The Animation Industry Development Initiative (AIDI), in conjunction with the Services SETA, the Cape Film Commission and AnimationSA, aims to create 10 000 jobs within the animation industry by 2020. So far so good.

Many of Cape Town’s animation studios have leapt to the chance of employing the interns who took part in the first round of animator training. Sunrise Productions have permanently employed their two interns, while Triggerfish, the company behind the new animated feature film, Zambezia, gave six month contracts to six interns, and are now awaiting confirmation from the Services SETA for five more.

Former interns and now Sunrise Productions’ newest employees, Andrew van der Walt and Christine Metcalf, worked on the development of the new animated SA Rugby mascot, Bokkie, for SA Rugby and the Springboks. Christine was responsible for the design of the truck that would carry the ‘Tour of Champions’ throughout South Africa at the beginning of 2010, as part of an initiative by SA Rugby to spread the knowledge and love of the game of rugby throughout South Africa. Andrew was behind the actual animation by which the public has been introduced to Bokkie and will be able to see his work featured online as well as on-screen.

Clockwork Zoo, South Africa’s biggest animation studio, employed four interns who all worked in the backgrounds department for Caillou, which is now complete. The venture was so successful that Clockwork Zoo will be taking on more interns, from as far afield as America.

“We’ve been very impressed with how quickly the interns were brought up to speed and both the studio as well as the interns have benefitted enormously,” says Mike Buckland, senior producer at Triggerfish. “The initiative is a great opportunity for talented, young animators to work with the some of the best people in the industry,” he adds.

On 25 March 2010 the Animation Academy was launched at False Bay College in Khayelitsha. The event was attended by many heads of industry, including David Sproxton, founder of Aardman Animations (Wallace & Grommit, Chicken Run). More importantly, young people from the city’s poorer communities are seeing the value in the initiative.

Twenty-year-old Anele Siwa, one of the 120 students who started a one-year course at the academy, says: "As South Africans, we really need our own stories in the vernacular languages."

“At the moment, we are stuck with watching Japanese and American cartoons.” Anele received a R20 000 bursary towards his studies.

The world media were quick to pick up on the launch.

The British Telegraph reported, “Cape Town’s reputation as a cheap place to make films, and a shortage of local animators, means that Khayelitsha could be well placed to offer young people a future in the movie industry.”

BBC News says, “They [Aardman Animations] are hoping to unearth the next generation of world-class animators, as they open their first animation academy in a South African township.”

The UK Guardian spoke to False Bay College’s  Gary Kachelhoffer about the Academy. He told the newspaper, “The school does not require pupils to do computer-based homework. We are going to teach them Walt Disney’s 28 principles of 2D animation and they can do all their computer work at the college. In the third term, each of our students will make a one-minute production, which will be their showreel.”

Kachelhoffer expects there to be jobs for most of the students by the end of the course.

Arthur Sheriff, head of communications at Aardman Animations, told the Evening Post: “It is very exciting. There is a lot of animation in South Africa and people are taking the industry very seriously as a creator of jobs in South Africa. Most of the jobs are held by white middle-class people, and they haven’t reached the townships where the less fortunate people have not been given these opportunities.”

Sally Fink