Michael Muthiga is the creative force behind some of the best animation commercials on Kenyan television.
He is the founder of Fatboy, an animation company that started operations in 2010. One of his creations is the popular Faiba animated cartoon adverts that air on almost all the major TV stations.
Born and raised in Nairobi, Muthiga attended Alliance High School, and that’s where his animation journey began.
“I grew up as a devotee of art and drawing. My parents were fascinated with my hobby but they hoped it would be just that. They feared I would fail at school by focusing on child’s play. I abandoned the art ship for a while and concentrated on my studies. But while in Form Two at Alliance High School, the art itch caught up with me only this time around, it was severe. I had to scratch it and I am glad my teacher, Musa Francis Okwaro cheered me on,” he narrated.
Despite studying Civil Engineering at Nottingham University in Malaysia, Muthiga wasn’t interested in the career but focused on art, studying free online tutorials in animations.
His prowess saw him land his first job as a junior developer at ‘Tinga Tinga Tales’ – a children’s cartoon series that aired on Citizen TV.
“After one and a half years at Tinga Tinga, I had grown to be the lead animator. While working there, I still felt the urge of going solo so I used to save 90 per cent of my salary every month and by the time Tinga Tinga Tales was winding up, I had saved enough to buy equipment and to register my own business.”
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After the Tinga Tinga show closed, Muthiga registered the company Fatboy Animations and started making funny characters like the ‘Huratete cartoon’ (which became a hit) and uploading them to his YouTube channel.
It was through YouTube that his work was recognized by Jamii Telecom Limited, a local telecommunications company, which offered him a gig.
“The CEO wanted me to develop a short television advertisement to propel the firm’s terrestrial fibre optic offering. I went into full work mode. A month later, I had come up with the now-famous first episode of the 3D television animation advert popularly known as “Faiba”.he said.
The ‘Faiba’ advertisements not only earned him Sh3 million, but also opened more opportunities from big corporates.
Oglivy approached him on behalf of Orange for a five-episode animation creation, which earned him Sh3.5 million. Then followed Safaricom, Barclays and many other companies in a span of just 6 months.
“Six firms came calling following the success of the “Faiba” project, and everyone wanted to work with me. My passion had started to pay off and my dream now seemed more realistic,” Muthiga said.
The company, which started in a bedroom, has grown to a multimillion firm that has created employment for about 15 people.
Fatboy works on an average of 10 projects every month, charging between Sh1 million and Sh1.4 million for a 60-second advert.
