Animation & Illustration
OUR GOAL was to create an explainer video that could accompany WWF Wild Classroom’s biodiversity educational toolkit, an engaging resource to be used by teachers across the United States. It also needed to be content-rich enough to stand on its own, granting access to those outside of an academic environment and reaching a larger audience.
The content is in accordance with the Next Generation Science Standards for middle school grades six to eight. As an added challenge, it also needed to captivate the attention of both older and younger students.
OUR PROCESS included working with the Wild Classroom team on both script and design to find the balance needed to engage older and younger students, both in and outside the classroom. We were able to accomplish this by using a poppy animation style, bright colors, and energetic live-action footage. With this combination, we covered the impact and benefits of biodiversity on health across ecosystems, threats to biodiversity, and what students can do to protect it.
The music and voice-over express an evolving tone throughout the video, being fun and light when exploring the beauty and importance of biodiversity while becoming more earnest when discussing its threats.
WE SCRIPTED AND DESIGNED the animation using Adobe Illustrator and After Effects. We worked with technical animator Dave Leonard to give the designs fluid movement.
In this video series, I was responsible for illustration and art direction for the first and second videos in the series. This project was done in collaboration with Seven Mile Media and animations were conducted by Dave Leonard.