Hand-animated climate videos
I’ve made 4 videos with the Penn Animation as Research Lab, which total 8 minutes of my own animation in addition to research and storyboarding. My team focuses on Dutch water policy, consolidating climate reports and interviews into concise visual narratives.
Animated connection between Indonesian island and their national symbol.
Challenge
The Netherlands is a global leader in climate adaptation, particularly in flood prevention. Its island municipalities abroad, like Bonaire and St. Martin, have had their climates harmed by Dutch influence without due resources. Climate reports on the subject are hard to parse, so animation serves as a concise way to turn a critical lens to climate policymakers.
Research
My team begins with an in-depth literature review on a specific nation, its climate struggles, and its relationship to the Netherlands. We travel to the location and interview climate experts from a range of perspectives. We do rough landscape sketches and visual ideation onsite, and assist the Lab’s climate professor with scripting.
Storyboarding
Over the next several months, we remotely storyboard, iterating based on feedback from the Lab’s professors and visiting experts, and move to final animation.
Animated connection between Indonesian island and their national symbol.
“River highways” animated concept.
Deliverables
Select clips I animated across several videos, translating our climate data insights into concise visuals.
The Dutch public is skeptical of Meebewegen, a nature-based flood adaptation strategy. They see it as the defeat of more mainstream industrial solutions.
Dutch planners proposed an expensive barrier island around Jakarta, Indonesia. It was intended to be shaped like the Great Garuda, Indonesia’s national symbol.
Bonaire is a raised island protected by coral, while the Netherlands is a below-sea-level landmass protected by raised seawalls.
Greenpeace sued the Netherlands for not investing the same level of climate adaptation for Dutch and Bonairean residents. The Dutch government invested €163 million into protecting a Dutch town of 1,675 residents from flood hazards. If the same care were invested per resident to protecting Bonaire, it would total €2.5 billion.
The Netherlands violates human rights by failing to protect Bonaire residents from climate crisis: court greenpeace.orgImpact
The Lab’s videos are contributing to the global water conversation in policy circles. They’ve garnered four years of repeat funding from eight funders, have been shown at a COP28 event, premiered at the Amsterdam Pakhuis de Zwijger, and are being used in workshops with NGOs in Bonaire. We’ve traveled to and covered the Netherlands, Indonesia, Bonaire, and St. Martin. Videos I’ve worked on include: