Young Carers Derby: Co-production Youth Animation

A co-produced animation made in collaboration with Young Carers in Derby. Two focus group workshops were facilitated alongside experienced youth workers, where young people shared their ideas and experiences through creative activities.

The young carers took on a directorial role throughout production — developing the story scenarios, designing the characters, and performing all voiceovers. Character designs originated with the young people and were adapted into animation-ready artwork in Adobe Illustrator, with characters rigged in After Effects using Duik.

The finished film is being shown in schools across Derby to raise awareness of young carers' experiences, and received a public screening at QUAD, Derby's independent cinema and arts centre.

animation Type

Cause-based Educational

Clients

Derby City Council

Credits & Associates

Concept and story by Derby Young Carers
Script written with the Derby Young Carers Co-Production Group
Direction by Derby Young Carers Co-Production Group
Character designs by Derby Young Carers Co-Production Group
Style and storyboard design by Mair Perkins
Illustration by Mair Perkins
Animation by Mair Perkins
Voiceovers by Derby Young Carers Co-Production Group
Voiceover recorded and edited by Ben Haynes of Haynes Music Productions
Music & sound design by Ben Haynes

Animation Production Process

Workshop

The project started with an animation workshop where the Young Carer's developed a story, messages, character designs and storyboarded scenes of the animation.

Animation story concept options

Mair Perkins created three story concepts based on the workshop content. The young carers chose the lots of characters story concept but narrowed it down to four main characters.

Sketched Storyboards and Animatic Video

Young Carer's Animation Sketched Storyboard.

A storyboard was sketched out based on the script. The storyboard images were then put into a video sequence with a draft voiceover recording so we could test the timings and ensure the script and images made sense when played together. The Young Carers signed this off.

Illustrated storyboards

Once the sketched storyboards were signed off, the storyboards were illustrated in the style design. The illustrations were created using Adobe Illustrator. Some revisions were made before moving onto the next production phase.

Animation

The animation phase started by preparing all the illustrations for animation. This involved separating artwork out onto layers and naming them. The young people recorded the voiceovers at Haynes Music Productions' studio in Derby then the audio track was mixed and edited so it could be animated to. The illustration files were imported into Adobe After Effects then animated.

Character rigs were created using the Duik Bassel plugin for After Effects.

Results

The finished film is being shown in schools across Derby to raise awareness of young carers' experiences, and received a public screening at QUAD, Derby's independent cinema and arts centre.