Who is the community?
The animation community, which can be understood as anyone – scholars, students, programme developers, designers – with an interest in animation.
What was the problem?
The animation industry in South Africa is small and typically accessible only to privileged communities given the cost of licensed software.
How did GDC get involved?
Students created a short animated film in Open Source software, which is accompanied by tutorials aimed at showing the novice how to use the software and create their own animations.
| Initital Production | Rigging and texturing | Animation | Post Production |
| Script writing, character design, set design. | Modelled and ‘painted’ designs. | Gave the character life by making it move. | Compiled everything from the tutorials to the after effects. |
What the students said about the project:
“One of the most important things learnt in this project was that there are needs all around us. The community in need, need not be a physical one, but even a virtual one. When the need is fulfilled the community grows and in most cases more than one community benefits. The students produced a design output with little or no money, but just the skills and time they had”
“The most important thing I learnt, as well as the rest of the group, using design in a socially-responsible way, in this instance, would be making sure that the programs being used are legit and can easily be attainable which is what makes using open source a great solution being both legal and cost effective which was part of the design problem of programs and resources being expensive”
What the community said about the project:
“I think it’s wonderful that children from all walks of life can realize their artistic ability or just their vision of being artistic can make money. “ (a teacher representing a school where the tutorials will be tested)