Exploring Animation in Nigeria
I think I have a better perspective of the problems facing the “animation industry” in Nigeria since the last time I wrote about it, which is why I’ve decided to write this.
A simple way of understanding how a stable animation industry can be built in Nigeria is to look at countries with thriving animation industries and check if their methods can work in Nigeria. Countries like Canada, France, America, Japan, South Africa, etc.
My definition of a working animation industry in Nigeria involves people being able to pursue animation-related job roles as careers and studios producing animated content that performs well financially and culturally. The countries I mentioned above share similar foundations to support their ecosystems and it essentially come down to three things:
I. Skills/Education
II. Funding
III. Good content
Skills/Education
Nigeria does not produce any animators. This means that there is no structured way to become an animator in Nigeria so most animators are either self-taught or got their education from somewhere else. There are various ways of going about this and I’ll mention three:
University Education
The first one is to register animation-related courses in universities around Nigeria, making it possible for people to graduate with degrees in 2D/3D Animation, Character Design, etc.
Workshops
The second one is to run 1–4 week workshops, specializing in skills like 3D animation, scriptwriting, and all that. This is currently the most common form of education in the industry. Although it isn’t very effective long-term because a longer period of time is needed to gain skills that can help produce quality content. Also, it’s too costly to scale, they usually start around 100,000 naira up.
Another way is utilizing the many tutorials on YouTube or even make a full online course where you can move from “zero to being an intermediate”. These ideas would serve more as a soft introduction to animation.
Art University/Institute
The third is to create an art university/institute, something like CalArts or Gobelins which is a personal fav. I like this idea cause it takes more than animators to make animated films, there are other roles like sound engineers, concept artists, storyboard artists, character designers, background designers, screenwriters, etc. And all these courses can be provided in the art university. They can be provided in a regular university as well but I feel there would be more focus if everything is in one institute.
Even if education was in place there aren’t enough animated-related jobs in demand in Nigeria.
Funding
Majority of the animation studios here can’t make independent content because they don’t have proper funding. So they are more or less forced to create animated/motion design work for clients to survive/pay salaries. In Nigeria studios currently have to rely on crowdfunding to get money for projects. Some Countries with strong industries have some form of financial backing from their governments, countries like Ireland and France. Filmmakers constantly express how difficult it is to get loans for their projects. There’s currently an initiative in place called NollyFund which is meant to provide capital for filmmakers but Nigerian animation studios have expressed how difficult it is to access this capital saying the people in charge of releasing the funds don’t understand their projects and therefore not willing to invest or they keep asking for excess collateral. There needs to be a proper system to encourage private investments as well.
Another thing to take into consideration is that artists face more serious issues with job security and stable incomes because entertainment-related jobs tend to be limited in nature. An example is this: an Artist gets hired to work on a film, what happens when production is done? It’s either they leave or get assigned to a different project because studios wouldn’t want to pay people who aren’t actively working on something. Some artists only get contract work to develop things like Concept Art while some studios have a core animation team then hire freelance artists to complete some of the work. So the issue comes with paying salaries and actively working on new projects. France has created a model of dealing with this called Intermittence Du Spectacle. This program provides financial support for French artists/animators even when they are transitioning/out of work. I hope in the near future these things can be possible in Nigeria.
Good content
Once studios are better funded it’s easier to focus on actual stories. I think at these early stages we need very good content to start. Most of the work I see from the few studios making stuff aren’t honestly just good enough for me to pay for or spend my time watching, it’s either the accents are off, the animation quality is poor, the sound is horrible or the story is just weird. We have too many stories to tell for studios to still be making washed content.
I also measure good content by how little we need to mention the show is Nigerian. Cause now it’s “Come and watch a Nigerian animated show/movie” then you check it out, it’s boring and you don’t even see anything Nigerian about it. We shouldn’t be promoting shows based on them being Nigerian alone, people need to actually enjoy what they’re watching. Patriotism won’t help a terrible storyline or boring characters and a good story doesn’t even have to mean original all the time but make something people can enjoy, tell relatable stories. The work I see from the few studios make it look like Nigeria has no culture. You can see something in any part of the world and at least guess a Nigerian was part of it, we aren’t unidentifiable people and I hope the studios understand and embrace this as soon as possible. Based on humor alone we’re pretty funny and I even believe Nigerians are the funniest people alive. With quality animation, better storytelling, more interesting characters, and quality sound we will make amazing stuff.
Other things that I didn’t mention but would help are stable electricity and stronger intellectual property laws.
I’ll end this with some projects I’m personally excited about coming from Nigeria:
Iwájú by Kugali Media in collaboration with Disney
Passport of Mallam Illia by Magic Carpet Studios
Hanky Panky by (Wuruwuru) Opemipo
No nation, and no community, can flourish, or possibly even survive unless it provides full opportunities for the encouragement, the development, and the full utilization of the intellectual and the artistic talents of its people.
Lee A. DuBridge
