Emerging Minds partners with Studio Squeak to help educate families on children’s mental health

Emerging Minds has released a new animation as part of an evidence-based suite of resources to support parents’ understanding of child mental health.

“Understanding Child Mental Health” is a two minute animated short, produced by Studio Squeak, that brings key concepts about children’s mental health to life in a way that is easy to understand and inspires further thought and action.

Developed in collaboration with families and practitioners, the new suite of assets offer practical and accessible information about what children’s mental health is, what shapes it, and how to nurture and support it.

Introducing Emm.

Emm, the child character introduced for the first time in “Understanding Child Mental Health” was developed to appeal to a wide audience and will be a central part of the rollout of the new resources over the coming months.

Says Ben Rogers, manager of digital health at Emerging Minds: “We can’t prevent children from experiencing stresses and difficulties, but we can support families to help parents to provide warm, consistent parenting to help children thrive. By working together to build parents’ understanding of children’s mental health and how to nurture it, we can support better outcomes for children and families now and into the future. We have been thrilled to work with Studio Squeak in the development of Emm.”

Says Zenon Kohler, creative director at Studio Squeak: “We pitched a 3D style for this animation, as we felt it was the best way to ensure the audience could form an emotional connection with Emm.

Emm’s character was designed to be relatable and showcase a range of emotions, while still retaining a child-like energy. The theatrical setting allowed us to change scenes and environments efficiently and gave us licence to be a little more abstract when touching on complex concepts. Using painted flats (such as the giant sun), lighting changes to coincide with Emm’s mood changes, and projected graphic elements, we were able to condense a lot of messaging and emotion into a short amount of time. It was an absolute pleasure to go on the journey from scripting and concepting to final delivery with the team at Emerging Minds. ”

Click here to learn more about how to make a difference for children’s mental health.

Emerging Minds
Project Lead – Alicia Ranford
Content Development – Lisa-Maree Herron
Communications & Marketing Manager – Jocelyn Somerford
Multimedia – Josh West and Will Mortlock

Animation by SQUEAK
Creative Director & Supervisor – Zenon Kohler
Animation Director – Ian Anderson
CG Supervisor and Lighting – Phil Jackson
Animation – Ahmed Nashabe
3D Artists – Rob Conn and Leyton Brown
Compositor – Bruno Ribeiro Profeta
Animation Producer – Sarah Taylor
Animation Coordinator – Rylee Bannan

Post Production by Cutting Edge
Executive Producer – Trelise Blade
Senior Producer – Samara Keune
Sound Design – Michael Thomas and Renee Park
VO Record – Mike Lange
VO Talent – Lola Lange