Consent Animation – Newcastle University
This consent animation, titled “What is Consent?”, was commissioned by Dr. Jay Wallace, Sexual Violence Liaison Officer at Newcastle University, and released jointly by the University and the Students’ Union. As an educational animation for higher education, the script was shaped in collaboration with Newcastle University students, who informed it with their own lived experience. That input grounded the piece in the realities students actually face, including the power imbalances that can affect a person’s ability to freely give consent.
The piece combines hand-drawn and rigged character animation in After Effects. I chose an intentionally naive visual style for two reasons. It softens heavy subject matter, acting as a protective measure for viewers who may have lived experience of sexual violence, and it allowed me to embody diversity in the characters without tokenisation. This kind of sensitive, character-led approach is something I bring to a lot of my animation work with universities and researchers.
The animation has had a lovely long life beyond its initial release. It forms part of a suite of videos made available to students each year during induction, and it remains a featured resource on Newcastle University’s Student Wellbeing pages supporting sexual violence prevention and active bystander education. The cast of characters has gone on to live a life of its own too, reappearing in my drink spiking animation for the university and featuring as standalone characters in wider student communications. That reuse is one of the quiet benefits of a custom animation, since a well-designed character set can support a whole campaign rather than a single video.
It was a privilege to work on such an important topic with a thoughtful team behind the scripting.
If you’re a university, researcher or organisation working on consent education, sexual violence prevention, student wellbeing or any sensitive subject that needs handling with care, I’d love to help you bring your work to life through animation. Get in touch.
