Welcome back to another Orange Woman Wednesday! Like you all know, we celebrate women in our workforce who have devoted and sacrificed their time to build and have a successful career in our industry. So with us here is our beautiful Nneka who joined the Orange team some three months ago as our Frontdesk Officer. She is hardworking, reliable and courageous. Continue reading as she takes us through her journey.

Can you tell us about yourself?
My name is Nneka Chukwu Obasi. I am from Abia state Ohafia local government. I graduated from Ogun State Institute of Technology as a Business Administrator. I have so many people I look up to in terms of having a successful career and being an entrepreneur. Speaking about my career, I have always loved communicating with people regardless, and I also enjoy advising people when it comes to business, money and management. When I was in school studying Business Administration and Management, I was ready, and I knew I was born for it.

What inspires you into being who you are and what you do?
My principles, I believe that we came into existence with the primary purpose of surviving no matter what happens. My passion for communication is what I enjoy doing, so I turned it into a career. However, I have some couple of goals and targets that I have set to achieve in life, so that alone keeps inspiring to do more in my career.

Tell us about the challenges you’ve encountered
I have not had a lot of challenges so far, but I would say understanding demanding clients is something I am still working on as a person. People are different, and some can be crazy, so convincing clients and satisfying them can be very challenging.

What’s your ideal work environment?
My ideal work environment is one that centres on working in a team, and that encourages everyone’s idea for growth and progress on the job.

Are you a big-picture thinker or detail-oriented?
I would consider myself to be a big-picture thinker. But in as much as I am a big-picture thinker, I also work hard to make sure I don’t only see the big picture, I strive to achieve them too.

What are your short-term career goals?
My short term goal is to run a post-graduate program in management and have a skill in motion graphics alongside.

What are your long-term career goals?
My long term goal is to be a Human Resource guru.

Discuss your experiences in the journey so far?
Luckily for me, after some months of job hunting, I got a job here in Orange VFX Studios as a Frontdesk/customer care representative. I took up this job for a start because I have a good feeling that this role will help me fulfil my ambition of becoming a Human Resources mogul. Working here has been fun, and the people are amazing and helpful.

How do you deal with stressful situations as you progress?
Well, I try to be professional about it and also understand that it’s just a temporary situation.

What do you like to do outside of work?
Wow!! I love this question. I hang out with my friends, see movies and have fun.

As a career woman, what advice would you give to others outside?
What I will say is to know thy self, identify your strength and what you’re capable of doing and also put God first in all your doings.

In a world where most people are sandwiched by various situations, what keeps you motivated in your career?
First and foremost, I am desperate to attain success and to achieve all the goals that I have set. Aside from that, my passion and love for what I do also keep me motivated.

What is the one singular thing that you dread in life?
I don’t think I dread anything in life, and I believe that what will be, will be.

In 2010, Richard Oboh started Orange VFX Studios alone in his family house in Sapele, Delta state, as a fresh graduate from the university trying to break free from the usual get-a-salary-paying-job, which his Mum desired for him. He discovered 3D animation by chance from a friend in 2006 and ever since he had been working towards developing his career in the animation industry.

By 2008, Richard had already created videos of dancing animated characters, which he wanted to introduce to the public. Within weeks of its completion, he travelled to Benin City to present the video in search of clients who may require his services. He went to T.V stations to see if they could help him to market his skills, but the people did not see any value in animation. EBS was the first T.V station that supported his dreams, so they aired his animated dance video on their channel. The video received wide acclaim in Benin City. The audience loved it because it was revolutionary, funny and entertaining.

In 2009 Richard started getting jobs from well-known brands like God is Good Motors and various other companies based in Benin City. Soon his video played on other stations and his dream was realized. He incorporated the business in 2010 in Asaba, Delta state and shortly afterwards decided to relocate to Lagos. Unable to afford an apartment or an office, he stayed with a relative at Orile Iganmu in 2010.

While living in Orile Iganmu, he began marketing his services within Surulere. He got the chance to work in Orbit Studios on several live-action commercials on projects like Diesel man, CWAY, Honeywell foods among others. Richard also went on to work for XTO Studios at Ogba for about two years on animated projects for Lagos State Driving Institute (LASDRI) and Lekki Concession Company (LCC). As part of a small team, it was the first time Richard collaborated with other animators, giving him lots of insight and experience.

After a while, jobs were not forthcoming at XTO studios. He decided to leave and started working freelance, advertising himself and showing his portfolio to different companies. Not long after, an advertising agency called Prima Garnet Ogilvy contacted him to design motion graphics for their clients, including Coca-Cola, and later Airtel.

To expand and meet the expectations of his clients, Richard saw a need to rent an office space in January 2013 with the profit he had made from his previous jobs. One of the significant setbacks he suffered was the shortage of skilled labour, low-quality production and delays in delivering projects which made him conceive the idea of opening a training school. In 2014, he started training people, with not only the aim of making profits but the hope of building capacity and expansion.

Having realized that character animation had never really been done correctly in Nigeria, he saw a massive opportunity in the industry, and it was part of what inspired him to establish a company that would provide visual effect services within Nigeria for a lesser cost and still meet international standards.

He coined the name “Orange VFX” because he was particularly interested in visual effects (a field where you match live-action and computer-generated imagery (CGI) element together commonly in advertising and feature film). Orange signifies warmth, light and happiness. The colour is a blend of yellow and red whereby yellow signifies Sunshine, happiness and red signifies energy and heat. The genius also wanted those qualities to reflect in his brand, so that gave rise to Orange VFX studios.

Starting with a team of just two people, the number of staff scaled to over 15.  The team was always building new characters for every client, and it was challenging, triggering the idea of developing characters that would be the property of the company. Thus, Ovie and Wale were born. Thus started the production of the Gbedu dance “Wale E Dan Show” in 2013.

After the work was completed, he tried to get it on air on T.V stations in Lagos. They all made promised but turned him down. Richard had no choice but to give the video to a few colleagues to help him market the video. The video got leaked, and it went viral on the internet and social media almost instantly, and turned out to be a surprise hit for Orange VFX connecting him to well-known organizations and individuals across the planet.

In 2016, there was a recession. Clients started cutting cost, and the company was severely affected. Fortunately, the strong relationship with Diamond Bank and a few big brands helped the company survive the crisis. He realized it was necessary to continually market content and promote the Orange brand to maintain the growth of the company.

By 2017 things began to flourish for the company: skilled hands, new jobs and faster equipment to improve production capacity and efficiency. Presently Orange VFX is renowned as the leading animation company according to the 2018 Ernst and Young report published by the Nigerian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Commerce. The Studio wants to increase its international presence with its ambitious plans to expand into other African countries including Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia. Orange has talented professionals capable of transforming your dreams into reality with animation limited only by imagination.