Below are two audience persons that illustrate the different types of people that could benefit from my mental health animations. The first is a young boy who is struggling with his mental health, but he does’t know that as he has never been taught what mental health is in school. The second is a young girl who loves learning and often watched educational videos at home.
Both of these personalities would benefit from my animations. The animated and colourful style of my animations should be engaging enough to make the children want to watch my animations, and the information within the animations will help to inform them about what mental health actually is and how they should look after their own.
While I am unable to obtain feedback on my animation from my target audience of 7-11 year olds, I am able to collect feedback from individuals who work with children due to them being adults who can consent for themselves. Because of this, I sent the link to my first draft of animation one to a couple of people that I know who work with primary school children in order to understand what they though of the style and design of my animation so far and whether or not my target audience of 7-11 year olds would find my animation engaging to look at and watch. This feedback will help me to develop my project into something that would be enjoyed by my target audience and suggest that my project is successful.
Animation Development – Test 1
Responses from questionnaire
As is visible from these answers, it seems that the primary school worker believes that the style that I have used for my animations, as well as the colour scheme is nice and would be appropriate for my target audience of 7-11 year olds. While it would have been more informative to know what my actual target audience thought of the style of my animations, having this feedback from a primary school worker that is around my target audience every day and knows what they do and do not like is the next best thing.
While there was one criticism about how they thought I should put the definition of what mental health is in the thought bubbles, I am not overly concerned with this particular critique. The test animation I sent the primary school worker was an incomplete snip-it of my first animation and I have plans in my storyboard and blog that detail what I plan on putting within the thought bubble.
Now that I have received confirmation from a primary school worker that the design and style of my animation and character is appropriate and engaging for my target audience of 7-11 year olds, my next step will be to finish of this first animation, ready to start onto the next one.
Bibliography
Katherine Leveridge (2021) Animation Development – Test 1. Available from: https://youtu.be/PLhiNeXoL9c [Accessed 26 April 2021]
Below are the two questionnaires that I plan on sending to my target audience once I gain approval from the ethics board. These questionnaires will be sent along with the animations so that the children can watch the animations first, and the provide me with some insight into what they thought of my project. I have designed these questionnaires to be as professional as possible while also still being child friendly due to my target audience being between 7 and 11 years old. I have added a little colour to the document so that it seems less intimidating to the children and also worded the questions in a way that I hope the age group will be able to understand.
Questionnaire One
The first questionnaire is for me to gain insight into what my target audience think of the design and style of my animations. I plan on sending a short clip of my character performing a simple animation so that I may understand whether of not the design and style I am working in is engaging for my target audience. From my target audiences responses I will be able to adapt the design of my work accordingly so that I am able to create a successful animations that my target audience will like to watch.
Questionnaire Two
This is the second questionnaire that I plan on sending to my target audience after the completion of my animations. Just like with the first questionnaire, I plan on sending this one along with my finished animations so that I can see what my target audience thought of the final project and if they learnt what mental health is from them. My main goals within this project was to educate younger children on what mental health is and present the information in a friendly and approachable way for children, and this feedback will allow me to understand if I succeeded within these goals or not.
Having completed these questionnaires I will have to wait to see if I gain ethics approvals before I can go any further with this research. While waiting I will continue to work on the development of my animations ready to be able to send off to gain feedback on them once the ethics approval comes through.
Below is a screen shot of a section from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that discuses the use of children’s data and what steps need to be taken in order to protect it. Because I wish to gain feedback on my project from my target audience, and my target audience is children in primary school, this document was very helpful in informing me what I needed to do in order to safely collect this information. According to the GDPR, children under the age of 13 are not able to provide their own consent, meaning that I would need to gain the consent of the parents or guardians on behalf of the child. Because of this, I have drafted out a contract for the parents/guardians to sign so that I may gain feedback on my project.
My draft contract form
Below is a draft of the contract form which I have created in order to gain permission from parents/guardians to collect feedback from their children on my project. The form outlines what my project is, why I wish to gain feedback from their children, what specific feedback I wish to collect, who will have access to the data collected from the feedback and that at any point during the process the participant is able to pull out from the process and request their information given be retracted.
Having created this draft contract I have sent it to one of my tutors to look over so that they can inform me if I there is anything else that I need to add to the from before I can send it to the parents/guardians of my target audience that I may have missed off. While I wait to receive feedback on the form from my tutor I will continue to work on developing my characters for the animations, ready for when I need to receive the first round of feedback on my project focusing on the style and colour scheme of my project.
