Created for the UK Trauma Council, this healthcare animation uses colour, texture, and form to reflect the inner emotional worlds of bereaved young people, offering professionals a gentle, visual way to approach the hardest conversations.
Traumatic bereavement doesn’t follow a neat narrative arc. Emotions arrive out of sequence. Safety and fear coexist. Language often fails, especially for children and young people who don’t yet have words for what’s happening inside them.
For the UK Trauma Council, the challenge was creating a resource that professionals could use without causing distress, while still acknowledging the reality of trauma. Any misstep in tone, imagery, or pacing could shut down conversation instead of opening it.
Animation offered possibility - but also risk. Too abstract, and it becomes detached. Too literal, and it risks re-traumatisation. The work had to hold a careful balance: emotionally honest, visually accessible, and grounded in psychological insight.
Every stylistic decision was designed to carry meaning. In moments of distress, colour drains from the frame. What remains feels cold and sparse. Textures grow harsher. Lines loosen, becoming sketchy and unsettled, never quite resolving. The drawings feel as fragile as the emotional state they reflect. As the story moves toward moments of safety and support, those same elements begin to change. Colour returns gently, never all at once. Textures soften. Lines grow steadier, cleaner, more confident. The world doesn’t suddenly become “fixed”, but it becomes more held.
This visual progression mirrors the experience of traumatic bereavement itself: not a straight line toward healing, but a gradual reintroduction of stability. The animation was carefully paced, allowing space for reflection rather than rushing toward resolution. Silence mattered as much as movement. Stillness carried weight. The craft lay not in adding more, but in knowing exactly when to hold back.
The final animation became a central part of the UK Trauma Council’s toolkit for professionals working with grieving children and young people. It offered a way into conversations that are often avoided, not because they aren’t important, but because they feel impossible to begin.
Qualitatively, the film has been valued for its calm, non-intrusive presence. It doesn’t demand attention. It invites it. Viewers are able to recognise emotional states without being told what to feel, making space for discussion rather than closing it down.
As a visual resource, it demonstrates how healthcare animation can do more than explain - it can accompany. It can sit alongside difficult experiences and help make them slightly more navigable.
If you’re exploring how animation can support complex, human topics with care, we’re always open to a conversation. Explore our other animation case studies to see the craft behind our projects, and how our distinctive approach brings imaginative stories to life.
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