Cabblow's Portfolio

Hi! My name is Kabelo "Cabblow" Maaka. I work as an Animation Director, 2D Character Animator, Animation Lecturer & Illustrator with my company Cabblow Studios. I am based in Johannesburg, South Africa. I believe as artists we must make work for ourselves and tell stories that are authentic to our personal lives. . . Thanks for stopping by :)

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Character Sketches & Exploration for a recent client project.

Client: Healthforce

Project: Create an animated video explaining showcasing the brand unique telemedicine offering.

The idea was to take 3 different characters and scenarios and show how convenient and simple it was to use the Healthforce service/system to access nurse-run clinics in pharmacies all over South Africa. The client’s main user demographic is women (of varying middle to high earning professions) who often have school-age or adult age families. I chose to create 3 female characters and develop a stoy for each one. Eventually we ended up changing the third character - Lisa - into a male, but I’m still really satisfied with the result.

Final animation releasing soon!

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Finally got round to finishing these vision board outfits from 2019/2020.

Page 2 of 6 (I started on page 2)

Who knew an entire pandemic would happen in between!?

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Character Designs for a natural hair care brand - we're working on a mini-comic for them.

I rarely get to work on character design solo at Cabblow Studios because we have dedicated designers and everything is usually a team effort, but every now and then I get to work on something that requires my personal art style.

Phuti & Didi are old high school friends who have reunited after a year apart. Phuti shares her natural haircare routine with Didi after learning that Didi is struggling with fine hair owing to traction alopecia.

When the comic comes out I'll update this post with the comic pages.

Done in TVPaint

- Cabblow

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Wasn't sure if I should share these. These are some early character explorations for a character I have planned for Rise webcomic. It's the webcomic that I update whenever I have free time. You can read the first few episodes on Webtoon Canvas.

For now her name is "Kwena's Lieutenant" - ground breaking!

She's not really a Lieutenant, but rather a really efficient Executive Personal Assistant. That's all I'll say about her until further notice. I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to this project. The outfits and hairstyle are based on that board.

That's the last character design update for awhile.

- Cabblow

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SKETCHING TO MUSIC

Sometimes I like to listen to music and doodle based on the feelings the music bring on.

This is from September 2021 just before JoJo released her album "Trying Not To Think About It" I drew myself listening to the music.

Side note: This is probably the best album JoJo has released yet!

That's it!

- Cabblow

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Character Designs for a natural hair care brand - we're working on a mini-comic for them.

I rarely get to work on character design solo at Cabblow Studios because we have dedicated designers and everything is usually a team effort, but every now and then I get to work on something that requires my personal art style.

Phuti & Didi are old high school friends who have reunited after a year apart. Phuti shares her natural haircare routine with Didi after learning that Didi is struggling with fine hair owing to traction alopecia.

When the comic comes out I'll update this post with the comic pages.

Done in TVPaint

- Cabblow

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Another series of Pinterest dream outfits for my vision board.

Page 4 of 6

Process: Find Pinterest References -> Sketch in my sketchbook -> tie down the sketch in TVPaint -> Ink the line in TVPaint -> Live through an entire pandemic for 2 years -> Remember my vision board outfits -> Eventually colour the outfits in TVPaint.

✨CREATIVITY ✨

✨ PERSONAL PROJECTS ✨

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And some colour pages as well for good measure! (These are also out of order)

Read Rise Comic free on Webtoons

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Just some inked pages from my Webcomic - Rise, that I'm working on in my spare time (Finally have spare time now that I'm done working on my short film "The Little Teaspoon of Sugar".)

Pages are out of order and without dialogue.

Have a happy day wherever you are in the world!

- Cabblow

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Finally got round to finishing these vision board outfits from 2019/2020.

Page 2 of 6 (I started on page 2)

Who knew an entire pandemic would happen in between!?

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Digi-doodle Feb 2021 Issue

Adding another one to the collection - this is not a real magazine (for now anyway. It could be in the future).

Just realised that these portraits are all facing the same way, lool!

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“Musa Motha”children’s book illustration 2019/2020

We were approached by a non-profit organization to illustrate two children’s book for them in late 2019/early 2020. One was about the incredible South African dancer - Musa Motha and his journey of becoming a professional dancer after having a major leg amputation surgery as a young boy.

