The video is an animated piece created to help children who are considering contacting ChildLine feel comfortable about the process of speaking with a counselor about sexual abuse. This was achieved by focusing on the process of a young person “finding the words” to talk to ChildLine about their situation. We used multiple fictional conversations that might take place between a young person and a ChildLine counselor as a framework. Neither the counselor nor the child’s voice are heard, and the viewer reads the entire conversation accompanied by visuals and animation that conveys the experience of a call.

A wide array of techniques were used to accomplish the visual style of the ChildLine project. A majority of the animation was accomplished via a straightforward hand drawn key-framing process that was finished in Photoshop. However, certain aspects required pre-visualizing camera and object movement using either After Effects (2D) or Maya (3D). Examples of these include the running footsteps that spell out "can't believe I'm telling you this", the merry-go-round, drawer of letters, and the crystals. Later, these animations were finished in Photoshop by drawing over each frame in the desired style. The crystal is the exception, where we used After Effects to treat the 3D renders with the desired style.