This project includes illustrations created for an accounting class in Mount Washington College’s fully online, national degree program. Some of the especially complicated concepts were presented as short explainer videos. The videos were narrated by the subject matter expert (SME), were animated by a multimedia team using Articulate Storyline, and were storyboarded by me.

• My first and easiest task was to identify the concepts that deserved the spotlight of the explainer videos. All of our Accounting SMEs were experienced teachers, so they were able to quickly identify concepts that students found challenging.
• Next, the SME and I wrote a script together. We chose real-world examples; that is, situations the students might eventually encounter in their work lives. We described those examples in a first draft with “blue-sky” brainstorming — the duration could run as long as necessary to accurately convey the material.
• In the second draft of the script, we identified sections of script that could be presented through animation.

This approach organically divided the script into shots for us.

Once the shot list and dialog were finalized, I created the scene “sketches” and camera directions. On a leisurely timeline, this would have been a collaborative process with the SME. On the challenging timeline of reality, I had to quickly piece together some placeholder graphics from internet sources. (Our media team had a library of licensed images, so copyright wasn’t a concern for the storyboards; my images would be replaced anyway.) Freed from concern about image sources and specifics, I concentrated on creating visuals that would guide the animator, inform the viewer, and stay faithful to the content.

When the storyboards were complete, we handed them off to a recording team, who captured the scripted audio and video from the SMEs in a makeshift studio. None of the SMEs had been previously camera-savvy, but they all did a fantastic job. After recording, the media team worked overtime to edit and animate the entire package into completed videos.