This past month I got to work with Mongabay Kids, a nonprofit environmental science and conservation news platform that aims to provide high quality, engaging, and inspirational nature & conservation media for kids (ages 6-14) around the world.

The goal for this project was to create an animation that focused on plant related issues. I paired up with a couple other graphic designers to help accomplish this task quickly.

 After a week of brainstorming, my group constructed an animation that focused on the life of a Mangrove tree seed.

*side bar*
…The life of the Mangrove tree is anything but ordinary. These trees store more carbon than terrestrial forests, they help fight coral bleaching and climate change, and are home to many
species off the coast of the Amazon. They provide natural infrastructure and protection, as well as prevent erosion and absorb storm surge impacts during hurricanes..

In the animation my group created a short story based on a Mangrove tree seed, or propagule. The propagule gets carried away from home and goes on an adventure trying to find his way back to his mangrove family. We lightly touch on a few seed dispersal methods in the animation; animals, water, and human as well.

This concept was chosen with the intention to educate children on the amazing life of the Mangrove tree. Most children, living outside of the Amazon Rainforest, will never get the chance to see a Mangrove tree in its natural
habitat, nor be taught about how essential they are. With hopes to bring awareness to this issue,
We created an animation to help spread the word and fascinate children about the amazing life of plants.

Below are a few 2D animations I made in various stages: beginning (outline), middle, and end (colored). My group chose to go the 2D route because it felt more genuine. We wanted to add life to our animation, where we had full control to edit the figures and backgrounds in any way we saw fit.

 Overall, this project was very eye-opening. This was the first time I ever worked with a group on an animation, and I learned a lot from the experience. I really liked how it turned out, although, if I could go back and change some things I would make the full animation look more cohesive and perfect the timing and audio a bit more as well. :)

*mongabay kids logo* :)