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Lauren Hepplestone and Anna Kireeva (pictured) both aged 17 were the Barnsley College winners of the University Centre Barnsley’s ‘Create a Creature’ competition. Anthony Morris, aged 18 and Shaun Bennett , aged 17 (also pictured) were the Doncaster College winners of the competition.

Barnsley College winners Lauren Hepplestone and
Anna Kireeva with Jason McGann, College tutors and
University Centre lecturers.

The girls’ creature had an Egyptian theme which came to them from out of the blue. ‘We wanted to make it a funny creature, not a fighting creature’. The boys created a desert alien creature.

Jason McGann, one of the founding partners of Mobius Entertainment who were acquired by Rockstar Games, now Rockstar Leeds, spoke of his day with the students. ‘I think that with both creatures you can see the development that the students have taken. For their age group they are very good and I think they all could pursue a career in the industry if that is what they wanted to do.

Competitions like this help to encourage young people to see all aspects of the industry and also help them to see what hard work it is. It’s a long road and students have to be dedicated.’

The Create a Creature competition is an annual event run at the University Centre Barnsley by the School of Computing and Engineering. It is a competition for local colleges where students, working in pairs, use the University Centre’s £50k motion capture suit (similar to the one used for Gollum in Lord of the Rings) to animate and interact with their own creatures. Students firstly script how they will interact with the creature, and then they record the action and attach this to the animated creature that they develop. The final day consists of students bring their creation to life by adding visual effects to create a short movie. This year winners receive an Apple iTouch each.

Doncaster College winners Anthony Morris and Shaun Bennett with
Jason McGann, College tutors and University Centre lecturers