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Drawing the Line for Government campaign

Using animation as a tool to teach young adults about respect has the potential to be a disaster, but is one that production company Halo Pictures has strived to avoid.

Since launching last year, The Line – a government campaign about relationship awareness – has created a strong online presence. One of the main aspects of the campaign is an eight part interactive series dealing with everything from jealousy and break ups to sexting and Facebook feuds.

The series was created through a collaboration between advertising agency JWT and production company Halo Pictures. Production began eight months ago. To date, three of the eight films have been released online.

When pitching the concept to JWT, Halo Pictures were determined to produce something different.

"Rather than doing something trendy, we decided to go from an arts illustrative perspective," says producer Lisa Hauge.

The series features a number of recurring characters in various scenarios that could affect their relationships. The shorts are interactive, allowing users to explore the outcomes of the different choices faced by the characters — should Jess send a racy photo to her boyfriend even though she's uncomfortable? Should Ryan call Emma's friends to take her home after she's had too much to drink?

Visually, the production company wanted each short to look unique. The animators played with the illusion of space to ensure that each short looked different.

"We spent a lot of time in storyboard, making sure each character had a distinctive look," says Hauge.

One of the highlights of the production process for Hauge was working with emerging artists – Halo Pictures invited a number of Year 12 Art Express students on board to aid the animators in the creation of key frames for the series.

"For Australia, it's an amazing project – one that we haven't really seen before," says Hauge.

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