Chocolate Tribe Collaborates with Disney on Afrofuturistic Series Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire

Chocolate Tribe has collaborated on an ambitious Disney project produced by Triggerfish Studios under the helm of Peter Ramsey.  The sci-fi anthology, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, presents 10 futuristic storylines centered around Afrofuturism. The characters are dynamic and live in a dystopian future and time travel to vast uncharted worlds.  From the onset, what this anthology showcases above all is the immense treasure of African talent and untapped stories.

As part of the Disney anthology, Chocolate Tribe worked on the Surf Sangoma short film from pre-production to the beginning of the production stage. The project for Chocolate Tribe was an eight-month labour of love with a carefully hand-picked Chocolate Tribe crew of 45 local and international team members. 

Surf Sangoma is directed by Nthato Mokgata, Catherine Green and Terence Neale. Set in post-apocalyptic Durban, where the entire town is covered by treacherously taunting waves that only seasoned surfers can conquer. Two friends, Njabulo and Mnqobi, while yearning to surf in the “real” ocean, have resorted to surfing the artificial wave pool called Wavy World. This story is about friendship, family, guilt, and Njabulo’s admiration for his late grandmother who is a surfing legend. 

Creatively, Chocolate Tribe’s involvement commenced from pre-production - taking the directors’ vision from a draft script to fully blocked-out 3D camera and character animation. We went on an amazing journey developing the look and feel of the film, concept art, world building, story development, detailed storyboards, 2D animatics, full cast character designs, 3D modeling, character rigging, shading, lighting & rendering. We meticulously blocked out all surfing and fight action scenes and lovingly crafted the emotional scenes. This process was key to seamlessly ferrying viewers on this choppy journey and capturing the heart of the Surf Sangoma story.

In relation to the technical aspects of the production, Chocolate Tribe developed an extensive USD (Universal Scene Description) pipeline to facilitate the use of Unreal Engine workflow together with Maya, which the studio uses as their main DCC for the modeling, animation, and layout. More than 400 assets were created by our team including characters, props, and vehicles that were modeled. Custom character rigs were built to support the animation team animate the octopus tentacles. 

The ocean played a massive role in the film, and animating the stylised 3D water required a lengthy RnD to capture the water motion in an “artist-controllable” way. The water rig in essence allowed the animators to treat the waves like a character in the film.

World building in Surf Sangoma was a massive undertaking, as the story explored 5 major areas. The ocean surface, the underwater world, the dam megastructure, a swimming paradise called Wavy World, and the futuristic streets. Eduardo Pena, the art director and lead concept artist brought that “je ne sais quoi” magic to the world of Surf Sangoma. 

Momentous projects such as this Disney anthology require strong teams. From a production side Chocolate Tribe, from early on sought out both local and international talent so that there was real collaboration and cross-pollination of skills. The Chocolate Tribe team included storyboarders, character design artists, 3D artists, technical and character animators and technical directors, art directors, concept artists, modeling and texturing artists, lookdev artists, CG and Creative Supervisors as well as a robust production team, and key support staff such as IT, HR, legal, and accounting. 

Congratulations to all the studios involved in this hugely impactful animation short film anthology. It is a huge win for the African narrative and creatives who worked on this trailblazing project. We look forward to more of these projects that encourage genuine collaboration and authentic African storytelling.

Disney African Anthology Kizazi Moto - Generation Fire is now available on the Disney+ streaming platform.