Integrity

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the sea." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

For the last several years, the United Nations International Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) has been guiding the Cartoons for Children's Rights campaign, a broadcast initiative to educate about the rights of children. Partnering with animation studios and independent animators from all over the world, 30-second public service announcements have been created to promote understanding and awareness of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a landmark 1989 treaty that outlines in forty or so articles the rights that should be guaranteed to every person under eighteen years of age: the right to protection from armed conflict, to health care, to education, to adequate standard of living, to freedom from abuse and exploitation, to name and nationality, and so on.

Among the previous contributors to the campaign have been Disney Feature Animation, Nickelodeon, MTV Animation, Pixar, Fil-Cartoons, Saban, HBO Animation, Children's Television Workshop, DIC and Warner Bros.

During the Spring of 2000, a Web-based public forum of animation artists and enthusiasts was considering the possibility of collaborating on a project, using the Internet as a facilitator and platform for production. In corralling together everyone's time, talent and enthusiasm, it was suggested to create a public service announcement for the UNICEF campaign.

Gord Groat, animator, director, instructor and sometimes basketball champion.

Gord Groat, an award-winning and professional artist of twenty-five years, and also a leading instructor and technical advisor for the SCETCH College of Art and Design in Saskatchewan, Canada, remembers, "I felt fortunate to have been introduced to the Cartoons for Children's Rights project. As a father of three, I cherished the opportunity to help UNICEF communicate this important message."

Groat, a graduate of Sheridan College, served as the writer, conceptual and storyboard artist, and director for the forum-inspired public service announcement. He says, "What sparked my imagination was the idea of creating an animated film of international scope, using a global talent pool. I was intrigued by the creative possibilities and wanted to explore the technical, organizational and management challenges inherent in such a project."

The moderator of the forum graciously agreed to host the production on the Website. Roles were determined among forum members, as character designers, sound designers, animators, cleanup artists, colorists, and the like. The fledgling team was drawn from people in Texas, California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Missouri, Utah, and from such "faraway" places as Canada and Slovenia. In correspondence with UNICEF, the team decided that they would animate Article 2 of the Convention treaty, the right of every child to non-discrimination.

Paul Naas, independent animator, and one of the original supervisors for the UNICEF spot.

The Internet became a window for the online community to follow the making of the short animation, as well as a central exchange for contributing members to post, review and access the materials of the production.

Paul Naas, who has fifteen years of experience working as an independent animator and director for video games and location-based entertainment, and one of the early animators hired by the Disney Institute, served as a supervising animator for the Web-produced UNICEF cartoon. He remarks, "The great part of collaborating online is that geography is not a limitation. Our physical distance was not an issue, as we were able to use a central site to communicate information and coordinate workflow. Also, for the same reasons, an online production allows you to work with folks whom you might otherwise never work with in your career."

Groat adds, "There were many benefits to working in a virtual environment. The most profound was freedom of access. When a studio crosses numerous time zones, the tradition of nine to five becomes a moot point. Artists are freed to work during the hours they are most productive, because it doesn't matter where they are in the world, it's the middle of the work day somewhere on the planet."