Barbadian artists will once again turn on the Living Screen – through a series of computerised animation technology workshops conducted under the aegis of the National Council for Science & Technology and facilitated by Toon Boom Animation Graphics.

Students of the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic, the Barbados Community College and the UWI were also the target of a special focus on Animation in Education one-day workshops on June 10th and 11th at BIMAP. It is part of the NCST’s mandate to contribute to the internationalisation of Barbados through the application of science, technology and innovation. This year the introductory workshops have been extended to two, giving the opportunity to 40 Barbadians involved in any type of graphics, the opportunity to be introduced to, or hone their skills in this rapidly-burgeoning industry, which raked in more than US200 billion worldwide in 2009.

The first animation workshop was conducted in November last year at BIMAP training centre on Harbour Road. This year the venue will be the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination (EBCCI), Cave Hill Campus. The first workshop was conducted June 14th-18th, and the second from June 15th to 18th. The need to launch 2 workshops this year underlines the intense interest in this relatively new field for Barbados, and participants are expected to include graphics artists who work in illustration, character development, painting (digital), colour/lLighting, concept art and background/set design as well as rendering, animating and motion tweening, scripting, storyboard, art direction and production planning, cinematography and special effects.

A number of organisations are assisting in this effort, among them the EBCCI, BIMAP, Invest Barbados, AnimeKon and BANG. BANG is a substantive result of the first animation course, formed to give new and developing animators assistance in furthering their career objectives.

This year’s series of animation workshops will also include a certification programme, which will be open to a limited number of people who have successfully concluded the introductory programme, or who have sufficient experience in the field. This was held at the EBCCI from June 19th and will end June 25th. An introductory “Train the Trainer” workshop was held from June 21st – 25th. The venue for this will also be the EBCCI.

On June 24th, the EBCCI hosted an important strategic planning session. Participants at this session to chart the future of animation in Barbados are expected to include Toon Boom Animation, the NCST, EBCCI, BIMAP, Full Circle Animation, BANG, Invest Barbados and AnimeKon.

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