Cloth Cat Newsletter - October 2025


ISSUE 12 - OCTOBER 2025


Cloth Cat Academy will be at Manchester Animation Festival next month! You’ll find us at the MAF Marketplace in Bridgewater Hall on Wednesday 12th November, where you can chat to us about the professional training that we provide for animation industry creators. We hope to see you there!

Proudly based in South Wales, Cloth Cat Academy offers in-person training at a working, central-Cardiff studio. Alongside access to industry standard software, we also provide the knowledge and skills of industry experts and the networking opportunities required to kickstart your career.

Our next series of courses starts in February, so make sure to book your place! Full information on all of our future courses is available on our website. If you are interested in attending an Academy course, you can register your interest here. Be sure to check the support section on our website in order to check your eligibility for any bursary funding. Applicants living in Wales are eligible for a 50% discount!

Screen Skills, Media Cymru, Ymddiried and ReAct+ also offer a selection of funding opportunities if you meet their criteria. Please ensure that you have left enough time when applying for any external funding in order for your applications to be processed prior to the start of your course!

Cloth Cat Academy

Production Traineeship

In Association with Creative Wales and S4C

PRESS RELEASE

16 | 10 | 2025

Cloth Cat is delighted to announce that the Cloth Cat Academy Production Traineeship is now underway at our new central-Cardiff location. The programme is supported by the Welsh Government via Creative Wales. The Creative Skills Fund is a key part of their mission to grow a stronger, more inclusive creative workforce in Wales.

Cloth Cat Academy provides professional training for animation and games industry creators in Wales, offering classroom space in a working studio, industry standard software and all the benefits of direct, in-person training. With the esteemed support of the Creative Skills Fund, we provide the knowledge and skills of industry experts and the networking opportunities required to kickstart prosperous animation careers.

We have selected six talented animation trainees to step into the heart of our independent studio here in Cardiff, providing each of them with the chance to gain their very first production credit whilst earning a living wage. Our successful candidates will spend eight weeks on production, gaining invaluable experience working as Moho animators on a short film project in association with S4C.

Our Moho trainees will be assisting the Cloth Cat team in various stages of the production process. They’ll be preparing scenes, assets and shot setups, whilst also being given the opportunity to practice animating under the professional supervision and guidance of industry expert Dani Abram.

“Our Creative Skills Fund is a vital source of support for Wales’ creative industries and has secured several valuable placements for young people to gain experience and knowledge and build a portfolio to take their career forward. Congratulations to the six trainees working on this short film. We look forward to seeing the final edit. Llongyfarchiadau!”

Culture Minister, Jack Sargeant

“We’re delighted that Creative Wales have been so supportive of Cloth Cat’s first paid traineeship opportunity. Providing purposeful, first-rate, hands-on experience for newcomers to the industry is at the heart of Cloth Cat’s mission. It’s a fantastic way to encourage the next generation of Welsh storytellers.”

Director Jon Rennie

The Cloth Cat Academy Production Traineeship will be taking place in-person at our new central-Cardiff studio until 21st November 2025. For further information, please contact comms@clothcat.com.

ABOUT CLOTH CAT:

Cloth Cat is a dynamic, independent and award winning animation studio proudly based in Cardiff, UK. Expertly crafting quality animation; with a long track record and a wealth of experience in projects both large and small, across broadcast, film, games and promotional work. Credits include Luo Bao Bei (Emmy Nomination 2019), Shane the Chef, Olobob Top, Cyw, The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, Toot the Tiny Tugboat and the award-winning feature film Ethel & Ernest.


ABOUT THE CREATIVE SKILLS FUND:

The Creative Skills Fund supports creative talent across Wales through targeted training, funding, and partnerships. Our investment in the first round of the fund helped over 27,000 individuals and 300 companies build careers in music, screen, games, animation, and immersive tech. We created the fund to address real skills gaps and open up opportunities across the sector by improving access, supporting Welsh language training, and creating clear career pathways. We’ve worked with partners like BBC Studios, BFI, ScreenSkills, Music Venue Trust, and Esports Wales to make sure training is relevant, inclusive, and impactful.

Beryl

by Joanna Quinn and Les Mills

Get ready for a deep dive into the creative world of the award-winning, Cardiff-based collaborative duo, Joanna Quinn and Les Mills! Their fabulous new book Beryl is packed full of exemplary sketches, storyboards, final artworks and brilliant behind-the-scenes stories that show us how they brought Beryl and her wonderfully weird family to life.

Pictured above is Marci Rojas, Senior Animator at Cloth Cat. Marci assisted with the animation process of Joanna and Les’ Academy Award® and BAFTA-nominated short film Affairs of the Art, which features in the book.

Beryl is an unconventional yet relatable animated heroine; middle-aged, full of grit, chasing her dreams with humour and heart. If you’re into animation, storytelling, or just love seeing how the creative magic happens, this is a terrific treat! Order your copy today from Graffeg Books.

This week, Cardiff Animation Nights took us on a journey through time & space, to a world of brilliant indie animation sourced from talented & creative filmmakers around the globe! From the comfort of our own homes, we tuned in to a live, hour-long broadcast from the Cardiff Animation YouTube channel. We're already looking forward to next month's in-person instalment at The Underdog on 27th November. We'll see you there!

Cloth Cat

Read more from Cloth Cat

ISSUE 11 - SEPTEMBER 2025 Cloth Cat is Moving Home! Cloth Cat HQ will be moving across to the other side of the city centre this month. Although we will miss being situated in such close proximity to Cardiff Market, we're really excited to move into our new studio on Park Place! Annibendod How We Brought Bochau to Life in Blender Bochau is the name of the cheeky little animated hamster in Siwan Jobbins and Twt Productions’ live action Welsh series Annibendod. The series was produced in...

ISSUE 10 - AUGUST 2025 Free Animation Software: A Cloth Cat Guide To an absolute beginner, even dipping your toes into the world of animation can seem like a very daunting prospect. You may have tried doodling in the corner of a sketchbook and flicking through the pages to see your drawings come to life. Perhaps you’ve used your camera or smartphone to explore the limitless potential of stop-motion animation? These days, the fun definitely doesn’t have to stop there! In addition, it doesn’t...

ISSUE 9 - JULY 2025 Help Save Our Upland Water Voles Our second collaboration with the Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru is a wonderfully evocative story highlighting the protection of endangered water voles in Wales. Fully animated and rendered in Blender by the Cloth Cat team, the short film shows how a water vole faces challenges on its way to find a new wetlands home.We’re thrilled to share that the project was featured this month by the Welsh online news service, Nation.Cymru!...