A webcast that demonstrates and develops a strong understanding of the elements that make strong and compelling concept art for films and animation.
This webcast session will provide an insight into the important things to consider when designing concept art including character design for animation and film. This will spark your imagination to push what you can do by using shape as a building block for building characters, props, environment arts etc. for a successful animation or film project.
Segun Samson is one of the best Concept Artist from Nigeria.
He has worked at Elixir studios, Lantern books, Dreamcast animation studio, genii games etc. and worked in the production of Jungle Beat The Movie and Monster High Electrified.
Register to WEBCAST REPLAY to learn from Segun. Hear him share his exclusive insights behind his artworks.
Coming Soon: Questions and Answers with Sidney Kombo. Animation Supervisor at WETA Digital
Country of Origin: Congo.
Portfolio: War for the Planet of Apes, Avengers: Infinity War, Gravity, Rocket Raccoon. et al.
“I’m getting to a point where I really would like to see a change and be part of it for my continent.”.
Sidney will be sharing with us how he began his animation journey and how he ended up working on some of the most successful Hollywood blockbusters.
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What questions would you like to ask Sidney? Type them in the comments sections and we will get him to answer them.
The moderator was Femi who welcomed everyone to the first-ever CG Africa webinar, he said the speakers will be giving out experiences. He further added that there will be recordings on CGAfrica and YouTube so that people can still ask questions.
Stuart Forest of Triggerfish Animation was the first to present and he thanked everyone, He spoke from his experience in the T.V series. He spoke mainly on increasing Africa’s role on the global stage. According to him, Triggerfish started in 1996 which was just 2 years after the apartheid in South Africa. In 2009 the company went into CG Animation. They are currently working on a project for BBC. He further added that CG Artists can also venture into games.
He continued, ‘Kumba’ which is their feature-length animated movie is translated into 26 different languages globally. They made nine million from two movies. Most animated movies are coming from North America and that animation started in South Africa 15 years ago. According to him ‘Animate Africa’ is set to discover new talent and to develop talent. He encouraged CG artist in Africa to start selling their story as a continent to the whole world.
He started his presentation by explaining technical knowhow to mean a term for practical knowledge and how to accomplish something. He said technical know-how is something that grows with you over time by you being around it.
He said CG is an industry in Africa is still coming of age and people don’t know too much about it. He added that this is because many CG Artists are ‘one-man army’ kind of. He further explained technical knowhow as something we do not know100% until we work as part of a team. If we compare Africa to the word we are not up there yet. This is because we are not all the time working as a team. He stressed further by saying technical knowhow works best in an environment of teamwork and it is most understood in an environment of teamwork. Technical know-how means the ability to ensure efficiency in the industry.
He gave an aspect of technical knowhow which is to “be open to new ideas”.He said there is no manner of communication to show technical proficiency and customize all packages and streamline as much as possible for specific projects.
He ended with the solutions which are:
Improve the use of local contents
Collaborate/share ideas
Research and development: it’s not just about knowing something but knowing it to apply it to something which leads to effectiveness and efficiency. He added that we should push towards teamwork and make a team efficient
He introduced himself as someone who worked as a freelancer for 5 years for digital space. He said he participated in a contest organized by Samsung where he came second. He started his company in 2015 and creates unique digital art contents. He then moved on to explain concept art as an art based on a concept, based on the story-driven i.e. driven by the writer and the director directing the projects does.
Harry explained some major influence in concept art:
Film: A screenplay in the production phase, concept art is done right after a script or a screenplay. It would entail engaging different digital artists, character design, production design etc.
Animation: The concept of art is the same as the film. Where after the script the characters are the same.
Games: Same as animation.
He gave his own interpretation based on his experience and hopes it will be beneficial for other digital artists. He stressed the need for collaboration within the industry. He explained some of the challenges new CG artists face as the battle between money and passion. An artist fights this battle in his mind. He encouraged artists to spend more time designing unique characters. According to him, an artist tells his original story based on his/her own experiences. He advised new CG Artists to balance more between the money and passion. He states some interesting facts
The anime market in Japan is worth more than $14.1 billion in 2014
Around 60% of the worlds animated T.V shows originated from Japan. They started in 1917, which is a long time ago and Africa is just starting now.
He said stating this is important because the anime industry in Japan is self-sufficient and they have the market already but the market is not really “there” in Africa and subsequently encouraged artists to look inward to local content creation.
He stated some of the sources of African concept art (3d modeling). He noted that ‘Numbiancy’ posts African Fantasy and Sci-Fi concepts
Artstation
Instagram
Pinterest
Google
Numbiancy
He introduced his upcoming initiative where he wants to invite artists from across Africa to sketch and upload their works for showcase. The name of this event will be Sketcalthon (more details will be announced later) He will share the link via CGAfrica.