The Nature Conservancy

I have had the pleasure of collaborating with The Nature Conservancy for many years on their Nature Lab series. We bring these educational videos to life with colourful illustrations and character-led animation. I have worked on this award-winning series since 2020 and counting!

Client

The Nature Conservancy

Project
Nature Lab

Role
Animation Direction · Visual Development · Character Design · Illustration · Animation

Credits

Project Manager – Grace Welland
Producer – Jesse Achtenberg
Creative Direction – Ashley Gutierrez
Art & Animation Direction: Kristen Currier, Rosie Phillpot
Editing – Jesse Achtenberg, Kristen Currier
Illustration – Kristen Currier, Alex Francis, Bekki Lehay, Millie Woodcock, Rosie Phillpot
Animation – Kristen Currier, James Horton, Millie Woodcock, Oliver Sin, Rosie Phillpot

About the Project

I’ve worked with The Nature Conservancy for several years on the Nature Lab, their environmental video series for kids and teens. I joined the project in 2020 to design the animated host character, who has been central to the series ever since.

Since then, I’ve contributed to over 9 episodes as an illustrator and animator, and for the most recent episodes, I have scaled up and directed a small team when required. In 2024, Nature Lab received both an Anthem Award and a Telly Award. I am very proud of this project and how it has developed over the years.

World Development

Character Development

Victoria has been the heart and foundation of Nature Lab for many years. Early on, I was tasked with creating her animated version, designing her in a friendly, approachable style while preserving enough of her real-life likeness to allow seamless transitions between live-action and animation.

In 2026, when Aaron joined as a new host, I applied the same process, adapting him to the Nature Lab style while keeping his real-life likeness, building on the visual foundation established with Victoria.

Animation

Way back in 2020, we initially used Character Animator for the character rigs, at the client’s request. It didn’t take long for us to realise that we needed much more control to animate to the level we wanted. I started building the character rigs in Limber, which I was already very familiar with, and used Duik for the head-turn rigs. This gave us much more flexibility and control over the animation.