For young creatives, bursting with ideas and a passion for storytelling, a career in animation could be a good step!  This vibrant and dynamic field offers endless opportunities to bring your imagination to life and show off technical skills whilst captivating audiences of all ages.

Dive into a career within an ever growing and evolving artform that enables you to express your creativity whilst at the forefront of technological innovation.

We integrate animation and working with animators in our work often! We collaborate with several freelance animators across our projects; it’s such a fun artform to play with and we love providing opportunities for young people to have a go animating. Animators like artists, tend to develop a distinct approach and signature style, as they progress in their career.

And there are loads of types of animation – freelancer animators tend to become “experts” in one type: 

Traditional Animation
Traditional animation, also known as hand-drawn animation, involves creating each frame by hand. This method was famously used by Disney in their early films. The process includes drawing individual frames on paper, which are then photographed and played in sequence to create the illusion of movement.

2D Animation
2D animation involves creating characters and backgrounds in a two-dimensional space. It can be hand-drawn or created using computer software. This type of animation is commonly used in television shows, video games, and online videos.

3D Animation
3D animation uses computer-generated imagery (CGI) to create characters and environments in three dimensions (think – Toy Story!). This type of animation allows for more realistic and detailed visuals and is widely used in movies, video games, and virtual reality.

Stop Motion
Stop motion animation involves physically manipulating objects or puppets and photographing them one frame at a time. When played back in sequence, the objects appear to move on their own. This type of animation includes techniques such as Claymation, puppet animation, and silhouette animation.

Motion Graphics
Motion graphics focus on animating graphic elements such as text, shapes, and images. This type of animation is often used in commercials, title sequences, and explainer videos to convey information in an engaging and visually appealing manner.

Cutout Animation
Cutout animation involves creating characters and scenes using flat materials such as paper, fabric, or photographs (Think early Southpark!). The pieces are moved in small increments between frames to create movement. This technique is often used in children's programming and educational animations.
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Anime
Anime is a style of animation that originated in Japan and has a distinct aesthetic, characterised by colorful artwork, vibrant characters, and fantastical themes. Anime covers various genres and is popular worldwide.

Meet Lily Mae Kroese
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An animator that we know, love and work with often is freelancer Lily Mae Kroese. Lily is a community artist, specialising in co-production and collaborative art and film making. We recently asked her to write a blog for us – sharing her journey into the creative sector, her career as a full time professional animator and some top tips for young people interested in a career in animation…..

And Lily….as the creative brain she is, decided she wanted to share an illustrated visual storyboard blog; read and enjoy below.

​You can check out some of Lily’s work via the links below:

• Home Isn’t It
• The Water Holds Me / The Water Binds Us
• Now & Next: As told by the young people of NewcastleGateshead

& her collabs with Mortal Fools young people:

• ‘Home’ isn’t always a place, is it?
• Future Ready? or Future Ready!
• The Dazzling Dozen: Confidence is.....

You can find out more about Lily’s work via her website: www.lilymaekroese.co.uk

We believe storytelling is an amazing and powerful tool for young activists! Stories can inspire people and help folks imagine how their world could be different.

This National Storytelling Week we want to share some amazing TRUE stories of young activists to get you inspired. 

What all of these young people have in common is that they started their activism journeys by looking at what they needed and using their own experience to inspire change. 

Keep reading to find out about 4 fantastic stories of youth activism:

Ella Willis is a wonderful content creator and illustrator from Newcastle who uses their own experience as a queer person with autism and ADHD to connect with people and raise awareness of the challenges and stigma that LQBTQIA+ and neurodiverse people face.

They were diagnosed as autistic as an adult and soon found an online community of autistic people they related to, who talked about their own experiences and showed how their different needs and challenges showed up day to day. This inspired them to post their own content and they’ve gained a large following of people from around the world. ​

They tell stories and share their experience through short, engaging and often very funny videos. Some of their recent videos discuss the meaning of the word neurodivergent and their different sensory needs. However, their content is also varied and includes videos about fashion, politics and what they get up to in their day-to-day life.

As well as their content creation work they have also illustrated a book for young people with autism all about how to make different outdoor activities fun and accessible and co-founded the Canny Queer Collective, a group in Newcastle that runs fun and accessible events for queer people in the area. You can find them on Instagram @cannyqueercollective 

You can find them on Tiktok @ellaellaw and Instagram @_ellawillis

Sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen were inspired to get into activism after a lesson in school about people who have made big changes in society including Nelson Mandela, Lady Diana and Mahatma Gandi.

They started looking for things they could do to improve the lives of young people in their local area of Bali. So when they heard that less than 5% of plastic bags in Bali were being recycled they knew they needed to do something about it.

They began their campaign Bye Bye Plastic Bags in 2013 and got their friends and community involved. To get media attention and make practical change they gave presentations, TED talks and distributed alternative bags. In 2018 they organized Bali's biggest beach clean up with 20,000 people who collected 65 tons of waste.

This all caught the attention of politicians and they eventually got Bali’s governor at the time to ban single-use plastics.

​Click here to check out their organisation Bye Bye Plastic Bags

Melissa Cassidy is a Glaswegian writer and disability advocate who shares her life and experience with Cerebral Palsy, raising awareness of the challenges that young disabled people face.  

She started her blog at 14 years old simply sharing about her experiences growing up, writing in a smart, funny and engaging way about the challenges she found in mainstream school, the stereotypes and discrimination she experienced and the pressure she sometimes felt to match her able bodied peers.

She is now 19 and a lot has changed since she started her blog. She’s written a children's book with a fun story that raises awareness of the everyday challenges of disabled people and she started writing for Able Magazine which is the UK’s leading disability magazine. She’s also studying Film and Journalism at University with plans to continue developing her writing and filmmaking career in future.

Her blog is still thriving and is a great resource for young disabled people making the transition from school to university.
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A lot of Melissa’s writing shows how she’s been made to feel different because of her disability. Yet through her writing she’s able to connect with other young people who can relate to her experience. 
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 Click here to read Melissa’s blog Buttons and Ramps

Aren't they all amazing?!

It just goes to show what's possible when you share your own story and open the door to finding a community of people who care deeply about the same things as you and are invested in making meaningful change. 

Drop us a comment and let us know who inspires you!

And if you'd like to write down your own story be sure to check out the free resources from the National Literacy Trust:

If you’d like to see more of young people’s stories then look no further than our upcoming tour of Brainstorm to venues around the North East:

Mortal Fools’ Ensemble Young Company presents Brainstorm - an honest, funny, and thought-provoking theatre show diving into the messy mechanics of the teenage brain!

​​Every day, 86 billion neurons connect, crash, collide, and clash. It’s a cocktail of chaos and constant change.

Brainstorm is a fast-paced exploration of the imperfectly perfect teenage brain, told by 11 talented young performers going through the highs and lows of the teen experience right now. Join them in discovering their relationships, needs, hopes, dreams, fears, and frustrations, in a whole new light.   ​