Nigerian
Animation Startup, Sporedust Wants to Become the Pixar of Africa. A new stealth
Nigerian computer animation studio called Sporedust is working on a series of kick-ass
world-class animation short clips that could position it to become the Pixar of
Africa.
During
a demo presentation at TEDxVictoriaIsland
on Friday, one of the company’s co-founders and CEO, Shina Ajulo shared their story,
interests and passion for comics, music gaming and animation which led some of
them to drop out of school or abandon studies as medical
and law students to pursue animation.
Ajulo whose
life-long dream is to make a world-class feature animation
then released the company’s first short clip titled, Chicken Core: The
Rise of Kings.
Watch the less
than 5-minute clip below in what appears to be a remake of The Lion King,
but Cock and Chicken-styled. Combining comedy and action-packed scenes,
the story is said to be deep and captivating, while targeting PG 13 viewers and
animation lovers of different ages.
In an interview with One Nigerian Boy
back in February 2011, Ajulo said that the idea behind Chicken Core came
from one of its creators, Ape Ekene who after
drawing frames for a 2D animation advert back in 2006, started picturing
chickens wracking alligators.
Then, he designed
the 1st character, Kiki (or Cock Father Kiki) and they started picking other
character names and deciding on a plot. However, the project gathered dust soon
after and was thrown in the archives, but in 2009, the team began redesigning
the concept.
Today, the plot
is now complete and the script for Season One is said to be done, although
it would be made available when the movie trailer gets finally released
and the final movie released by late 2013.
Based in Ajao
Estate in Lagos, Sporedust was started in early 2012 by creative talents who
are suckers for gaming and animation and became self-taught in design, graphics
and animation before starting the company.
Loy Okezie
Itsnaija.com