OK Hollywood, Stop it! No I’m serious STOP IT!

Rant alert! (meaning I’m about to vent and some of this might not make sense because my typing will be fuelled by an intense irritation at Hollywood!) I just posted up on another blog and I got inspired to do a post of my own. I was one of those guys who used to look forward to summer blockbusters. Especially the action flicks. Now, I’m a very simple guy to please when it comes to Action Flicks. All I need are some cool VFX, decent acting, a couple of explosions,

Production Done on New Black Cartoon Show Bino and Fino

Cartoon production is finally over and done with on Bino and Fino. It’s taken over a year and a half to get here. I have to thank the talented, hard working young (and not so young!) Nigerians that took part in getting the project this far. But enough about us. The next stage is to get Bino and Fino to you and your children. Stay tuned.

To find out when the DVD will be out on sale go to the Bino and Fino website and subscribe to be kept up to date with the latest news.

Are Africans Clever Enough to Do Sci-Fi?

Should Africans do sci-fi? I always get surprised and angry when I hear or see that question. This is especially so when it comes from Africans ourselves. I’m Nigerian and my studio is based in Abuja, Nigeria so you could say my experience of this debate has mostly within the Nigerian sphere.
The Nigerian movie industry, or Nollywood, is now world famous. Last year saw the release of the sci-fi Nollywood flick Kajola. I personally was looking forward to seeing this film. I had seen the trailer and thought the visual FX seemed below the ‘amazing’ VFX the producers promised, I still wanted to go and see it to show support. But unfortunately due to the fact that the majority of audiences really hated the movie, it was pulled out of the cinemas within 1-2 weeks of release, I didn’t get a chance to see it.

Yes the acting could have been better and VFX by all accounts and based on the clips I saw was not the best,

New Black Cartoon For Kids Made in Africa

Hi Everyone. Here it is. The pilot episode of the Bino& Fino cartoon series we’ve been developing for the past half a year. The cartoon as mentioned before is targeted at young children of preschool and kindergarten age. It’s has been well received so far. You can see comments and feedback on the project’s fanpage here   Bino and Fino on Facebook  .

It has been an interesting journey and we are proud of the fact that we managed to deliver the pilot episode on time. Based on what we’ve learnt and on the feedback from some fans we’re now going to proceed to produce a DVD miniseries. All of this is new territory for us so these are interesting and exciting times for the EVCL studio. You can also go to the Bino and Fino Website to find out when the DVD will be out on sale.

Bino & Fino Blog!

Here it is. The hottest blog on the internet! Ok maybe not the hottest but check it out for dedicated news on Bino & Fino, our cartoon series production for kids.

http://binoandfino.wordpress.com/

EVCL Behind the Scenes

Here's EVCL's lead animator Sageer Carpenter working hard on drawing Fino. Well he's trying to look like he's working hard anyway. He's probably Facebooking.... Stay tuned for the next exciting picture in this series when Sageer get's up from his desk and walks to the fridge.

Here's Fino! A Brand New Cute Black African Cartoon Girl!

Here's a picture of Fino. Bino's sister. She's a bit mischievous and really curious.

Grand Ma

Here's Grand Ma.

BINO and FINO African cartoon Character Designs

Bino

Fino

Bino and Fino !!

Here they are! Bino and Fino. Here's a sneak peek at our latest project. It's an animation for kids. Bino and Fino are brother and sister. They are curious about the world, loveable and sometimes mischievous!

We'd like much feedback as that will help us in the making of the project. Those of you with young children of your own or as relatives we really need to hear from you. Those who don't, tell your friends with children about us. What would they like to see in a children's animation that's Nigerian/African in origin?

Children's media is powerful so we need to make sure we are well represented in it. How many of you out there still remember Sesame Street or Voltron fondly? More importantly, how many of you were inspired by programmes you saw as a child? We believe there is room out there for animations for young kids that have black African characters at their heart. This is important both for the African and non African audience out there.

Are we wrong or right? Let us know by leaving a comment because your feedback will help in the shaping of this project. It's an in house project and one that EVCL hopes to fund in its entirety. Not because we wanted to but because we had to as we were getting tired of trying to 'convince' people to invest in us.

Spread the word guys!

We Love Chicken

Ok this is a totally random one folks but I felt this very important issue had to be addressed. It’s inspired by a post on Solomonsydelle’s blog (now in our favourites list). I would, on behalf of all EVCL staff, like to say we love chicken!


Yes that’s right we love chicken. We love it grilled, fried, stewed, KFC’d, boiled, in a shawarma, outside of a shawarma and we will not support any unilateral action to ban our lovely chicken from the tables of Nigerian families worldwide!!!
Normal non chicken related service will be resumed soon.....

New Web Domain.

Hi all,

Just a quick one to tell you we've changed our website address to www.evcl.tv . Apologies to those who got caught up in the change over.

