AnimeWood is organised by CGAfrica in collaboration with The Third Pole Initiative; aimed at elevating the creative and market potential of artists and stakeholders in the aspects of Computer Graphics, VFX and animation. Through conference, competitions, awards, meeting, conference, exhibitions, and presentation, AnimeWood will reveal and impact a new digital frontier in film animation and VFX industry in Africa. This will create enabling environment for investors, business etc. to connect and unearth raw talent and untold original content.
AnimeWood was founded by CGAfrica and Third Pole Initiative.
We are thrilled to present an exceptional group of speakers featuring producers, directors, supervisors from both the VFX and the Animation Industry.
This is truly a rare opportunity to hear directly from the mind behind the curtains of movie making.
Take advantage of the chance to get inspired by some truly talented individuals.
David Conley contributes to the long term business components of the company, as well as oversees the development and execution of Weta’s company vision and future strategy. His key responsibilities include managing client development, strategic partnerships, and the key aspects of film production. He has guided Weta through a company transition that saw the expansion and growth of its film operations and company’s portfolio of work bringing in many high-profile films including Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Alita: Battle Angel.
Prior to joining the team, David worked as a VFX Producer on a number of innovative and influential film projects including Cloverfield, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Life of Pi among others. He also worked as a member of the executive film production teams at Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox working on films such as War of the Worlds, Beowulf, and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Peter Ramsey most recently directed with Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman Sony Pictures Animation’s latest feature film, the Academy Award® winner “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” For his work on the film, he has received an Annie Award from ASIFA-Hollywood for Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production.
Previously, he directed DreamWorks Animation’s 2012 feature film “Rise of the Guardians.” He also helmed the Halloween TV special, “Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space” as well as served as a story artist on several of DreamWorks Animation’s feature films.
Sidney joined Weta Digital in 2015 as a Senior Animator on The Jungle Book and went on to work on War for the Planet of the Apes and Avengers: Infinity War as an Animation Supervisor.
Sidney has an Infographist degree from the Emile Cohl Art Academy. Outside work, he dedicates his time to building a CG education program for African youth.
Prior to Weta, Sidney worked at Framestore, London and Industrial Light and Magic. He was a Senior Animator on Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning Gravity, and a Sequence Supervisor and Character Lead Animator for the majority of Rocket Raccoon’s shots in the first Guardians of the Galaxy. His credits also include The BFG, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Paddington, and he has recently wrapped on Avengers: Endgame.
Maud-Salomé Ekila is a Congolese journalist and documentary-maker. She has worked as TV host for daily news programmes of different channels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and was the editor-in-chief of the channel “Tele Haiti” in Port-Au-Prince. Most of her documentary work focuses on the history of Africa and people of African descend. In 2009, her documentary “Kongo’s of Martinique” was released. She is an activist, fighting impunity and the marginalisation of Africans in the world. She is the author of the well received Keisho comic book.
Stuart Forrest is the CEO of South African animation studio Triggerfish and producer of the continent’s two most commercially successful animation films, Khumba and Adventures in Zambezia. Now, Triggerfish is playing the role of facilitator for young screenwriters and would-be producers in Africa who are keen to develop local animation projects for the international market. A new initiative, Animate Africa will host a series of online seminars where people can experience masterclasses from Forrest and his colleagues based on their experience with major film distributors and their collaboration with the Disney company.
Her educational background is in Fine arts studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design and then the Academy of Art college in San Francisco. Life and work have helped expand on that education, she started producing art work for shows and galleries in the San Francisco bay as well as shows in New Zealand. As well as being a muralist both for commercial murals and public art projects, she is a award wining digital matte painter in the film industry. One of Yvonne’s proudest moments was when she was awarded the mural commission for the Blair Caldwell African American Museum and Library in the city of Denver. Her pieces have been collected by several collectors and two of her sold pieces are in a group collection ‘The Chemistry of Color’ which is housed at the Philadelphia Fine Art Gallery.
Several years ago Yvonne transitioned into digital matte paintings working for world renowned Academy award winning directors on several high profile movies. In 2009 she, with her coworkers, were awarded the Visual Effects Society award for Matte painting for their work on Avatar.
