Uganda (Commonwealth Union) – David Masanso is an award-winning animator from Uganda who has the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) as his alma mater and completed his studies with a BA in 3D Computer Animation back in 2007. When he arrived back in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, he formed Crossroads Digital Multimedia Ltd which has gained a lot of prominence in recent years. The company has one of East Africa’s largest studios, that includes a team of over 50 animators that produces a variety of content such as educational content, TV commercials, awareness content and documentaries.
David’s fondness for animation was enhanced from popular animated films in his younger days, and after researching his options he selected UWTSD and felt the Animation course was practical and vocational. David said: “The best thing about the course was the hands-on skills learning, and the SANDS events. Swansea Animation Days festivals exposed me to big studios and provided an opportunity for networking and learning business skills from experts in the creative industry. The most important thing about animation is the power to tell appealing stories.”
David’s ambition was to convey African stories via cartoons, which African children related to, with their TV programs and witness themselves reflected in it. The team are producing Mukago, a kid’s animated tv series related to African games, but intertwined with problem-solving and STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), to produce content that enhances the educations system while appealing to kids.
David also serves as a policy contributor on content to the Ministry of ICT of Uganda and he saw a lack of animation and computing skills obstructed his enterprise. For this reason, in 2012 he formed a training scheme giving over 250 students a chance to obtain vital skills in animation. With Africa’s growing youthful population the popularity of animations is set grow further.
