Hampshire: Southampton Solent University animation students feature on TED-Ed

Two second-year animation students at Southampton Solent University have worked on an educational video that, after being uploaded on to YouTube on January 26, has already generated over 40,000 views.

The video was produced as a TED-Ed original and will form part of a growing library of carefully-curated education videos, many of which are the result of collaborations between expert educators, screenwriters and animators.  TED-Ed is the latest initiative to feature on TED – a website known to millions of teachers and learners all over the world

Adam Comiskey, senior lecturer in animation, explained: "By working with TED in a private capacity, I am able to offer ‘real world’ experience to students when the opportunity arises. In developing an animation that asks ‘Why do buildings fall in earthquakes?’ the students were able to tackle a subject that we thought would generate a lot of interest.

“The two students involved, Ashleigh Campbell and Adam Southey, spent four weeks working on the video using physical simulations and traditional animation.  I think the results speak for themselves and our students now have a truly awesome credit under their belts.”

Southey said: “Our lecturer told us what he wanted, the style, and how it should be animated and designed.  When it was in production we connected with each other by sharing files and seeing how we could make improvements.”

Comiskey added: “I have never worked on anything client based before, and it was really cool to work on something for TED.  It’s a site I use quite a lot so to be able to contribute was amazing.

“I had a few challenges to begin with as I work primarily in 2-D and needed to use 3-D software for this but I have learned a lot.  If I was to start it all over again, then I know that already there are things I would do differently and ways in which I could improve.”

To view the video click here.