Monsters are alive at West Nottinghamshire College!
Posted: 19 July 2022
A group of Kirkby schoolchildren have faced their monsters with a smile as West Nottinghamshire College’s digital technology students brought their artwork project to life.
Eighteen pupils at Greenwood Primary School were asked to draw pictures of what they think a monster looks like, using their vivid ideas to come up with their very own weird and wonderful characters.
This came after children from year groups 4, 5 and 6 at the school in Sutton Middle Lane were invited to take part in the drawing challenge, that would see digital media students bring their ideas to the screen following their 3D modelling and design work.
Before the college’s summer holidays, the children and their teachers were welcomed to the Derby Road campus to watch the students’ showreel of their completed designs. Level 3 Digital Media students Ash Walker and Felix Beaumont presented to the group, explaining how they recreated the drawings using 3D digital technology.
Pupil James Malko created a character called Hextravaganza. He said: “I created him mainly from my imagination, but also from a game. He has basketball and beatboxing skills. It took me about fifteen minutes to create him.
“The students made him spin the basketball and he moved about too. It looked nice and I loved how they added a scoreboard on the design. I love designing games and if I was thinking about coming to college I’d love to come here – it’s amazing!”
Felix, 17, said: “We’ve been learning to 3D model and animate, so we took the children’s images and turned them into 3D models - I’m hoping everyone really likes their monsters! We created over 40 slides from their work and used the programme called Blender; specially for 3D modelling. It’s the main one we use, alongside Adobe Premier Pro which is used to add audio and video effects.
“I’m coming back to college in September to study traditional art and gain more skills before going to university. I’ve always liked video games so to work on concept art in that sector would be great. I’ve got my eye on a company in London where I’d like to get a job at.”
It is planned that the school will be returning to the college’s creative arts team in September to attend new Digital Schoolhouse programs where they will learn new essential digital skills and take part in new media course, supported by the college’s students.