My Initial Storyboard & Character Designs

When we first started exploring the storyline and message of our animation, we each went away and created our own interpretations based on the points we highlighted that we wanted to cover in our storyboards. The main notes we wanted to address were solving the problem without directly showing it. In the example videos we researched for Anti-Bullying Week, the problem was shown, followed by the solution right at the end, which gave the video a sombre feel throughout. While this approach makes sense for such a sensitive subject, we wanted our video to focus more on building self-esteem and finding one’s sense of self as a way to combat bullying or feeling different from others. The main premise we focused on was that the main character would go through changes and meet different people to see how they could fit in, but in the end, they would realise that they just needed to stay true to who they are and figure out what makes them unique. In my interpretation, I created a character who is a cactus that goes through the journey of trying to fit in with the other plants, whether that’s through appearance, confidence, or just being himself.

Experimenting in After Effects

While creating our animatic, I also experimented with After Effects to visualise how our storyboard could come to life and to determine whether our scenes were feasible. My focus was on how our kiwi would move, particularly in the scenes where he walks and rolls. When animating his walking, I initially found it difficult to visualise his movements, as birds’ legs bend in the opposite direction to humans'. Since my previous experience with animating movement was primarily with people, this posed a challenge. To better understand how a kiwi moves, I watched reference videos and analysed how human knees bend, applying that knowledge in reverse for the kiwi.

For the rolling animation, I realised we should probably make his body rounder, as his current semicircular shape made it more awkward to animate. While working on this animation, I referred back to my notes from our flipbook workshop, as I had to consider how the kiwi’s weight would affect his movement downhill.

Colours & Characters

Since our animation’s primary target audience is young children, we wanted the video to feature vibrant and fun imagery. We achieved this through the use of colour, character design, and scenery. As a team, we focused on selecting colours for the background elements, such as trees, grass, and the sky, as well as for the birds, e.g. we chose brown for the kiwi, blue for the macaw, and red and pink for the parrots. Above, you can see the main colours we selected for the characters and assets, such as bushes, feathers, and other details.

I created these characters in Adobe Illustrator, ensuring that each element was on a separate layer to make animation easier e.g. the head, wings, body, and feet were all placed on individual layers, allowing for smoother movement. This also helped us replicate the look of paper-based animation, as everything is in 2D. For instance, the wings on the white cockatoo simply cut from one frame to the next (moving up and then down) to mimic the motion of a bird flying. Since many of the birds have similar colours layered on top of each other, I added a shadow along the edges to visually separate them. This also created the illusion of cut-out pieces of paper being stuck together, similar to something school children might create themselves.

Finalising Our Call to Action

One challenge we kept revisiting and refining was our call to action, as we struggled to summarise it in just one or two sentences. One idea we initially came up with was "Your colours make the world brighter”, but we found that this message wasn’t clear enough and didn’t necessarily relate to our subject. After receiving feedback, we continued discussing other call-to-action options and identified key points we wanted to cover: it needed to be simple and easy for children to understand, focus on inclusivity rather than "colours”, and tie back to the overall moral and theme of our animation (belonging, self-identity, and inclusion).