Young Mansfield imaginations transformed into animated monsters at college showcase

The annual monster project encourages local primary school pupils to unleash their imaginations by designing unique monsters, aliens and fantasy creatures. Students at the college are then tasked with transforming the children's artwork into professional illustrations and animations.

This year, pupils from Abbey Primary School visited the Create Theatre at the college’s Derby Road campus to watch their colourful characters appear on the big screen.

Earlier in the year, the children were challenged to create their own monster designs using pencils, paints and crayons, with no limits on creativity.

Their drawings were then handed over to students studying advanced creative media practice (digital arts and games design), who interpreted the artwork and brought each character to life through animation.

Combining artistic techniques with digital design software, the students produced an animated showreel featuring every monster created by the schoolchildren.

The special screening gave pupils, parents and teachers the opportunity to see the finished film and celebrate the project together.

Former student and now create volunteer Porscha Manley introduced the screening along with digital arts teacher Brian Wilson, while student animator Tash Wiley presented the original artwork and animations to the audience.

Porscha said: “Everyone did superbly well and I loved all the designs the children came up with.

"It was great to see the students’ interpretations of them as both illustrations and animations.

“Some were cute, some were scary, and some were really interesting!”

Brian Wilson added: “Working with the school was an absolute pleasure, and the opportunity to showcase the students' animations to a live audience was so rewarding.

“The project presented a creative challenge, which the students embraced, successfully producing a range of impressive animations and illustrations.”