Wicked Pixels no longer just do animation and design; they have opened a film division and are now producing and directing live action too. 

Wicked Pixels is representing two multi-award-winning directors: Craig Wessels and Gavin Coetzee, with more directors to come on board.

Craig and Gavin are specialists in the field of live action mixed with animation or visual effects. Craig explains, “Although independent to the studio, the live action division works in symbiosis with our animation artists and motion designers. This hybrid production model requires a lot of investment in talent and infrastructure and is a first for South Africa.” 

With this new setup, Wicked are still focusing on what they do best, but are now able to offer a more integrated, creative production experience to their agency and broadcast clients.

Their work covers a diverse spectrum of genres, including  film, animation, design and illustration. To better service Johannesburg, Wicked have  opened a production office and animation studio in Rosebank.

Wicked recently won five Golds and two Silvers at Promax-BDA Africa, including Channel Brand of the Year and Best Television Image Campaign for the imaging they created on behalf of Gloo/Net#workBBDO for the launch of  TV network Top TV and their 11 in-house channels. 

The work was also awarded a Loerie and included animation and motion design, as well as live action combined with animation. The work was directed by Gavin, Craig and Andrew Shaw, the creative director at the helm of their animation and VFX studio.

More recently, Wicked completed a large scale commercial for PPC Cement via The Jupiter Drawing Room in Joburg.  The dynamic commercial is a complex mix of live-action, visual effects, stop motion animation and time lapse photography.

Craig, who directed, says, “Shooting took place over four days at eight locations in and around Joburg, which was followed by two months in animation and post-production.”

Wicked’s latest project is for Design Indaba 14 or DIVIX as this year is known. “Working with Jupiter in Cape Town, we created the futuristic products for all the print work and produced three TV commercials and the 31 speaker title sequences that appear during the conference,” Craig says.

This is the fourth time that Wicked have been the preferred supplier to Design Indaba.

Wicked have just launched their new user friendly website, where you can learn more about the full range of creative services they offer, see their work, meet their directors and even see what jobs they have available.

For more information, click here.

Kevin Kriedemann