Prepared task for the Queensland Virtual Academy: an original Australian animal avatar that introduces itself to primary school students in 5–10 seconds.
The brief and the audience
Primary school covers ages 5 to 12, so I designed for the middle of that range and made sure Digsby still works at both ends. For younger students, he has soft, rounded shapes, a warm palette and big, clear expressions that are easy to read at a glance. For older students, who switch off quickly if something feels babyish, he’s capable rather than cute: more a favourite teacher than a toddler’s toy.
Design decisions
For this brief, I tailored the character to a learning area QVA is already developing on-demand materials for: Design and Technologies. I chose a wombat because it’s a natural builder that digs and engineers its own burrows. Existing illustrated and animated wombats didn’t give me much to use as inspiration for this purpose, so I explored concepts in Adobe Firefly. Most of these drifted towards beavers, bears and mice, but they helped me pin down what makes a wombat look like a wombat: a broad, flat nose, small ears set low on the sides of the head, almost no neck and very short legs. I designed the final character myself around these features.
My first idea was a builder in a hard hat and hi-vis, but I soon realised that was disconnected from what primary Design and Technologies actually looks like. Students work with cardboard prototypes, paddle-pop-stick bridges and simple circuits in makerspace-style classrooms, not on building sites. So Digsby became a teacher-maker: a polo with rolled-up sleeves, safety glasses and a pencil tucked behind his ear. His line, “Let’s design it, build it and test it!”, mirrors the design process students follow in the curriculum.
Accessibility and learning design
Captions are burned in and match the dialogue word for word, set on a dark box so they stay easy to read against any background. The motion is gentle, with no flashing. I kept the audio to Digsby’s voice alone and very subtle sound effects, with no music under the dialogue, so students can focus on what he’s saying without extra sound competing for their attention.
Building a reusable rig
I built Digsby as a rig that can front future content, not as a one-off animation. The artwork was drawn in Illustrator on separate layers, then rigged in After Effects with Duik, with IK on the arms and legs and controllers for the spine and head.
His hand poses (rest, open, fist and pointing) are swappable, controlled from a dropdown on each hand controller. He has a full mouth set, with lip sync generated by Rhubarb Lip Sync and refined by hand, plus a blink control and lower lids on a slider for happy, squinting expressions. Shadows are separate layers that move with the parts casting them.
The master rig is kept separate from each animation, with consistent naming and locked artwork, so the character is ready to hand over or reuse for the next clip.
Tools and AI
I sketched the initial concepts in Procreate, then drew the final character in Adobe Illustrator, with each part on its own layer, ready for rigging. Digsby was rigged and animated in Adobe After Effects using Duik Ángela, and his lip sync was generated with Rhubarb Lip Sync, then refined by hand.
I used Firefly Boards, with Adobe Firefly and partner models, to explore early character and background concepts. I designed and illustrated the final character and background myself. Digsby’s voice was generated with ElevenLabs, using a licensed Australian Professional Voice Clone, and the sound effects were generated with Adobe Firefly.
Next steps
A pose library for faster new clips, a mouth override control for fine-tuning lip sync, and additional outfits so Digsby can front other subjects.