Youngsters from a Kirkby school saw their monster illustrations brought to life thanks to West Nottinghamshire College’s digital technology students.

Greenwood Primary School children from years 4, 5 and 6 were asked to draw what they thought a monster looks like, using their imaginations to conjure up wonderful characters.

Then students on the Advanced Creative Media Practice (Digital Arts and Games Design) course put their illustrative and animation skills to the test to bring the children’s paper-based characters to life.

Pupils 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 they had to create an illustration that could be further used in an animation using digital software.

“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.”

Greenwood pupil Cyprian Kusmierczak created a monster who 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 added: “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 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 Shelley Dickson, who accompanied the groups to the college, said: “It’s 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.”