Greenwood Primary School children from years 4, 5 and 6 were asked to draw what they think a monster looks like, using their creative imaginations to conjure up some fantastical and wonderful characters.
Over the past few weeks students on the Advanced Creative Media Practice (Digital Arts and Games Design) course, have put their illustrative and animation skills to the test to bring the children’s paper-based characters to life.
The children and their teachers were welcomed into the college’s Create Theatre to see the students’ showreel of their finished designs complete with animations of their monster characters.
Students Mia Blakey and Favour Akintoye presented the show to the group, explaining how they recreated the drawings using 3D digital technology and animation packages.
Mia said: “It took the students six weeks to create the animations using the children’s monsters designs. Each student was assigned a monster for which then they had to create an illustration which can be further used in an animation using a digital software.
“I think that the children enjoyed the animations, and they engaged really well with the presentation and were delighted to get their own paper copy of their monster.
“Presenting to the school in the theatre was so enjoyable as we got to see the children recognise their own monster and express their opinions with their peers throughout the animation showreel. It was a wonderful opportunity to be involved in this project.”
Pupil Cyprian Kusmierczak created a monster which hides under the bed every night. His monster was created by Katie Johnson. He said: “I liked Kate’s work and I think she made him a little bit scarier than I created him!”
Pupil Robyn Sylvie Hamilton said: “My monster is called Ray. She’s a diva and she lives in the underworld. Sophie did a really good job of animating her and she’s made her cute but scary at the same time.”
The children were also given a guided tour of the college so they could see the potential areas of study that they may one day become students in.
Teacher from Greenwood Primary School Mrs Dickson, who accompanied the groups to the college, said: “It’s really nice to see how the pictures have been brought to life through animation and sounds. It’s different to the art from last year so it’s great for the children to experience these different types of media.
“This year we’ve brought more children along and they all want to be part of the monster project – it’s known widely now throughout the school. I hope that we can keep doing this project and we love to see our pupils interacting with the students.
“It was good to have the tour of the college so they can see what college life is like – it’s an aspirational visit and gives them a really good impression of what’s available after school.”
To watch the animated monsters video visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mABE39f0lk