Nigeria’s Sporedust Media, an animation and design studio has partnered with India’s Animaster Academy, to develop education and training in animation, VFX, gaming and graphic design in Nigeria and across the continent for both university degree and diploma programs.
The academy already has students from Nigeria.
“The students from Nigeria are very talented and are enthused about animation. However, they face a lot of issues with visa and work permits that make it hard for them to continue their studies or find jobs in India. Our partnership with Sporedust is very encouraging for our Nigerian students, who can now get assistance, along with good animation and design jobs in a great studio in their homeland. Indian students can also get an outlook on the Nigerian animation scene”, says Animaster
Academy director Veena Pratap. “Even in India, we are one of the few animation colleges that have collaborated with a reputed university, making our program a genuine university higher education program in animation. The program also offers specialisation in gaming, VFX and graphic design. This is part of our efforts to encourage higher education in vocational fields such as animation”, she adds.
Aiming to be the Pixar of Africa, Sporedust Media, based in Lagos Nigeria has produced internationally acclaimed short films such as Chicken Core: The Rise of the Kings. and collaborated on the PSquare’s music video, “Unlimited”. Sporedust also develops mobile apps apart from computer animation.
According to Sporedust CEO Shina Achulo, “It’s an incredibly exciting and rare opportunity to collaborate with Animaster in supporting our vision towards capacity development and building the Nigerian animation industry. This alliance provides an avenue for cross-cultural integration and exchange of both Nigeria’s and India’s rich cultural heritage. We are delighted to have Animaster as an industry partner in developing our indigenous talent and exploring advancements in animation.”
The partnership between the two firms expects to engage and mobilise talent, technology and craft from the two creative industries and hope to have a fruitful collaboration based on mutual learning, sharing, and growth.
