Animal Free Research UK - We're not test subjects

Part 01 - We are not test subjects

Part 02 - Healing Broken Hearts

Bringing Awareness to Animal Testing

The goal of this animation project was to create a series of compelling videos for Animal Free Research UK (AFR) to raise awareness of the cruelty animals endure in laboratory testing and the organization’s mission to replace animal-based research with ethical alternatives.

Each video told the emotional story of a different animal that had suffered from experiments, using heartfelt character-driven narratives to connect with audiences, increase awareness, and encourage donations and support for AFR’s cause.
How was I involved?

- Storyboarding
- Character Rigging
- Converting Raster Illustrations for Character Animation
- 2D Animation
- Simple 3D Modeling

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Client: Animal Free Research UK
Contractor: Only the Bold
Illustrations: Eva Gomez / @evagomez7

Overview

Background
Only the Bold reached out to work with Animal Free Research UK on this project. Unlike previous projects, AFR already had a talented illustrator onboard to create the character designs. However, because these videos were heavily story-driven, they required complex character rigging to bring the illustrations to life in animation.
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This project was a collaboration between multiple artists and animators. While I focused on rigging and animating key sequences, other designers worked on animating different parts.
The videos showcased here only highlight the segments I worked on. To watch the full versions, please visit AFR’s YouTube channel.
Challenge
The biggest challenge was that the illustrations were originally created in Photoshop and were not designed with animation in mind. This meant that:

• Characters needed to be rebuilt in vector format to enable complex animation.

• The original art style had to be preserved while allowing for rigged facial and hand animations to enhance expressions.

• Rigging had to be optimized for ease of use, as certain characters—such as Matt the mouse—would reappear across multiple videos.

Storyboarding - Part 02 Healing Broken Hearts

The Process


Storyboarding – Structuring the Flow

‍For Part 02 of the video series, I was in charge of creating the storyboard to structure the narrative—an essential step in ensuring that each character’s story was clear, engaging, and emotionally impactful. I worked on breaking down the scripts into dynamic storyboards, framing each scene to enhance its emotional weight while allowing for seamless transitions between key story beats.

Character Rigging – Bringing Them to Life
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For this project, I worked on three very different character rigs, two of which stood out as they were very different from each other—those being:
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01. Tonino the Lab Rat

This character required a sophisticated face rig to allow expressive head turns and lip-syncing. Challenges included:
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  • Head Rig: Rats’ ears shift position when turning their heads—this had to be simulated despite After Effects’ rigging limitations. I solved this using Joysticks and Sliders, enabling natural movement.
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  • Facial Expressions: The rig allowed eye movement, blinking, and detailed mouth articulation for smooth lip-syncing.
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  • Hand Rigging: Since rat hands are similar to human hands, they had to be highly poseable for natural interaction.
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  • Lab Coat Animation: The character wore a lab coat, requiring special rigging to allow natural folds and movement without excessive complexity.
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  • Reusability: This rig needed to be efficient and easy to use, as Matt (a similar mouse character) would reappear throughout all five videos.
‍02. The Old Dog

The dog was a completely different challenge because:
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  • Quadruped Animation: Unlike biped characters, a four-legged character needed advanced limb positioning to achieve natural movement.
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  • Sitting & Overlapping Limbs: When sitting, some body parts overlap in ways that require masking for smooth transitions.
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  • Speech Rigging: Dogs’ mouths move differently from human-like characters, requiring a custom approach for lip-syncing.
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  • Prop Interaction: At one point, the dog carried a box in its mouth, requiring an overlapping rig setup to animate correctly.
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  • Walking-to-Sitting Transition: A seamless transition was crucial, so leg rigging had to be carefully structured to achieve natural movement.

Animation

Animation Process
This project was less corporate and more narrative-driven, allowing for expressive storytelling techniques rather than rigid motion graphics.
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Key animation techniques included:
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  • 3D Camera Movements: I used After Effects’ 3D camera for parallax effects, adding depth to the 2D animation.
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  • Jump Cuts & Framing: I incorporated more cinematic compositions to enhance the emotional impact.
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  • 3D Integration: In the second video, I used Element 3D & Blender to create a 3D heart-cell chip and a delivery box. These assets were carefully shaded to match the 2D illustration style, ensuring seamless integration.
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  • Fake 3D Objects: Due to time constraints and to streamline the process, some of the background objects in scenes where the camera rotated slightly in 3D space were broken apart and reconstructed as faux 3D inside After Effects.
One of the most rewarding aspects of this project was collaborating with the illustrator, Eva. We refined our workflow, optimizing the pipeline for future animations while preserving the integrity of the base artwork.
Animation Process
This project was a valuable learning experience in both technical rigging and storytelling through animation.

By overcoming the challenges of adapting raster illustrations into animatable characters, we successfully brought these emotional stories to life, making a real impact in spreading Animal Free Research UK’s mission.

  

Thanks for watching!
Project Credits Part 01 & Part 02 — Project Management – Luke Wilcoxon (Only the Bold) + Art Direction & Creative Direction – Eva Gomez & Rodrigo Serna  + Illustration – Eva Gomez + Animation & Motion Design – Rodrigo Serna