In this project, we visualized the impact of refugee travel documents through Ayana’s personal story.

Created for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “Ayana’s Story” is an animated film that follows the journey of Ayana, a refugee who gains access to new opportunities thanks to a Refugee Travel Document.

Through her experience, the film illustrates what this document makes possible: finding employment, securing a livelihood, visiting family, and building a life with dignity and freedom.

All characters and environments were modeled in Blender, with a carefully crafted 2D-style shading to evoke an illustrative look. In certain scenes, hand-drawn textures created in Procreate were also layered in to add visual richness.

This approach resulted in a warm and universal aesthetic that builds an emotional connection with the viewer.