Arlinka, the first South African female to win an Emmy Award
She plans to continue with graphic design for 'Strange Places' while she works to break into the game development industry.
POLOKWANE – South Africa’s first female Emmy Award winner Arlinka Viljoen (22) from Polokwane won best graphics in the American science fiction television series Strange Places by Phoenix Rising Motion Picture Group.
Viljoen who’s also South Africa’s only student studying internationally in graphic design for video gaming and film, earned an Emmy for Rocky Mountain Two division and was awarded television’s highest honour on October 1 at the Emmy Awards in Phoenix, Arizona.
Viljoen’s work was recognised in the Southwest United States region; Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Southern California, but was judged by television professional from New York, Los Angeles and around the USA.
Strange Places is a sci-fi/horror limited TV series which airs on AZTV 7 that was directed and produced by Andy Rodriguez McCradic.
“I was surprised and pleased that my work was internationally recognised. As a graphic designer, it’s sometimes quite an intense pressure to excel and I’m happy to be so honoured by my peers. When it came to the creature design, Andy gave me a few sketches of the idea he had in mind, and based on those sketches, I finalised the design and made some sketches of my own to improve on it a bit. Then I actually had to make it using software like Maya and ZBrush, all those types of 3D software to make it as terrifying as possible,” Viljoen said.
In the series, Viljoen designed two creatures in the horror-tinged episode of ‘an improper use of shading’ which is about a gifted, but troubled artist named Marie who is bullied by a classmate, Madison.
Madison’s dad is leaving the family and she takes her frustrations out on Marie who draws her best friend Cassandra into the conflict, Cassandra begins drawing hideous creatures (which are created by Viljoen) that come to life to torment Madison, but she doesn’t know why she did it.
McCradic who was also nominated for the Emmy as best director told Polokwane Observer that Viljoen’s work was outstanding and without her input, the episode is less memorable.
“She made the creatures terrifying.”
Viljoen concluded that she plans to continue helping McCradic develop his TV series, while building her future in the game development industry.
“My biggest goals are to help in the development of at least one major game title as well as an indie title of my own.”
