I just finished up a twelve-episode series for a nonprofit organization through onlinevolunteering.org, featuring animated characters who explain and teach science to children. After receiving the assignment and the topics to cover, I networked with a fellow volunteer with a background in science, to help me come up with a hypothesis to prove or disprove a statement pertaining to the topic, and developing a 15 minute episode depicting the scientific method in exploring the topic.

I advertised for nonprofit voice actors through Craigslist, requesting voicework to be sent through email, or through Skype. I networked with four people for the voice work, two who recorded their own material and uploaded it to our workspace, and two who allowed me to record them on my computer. I edited the vocals myself, found free creative commons sound effects, music, and other foley. I then created hand-drawn animations in a derivative of Photoshop, matched mouth movements to the audio, and compiled everything together into cohesive episodes.

There were three people involved with the quality assurance portion of the project, one directly linked through the assignment, one of the voice actors who expressed an interest in seeing how her voice was being used, and a friend of mine who enjoys seeing my work and critiques it unabashedly and impartially. I reworked three particularly clunky sections in which it was decided that a little more explanatory dialog was needed. It was also through the collaboration of the QA team that we decided that there needed to be a narrator to make the series, and the stories therein, more cohesive.

It turned out to be a really fun gig, and the recipient company, a client in South America, gave me many positive accolades for the work spanning two months.

Probably related:

• September 18, 2011 -- This Week’s Goings-On
• September 12, 2011 -- Something Something Complete
• September 1, 2011 -- Charitable Goings-On