This was a really exciting project to work on, with a very different approach than we would normally take with animation production.
The focus of the animated video was about Victorian London, and how Charles Dickens often wrote about the environmental issues around fossil fuels and fog.
The video animation project was funded by the Arts Council England ( https://www.artscouncil.org.uk ) via the Dickens Museum in London. (https://dickensmuseum.com)
This made the approach very community based, having various groups involved in the planning process, giving input and helping create scripts and storyboards. A year 6 group was also very much involved in the animation of the video using our sister companies animation software scribbleo.com
All the artwork was created by Drawmill, with over 120 individual hand-drawn illustrations of victorians and victorian London streets and buildings. This was then given to the community groups to piece together the animation and make an engaging and fun animated video.
Once all the scenes had been animated by the Year 6 group, some 28 students were involved. Drawmill then put the finishing touches to the video, fine tuning and making sure things timed well with the audio.
As well as creating all the artwork, Jason travelled in to London several times to work with the community and schools and to ensure people were involved and engaged with the project.
Drawmill also created a character called the Pea-Souper Monster, to help guide you through the video and highlight the problems caused by Fog in victorian London.
The finished animated video and the exhibition itself is being held at the Dickens Museum , at 48 Doughty Street, London – the home of Charles Dickens! It really is worth the visit and a great opportunity to explore what it was like to live in Victorian London.
For your viewing pleasure, the full video can be viewed on this page or via the Dickens Museum website.
Please also note – all the artwork created for this project will be available to use and animate for yourself within scribbleo.com Simply create an account and access the Marketplace via the scribbleo software and create your own victorian London animation!
If you want to create a project similar, then we would love to talk to you. We really enjoyed getting involved in the wider community on this project and highlights what a powerful learning turning Drawmill’s art combined with the scribbleo software can be.
