Pollinators
To create my animation on Pollinators, I downloaded two free vector images from adobe stock photos (the flower and the bee). I then found two background images I wanted to use on Adobe Animate. I chose these photos specifically because I wanted the colors to be cheerful and reminiscent of spring. I added the first background photo to the title screen and added text (Pollinators). I had to set the title scene to 'stop' prior to the bee and flower scene appearing so they did not overlay. I then created the bee and flower scene by adding a different background photo from Adobe Animate, uploading my two vector images and dragging them from the library. I won't lie, I had so many issues figuring out Animate. I spent a few hours just trying to get the bee to move correctly without the background disappearing. I figured it out after some time and realized the layers were the root cause of the issues. After I finally got the animation to work, I exported it as a Windows Movie file (for some reason mp4 was not an option at all). I then used Clipchamp to upload the animation where I added some fade transitions. I also thought it would be fun to experiment with the text to speech option for the voice over. Since I did not have previous experience with that feature I though it would be perfect to test it. Some of the voices definitely sounded off (they have so many options!), but I went through them to find one I though sounded more human while still having an 'educational tone'. It's quite impressive how realistic they get the voices to sound now as opposed to just a few years ago. Overall, I learned that I need a LOT more practice with Animate to feel confident using it, but I'm glad I had this introduction to the tool.