MOTION DESIGN / ILLUSTRATION
McGraw Hill hired me to custom illustrate and animate a series of engaging short stories featuring a young girl named Amelia and her brother, Charlie. Created for educational purposes, these animations were designed to captivate young learners while teaching essential skills like reading comprehension.
Episode 01 - A New Neighborhood Park:
Episode 02 - A Cliffhanger:
Episode 03 - A New Pet:
Episode 04 - A Challenging Library Book:
Episode 05 - Grandmother's Day Card:
Character Design: Amelia
The original character design for Amelia came after exploring several different directions before settling on this one. The colors used in her design were carefully aligned with McGraw Hill's guidelines and feedback ensuring a cohesive look that accommodated the McGraw Hill brand.
Character Design: Charlie
Charlie’s design highlights his role as a supportive older brother and guide, helping young viewers grasp the key educational points and reading comprehension focus of each McGraw Hill episode with his practical insights.
Style Frames:
I created style frames for the look and feel of the series by sketching initial concepts that blended vibrant visuals with an educational tone, ensuring they appealed to young learners. After refining the designs based on client feedback, I finalized the frames to establish a consistent art direction that supported the storytelling process.
Adobe Character Animator:
Once the design process for Amelia and Charlie was finalized, their characters were brought to life in Adobe Character Animator. This tool was used to record and act out their movements and voice-over (VO), enabling expressive animations that captured their lively personality and supported the educational storytelling.
Software Used:
Adobe Illustrator / Adobe After Effects / Adobe Character Animator