A LOOK BACK AT OUR YEAR OF STORYTELLING
As the year winds down, the instinct is often to measure success in minutes of animation rendered or deadlines met but looking back at the conversations we have had on this blog over the last months, it is clear that our real work has been about something much deeper. We have been defining a philosophy for what modern African animation looks like. Here is a recap of the ideas that shaped our year at Nsibidi Fables.
We peeled back the curtain. In our Exclusive Interview with Our Animation Team, we moved past the polished final product to reveal the sweaty, complex reality of production. Whether it was David discussing the rigours of technical direction or Phinehas explaining how a character’s silhouette conveys their soul, the takeaway was clear: animation is a team sport. This theme of human connection bled into one of our most reflective pieces, Communication as Creativity. Here, we argued that how we talk to each other is just as creative as how we draw. When artists stop treating collaborators as “props” and start viewing communication as an art form, the work inevitably gets better.
If there is one hill we are willing to die on, it is the nuance of African identity. In Is Africa A Country? Debunking the Myth, we tackled the lazy tendency to view our continent as a monolith. We reaffirmed our commitment to specific, culturally distinct storytelling because a story from Lagos shouldn’t look exactly like a story from Nairobi. This fed directly into our exploration of Cultural Representation in Animation. We looked at how studios like ours (and our friends at Kugali) are moving beyond surface-level diversity. It is not just about painting characters brown; it is about the “cultural revolution” of authenticity, ensuring that the architecture, the cloth, and the mannerisms feel true to the people they represent.
No recap of this year would be complete without addressing the elephant in the server room: Artificial Intelligence. In AI and Animation, we took a balanced stance. We acknowledged the fears of job displacement but ultimately positioned AI as a “new paintbrush,” a tool that, when wielded by skilled artists, democratizes high-end production for independent studios.
Finally, we gave you a peek into our creative “war room” decisions regarding our flagship projects. In Historical Fantasy, we explained why we chose to blend hard history with supernatural elements for our Amanirenas series.
Looking ahead, if this year was about establishing our voice and refining our tools, the coming year is about shouting that voice from the rooftops. Thank you for reading, watching and building with us.