Mcmaster Engineering co-op & career services
Like most established educational organizations, McMaster University is moving more content to online platforms with each term. The Engineering Co-op department approached us to help add variety and engage students as they worked through the online portion of the course.
the challenge
When the McMaster Engineering Co-op department decided to move portions of their course curriculum to an online platform, they were faced with the challenge of engaging their students with a course summary before beginning each module. They contacted us because they knew an illustrative look of student characters would help explain and prep students for each step of learning.
We were asked to create a series of 6 videos with a cohesive art direction to keep the content streamlined. Each video presented very different content from researching careers to writing cover letters to leveraging social media during job searches.
the Process
This video series was achieved through a strong collaboration with the McMaster Engineering Co-op staff. They provided scripts which we turned into storyboards and then designs and finally animation.
With the need to create a volume of videos, we were also restricted in time and budget. To overcome this challenge, I suggested we use stock illustration for characters and background elements.
Even though we used stock character illustration for our designs, I still revised each character to be unique and fit with the look and feel the Co-op department was looking for.
Character Design from modified stock illustration
Character Design from modified stock illustration
We carried through a cohesive art design for each video - from characters to colour choices to background elements. We also hired the same voice over talents for the series so they would be recognizeable throughout the course.
the solution
The final videos were incorporated into the online modules and continue to introduce each lesson successfully. Check out some of the frames below.