Below are two different moodboards that I created on Pinterest to help act as inspiration and reference for the development for my mental health animation character. The first moodboard has a collection of different character that are all drawn in a similar style to how I want to create my animations. The characters are all human, as I feel it will be easier to try and get children to connect with a human character rather than an animal one. The design of the characters are also very gently and friendly with the use of soft lines and colours which I think will be very important when creating characters talking about mental health. I want my animations to help de-stigmatise mental health and so I believe creating charters in the style of the ones below will help me achieve this, rather than creating character that may come across more harshly with darker tones and bold lines.
This second moodboard contains a collection of different images that show how to animate the different parts of the body, as well as how to animate eyes and hands to show different emotions and gestures. When creating and animating a character it is very important to have a decent understanding of the human body so you are able to portray different emotions through facial expressions and body language. These images within this moodboard will hopeful help me to understand more about conveying emotion within my characters and will act as reference for when I begin developing.
Now that I have created these moodboards on how to create characters and the design style I wish to use to create these character, my next step will be to use these references to actually begin creating and developing the characters for my animations. Because I wish to gain feedback from my target audience on the design and style of my animation, I will begin by creating the characters that I will use in my final animations and then have them perform a simply animation, such as a walk and a wave so that my target audience has enough material to give me adequate feedback on.
This is the third and final animation software which I will be testing out in order to determine which software or softwares will be most appropriate for my mental health animations. In order to test out the Adobe Animate software I decided to follow a couple of the introduction video tutorials that are available on the software.
Creating Animation in Adobe Animate
Below are the time laps videos that illustrate the process of creating an animation using adobe animate, following a basic tutorial guide by adobe. The process for this test was to understand how this animation software works and to see how I could potentially use it for my mental health animations. While I already had a basic understanding of how Character Animator and After Effects worked before testing out the software, I have never used Adobe Animate before and so I wanted to use this test to really immerse myself into the software and understand its capabilities.
In order to create the first animation, I first began by selecting the head of the doll and then clicking the lock icon. I then selected the trunk layer before going over to the ‘properties panel’ and then selecting ‘object tab’ and clicking ‘convert symbol’ and naming it ‘trunk’ and then setting the ‘type’ as ‘graphic.’
I then unlocked the head layer and instead locked the trunk layer. I then clicked on the ‘head’ layer and then went onto the ‘properties panel’ and then selected the ‘object tab’ before clicking the ‘convert to symbol’ icon and naming the layer as ‘head’ and setting the ‘type’ as ‘graphic’ before unlocking both layers.
I then selected the ‘free transform’ tool before selecting the ‘head’ symbol then move the transform point to the bottom middle, then repeated the same for the ‘trunk’ symbol.
I then selected the ‘show parenting view’ icon and then made the head connect to the trunk by dragging and dropping the head layer to the trunk layer in the parenting section of the timeline panel.
After that, I opened the ‘transform’ panel from the window – transform menu. I then selected the head symbol on the stage and set the rotate value to 15 in the transform panel. I then did the same for the trunk symbol and set the rotate value to -5. I then moved to frame 50 of the ‘head’ layer and held down the shift key then clicked on frame 50 of ‘trunk’ layer before selecting ‘insert auto keyframe’ icon in the timeline.
I then repeated the previous step on frame 25 on both the layers, before selecting the head symbol and set the rotate value as -15 in the transform panel. I then selected the trunk symbol and set the rotate value as 5 in the transform panel.
Then, selecting anywhere on the frame from 1 to 25 of the head layer, I then clicked on the ‘create classic tween’ button in the timeline panel. I then clicked on the frame between 26 and 50 before clicking on ‘create classic tween’ button before repeating this action on the trunk layer.
Clicking on any frame between 1 and 25 of the tween span in the ‘head’ layer I then went onto the ‘properties’ panel and selected ‘frame’ tab and ‘tweening’ section. I then selected the effects button and selected ‘ease in out’ option before double clicking on the ‘cubic’ option, making sure that the cubic ease-in-out effect was set. I then repeated these steps for the other tween spans of the head and trunk layer before viewing the animation by selecting ‘test movie’ icon. I then added a different background colour before sharing the animation and uploading the finished product to youtube.
Software Experimentation | Part 8
Screen shots of Adobe Animate experimentation
Final Animation in Adobe Animate
Below are the two different animation that I created in Adobe Animate using the beginners tutorial guide. The first one is a doll which rocks from side to side while the second animations is of a windmill with the propellers turning.
Software Experimentation | Part 9
Software Experimentation | Part 10
Reflection
I found animating within Adobe animate a little difficult at first due to having no prior knowledge of the software before hand, but following the beginner tutorials I found that I managed to pick up the software pretty quickly and began to understand where the different tools were.
