William Day and Dr. Justin Kunz, Visual Arts – Illustration
This project sought to teach basic life, moral, and gospel lessons in a direct and compelling manner. Working closely with my mentor, other faculty, and artistically minded peers, the project succeeded in reaching a new world audience and sharing life changing content.
Meeting weekly with my fellow illustrator Chelsea Dalton, we collaborated on how to best illustrate the story we wanted to tell. Our video “You are a child of God” gave us the opportunity to blend our style together. Chelsea was very good at backgrounds and really helped the scenes feel complete. We took our progress biweekly to our mentor Justin Kunz and he always gave us valuable feedback. Then after hours of combining background paintings, animation, narration, and music, we were able to submit a beautifully inspiring video to You Tube.
Discovering new technology led me to rethink how to present the story of “How to Pray”. I really wanted the viewer to be highly engaged into the content. I knew that I had to focus my efforts on an app instead of an online video. I felt that in this way, users would have a literal hands-on interaction with the inspiring content. Using TaleSpring.com’s online app development technology I created a children’s book that has interactive animations and audio that not only teaches users how to pray, but what prayer is and how it can bless their lives in God’s plan for them. Making the app free to download has made it especially attractive and easy to access.
The results of my experiment have been extraordinary. They haven’t become viral yet, but they have reached thousands across the world. “You are a Child of God” can be found online at this address http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQo72sWlnWg. Currently, it has 587 views. There were only 7 comments.
“How to pray: an Animated EBook for Kids” can be found on itunes at https://itunes.apple.com/hk/app/how-to-pray-animated-ebook/id587992254?mt=8 Currently there are10,174 downloads averaging 407 downloads per month. Downloads came from 105 countries around the world! The top 20 foreign downloads, in descending order, came from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Philippines, Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Indonesia, India, China, Norway, South Africa, Germany, and Egypt.
We had originally planned to do a third animated video, but after seeing the results of how well the app did, we realized where the real focus should be. The only problem is that apps take a great deal of more resources than animated videos. The great thing is that this project really inspired me to focus on apps not only as a way to spread the Gospel throughout the world, but also as a way to progress in my other professional pursuits.
The app and the video are not perfect. With more time and resources I would improve many things and eventually will. But regardless of its faults, I learned many valuable insights into the market of online teaching. Apps have a much more far-reaching base and are more personal as users download them on their personal and family devices. In order to reach greater audiences, videos, apps, and blog posts must be continually and consistently produced. The content must be varied, as well, as to attract a more diversified audience.
In my original proposal I hypothesized that “my animations will reach a greater world audience. It will help inform world citizens of fundamental truths, introduce them to the restored gospel, and help them progress in their individual lives.” I am so pleased that over ten thousand people have found “How to Pray”. I know that many lives have been touched and I hope that they will recognize those truths and open their hearts to receiving the restored gospel. I honestly would love to give the app to the LDS church so that they can put links inside of it so that people can learn more.
No doubt, this is just the beginning. I have so many ideas I want to make into reality. As I become more financially independent I will spend more time working on uplifting learning material that families can easily access. I know that I will succeed. Thank you for this life changing opportunity, it truly has changed the world.
