We did things a little differently this time around and had some Lego figures for people to animate with should they wish. Not everyone is a confidant model maker so we animated using figurines was a great way for everyone to join in.

One of the participants is a competent illustrator with a taste for the anime style and with a bit of cajoling translated a character he had designed into a plasticine model which he then set about animating.

We were most impressed by another participant’s skill and joy in mimicking any models we workshop leaders could make. He was so quick that at times all 3 of the workshop leaders were making things for him to copy, that they might get ahead of his relentless pace. By the end of the session the table was heaped with plasticine characters and their doppelgängers.

We also had some paper cut out animation under a camera. While the cutting out was a hit the group were not too keen to animate with it so Dom, the workshop leader, stepped in and animated all the shapes they had been cutting out during the session.

We used a green-screen again but this time around we were able to use videos as a backdrop which resulted in a close encounter with a steam train barrelling down the tracks for one of the participants who had a keen interest in trains.

Working with plasticine is extremely comforting. Warming it up and rolling around in your fingers is probably something I could do for a good few hours. Slowly something emerges from the blob…is that? yes I think it is! It’s a horse/badger/dog! Here, we all sit around a big table, Sophie, Lizzie and me, and some of the guys who attend the National Autistic Society’s Lynx Centre in Weston-super-Mare.

Over to one side Dom has set up a green screen with a live feed to a monitor so everyone can see the electronically created backgrounds. Dom changes them regularly. The backgrounds have been previously prepared based on the participant’s interest. Every now and then someone gets up spontaneously and stands in front of the screen to watch themselves interacting with the background. One of the guys, Brian, is very interested, and I mean VERY interested, in trains and particularly St Pancras Station. He stands under the great curved roof on one of the platforms as if waiting for a train. He is lost in thought. There is a cavalcade of CITV characters to do a selfie with. There’s the inside of the TARDIS and even a street in a town on the edge of some distant Star Wars galaxy.

The day continues at this gentle pace. Some of the participants want to animate the models they have made and Lizzie moves to another table where there are a few iPads set up. Some of the animations are meticulous. Janine creates a complex narrative based on a series of terrible farm accidents. Ian, one of the most silent of the group, loves his numbers and animates a plasticine countdown from 120.

– Jeremy Routledge – CTS Project Leader

As the day winds to a close we had outside with Jess, to experiment popping a water balloon in slow motion like the Slo-Mo Guys while filming with a high speed camera. Jess is much more verbal and independent than some of the other guys visiting the centre and is, in fact doing a media course at Bridgwater College. But he hadn’t tried this yet. As it turned out he was extremely disappointed with the results. Hopefully we can return with a much faster camera next time!

We all sit around the table and roll the plasticine around and start to shape and squeeze. There is some shouting, some disconcerting cries of “Cat-Bear!”, there’s laughter but mostly there’s silence, a good silence. We are, after all, creating stuff, slowly, words aren’t necessary in such a process – Jeremy Routledge, CTS Project Leader

During our last workshop at Stalkcombe we set up a live green-screen set which allowed the residents to film themselves in front of an image of their choosing here are the results! (No sound this time)

To get warmed up we would get the participants to pick their favourite colour that they would like to use and then their favourite animal or character that they would like to make. This generally worked quite well as it was not overloading information or giving too much pressure on what to make.

We would all sit at the table together and start building some shapes or characters – Danni was very good at directing others to make her horses for her, others were happy to sit and play with the plasticine until they had their puppets how they liked.

We had ideas ranging from a couple of elephants called William and George having a bath, to a full James Bond feature film (cut down to one scene once animation started).

Once they had one character they could start to animate which them gave more ideas for additional characters/story. The best thing to do was to get their puppets under camera before they were distracted by building a whole scene.

Another thing that worked really well was having one person pressing the capture button on the iPad and directing someone else to move the puppets and taking it in turns to direct. This was good as the process moved a lot faster, so they could do more with the time, and they seem to enjoy working as a team as they only had to concentrate on one thing e.g. moving puppets or taking pictures.

– Written by Sophie Marsh a workshop leader

Danni’s finished animation featuring horses

Two elephants, William and George, having a bath. A finished animation from the first workshop at Stalcombe House