The final session!

Gary
Project was great generally but the final session dragged a bit because I finished early and there was nothing else to do....(to be continued)

alex I
final session shame :( but enjoyed it was a good experance and led me to a new hobbie hope that there is another one like this next year :)

alex H
Overall, it was a good experience of learning more about animation, instead of just watching it. It was good meeting new people and it was fun painting my self portrait, even when it went wrong.

1 week to go!

I thought I'd share some pictures from the workshops, showing the breadth of materials used from paper cut-outs, paint and sand to digital techniques. It's an exciting time for everyone as the results of everybodys hard work reveled in the animated film evolving. It's been something of a sprint, making sure we get to the finish line in time, but in those few weeks incredible stories have been shared, and friendships formed. This has been a true collaboration, with artistic and medical practitioners imparting their artistic knowledge, empowering young people to explore their experiences though the boundless power of animation.

The Brain animation...

This is a sneak preview of one of the animations from our Aspergers project. It's up here so another member of the project can view it online and write a script for it, which we can then record at the next session.

Diabetes Screening

Hi,
It was great to see so many people at the screening last night celebrating all the hard work that the group put into the animations. I've added in below the skeleton animation that was made on the night. Hope you like it...

Half term teaser

I'm really excited about this....! These projects show how powerful animation can be as a communications medium. These tests aren't about Aspergers. That's all to come! They are fun explorations of animation from people with some or none animation experience discovering animation for animations sake. Each test was produced during a two hour workshop. Enjoy!

New project begins

Stage two of the Biomation project has begun, working at Lime Trees in York. We are going to be working with a group of teenagers to investigate how people with Aspergers see and interact with the social world.

We've run two 'Taster' sessions, and below is just one of the 'Taster' films we made...







Keep checking the Blog for more updates.

Simon, Dan, David

The diabetes project films

Well here they are. After all the hard work and imagination, the films from the diabetes project are finally up on the blog and looking great. Add your comments to let us know what you think!

Zargon:
This the main film, which the whole group worked on. Many hours of story writing, medical consultation, animating and voiceover recording went into making this film.




For the following two films, having learnt and developed the techniques on 'Zargon' the group split in two and took their chance to make entirely their own films, without interference from the artists...

Computer game:



You are not alone:




We asked the group to sit down in front of a webcam, and answer a few questions about their experiences of having diabetes and what to expect. We hope that these may be of use to young people with newly diagnosed diabetes. There are also some comments at the end about the Biomation project.


Diabetes group comments:

Thank-you for all your hard work

Just a quick note to thank all those that took part in the sessions over the last two weeks for all their hard work, ideas, imagination and commitment. Dan, Miles and myself are all really pleased and impressed with how well you worked. When they are put together with the sound, the animations you did will look brilliant. We will put them up here when they are done, though that may take some time. In the meantime, we've put up a few photos from the project.

Thanks,
Simon


Take a bunch of normal, lively kids, put them in a room with three whacky artists and shout, very loudly, "make a film about diabetes - now !" Every time when I've tried this before it's always fallen flat, but this time it really worked ! Okay, so I've never done this before, but then York
Hospital, as far as we are aware, has never hosted an animation project about diabetes with children before. But all those who took part did a great job, and worked really well. What a great company we have had ! The resulting films will combine educational material with a sense of humour and some zany additions. I really enjoyed working on the script with the young people, an dhelping them storyboard their ideas. I still can't believe I was forced into humiliating myself by riding a tiny red tricycle around the room, but the kids and the other artists thought it was wonderful, so who am I to argue ? Well done everybody, a fantastic piece of work. Thank you for
having me along.

Miles

Hello Biomation!

Hi Biomation! Good luck with the Diabetes project!

Arts Action York have heard brilliant things about the hard work you are all doing on the Biomation project. We are really looking forward to seeing the final productions. From Arts Action York.

Zargon and his escape from the Antibodies...

