The media narrative favours one issue and one human faith at the time. Therefore, most conflicts are not covered by media at all, while some conflicts get all the attention.

But what if one child could speak for everyone?

#ForSofia

We used 500 of images of children in UNICEF emergency areas and crafted them into one girl. We named her Sofia. (the world's most common girls name). Then we got the 3D animators from Planet of the Apes and Avatar to turn her to life. In a Facebook film, Sofia could give a voice, and a face, to all those children who are not heard or seen.

The call to action:

"Help the children no one sees. Join us in the fight for att better future for all the children. Become a Global Parent today. Unicef.se”

We morphed together 500 images of children in UNICEF emergency areas, using the tool Face Research. The final image was mounted on our 3D-model, which was made by scanning an actress similar to the morphed image, using our photogrammetry 3D scanner.

We recorded video and audio of the actress performing the scene using a head mounted camera. The video was analyzed and the facial expressions quantified and then applied to the 3D model to have it animated according to the captured performance. The modification to get the model to look like Sofia was made using Mudbox. Final animation touches were made in Motionbuilder and Maya and then rendered using Arnold. Average frame render time was around 30 minutes long. The process was complexed and challenging, since we created a human face in CG, and a child’s face at that, which is even harder than a grown up’s.

Facebook was our main channel for the film. We added it on Youtube, to make it easier for journalists to highlight the initiative. The film was strongly supported by PR and UNICEF:s owned channels.The film was also exhibited on Stockholm Art Week, in prestigious Gallery Duerr.

UNICEF works to give a fair chance in life to every child, everywhere. But getting attention for emergencies that aren’t highlighted in major media is a struggle. Another struggle is to highlight children in difficult situations while protecting their integrity. For UNICEF, having a virtual child to connect to, describing stories taking place all over the globe, was both highly brand relevant and problem solving at the same time.

The campaign ran between 12th April - 2th May 2016 launched with the film on Facebook. Followed by a media/blogg reachout. UNICEF’s Ambassadour highlitghted in their channels, told the stories of children in emergencies no one talks about.