Bibliography
Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 10. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhDcfuPWnOc&ab_channel=KatherineLeveridge. [Accessed 24 March 2021]
Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 9. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhxF3UUyItA&ab_channel=KatherineLeveridge. [Accessed 24 March 2021]
Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 8. Available from: https://youtu.be/lbh_IVFLwG0. [Accessed 24 March 2021]
Below is a style guide that I created on Pinterest that will work as inspiration for my mental health animations. Within it are a series of stills and animations which I like either because of the colour pallet used, the design of the images or because the actual image has given me some ideas for what I could include within my mental health animations.
Below are a selection of different pallets which I like and think would fit well with my animations and the style of animation I am planning on creating. Most of the colours are very warm and gentle which is what I think will work best for animations that are discussing the subject of mental health. Because one of my aims for my animations is to help de-stigmatise mental health and educate young people, having a colour pallet that is more warm and welcoming rather than dark and aggressive will help in presenting the topic of mental health as not being this scary topic that shouldn’t be spoken about.
Although currently I don’t know which of these colour pallets I will use within my final animations, I plan on creating a character using a few of these different colour pallets and seeing which my target audience prefers so that I can make sure that I am creating something that will be enjoyable for all children to watch.
Next Step
Now that I have this style guide and an idea of the colour pallet and style I want my animations to look like, my next step in the development of my project will be to begin creating detailed storyboards for each of the animations. These storyboards will include the script of what the voice over will be saying over the top of the animations, what specific animations I want to create for each section of the video, the potential transition/animation I want to create for each scene and the colours I am planning on using within each scene. By creating such a detailed storyboard it will help me to really visualise what my idea is for each animation and it will make it easier when I start the development of each animation.
Below is a collection of different videos that talk about various aspects of mental health and mental illness. While all of the videos are presented in the form of animations, each video take on a slightly different approach and style with both the animation and how they present the information.
10 Mental Illness Signs You Should Not Ignore
This first video focuses on signs that someone with mental illness may have. There is a lot of factual information within this video that is presented mainly through narration and backed up with appropriate animations that highlight what is being discussed. The voice over is easy to listen to due to the calm and soft tone of the person and fits well with the subject matter being discussed. The style of the animation is clean and consistent and the use of light pastel colour pallet is pleasing to look at. I really like how the video incorporates a mixture image based animations and text, with the text being used to highlight the important information within the video.
Overall I think that this video does a good job of discussing mental illness to in a way that is not aggressive or scary. I really like how the present the information through three different formats, narration, animation and text as it helps to get the message across to people in different ways. I also really like the colour pallet used for the animation and how the lighter colours help to present this subject matter in a way that isn’t intimidating to people. One element that I think would have been nice to include within this video would have been some soft background music just to add another layer to the video, however, the video is still successful without the added music.
10 Common Mental Illnesses Crash Course
This next video discusses some of the most common mental illnesses and how they can be managed. The video is by the same people that create the one above and so has a lot of similar element within its animation style. Just like with the video above, this animation includes a lot of factual information that is presented through narration and animations. The voice over is again easy to listen to due to the calm and soft tone of the person and fits well with the subject matter being discussed. The style of the animation is clean and consistent and the use of light pastel colour pallet is pleasing to look at. I really like how the video incorporates a mixture image based animations and text, with the text being used to highlight the important information within the video. The use of background music also helps to make the video feel more light hearted while not being too over baring and distract from what is being presented within the video.
Again this video is very successful in presenting the topic of mental illness and I don’t think anything more could be added in order to improve upon it.
What is Mental Health?
This video discusses what mental health actual is. The video is also presented through narration, animation and text in order to help people to understand the message of the video and retain the most important parts. This video also incorporates a character that could have been rigged in a programme similar to Character Animator. The background music is also fairly uplifting and not too distracting, similar to the music used in the video above.
COVID-19 and Mental Health
This video talks about COVID 19 and mental health, specifically how people are feeling during the pandemic. Where this video differs slightly to the previous ones is through the main focus being on the talking characters. While there is some graphic animation, the main focus is on the characters who are lip syncing to the individuals talking about their feelings. Again this video has a nice colour pallet and the music in the background helps to keep the tone light.
Mental Health Awareness
This video has a lot of factual information detailing what mental health is, with statistics to back up and highlight just how many people are affected by it. Unlike all the others, this video has no narration and instead we gain all our information through the animations and text. While that animation is good, i’m not overly fond of the colour scheme used as it is quite dark and not very enticing. The music in the background is a little distracting and seems to not really fit the subject matter being presented within the video.
