Lagos – Mr Paul Anaba, the Chairman, Vicpad Technologies Group, on Wednesday said that animation cartoon movies were expensive to produce and investments in it in the country were low.

Anaba  in Lagos said that investors in Nigeria were not interested in animation because it was capital intensive.

“It took almost eight months for SHREK, an animated — series children films, based on picture book written by William Steig in 1990s to be reproduced into films,” he said.

Shrek is a 2001 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. It has one to three series.

Anaba said that Nigerian investors would not want to risk venturing into animation films for now because they wanted to produce films within a short period.

According to him, a factor that will militate against animation film production is electricity supply.

Anaba said, “Animated movies are movies done at one stretch. Once you are rendering them and power goes off maybe at 90 per cent completion, you will need to start all over again.

“So if we are to do it; it is either we build batteries for backups while embarking on such projects or we do the same kind of garbage in, garbage out stuff we do here in movies.”

The chairman said that animations, and cartoons were rigorous movie businesses that needed seriousness to get it done.

He said that there was the need for stakeholders to acquire technical knowledge in order to boost the nation’s economy through it.

“We should be thinking about the market value, we should be thinking about the audience we are to entertain especially children and think about the job creation,” Anaba said.

Bernard Otuola, Managing Director, Media Wox Incorporated, said that Nigerian Motion Picture Industry (MPI) has not been able to venture into animation films, especially cartoon because of technicalities involved.

Otuola said it was time consuming and that in 2010 one was produced “Kajola” by Adonis Productions.

“We still have a lot to grapple with in this country and because of our attitude, a lot of things that would help us grow as a people are not being looked into,“ he said.

Ayoola Opere, The Chief Executive, Cutting Edge Pictures, said that most visions start with passion, zeal and focus, but that money was needed to execute them.

“Animation movie making is all about computer generated images, which requires expertise in motion graphics and detailing in core CGI software’s,” he said.

He said that it could take 30 experts to do one cartoon character.

Opere said that an expensive computer system equipped with graphics of all kinds to bring out effects were needed to begin an animation movie.

He said that there was need for huge investment to produce quality animation films which were capable of generating huge profit for the nation. (NAN)