube ordinarily and by any means unless you probably want to know how to use a tool or something, in other words you'll have to be grounded for that to work for you.

The Mistakes

People think because ok, it's computer generated imagery, all you have to do is type in bullshit, press enter and voila "jerry is beating tom" or scooby is eating bananas. Seriously? Well i wouldn't by any means blame you if you fall into this category because i used to think like that too. But after testing the waters i've come to know the difference between wine and vinegar. Also because you use the computer, one man can do a ten to fifteen minute video within a week or two. Yo, guess what, if you were "Richard friggin Williams or Jeff the Bleep Lew, you aint churning out that volume of work by your self in six months. Again, even if you had a team of four, you still wouldn't do that in a frigging month and it's really that bad and i'm talking at least twelve hours a day.

The Challenges
A lot comes into play while animating and it's not that fun as people think bro. Animation is work. Mentally, Phisically and all other-cally. Do you even have the slightest idea of what you are trying to do? You are trying to mimic God's creations so, in a way you could see yourself as a god, breathing life into these cartoons and while doing that you think, plan, animate, criticize, test out, clean up, apply the principles, remember to apply the principles, know when to apply the principles etc. It's plenty to chew and not pretty, believe me. There are a lot of times where i'll have to erase about a hundred frames of animations or more and that's close to a day's job on an average of common moves and that means you've succeeded in creating nada for that day. It means you dont have nothing to show but does that mean you shouldn't be paid for that day? NO. At other times you try to create just one complex move and for some reasons, it's just not coming along like you thought it would. I mean you could spend more than a day thinking about how to go about it alone or maybe not come with the speed you think it would because it's new, challenging, different and unique. sometimes it's the animators block that you have to deal with and who takes all these into accounts in Africa? There are other factors that delimits output that will apply here as well and if you are a manager, you'll know what i'm talking about especially in the construction sector.

In Conclusion

There is money in Animation and it's coming up fast but as an investor, you must understand how these business is run. Yes, Mtn, Etisalat, Consat and a lot of others are doing animated commercials, also i hear that there is a Nigerian animation that's about to be premiered and i'ld love to see. But keeping one artist or two in your Studio and thinking they'll do magic in a month is just not the way to go about it and if you ask me, that's like planning to fail. You want to have an idea how it's done, then check the credits on major films. Animations are expensive and you can't change that.

Wonderful I must say, thanks alot

Thanks for the comments guys. Today i continue with a brief sequel to the original.

Sometimes people would mail me and say, Hey reid tell me about animation, how do we go about it and stuffs like that. The truth is it's always difficult making them understand the core of it all and from the little that i know but when you look at it again, these guys are really no different from the guys that want to invest in animations. The only and good difference is "THEY AT LEAST ASKED" and that's the first step.
Africans are always in a hurry and these further compounds the problem. For you to be in this business as an investor, you need to understand the many organs of the Studio or at least have a basic knowledge of how it operates and who does what, when and how. There is a process, understand that then you can work magic and not before. You must understand that there is a modeller, a lighting specialist, an Animator, effects person, rigger etc. Here in Nigeria, the employers are looking for Hercules to do the job. Dude, in advanced countries where they've got animation locked down, all these things are put in place not to talk of here where the artists are still struggling. There is no short-cut if you are talking about animation films unless you are willing to wait for about five years or more to get that film done.