The diabetes animation project is underway! So far we've had 3 sessions in which the group has come up with a load of ideas; worked out the stories they want to tell, and begun animating - which they've picked up and got the hang of brilliantly. We also had one of the doctors in to help make sure all the details in the stories are correct, and answer a few questions about Diabetes. It's all going really well so far.

Next Wednesday we'll find out how Zargon gets on in his journey to the Heart and to the Pancreas...

Taster Session Animations!

Well here they are! The animations created at the 'Taster Sessions' last week. And they look great! And for the first time you can see your animations with the sound you created too. Let us know what you think of them by adding a comment to this Blog...

Park animation: (Patrick, George, Jennifer, Billy)



Flipbook animation: (Everyone)



Edward animation:



Ruth animation:



Sian animation:

Half-term cartoon heaven!

Well it's finally begun! After many months of careful planning, it was great to get going with the BioMation half term workshops. I thoroughly enjoyed working with so many talented children, young people and artists. I had a ball making flipbooks with everybody and I can't wait to see them with the sound tracks everyone was creating with Dan. Watching the filmed flipbooks on the computer was a real buzz. It was cool to see so many familiar faces from Wednesday come back on Friday and do even more amazing animation.

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of you again when we start making animated films about diabetes. Keep posted - the animated flipbooks will appear on the blog in the next few days... can't wait!

Taster sessions going great

We had our second taster session today and the group seemed to really enjoy it again - we certainly did! There were loads of excellent creative writing, sound and animation ideas and after tomorrows session we'll start putting the audio and video together and uploading bits to the blog. Keep watching for lots of new short pieces in the next week. We've been really impressed by everyones enthusiasm and creativity so far - hopefully tomorrow will be just as productive!

cheers, Dan

The latest animation!

Thanks to all of you who took part in the clinic session last wednesday - I've posted the animation you made below and think it looks great. I hope you all like it!

Don't forget - the 'Taster sessions' are this week and you should have had a letter confirming when you are booked in. If you are unsure, please ring Moira Digby to check.

The sessions are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9.30 - 12.30.

There will be some exciting animation, story and sound workshops giving you a chance to discover or develop skills and ideas, and see if you are interested in joining in the longer project.

Look forward to seeing you there,

Simon

Up and Running !

This week we've had a number of planning meetings. It's great to be part of a strong team. It's the first time that I've worked with two animators and a sound specialist ! As a writer, I get used to doing my own thing - Biomation provides a chance to do something very different - a really good thing ! But will my pencils need PAT testing ?

Miles

A bit more information about the taster sessions

Thanks to all of you who have confirmed a place on the taster sessions with us. If you haven't yet, please contact Moira Digby as soon as you can... A letter will be going out to those of you who have confirmed.

A reminder of the dates - Weds 30th, Thurs 31st May and Friday 1st June from 9.30-12.30 a.m at the hospital.

At the taster session you will get to try professional animation, digital sound/music and creative writing tools and techniques. We hope to show you the possibilities and give you hands-on experience of modern digital media production.

Following the taster session you can choose to join a longer project where you can develop your skills and produce a pro-quality piece. The project will run through June and July so if you're going away on holiday please let us know the dates at the taster session and we'll do our best to work around you!

We look forward to seeing you then,

The Biomation artists

First 'taster session' at the clinic

Well the first 'taster session' happened at the clinic yesterday - thanks to all those who took part. We set up a very simple hand-drawn animation and sound workshop, and while people were waiting they could do a bit of each. This was to give them a chance to see what the Half-term week sessions will be about.

We got some nice bits and pieces from it (though we had to fit in with appointments and so on) and below is a video of what we made on the day...

Thanks again to everyone who took part!

Welcome to Biomation

Welcome to the Biomation Blog! This will keep you informed as this exciting project continues and let you know what is happening, as well as displaying work as it is completed. Below is an example of the kind of animation we may do - you could see your work here soon! Keep checking this site for the latest updates...



This is a video from a Creative York session we did before the project properly began: