Justin Milgate

I feel so fortunate to have been able to work as an animator on the film Saleem. This film is part of a larger project called Amal For Children (AFC) that seeks to bring healing and empowerment to children suffering from extreme stress and traumatic life events. The main character of the film is a young boy named Saleem who is suffering from trauma caused by war. With his mother and sister, he moves to a new town and makes new friends that join him on an adventure that brings healing and changes their lives for ever.

What this project impressed on my is how animation can be used to better the lives of others in a tangible meaningful way. I always believed that art and animation had the power to communicate ideas and tell stories that could change lives and minds, but here was an example of it’s ability to also teach children very specific therapeutic principles and techniques that could help bring long term healing. The writers and producers at DigiTales Media were able to utilize animation to provide counseling to children who might not otherwise have access to it. This was amazing to see and be a part of.

One of the challenges I faced as an animator on this project was learning to create lip-sync in a language I didn’t speak. The film was created in Arabic with English subtitles. So while I knew what the characters were saying and feeling, how they said it was a learning curve for me and other members of the team. The Arabic language has some unique sounds and even the sounds I could recognize I found would sometimes be made with very different mouth shapes. Our production team helped us out by providing video reference of the lines being read. This was a simple solution but a huge help, allowing us to study and observe how the mouth looked and transitioned so that we could author believable lip-sync for our characters.

As my first animation job after graduating from Animation Mentor, this experience helped solidify many of the processes and workflows that I learned in school. The value of thumbnailing and shooting reference for everything, blocking in the main poses and beats of a shot first, and developing ways to quickly see a shot with “fresh eyes”. I learned the value of taking time to develop a pose library and create tools to help speed things up later in production. I also had the support of a great director who’s willingness to take a chance on this young animator, offer support, and take time to teach me not only helped to get my career started but also helped build a little self confidence and kept me excited to continue learning.

**If you are interested in arranging a screening or if you are part of an organization that helps refugees and asylum seekers be sure to visit The Amal For Children website at https://amalforchildren.com to learn more about the options and tools available.**