Since fall 2021, school districts in the Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES region have been seeing world-class animations come to life in their school hallways thanks to new programming offered through the Information Technology Department at CA BOCES.
Through a unique partnership with Rochester Institute of Technology’s MAGIC Spell Studios, the team at BOCES has been offering customized animation offerings to component school districts in the region.
Michael Graf, BOCES Information Technology director, said he has been pleased with program development.
“Our newly-created animation department and our partnership with MAGIC Spell Studios has allowed us to offer animation on a broader scale to our component districts at a reasonable price through existing CoSer structures,” he said.
MAGIC Spell Studios, LLC, is the entrepreneurial and commercial heart of MAGIC at RIT. Encompassing a fully functional film sound stage, sound mix and color correction post-production studios, a 4K Dolby Atmos theater, and several working media laboratories, MAGIC Spell Studios and their student and faculty talent have been working on various projects in local districts.
BOCES is currently working with several regional school districts on various projects that include animated versions of administrators and mascots, character education animated storylines, 2D/3D creations for use in sensory rooms and hallways and custom athletic animations for digital scoreboards.
Allegany-Limestone Central School District is one district that has utilized animation programming this year. Superintendent Tony Giannicchi said that he has been most pleased with the opportunity to include staff and students in the process.
“With project storylines and scripts created by staff and students, it was a great opportunity to include them in the animation process,” he said. “This increased overall engagement.”
Belfast Central School District has used animation to promote relationship-building between staff and students. Superintendent Wendy Butler said that students and the community have responded well to these new messages.
“Our animated pieces have been a nice way to encourage students and bring positivity to our building – which is so important, especially now,” she said.
Randolph Central School District has also seen increased engagement with the inclusion of animation pieces. Superintendent Kaine Kelly said that the animated messages they created were aimed to help in student comprehension for a variety of messages.
“In today’s environment, our students are asked to understand so many messages and instructions,” he said. “Our animations featuring familiar administrators and staff, and even our service dog, has helped soften messaging and bring a new sort of energy and understanding to those messages.”
For more information on the animation programming at CA BOCES contact Michael Graf at 716-376-8218.
