Climbing Out of Darkness: Animating Nawwara's Mission of Mental Health Support

Introducing Nawwara

Nawwara is a hub focused on providing mental health support and resources. The platform aims to give professionals working in mental health access to credible information and a supportive community.

As a hub for mental health, Nawwara's goal is to be a comprehensive resource for anyone seeking mental health information and support. However, it has a specific focus on supporting those who work in the mental health field themselves. These professionals dedicate their lives to helping others improve their mental health. Yet they can also face burnout, compassion fatigue, and other mental health challenges in their demanding roles.

Nawwara wants to provide these mental health professionals with evidence-based resources to support their own wellbeing. This includes techniques to manage stress, build resilience, and find community with others who understand the unique challenges of their work. The platform curates trustworthy information and first-hand stories from the field to help mental health workers feel informed, empowered, and cared for themselves.

By supporting the supporters, Nawwara aims to create a ripple effect of improved mental healthcare across society. The platform creates a space where mental health professionals can access the credible resources and safe community they need to continue providing quality care for all.

The Animation Project

I created an animation and illustration project for Nawwara's website. This project included several key deliverables:

- Logo Animation - I crafted an animated version of Nawwara's logo using Adobe After Effects. This brings their brand to life.

- One Minute Narrative Animation - I storyboarded and animated a 1-minute narrative animation that illustrates Nawwara's mission through metaphor. This video aims to connect emotionally with viewers.

- Character Designs - I designed original characters to represent Nawwara's values in the narrative animation and other graphic elements.

- Illustrations - I created custom illustrations for Nawwara's website and social media channels to reinforce their branding.

- GIF Animations - I produced short looping GIF animations that can be used across Nawwara's digital presence. These add visual flair.

This multifaceted project allowed me to showcase my skills in animation, illustration, and graphic design. The assets I created aim to strengthen Nawwara's brand identity and engage their audience.

Intro Animation

The intro animation tells a visual metaphorical story about a climber overcoming difficulties with the support of a community behind him. He starts off alone, struggling to climb a tall mountain. As he continues, more climbers join behind him, supporting him and giving him the boost he needs to make it to the top.

This intro animation illustrates the role of Nawwara in supporting the mental health community. Just as the climber receives support from the group to overcome the challenges on his journey, Nawwara aims to provide that credible support system for mental health professionals and anyone seeking mental health resources. The animation demonstrates how having a community behind you can help you achieve your goals, which is the purpose of Nawwara's online platform and services.

Creating the Intro Animation

The intro video for Nawwara was created through a meticulous frame-by-frame animation process. This behind-the-scenes video gives a glimpse into the steps involved in crafting and animating the intro.

First, I focused on developing the overall story and script for the intro. As Nawwara is a hub for mental health support, I wanted to create a narrative around overcoming challenges with help from a community. I settled on using a mountain climber metaphor to symbolize this journey.

With the story and script in place, I then began the animation process. This involved drawing each frame individually in Adobe Photoshop. For a video of this length, that meant crafting around 1400 frames to bring the story to life.

It was a labor of love to draw and animate each frame, paying close attention to continuity and timing. The behind-the-scenes video shows my workspace during this process, with the Photoshop file open as I created each frame. It provides an inside look at the steps of sketching, lining, coloring, shading, and finalizing each frame before moving on to the next.

The final result is a smoothly animated intro video that illustrates the intended metaphorical narrative. The behind-the-scenes peek gives viewers an idea of the time and care that went into animating each second of footage through meticulous frame-by-frame creation. It showcases the process of building an animated story from script to fully realized animation.

Logo Animation

The Nawwara logo animation was created with Adobe After Effects. I designed a smooth motion graphic animation of the Nawwara logo that fades in and animates into place. This polished logo animation is used at the end of the intro video, providing a professional finish.

Using After Effects allowed me to carefully craft the motion and timing of the logo reveal. I was able to make the logo emerge smoothly, piece by piece. The end result is a clean, engaging logo animation that captures viewers' attention.

Creating the animated logo in After Effects gave me a great deal of creative control. I was able to iterate and refine the animation until it met the visual style and branding needs of Nawwara. The motion graphic logo animation adds production value and visual interest to the intro video and Nawwara's overall brand identity.

Other Deliverables

For this project with Nawwara, I created a number of other visual assets in addition to the intro animation video. These included:

- **Character Designs and Illustrations for the Website and Animations**: I designed original characters that represent different members of the Nawwara community. Each character has their own unique personality and backstory. I then created custom illustrations of these characters that can be used across Nawwara's website and in future animations.

- Gif Animation Looping Vignette: One deliverable was short looping gifs animation that visually communicates part of Nawwara's brand mission. These gifs show a cyclical journey and can be embedded on the site. I illustrated the frames and animated them.


Overall, I aimed to create a diverse set of custom art and animations that support Nawwara's brand strategy and allow them to better connect with their audience. The illustrations, gifs and intro animation represent just a sampling of the visual content produced during this collaboration.

Animation Skills

I have developed strong animation skills through my education and professional experience, which allows me to bring movement and emotion to hand-drawn characters. For the Nawwara project, I used this technique to animate the climber character and convey his struggles and growth.

In addition, I have experience with motion graphics and logo animation using After Effects. I created the animated Nawwara logo at the end of the intro video, carefully timing the transitions and movement to match the music. Motion graphics skills help me develop polished animated elements and branding for clients.

Finally, I excel at crafting engaging stories and concepts as the foundation of animated projects. For this video, I developed the climber metaphor and wrote the script to communicate Nawwara's mission as a supportive community. My ability to develop compelling narratives and characters is crucial for producing quality animations that connect with audiences.

Visit Nawwara

Nawwara is an important organization providing mental health resources and a supportive community. Check out their website to learn more about their mission and the services they offer.

On the Nawwara site, you can:

- Find mental health articles, tips, and credible information
- Connect with others in the mental health community
- Discover ways to get involved as a volunteer or donor

Be sure to watch the full animation video I created on YouTube and see more of my illustration work for Nawwara on Behance.

Getting involved with Nawwara is a great way to support mental health professionals and expand access to mental health resources. By volunteering, donating, or helping spread the word, you can make a difference in this important cause.

Join the Nawwara community today and help create positive change for mental health!

Nawwara Website

Full Animation Video

Behance Project