What I have learnt
Overall these animation have given me a lot to think about in terms of my own mental health animations. I really like how Psych2Go present their animation with a narration while animations a text appear on the screen. I think this is a great and effective way to present information, especially to younger children due to the information being presented in three formats. I also really liked the characters within COVID-19 and Mental Health animation. While I don’t think I will have my animation solely featuring a talking character, I think incorporating it, along with narration, text, and transition, similar to the Psych2Go animations will be very interesting and engaging for young children to watch and absorb the information from.
These animation have also helped me to highlight some of the most important elements which make a great animation:
Nice voice over
Appropriate colour pallet
Fitting background music
Good animations/transitions
Consistent style
Next step
Having looked at all these different videos on how the topic of mental health could be discussed in the form of animation, my next step in my developmental process will be to actually being storyboarding my various narratives in detail so that I can being the process of creating the actual animation as soon as possible.
Bibliography
People Diagnostix (2016) What is Mental Health?. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnufbThvqzE&t=139s&ab_channel=PeopleDiagnostix. [Accessed 20 March 2021]
Psych Hub (2020) COVID-19 and Mental Health. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVvGvoMRUhk&t=277s&ab_channel=PsychHub. [Accessed 20 March 2021]
Psych2Go (2020) 10 Mental Illness Signs You Should Not Ignore. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B-wTp2PZH8&ab_channel=Psych2Go. [Accessed 20 March 2021]
Psych2Go (2020) 10 Common Mental Illnesses Crash Course. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaSpas9hWNQ&t=231s&ab_channel=Psych2Go. [Accessed 20 March 2021]
Slimy Salad (2011) Mental Health Awareness. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwn52-d6Sc0&ab_channel=SlimySalad. [Accessed 21 March 2021]
This documentary is about a BBC investigation into the mental health of university students during the corona virus pandemic. Within the first lockdown in March 2020 through May there were at least 10 suspected student suicides at UK universities according to freedom of information requests submitted to 137 institutions. In 2018, university minister called on vice chancellors to priorities student mental health on campus but over two years later nearly half of the universities that responded to BBC News responded that they hold no data or records on student suicides.
When talking to a tutor at a university they talked about how there has been a rise in student mental health issues and that tutors are not trained to deal with these complex mental health issues. Personal tutors should be doing wellbeing checks to see if students are missing classes or hand ins but they already have too much to do as so students are more likely to fall through the cracks. They also talked about how we need to destigmatise mental health so that more students will seek the appropriate support.
One of the underlying messages learned from this investigations it that many of the students did not seek support and instead kept their feelings to themselves and did not express them to anyone. A lot of the friends and family interview talked about they had no idea that thing were that bad.
The investigation also highlighted that there just don’t seem to be enough resources for universities to tackle this problem, Universities UK said the demand for mental health has doubled and universities cannot tackle this alone. This implies that more can and needs to be done in order to better support students with their mental health. Although the corona virus pandemic has exasperated the issue further, there was already a mental health crisis before that wasn’t being effectively handled.
Bibliography
The Student Mental Health Crisis (2020) [Television]. BBC. 15 December 2020.
This documentary covers the life of Caroline Flack and her rise to fame, and explores the circumstances that led to her death, as her friends and family talk candidly as they come to terms with their loss.
While this documentary does not directly relate to the target audience I am aiming my project at, it does discuss some of the causes that led to Caroline Flack taking her own life. Within the documentary, many of Caroline Flack’s friends and family talk about how she often would hid her feelings and not discuss with them how she was feeling. They also mention how she was addicted to social media, and so she would often read through the numerous hate comments that she was reading online and never discuss how that made her feel with any of her fiends or family. As shown in my previously mental health posts, keeping feelings bottled up and not discussing them with others often leads to more intense feelings of loneliness and isolation.
The documentary also discussed how she never wanted anyone to know that she experienced these low moments within her life, which may be the reason she never opened up to anyone or sought any help. This leads into the idea about mental health still being stigmatised within todays society and that we need to tackle this issues so that hopefully less people will feel ashamed about suffering from mental health issues and will seek the appropriate help that they need.
What I have learnt
The main elements that I have taken away from this documentary is that when it comes to mental health, some of the main issues that stop people from seeking help and attempting to take there life is;
Stigma
Keeping feelings hidden
Not talking to anyone
Social media
This suggests that it will be important to try and tackle some if these issues through my mental health animations. Because my animations will be to help educate young children about what mental health is, hopefully I will be able to help reduce the stigma around it. I am also planning on talking about how to maintain good mental health, which will hopefully tackle the issue of people keeping their feelings hidden and not seeking help when they need it.
Bibliography
Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death (2021) [Television]. Channel 4. 17 March 2021.
