Harold Moss, founder of 22-year-old animation and production studio FlickerLab, has spent his career combining storytelling and technology. His resume includes creating and voicing the three-minute cartoon A Brief History of the United States of America in Michael Moore’s Academy Award–winning Bowling for Columbine (2002) and producing the 2008 Sundance Grand Jury Prize–winning and Oscar-nominated documentary Trouble the Water. Now he is wrapping production on a sixth season of Bleacher Report’s animated show Gridiron Heights.

Moss’ work spans commercials, documentaries, advocacy, political campaigns and animations. He has also produced a large volume of learning content, including creating the series How the Body Works, which is in use in 30,000 classrooms across the country.

A recent project was creating the opening for Reading Rainbow Live, a reboot of Reading Rainbow that has been enhanced for a new generation.

The original animated Reading Rainbow opening evokes a strong sense of nostalgia for kids who grew up watching the show in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Moss and company wanted to honor that sentiment while creating something unique and suited to the show’s new, live format. Like its predecessor, the new open celebrates the infinite worlds to be found in books and the endless adventures to be had there.

“Reading Rainbow was one of the all-time great educational TV shows. Not only does it live on in the hearts of generations of kids who came up with it, but the show remains an absolute gold standard for anyone making meaningful learning content for kids,” Moss says. “I was privileged to learn the art of making such media at the feet of some of the people behind the original show, so it’s just an incredible honor to be part of this reboot, bringing a wonderful participatory and live twist to the project. We’re on the edge of our seats, along with a whole lot of fans, to see this first in what we expect will be many years’ worth of new Reading Rainbow shows, and I look forward to being part of that journey to come.”

We reached out to Moss to find out about his process on the new open, which was built off of the show’s theme song, created by Maxwell Beer, Kenny Harmon and Mark Brymer.

What direction were you given for this project?
To honor the original opening while creating something updated that fits the needs of an interactive streaming event instead of a broadcast series. That meant finding a new take on getting kids excited by the limitless worlds lying between the covers, or behind the swipe, of books. “Travel the world, fly into space, learn and have adventures, all from where you’re sitting.”

Given that reading is one of the best things a brain can do for itself, and that mastering early reading has a truly massive impact on educational and life outcomes for kids, it’s a story we love to tell. It’s why Reading Rainbow was created in the first place and the motivation for bringing it back. Kids need to read, whatever they like, really. Just read, read, read. And that was the energy and message we worked to capture in the animation.

How much input did you have in creating this new intro?
An amazing team of creatives came together to bring Reading Rainbow Live to fruition, not just in terms of raw talent, but also in keeping the spirit of openness, creativity and kindness that so defined the original. This spirit really defined the process of working on the new open. While everyone was clear on what was needed, the process was collaborative and a whole lot of fun.

What tools were used to create the graphics?
Designs were created using Photoshop and a Wacom Cintiq tablet. We storyboarded and animated in Adobe Animate. Compositing and type animation was done in Adobe After Effects.

How did you walk the line between giving the older intro its due while still making the new one its own?

While I was too old to grow up watching the original Reading Rainbow, I was blessed to get to know one of the creators of the original, Twila Liggett, early in my career of making learning media. I also got to work beside one of the original educational designers on the show, Carla Seal-Wanner, for many years. So I learned a lot of what I know about creating learning media for kids from these brilliant women, and the spirit and methods of Reading Rainbow have informed my work since. With all of that, honoring the original show and opening was top of mind throughout the process.

The reverence was baked in. The rest, then, was translating that spirit to the present day and the specific needs of the show’s new online and interactive format.

Were there any particular challenges that popped up?
The original open ran nearly a minute, as it was a broadcast show. Our biggest challenge was adapting the energy and themes of that one-minute animation into the tightly timed open that would work for a live streaming event. I like to think we created an animated haiku, as opposed to the more epic cadence of the original. So the only challenges were the kind we love — creative challenges with a happy result. The rest of the process was, as they say, “like buttah.”