Fast forward 25 years and she notices a sea-change in the way learning is imparted. Today with the availability of a load of kid friendly online and television content, a child is spoilt for choice. It remains less about whether or not to show animation for learning, and more about what content to show.

Animators working in the early year’s education field say learning is supposed to be the fun byproduct of children’s educational animations. It’s mostly about an eye for detail. Children do not have the attention span of an adult. You need the perfect mix of conveying the message that is not just age appropriate and educational, but also engaging, fun and borderline addictive. You want the child to come back to learn instead of spending time on the other million channels out there.

The Process:

The process typically starts off with a chapter straight off a National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) recommended text book. A story-board would convert the concept in the form of a story with a graphical outline. After the initial mockups are approved, the animation begins. The animators create the animation frame-by-frame and throw life into their favorite cartoon characters. Each character in the setup has his own personality and a funny name to go with it. While the animals and other characters in the animation interact, the learning is achieved as a byproduct.

After the animation is complete, the voice-over artists lend their voice to the characters in a child-friendly tone filled with enthusiasm and emphasis is laid on certain words and terminologies. Finally, the background music and subtle sound effects make it a thrilling combination for the child.

While the actual making of the animated content is a long drawn process, the pre-production (before the making ) also requires us to put on our thinking caps. There is logical reasoning for explaining each story in three separate videos so as to make it easy to understand for the child.

The first video is the “Hook”. It explains the need for the concept. It is usually depicted by a story of a few friends running into some problem and the concept would be really useful to save the day. It explains the concept in just a couple of minutes. Next is the Illustrative Example. It instills the learning by various examples in which the concept can be effectively used. The final video includes Common Misconceptions. It showcases common mistakes that the child can make during the implementation of the concept and how to avoid them.

Children’s animation is far more complicated as compared to adult explainer videos. It needs to have several levels of filters such as it to be age appropriate, include lucid terminology, should be inclusive, neither offensive nor controversial, have big subtitles, and thoroughly entertaining so as to keep the child on his toes throughout the video.

The Indian animation market as a whole is expected to reach INR 189 billion over the coming year. Given the stress on early childhood education in the New Education Policy (NEP 2020), one can expect the children’s animated content to garner a sizable share of the Indian animation market.  

About the Author: Huafrid Bhathena is the founder of Earth Air Technologies and Doubletch India Pvt. Ltd which focuses on developing children’s animation for educational purposes.