BlackGinger
- Open roles
- 0
- Founded
- 2005
- Employees
- N/A
- Offices
- 0
About BlackGinger
BlackGinger was an independent visual effects and animation studio based in Cape Town, South Africa. Founded in 2005, it worked across feature films, episodic television, streaming productions, commercial advertising and video game cinematics. Its work combined live-action visual effects with character and creature animation, digital environments and commercial finishing. The studio ceased commercial operations and entered liquidation in 2023.
From preparation to finishing
The studio offered production support from early visual development through final post-production. Pre-production work included concept art, character design, previsualisation, technical visualisation and interface design. During filming, its services covered on-set visual effects supervision, scanning, reference acquisition, motion-control planning and on-set grading. This connected the preparation of digital assets with the practical requirements of live-action shoots.
Its post-production capabilities included CG asset creation, creature animation, digital crowds, environment construction, matte painting, camera tracking and compositing. Cleanup, digital cosmetics, Flame online finishing and Baselight colour grading rounded out its offering. Across these services, the studio handled both fully computer-generated imagery and effects integrated into photographed footage.
Film and commercial work
BlackGinger contributed visual effects to Mad Max: Fury Road, Escape Room, 24 Hours to Live and The Empty Man. For Monster Hunter, its work included the desert oasis sequence and a herd of CG Apceros creatures. Its contribution to Disney’s Black Beauty included bluescreen compositing and a digital recreation of New York’s Central Park. It also supplied digital shark effects for Deep Blue Sea 2 and Deep Blue Sea 3.
Other credited work included the Salem-inspired wooden Disney Castle opening for Hocus Pocus 2 and visual effects for Heart of the Hunter, released in 2024. In advertising, the studio worked on campaigns for Chicken Licken, Clover, Flying Fish and Heineken. Its game-related output included the fully CGI cinematic trailer for Yggdrasil Gaming’s Vikings Go To Hell.
More about BlackGinger
Founders
Marc Bloch and Marco Raposo de Barbosa founded the studio. The report identifies their historical roles as Executive Producer / VFX Supervisor and Creative Director / VFX Supervisor, respectively. Both co-founders publicly announced the liquidation.
Technical infrastructure
The studio developed a custom portable DSLR character-scanning rig for actor and prop digitisation. Its capture infrastructure also included car- and helicopter-mounted LiDAR systems and drone surveys.
Its production pipeline used Houdini, Nuke, Maya, ZBrush and 3DEqualizer alongside its finishing systems. High-speed transatlantic fibre connections and dedicated servers in London and New York supported international client approvals and deliveries; these server hubs were not physical studio branches.
Campaign recognition
Chicken Licken’s “Big John” received a Loeries Gold VFX Craft Award. Clover’s “Way Better” received an Annecy Official Selection and a Mobius Gold Statuette. These distinctions concern the named campaigns.
Notable credits
13 creditsOffices
Current and former locations of BlackGinger
- Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Cape Town offices
Former officeAbout this office
**Office** Status: inactive / historical Headquarters Address: 21 Natal Street, Paarden Eiland, Cape Town, Western Cape 7405, South Africa Phone: +27 21 488 1188 Closed: 2023 Final studio facility and historical headquarters; decommissioned following liquidation in 2023. --- **Office** Status: inactive / historical Address: 2nd Floor, Infinart Building, 60 New Church Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa Earlier studio premises, occupied before relocation to 21 Natal Street. The relocation year is not established.
Open roles
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