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 collaboration with Boom Cymru for S4C’s Cyw service and is aimed towards two-to-five-year-old Welsh speakers and Key Stage 1 and 2 children who are learning the language.

Bochau is the gregarious, fun loving pet of the mischievous main character Anni. The live action footage was shot across three locations in the Cardiff area. The Cloth Cat team were then assigned with the delightful task of bringing Bochau to life on-screen. Read on to find out more about our creative process, from the initial design to the final render. If you’d like to see Bochau sing and dance, be sure to head over to the Cyw YouTube Channel!

Here at Cloth Cat Academy, the studio has been alive with curiosity, collaboration, and creative breakthroughs. There was a real sense of momentum as participants dove into learning, challenged themselves, and grew in confidence. Sean Francis, Dani Abram and Benedict Tomczyk-Bowen have been mentoring our awesome Academy trainees, teaching them new tools and techniques to supercharge their animation skills!

Our next series of courses will take place 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!

LEARN MORE

The Cloth Cat Games team are hard at work producing our first ever console game! Planted is a head-to-head ‘horticultural combat’ game where gardens are arenas and players battle for resources to sow, grow and throw™ as much produce as they can at goals (and each other). Dive into the single player campaign or head for multiplayer arena combat.

Approachable and immediate gameplay awaits; part harvesting sim, part sports game, its focus is fun arcade action but skill and tactics come into play once you get to grips with the challenge. Planted is a game bursting with humour, character and playful ideas that continue to expand on its core mechanics.

Update: Production Traineeship

Cloth Cat is delighted to announce that production has begun on our animated short film Ghost of Midwinter, which is to be broadcast in Welsh this Christmas on S4C. We have selected six talented animation trainees to step into the heart of our independent studio here in Cardiff. The project is supported by Creative Wales and S4C as part of their commitment to develop training and skills in Wales.

This paid, in-person traineeship serves as the next big step in our trainees’ careers and has provided each individual with the chance to gain their very first production credit. Our successful candidates will gain invaluable experience working as Moho animators, assisting the Cloth Cat team by preparing scenes, assets and shot setups, whilst being given the opportunity to practice animating scenes under the professional supervision and guidance of industry expert Dani Abram.

We very much look forward to sharing more of the details in the coming weeks!

We had a wonderful time at Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival, which was hosted at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff this month. We witnessed a superb selection of animated films from Japan, including Wolf Children (2012) and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006). We were also treated to an electric live performance by JERO11, alongside a tantalising treasure trove of Japanese goods, comics, DVDs and collectables! Cloth Cat are proud sponsors of the festival and we'd like to congratulate Eiko on another brilliantly successful year for Kotatsu!

In case you missed it, the festival will also be taking place at TAPE Community Music and Film in Colwyn Bay on 11th October and Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Aberystwyth from 24th - 26th October! To stay up to date with all things Kotatsu, subscribe to their newsletter here.

Cardiff Animation Nights will be back at The Underdog on 2nd October! You can book your free ticket here. Get set for another fantastic, handpicked programme of cutting-edge animated short films! In addition, as part of CAF on Tour, you can also revisit the Welsh cult classic The Princess and the Goblin this month at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff:

The 1991 fantasy film will be screened in Welsh with English subtitles at 12pm on 25th October. After the screening, there will also be a chance to look at original animation cels, hand-drawn concept art and oil paintings from the film!