Adamu

Our 1st Animation Series Production

Hi all. We’ve started pre production on an animation title that we hope will be a game-changer for the blossoming Nigerian/Sub Saharan Animation market. The subject matter will surprise those of you familiar with our work.

It will be an interesting journey. We're looking forward to working with a lot of talented people on this project. We want to produce something of great quality that will be of genuine value to the audience.

Most details are confidential now but we’ll update you all as things progress. But in case you don't hear from us for a while, we've got our heads down working (not sleeping in front of our computer sceens!).

Quietly Working Away

Hi All,



Hope you all had a good Easter break. I just wanted to let you know we’ve just finished building our new offices. We are currently in the process of setting it up and getting going on some interesting projects.


All the best,


Adamu

Planes, Immigration and Nigerians.

Here’s a short animation inspired by the recent negative publicity that Nigeria has been receiving in the international media. Nigeria has been tagged in a Sony Playstation ad, the District 9 movie and even in a little mention in Avatar (cough and you’ll miss that one). Now with the recent unfortunate airplane bombing attempt by a Nigerian national it seems like the international media has got a new target to attack. Nigeria is now shorthand for anything bad in the international media’s eyes. Travelling with a Nigerian passport was bad enough already but now it’s definitely going to be more ‘interesting’...



Nigerians aren’t all saints by any stretch of the imagination. I’m not saying that..
. And god knows the country has big issues to deal with. But Americans aren’t all angels. Neither are the British, Russians, Europeans, Chinese, South Africans or any nation for that matter. Nigerians at home or in Diaspora should stop apologising for being Nigerian whether you still have the Nigerian passport or are now a citizen of another country. If you are honest in what you are doing why do you need to hide?

A lot of Nigerians are setting up groups on online forums and social sites with titles like ‘Nigerians are not Terrorists’ or ‘Nigerians Love Peace’. To me this misses the point and also is slightly scary. Has our national psyche been reduced to a level where we feel we have to apologise for everything a few Nigerians do so we can be let into countries such as the U.S. or U.K. etc? Some Nigerians are even changing their names now.


Those countries and more have proven terrorists than we do. This is our first case. Those countries also have fraudsters, corruption, prostitution, mafias, racism etc. But I don’t see them apologising to us and other countries in that manner. When a U.S., British, E.U., Chinese etc citizen comes to our country, they are treated like kings. In my opinion that is because, for good or bad, those countries have the confidence to fight for their corner in a smart and strong way.


I have nothing against those countries. I lived in the UK for a long time and still love London as a city and will always do. They are just doing what they have to do to further their cause. I believe we have to do the same and play the smart long term game. On a general level, that means a strong confident Nigeria that looks inward to solve its problems before demanding respect and help from others. Media is a powerful tool in achieving that. International media houses are free to report in any manner they wish. And of course it’s not; say CNN’s or other media outfits, responsibility to report wonderful things about Nigeria.


I just feel they should not pretend to be objective and factual when they are not. One only has to watch the recent reporting on the bombing attempt to understand this. First it was an attacking frenzy on everything Nigerian and how we are corrupt etc. When it turned out that the family of the young man actually warned relevant authorities and Western security agencies could be at fault, the media had to alter their direction on how they were reporting the issue.


Yes, travelling will now be hell and humiliating for many, especially our respected elderly. But I’m not apologising for being Nigerian to anybody. That’s just ridiculous.


Adamu Waziri


EVCL

Nigerians Love FOOTBALL!!

Here's an animation we just wrapped up. If there's one thing that binds our crazy country Nigeria together, it is sport. And the biggest one is FOOTBALL!! This short piece was inspired and is dedicated to that idea. We were looking at developing a 2D animated style for this and to keep things simple and punchy. The soundtrack actually drove the visuals/character development for the piece. We wanted something Nigerian viewers could identify with.

We loved the end result and intend to produce more of them in the future with corporate sponsorship. 

2nd Mumu's Guide FREE online 3D Tutorial for Beginners

Here's the second in our online tutorial series for 3D beginners. This episode looks at the concept of 'transforms'. This is basically the change in position, orientation and size of an object in 3D space. Hope it's helpful to you beginners out there.

Music Video Animation

This is a music video animation done a few years ago which has been remixed for 2009. The concept is loosely based on the idea of creation. It was done for the artist Adama.

Anti Malaria TVC

Here’s a TVC we loved working on. It’s for an extensive anti malaria campaign that was run by the Society for Family Health organisation in conjunction with international bodies here in Nigeria. We were called up by Flint Productions to produce a realistic 3D mosquito for two

Mumu's Guide to 3D!!!

This is the first in a series of free online turorials for aspiring Nigerian 3D & visual effects artists.We've had a lot of people asking for training but we couldn't really cater to them for now.So we came up with EVCL's Mumu's guide to 3D&VFX.