GetCheckedOnline.com

A frame from a healthcare explainer video for the BC CDC service GetCheckedOnline. This frame features a light-skinned Life Labs employee with brown hair. She is wearing a blue face mask and is waving hello.

Client: BC Centre for Disease Control
Agency: Bird Comm
Project: GetCheckedOnline.com

Services:

* Art Direction
* Direction
* Character Design and Builds
* Background & Asset Design and Paint
* Storyboards
* Animation
* Compositing

The amazing folks at Bird Comm reached out to me to direct a series of healthcare explainer videos for one of my favourite services: GetCheckedOnline. GCO is a free and confidential online sexually transmitted infection testing service offered by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). What I love the most about this project is that I got to help design a user-centered roadmap.

the challenge

The BC CDC needed to reach folks who might be at risk for sexually transmitted infections and do not feel confident in seeking medical care. Seeing that all sexually active folks are at risk, they needed an accessible solution. The communications team was unsure how to approach the use of characters and video effectively. 

the strategy

Healthcare explainer videos a powerful tool for explaining processes. At first, I focused on character creation based on their clientele. We decided to create three hero characters that reflected the Lower Mainland’s rich cultural diversity.

Our heroes are Getty, Al, and Priya. Getty (named after GetCheckedOnline) is a single queer non-binary Vancouverite of East Asian descent. Al is a partnered Indigenous gay cis man, and Priya is a partnered straight cis woman of South Asian descent.

A style frame proposal for the BC CDC GetCheckedOnline healthcare explainer video project. This is a simple approach featuring a person with broad shoulders, blonde hair, facial hair, and big tattooed arms. They are wearing a red hat, a white t-shirt, and blue jeans. They are looking at a screen featuring the GetCheckedOnline logo.
A style frame proposal for the BC CDC GetCheckedOnline healthcare explainer video project. This is a simple approach featuring a pair of brown hands holding a smartphone. They hands have bright seafoam green nails. The smartphone screen features the GetCheckedOnline logo.
A style frame proposal for the BC CDC GetCheckedOnline healthcare explainer video project. This approach features a person sitting at a desk looking at the GetCheckedOnline logo on their computer screen. The user is a person with long brown hair, thick lips, almond-shaped eyes, and a slender frame. They are in a room that is decorated with bright colours.

After finalizing our list of hero characters, I created look shots in three different styles. From a minimalist approach focusing on screens and UI to a mix of character and screen animations, we decided to opt for a style that showed the character’s faces to foster an emotional connection with the audience. Afterwards, I translated the written script into visuals with a storyboard. This helped the team visualize the story and get a better sense of the narrative rhythm.

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Following a locked script and animatic (the storyboard timed to match the voice-over), I moved on to the last phase: animation. I created all characters and assets using Procreate and Photoshop, rigged with RubberHose and animated in After Effects.