Designer’s view on Aarne’s Farm animation narrative

Behind every animated story is a series of creative choices, particularly when the challenge is to transform a complex climate change narrative into a film that is both engaging and accessible, and that resonates with audiences emotionally and practically. In this Designer’s View, the animator behind Aarne’s Farm, Cara O’Donnell, shares the story of the animation process, from early narrative development to visual decisions and collaboration.

Aarne’s farm is a story about an aging farmer and forester learning to adapt to climate change to create a better future for his daughter and land. With this story, we set out to create a video that would summarise the project and connect with people to promote Precilience and encourage participation in the stakeholder workshops.

Written by Research Scientist Karoliina Rimhanen and animated by Designer Cara O’Donnell, with voiceovers and imagery provided by stakeholder engagement lead Lauri Moisander and Research Scientist Markus Melin, Aarne’s Farm is a collaboration between multiple members of the Precilience project and was made entirely by humans.

The making of Aarne’s Farm

By Cara O’Donnell

Before I could start animating, we needed to know who our characters were and what style of animation to use. We also needed to plan the sequence of events in the animation. Here’s how:

Early sketches of our main character, Aarne.

The goal for the visual characterisation of Aarne, an aging father, was to create a character who feels familiar and warm and would resonate with the viewer. His appearance should reflect his life’s work on the farm, being a father, and his hope for the future.

The storyboard used for Aarne’s Farm. A storyboard maps out the events of the animation in low detail and will be followed for the rest of the project.

The storyboard shows Aarne sitting on his porch, contemplating his farm and it’s future. We see the challenges he is facing due to the changing climate, and some of the solutions he has tried. As the story unfolds, we learn he is waiting for his daughter to arrive so they can attend a Precilience workshop together. This was a simple visual story to support the narration and show some imagery familiar to Precilience partners and stakeholders.

Style Frames are done before you start animating. They allow you to explore styles and present your ideas at an earlier stage, helping yourself and others visualise an end result.

For the animation itself, I chose a hand drawn style with vivid colours and brush textures. Hand drawn animation is a traditional technique that is used less often these days, and I hoped utilising this method would further create feelings of familiarity and some nostalgia. The visible brush textures were chosen to give the animation a rustic feel, to match Aarne and his farm, and really emphasise the hand drawn aspect.

While I was working on these frames, Luontoa’s Lauri Moisander became the voice of Aarne and recorded the voiceover.

Once we had our characters, key frames, narration and storyboard, it was time to animate! Everything in the animation was hand drawn with an Apple Pencil and iPad using two pieces of software; Procreate and Callipeg.

Using images supplied by partners in the project as my inspiration, I drew backgrounds in Procreate before moving into Callipeg, where I drew and animated any moving elements.

These sequences were then edited together in Adobe Premier Pro before I moved onto the final stage: sound design!

Sound effects and background noise were added to help bring the video to life and make it more immersive.

See the finished animation here: