Posted: 29/05/25
A monster of a project brings joy to schoolchildren
Digital design students at West Nottinghamshire College have brought the imaginations of Mansfield schoolchildren to life in the annual Monster Project.
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Happy pupils with their artwork in the college's Create Theatre
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Student and artist of one of the animations Aaliyah Smith introduced the screening of the film
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The monster project is an annual digital challenge delivered to primary schools
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The project took lots of skill and creativity to turn around
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Student Oliwia Zawadzka took on Freddie Richardson's alien character
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Freddie Richardson's monster was out of this world
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Student Olivia Stokes brought Lea Njie's heart-shaped creature to life
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The animation took the 2D to 3D brilliantly
Pupils from Abbey Primary School, Forest Town, joined students from the Advanced Creative Media Practice (Digital Arts and Games Design) at the college’s Create Theatre at the Derby Road campus to see their illustrations of monsters on the big screen.
The drawing project was given to youngsters earlier this year, challenging them to bring the very best of their imaginations onto paper and create a monster illustration with pencils, paint or crayons.
The final part of the project was to then ask student designers to bring the drawings to life with animations of their creations.
Using both traditional media and technical software, students put together an animated showreel of everybody’s monsters and invited the pupils in to see the finished film on the big screen in the Create Theatre.
Student and artist of one of the animations Aaliyah Smith introduced the screening of the animated film to teachers, parents and children. This was followed by a presentation of each person’s artwork, presented by the student artists.
Abbey Primary School teaching assistant Kate Summerville said: “The animations were absolutely fabulous. I couldn't have imagined how these could have gone from 2D pictures which the children created into something that's 3D. The responses from the children were brilliant and their faces were absolutely alive with joy!
“It was wonderful to see the interactions with the students who created the film. I thought that was a really lovely relationship that was built from visiting us at the school to then us being invited into the college to see the final product.”
Digital Arts teacher Brian Wilson said: “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.”