The book was really fun to work on and a welcome pause between animated projects and I’m just now remembering to share it online.

Have a happy day wherever you are in the world!

- Cabblow

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Application Error

An ongoing series of back-handed pep talks for the times technology lets us down.

This is for all the times software crashes, programs lag, updates break projects, minimum PC specs just don't cut it and all-nighters have to be pulled to make up for all of it 😩 🙆🏾‍♀️ 🤷🏾‍♀️. Last year, in September, I had a day like that where my editing program kept crashing after 15/20 minutes of editing. I started imagining the constant error messages as backhanded pep-talks. Made the little interruptions less frustrating. That's all! I update this series when I have some free time!

Have a happy day wherever you are in the world!

- Cabblow #ApplicationError #ArtByCabblow #ThatAnimationLife #CabblowStudios #DigitalArtistStruggles 🤣 👌🏾 

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STUDIO SHOWREEL 2021

A Collection of projects created by Cabblow Studios during 2020.

Links to all the animations from the reel below: Healthforce: https://vimeo.com/456733181

What is Type 2 Diabetes: https://vimeo.com/456917879

Dr T's Nuggets: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGSvyyNjF...

PHS Animation: https://vimeo.com/456898168

"Be The One" Altron Values Series: https://vimeo.com/474477891

HERE COME THE SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

WEBSITE: https://cabblowstudios.com

ONLINE STORE: https://hellopretty.co.za/cabblowstudios

STREAM "3 Teaspooons of Sugar" on KWELI TV:

https://www.kweli.tv/programs/3-teaspoons-of-sugar

BUY or RENT 3 Teaspoons on Vimeo On Demand: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/3teaspoons...

FOLLOW THE STUDIO ON INSTAGRAM https://instagram.com/cabblowstudios https://instagram.com/cabblow

Have a happy day wherever you are in the world!

- Cabblow

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I’m making a webcomic in my spare time...

The earliest version of this idea predates the founding of Cabblow Studios. Imagine high school Cabblow day dreaming about a sci-fi/christian animated series and fast forward 10 years and I finally took the leap of faith and decided to upload the comic to Webtoons. (Yes, I said sci-fi/christian comic...You didn’t misread).

You can read the first chapter here

You can support the project on Patreon here

I feel terrified. Is this what God wants me to do or am I just forcing something to happen? I don’t know.

These are the fears I’m currently in the middle of overcoming, by uploading this image:

Fear of failing

Fear of public opinion

Fear of the workload

Fear of making a bad story

Fear of being seen

Either way this poster came out nicely. I am happy with it and I’ll be updating the comic whenever I have time for it. Could be monthly, could be weekly. Could be very sporadic or very frequent. When there’s an update I’ll let you know.

Have a happy day wherever you are in the world!

Happy Saturday!

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CLIENT PROJECT - Healthforce 

Another one done and dusted! Feels good to see the final thing out in the world.

Client: Healthforce

Project: Create an animated video explaining showcasing the brand unique telemedicine offering.

The idea was to take 3 different characters and scenarios and show how convenient and simple it was to use the Healthforce service/system to access nurse-run clinics in pharmacies all over South Africa. 

The client’s main user demographic is women (of varying middle to high earning professions) who often have school-age or adult age families. I chose to create 3 female characters and develop a stoy for each one. Eventually we ended up changing the third character - Lisa - into a male, but I’m still really satisfied with the result.

Here you can see Byron, replaced Lisa. Maybe I’ll be able to use Lisa’s design for a different project in the future.

Proper behind the scenes breakdown coming soon! Will an animatic and even timelapse videos **GASP**

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CLIENT PROJECT - FUELAPP

This one’s from July/Aug 2019

Client: Fuelapp

Project: Create a 35 - 60 second ad for the start up company FuelApp. FuelApp is a South African start up that lets you order fuel on the go using an app on your smart phone. How cool is that?

We actually hired our first intern during the production of this project and as of September 2020 - she’s been working with us full time for a year now!!

 Shout out to Tanika Pillay!

Animation by Cabblow Studios