Cape Town - About 33 artists had pleasure bringing life to their fictional characters as they got to place them in a real world set up in response to the #AnimateCT Challenge this week.
The competition was hosted by the Animation South Africa's Comic Con ahead of the Cape Town International Animation Festival running between April 27 until tomorrow.
Organisers said the challenge was a first of its kind in South Africa and were puzzled by the positive response they received from the artists. Daisy Ions, the founder of What's on in Cape Town, created this challenge.
"It hit home to me how much creative talent we have around us that is simply not being tapped into. We needed a way for these creatives to have access to stages and audiences. The idea of Scene It, is simply to get more eyes on our local creativity. There is some phenomenal talent out there, and by juxtaposing it with locations we recognise, people immediately engage. Our plan is for this to be just the first step in a small revolution for the creative industry," she said.
"Animation has always been popular. And what is particularly appealing is that, even when software is improving at an exponential rate, there is still room for simple stop motion and flip book-style animation to bring real joy to our lives. If you can tell a story in just a few seconds, the world is your oyster. The creative industries are not separate from the world of business - they are integral.
"Both the creation of the Scene It platform and the AnimateCT project have been funded by grants from the National Film and Video Foundation," she said.
South Africans were offered to vote for the best video of their choice and to subscribe and win prizes, including tickets to Comic Con and the Cape Town International Animation Festival, an animation workshop, and a R500 Hey Casey voucher or be entered into a draw where they could win an epic prize sponsored by The Heriot which will see the winner enjoying seven nights each calendar month for one year.
Ions said 450 people have been looking at the site each day with 75% from SA and others from overseas. She also indicated that over 2 500 votes were cast and they received about 700 subscribers prior to the voting closing date on April 27. Connor Rhoda is one of the young participants and said the competition allowed him to finally produce his long-term vision into life.
"I was privileged to take advantage of some of the city's landmarks, and enjoyed transforming what seems to be a lousy drawing into a real location. I hope this will prove to young artists that animation is not magical, its a skill one learns, practises and complements with education. It would be great to see youth embracing our art," he said.
Rhoda’s work that he entered is titled: “Roho: The age of masks characters outside the Castle of Good Hope.”
Karabo Makaa said animation is open to all as long one is fascinated about navigating into an imaginary world. She thanked the organisers for creating the platform.
"It's a great opportunity to showcase your work and get exposure. For me, entering was not just about personal gain, but the entire team working at my studio and we all had fun creating those characters and playing around such a very iconic symbol at which appears at two of the identified landmarks," she said.
Her team used the opportunity to portray singer Rorisang’s character from the musical production “Rorisang and the Gurlz”, travelling between the Kloof Street Nando's and the statue of the late former president Nelson Mandela at the Cape Town City Hall.
Among other landmarks the animators got to explore included the Waterfront Canal and Battery Park, Radisson Red Waterfront, Sea Point Pavilion, Camps Bay Tidal Pool, Guga s’Thebe, CTICC2. And Sea Point and the Camps Bay Tidal Pool got the most entries.