• to refine existing animation projects to meet international standards; and
• collaboration among regional animators towards the development of export ready products. 

"As individual service providers, [animators] are not very tuned-in to what is happening regionally and internationally – because of the nature of their work, they tend to be on their own and in their own world."

"It was important to explain to them the need of broadening their markets and their networks to take advantage of all the opportunities that can be afforded to them in the world of animation and film," Agard said.

“As it stands there are artists of varying degrees of quality production on the various islands. Bringing these artists together creates a network of opportunities.”

“If a studio such a Big Jump Entertainment or another HBO related studio would want Malfinis to do a production, one of the first things they would ask is: how many animators do you have? If you say that you only have two or three animators, they probably would not give you the job. Now Malfinis can reach out to Saint Kitts and can reach out to Dominica and Saint Vincent and tap into some of these animators and place them on our production pipeline,” Branford explained.

“The workshop is primarily facilitated by Toon Boom. They provided an industry professional in animation to teach the tips and tricks of the software to allow the animators, and some of those who are just being introduced to animation software, to learn to use the software efficiently and gain an understanding of 2D Animation.”

“The animation industry is young but there is a wealth of talent within the region and within the Caribbean. There are a lot of young persons who have the skills and have the desire to become animators and this is worth developing as this is a very lucrative, global industry,” he added.

“Although I am not an animator per se, I am a cinematographer and animation and cinematography speak a similar language. I’m really happy to be able to come here and participate in this workshop with the animators, to be able to network with them and learn what they are doing in their respective islands.”

“The aspect of animation that we really dealt with was the rigging aspect and this is a very technical area of animation design. It is not the fun side of animations but it is definitely needed to understand how animations work and I was happy to be exposed to this concept so that I can speak the language of animation more effectively and find areas that may cross over into cinematography,” Frederick said.