Interview with our animators Charmaine & Akrom
By Mia Elliott
Hey guys, great vid! Can you tell me a bit about the brief and your different roles?
AKROM – Thanks! Carers NSW wanted an animation to explore how young carers deal with their mental health, hobbies, and recreational time amidst the process of caring for either family or friends who suffer some kind of illness or disability. I did the styleframes and animated majority of the project.
CHARMAINE – I did storyboarding! That meant designing each scene and assigning the script to a visual so that Carers NSW could see how the final animation will look.
Storyboarding
Styleframes
This animation is super cool because it uses real stories! What was the process with character design?
AKROM – We took heavy inspiration from what the young carers whose stories are featured actually look like in real life, going off photos that the client sent us. We took these photos and essentially made cartoon versions of them.
The visuals are great, how did you decide on an aesthetic?
AKROM – The client, Carers NSW, has a really vibrant colour palette with lots of primary colours in their brand guidelines. Because this is a promotional animation, we definitely took inspiration from that!
CHARMAINE – There is this worm-looking stroke that runs throughout the animation and helps tie all the transitions together. That element was also part of Carers NSW’s branding, which was great because we got to run with it and make it more stylised.
What deliverables did the client want?
CHARMAINE – We provided the main animation as well as cut-downs for socials, which basically feature each character’s story, in both square and landscape-versions.
What do you think makes a great promotional animation for a healthcare service?
AKROM – I think for this animation in particular, it was getting those real stories. You can definitely tell when a video is manufactured or fake from a mile away. This one feels genuine. What also stands out with this animation is how visually engaging it is – it catches the eye of the viewer which makes them want to listen to the stories even more.
CHARMAINE – The message needs to be clear and the content needs to be engaging. With this animation, I think what works really well is that each of the characters have a distinctive voiceover which made it really easy to follow along with their own unique qualities.
VIEW THE CARER NSW ANIMATION HERE:
