Jonathan Mortimer on New Signs For Animation and Deaf accessibility

Consider the numerous specialized terms which describe the craft of animation: words like keyframe, animatic, inverse kinematics or rotoscoping. Now imagine trying to learn animation in an unfamiliar language with an interpreter who is unable to translate those terms for you. This is the reality that members of the Deaf community face when studying animation or game development.

While teaching a Deaf student as a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, Jonathan Mortimer learned about challenges members of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities experienced when entering the animation industry, which often go undiscussed. He believes that these Deaf and hard-of-hearing artists make up an untapped pool of potential talent and new stories that only they can tell through the medium. New Signs For Animation aims to highlight how the animation industry can be more accessible.

Jon was kind enough to speak with us about this project, the process behind the work and the cause it supports. He tells us about the collaboration process and some of the finer challenges faced when communicating across verbal and signed communication. With an in-depth look at how he anchored the animation pipeline using Storyboard Pro to bring together a wide range of collaborators, Jon is generous with insights and advice from the project. To learn more about New Signs For Animation, and the talented team behind it, read our interview below.

Hi Jon! Please tell us about the mission behind New Signs For Animation.

With New Signs For Animation the drive is to adapt and change the animation pipeline to make it more accessible and more inclusive to those who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing.

When did you become aware of the challenges faced by artists working in British and Irish Sign Language?

I first became aware of the challenges faced by BSL and ISL users in animation when a student from the Deaf community joined my animation class, and I had to adapt my practice with their input. During my own investigations and talking to members of the deaf and Hard-of-Hearing communities worldwide, they highlighted that it was a more global and complex issue then I had initially perceived.

Why is it important that this community has access to the animation and games sector?

On a personal level, my dad is part of the Hard of Hearing community, which gives me a personal interest and investment, along with my love of animation. I believe we could have a vast amount of untapped talent from the hard-of-hearing community, the Deaf community, and others that have never perceived that they could learn or try animation. However you want to describe it, it's just giving a fair opportunity.

I wouldn't have the education that I do, if I wasn't in Scotland. That's why, when I do a talk, I don't charge a fee. I believe education should be free or accessible in some shape or form. If I do get a fee, it’s used as a donation towards the next inclusive project I'm working on. It's trying to make animation as inclusive and accessible as possible for everybody. I’ll work with the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing communities for as long as I'm invited to do so. And hopefully not overstay my welcome.

Can you share any personal stories that illustrate this?

I work at Edinburgh Napier University, and teach animation and 3D modelling. I had a member of the Deaf community come to my class and wanted to engage. The student was a little unsure, so a lot of my job initially was to reassure her and encourage her. I said: "If you can work with me, we will make this happen." New Signs For Animation came out of that experience, working one-on-one with a member of the Deaf community who became my student, and she stayed there. She did her degree, and then she had me as an Honours supervisor. A lot of information and experience came from her.

From what I can recall, it wasn't one eureka moment like: "Oh, my God, this is it!" It was more of a huge learning curve for myself. It was me working with that student and the student telling me, or communicating to me through an interpreter, of challenges. And what I could do in my own teaching practice to adapt and make it work.

For example, part of the assessment that we have requires students to do lip syncing. I worked and spoke with a number of people, and we came up with a methodology to animate using a waveform so that people from the Deaf community can lip-sync. In some cases, they're actually better than members of the hearing community, because they pay close attention to the lips and the general body language. It was a huge learning curve for myself in the last two years. But it was very interesting and intriguing, because it just got me to reset or rethink positions and perspectives.

What’s been your favourite experience working alongside members of the Deaf or hard-of-hearing communities?

I worked with four Deaf artists. One experience that I really enjoyed was working with Deaf actor and signer: Brian Duffy, the lovely chap who is the signer in the bottom corner of the BSL version. It was a great experience for me. Not only did he bring so much energy; we had him in front of a green screen on the Napier campus to record his lines. It was a fun challenge and it was my first experience working with a Deaf actor. I'd certainly do it again and I have recommended others to work with Brian.

How can this enhance the experience of watching animation?

Working with a Deaf actor brought more performance to the language. The great thing about that was I realised we could use more Deaf actors in a signing capacity within animation. Try and imagine Aladdin's The Genie, but not played by Robin Williams: If he was kind of a newsreader that was very mindful and very precise and accurate.

When there is more of a performance, couldn't that enhance that experience for Deaf or hard of hearing children? If you imagine a dinosaur walking across the screen, turns around, and the performer acts while he is signing, it becomes more of an interactive performance. That's something I'd love to explore more.

How can animation and games help people communicate?

New Signs is inspired by that very challenge. It's a question of: “how do we make it as universal as possible?” For me, animation and games terminology, and making it accessible to those from the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing communities, provides a more equal playing field for learners to learn and engage about the subject. Animation for me is that universal language that allows me to try and communicate emotion.

My mentor, Fraser MacLean, who worked for Disney and wrote a book called 'Setting the Scene for Animation', his main quote that I always remember goes like: "For animation, I want you to make me feel something. If I don't feel something, I don't care." And that resonates with me. Communication is making someone feel something.

Tell us about the process of creating New Signs.

New Signs For Animation wasn't initially meant to be animation. It was initially proposed to Edinburgh Napier University's public engagement fund, as a limited motion graphics piece. I used the awarded funds to hire four Deaf artists and two Edinburgh Napier University graduates to work with me to create the project, for the modest budget of £2500.

To keep costs down, I created the storyboards on Storyboard Pro using my own art style. We adapted and tried to push the boundaries as much as we possibly could. We were worried about having too many elements on screen from an animation layout perspective; and worried it may come across confusing and distracting to Deaf and Hard of Hearing audiences. We were keen to have representation from the Deaf community in the short film, with British deaf actor Brian Duffy. We tried to find that threshold and balance of what communicated our story; whilst keeping it focused and concise, within our budget.

The video shares a series of solutions. Can you talk us through these next steps to making these industries more accessible to sign language users?

I propose ideas at the end of New Signs, but generally speaking it’s about engagement. Working with the Deaf community and not for them. Making them included and part of the solutions.

Tell us about the animation style in the short film.

What you see on screen is my own line style. I don't call myself a character artist, but due to necessity and time limits, we went with that. What you see are my initial quick sketches. And we just didn't have enough time nor money to do another pass, with the exception of adding colour.

What was interesting, from a character perspective, was that I initially drew the character without a hearing aid on. Upon consulting with members of the Deaf community, including the Deaf artists I worked with, they were very keen to see a visual indicator and representation of someone from the Deaf community. So they asked for that hearing aid to be drawn and made prominent.

Can you tell us about the process of collaborating on the short?

I think the biggest thing we tried to focus on is: "How the hell do we make this work?" I know, it sounds a very off-the-cuff statement, but that was important. That's why we changed from considering motion graphics to making something more animated. We considered how we could work together and make these pieces fit together. At the end, we also investigated a bit more with loopable animations or simple infographics, and just experimented.

You can take the short film as a whole, but there's actually different animation techniques and styles and methodologies for explaining throughout. You can chop up the video into introducing the character, being more narrative driven, providing information and another in which we look at infographics. That's intentionally done so that I can get feedback about what was successful from different communities: "We liked this, but this didn't make sense." It was actually a bit of an experimentation to see what actually works best and how we move forward.

Were there other challenges on the short film?

The first version was about two minutes long, and was from the perspective of a spoken narrative. All the animation was initially geared towards a hearing audience with timing to suit. I've done a bunch of storyboards for toy commercials with Disney, Hasbro, and so forth. I just storyboarded it the same way I always do.

After I recorded Brian Duffy, the BSL signer and Deaf actor, and composited him, there was one whole minute of time difference; Because some signs take far longer than others, and some take far shorter to explain. So I had to go back in and then re-time and pace everything, because the animation has to be geared to the signer. When working with the narrator, we can slow that down. So the only note I gave the narrator was asking if he could talk quite slowly, then that gives us plenty of time for the signer to do his thing.

Do you have any advice for those learning animation?

I personally love projects, so I love project-based learning. When I work on a project, even if it's a shot or just a little scene — even if it's just for myself — I’ll become inquisitive and will investigate and explore solutions. If there’s no focus or purpose, then I might lose interest.

With any project, you have to make adaptations to challenges that could pop up. But I really like problem-solving. I think a project for me gives me focus and a baseline I can then build and take from. Also, I think it shows great development for a portfolio piece. Regardless if you're a professional artist, or if you're a student, I see it as more illuminative to my passion and what I do. It might showcase a range of skill-sets that a person might not say in an interview or a chat.

Another big thing is talking to people and getting that feedback. I don't want to put a percentage on it, but I would say the vast majority of people that I know that work in the animation community — because it is a community, an international one — I have not met anybody that's not been passionate or interested to say: "what are you working on?"

Everyone who works as a professional, that I've encountered, has always wanted to give some feedback and share ideas. It's almost like kids at Christmas, opening up a new toy and going: "Oh cool, I'll get my action figure, let's get yours and maybe this could happen." It's just pure synergy, and it's infectious. If you've got a good idea, or have that passion, you can't help but just say: "Oh that's pretty cool,” or “maybe you should try this." I think that's a big thing; critical feedback and being receptive to that.

To summarise: having a project, getting feedback, and being reciprocal to any feedback that you might not even want or need initially, are actually the best things for you.

What else do you have coming up?

Next steps. We have to inspire and encourage as many Deaf artists, Deaf performers, and as many other people as possible to experiment with and try animation. New Signs for Animation was a project to show that animation is not only to entertain, but to inform the community and general public about what's going on. I hope that in a small part, that can even be used to inform teachers or lecturers and to say: "Oh, this is a perspective I didn't initially understand or perceive. But now, if I've got a Deaf student in my class, or I might have one come in next semester, we'll watch this."

My Super Dad is the next project and aims to go bigger. We accomplished quite a lot with what we did for New Signs for Animation. We want to expand that work with the BFI, a number of studios, ScreenSkills and others to try and make animated projects. I'm a great believer in project-based work, and I think the best way to work with anybody who's interested in animation is to get them animating. You can try and simulate all you want in different scenarios, but I think the best thing is having a project, having a brief, and just working on it. Also, where possible, give these artists a living wage, so that they're still learning but they're working and earning at the same time, and not expect this kind of work for free.

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• Interested in watching the short with a signed performance? New Signs For Animation can be viewed in British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language.
• Keeping an eye out for news about My Super Dad? Be sure to follow Jon on LinkedIn.
• Read more in-depth stories behind animation on Animation From Every Angle.