Jamaal Bradley is a Senior Animator at Valve Software and former Supervising Animator at Dreamworks Animation. Over the past 20 years he has worked in feature film, video games, commercials, and directed video game cinema-tics. He has used his talents in games such as Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, Team Fortress 2, Medal of Honor: Breakthrough, and many others. Jamaal has also worked at various studios including; Walt Disney Animation, Valve Software, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Electronic Arts. He has been a senior animator on Oscar Nominated films such as, Disney’s Tangled (2010), Dreamworks’ Puss in Boots, The Croods (2013), Penguins of Madagascar (2014), Sony Imageworks’ Surf’s Up (2007), and Monster House (2006). Jamaal is working on VR development and directing a short film slated for a 2019 release.
David began his career as a Designer and Class A Surface Modeller working for Ford in Detroit and later Mercedes-Benz in California. His illustrious career took him to Weta Digital as a Senior Character and Environmental Modeller where he worked on Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning blockbuster trilogy The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, and Alex Proyas’ I-Robot. He later joined EA’s Sports Division as a Supervisor where he helped develop proto-type modeling tools to more efficiently create photorealistic facial likeness for FIFA and NBA games. A Co-founder/ Creator of Mudbox, later acquired by Autodesk, Dave developed sculpture and texture painting tools used at some of the world’s leading visual effects companies today including recently on Avengers Endgame, Thanos. Following his success with Mudbox, Dave took his talents to Apple USA as the Imaging Specialist Manager for Watch, Home Pod, Mac Book, and the entire visualization team. Since then, he has successfully directed and distributed several games and mobile visualization products and, in 2014, received the Academy’s prestigious Technical Achievement Award, honoring pioneers who have contributed in significant and lasting ways to motion pictures. He has continued his pursuit of visualization technologies, expanding his experience into real-time asset creation, texturing, shading and animation, now in his capacity as Co-Founder & Product Director for SpinVR where he has developed BRIO for web-based AR, VR & 3D content creation.
We are thrilled to present an exceptional group of speakers featuring producers, directors, supervisors from both the VFX and the Animation Industry.
This is truly a rare opportunity to hear directly from the mind behind the curtains of movie making.
Take advantage of the chance to get inspired by some truly talented individuals.
- 00 hrs : 05 mins
- 00 hrs : 30 mins
Speaker: Stuart Forrest, Triggerfish
- 00 hrs : 30 mins
Speaker: Niyi Afolayan, Anthill Studio
- 00 hrs : 30 mins
Speaker: David Conley, Weta Digital
- 00 hrs : 30 mins
Panellist: *David Conley *Stuart Forrest *Niyi Akinmolayan *Yvonne Muainde *Sidney Kombo
- 00 hrs : 10 mins
Speaker: Uche Anisiuba, Quadron Studios
- 00 hrs : 10 mins
Speaker: Sidney Kombo, Weta Digital
- 00 hrs : 5 mins
Speaker: Sidney Kombo, Weta Digital
- 00 hrs : 05 mins
- 00 hrs : 40 mins
Speaker: Sponsor representative
- 00 hrs : 40 mins
Speaker: Kemi Adetiba
- 00 hrs : 50 mins
Speaker: Peter Ramsey
- 00 hrs : 10 mins
Speaker: Niyi Akinmolayan, Anthill Studio
- 00 hrs : 5 mins
Speaker: Sidney Kombo, Weta Digital
- 00 hrs : 05 mins
- 00 hrs : 40 mins
Speaker: Sponsor representative
- 00 hrs : 40 mins
Speaker: Yvonne Muinde
- 00 hrs : 40 mins
Speaker: Omar Fernandes
- 00 hrs : 40 mins
Speaker: Jamal Bradley
- 00 hrs : 50 mins
Speaker: Sidney Kombo, Weta Digital
- 00 hrs : 5 mins
Speaker: Sidney Kombo, Weta Digital
CGAfrica Webcast Series provide the information and knowledge to inspire a generation of artists from Africa and other parts of the world. This will, in turn, stimulate creativity to enrich the African film and VFX/animation industry.
The CGAfrica Webcast Series Sponsorship Programs gives solutions providers the opportunity to advertise their product and services directly to our CGAfrica community. Our community consist of 2D/3D artists in hard to reach market (Africa).
Through our webcast events, we can help you connect with this targeted audience.