Youngsters discover the magic of animation

A total of 34 Hartlepool children aged 8-12 took part, attending one of two week-long Animation Summer Schools at the high-tech centre in King Oswy Drive.

The students first watched a stop-motion animated movie called ‘Early Man’ then designed their own characters out of moulding clay.

They then created a storyboard before using stop-motion technology to animate their characters, creating a 30-45 second piece of video. Finally, they used computers to add music and sound effects before taking their animation home with them.

Students Evie Wright and Bobby Wallace try their hand at some animation

Jamie Kelly, CECA Manager, said: “The aim was to provide a summer activity for children who have a keen interest in creativity and technology and the course was a great success, with lots of positive comments from both the students and their parents.

“The children were fascinated and really enjoyed themselves and that was reflected in the quality of the finished videos. Who knows – we may even have inspired a future Steven Spielberg!

“This is the first of many activities which we will be looking to run outside of school time – we’re currently exploring events around digital animation, music production, coding and film-making.”

Councillor Shane Moore, Tees Valley Combined Authority Lead for Culture & Tourism and Hartlepool Borough Council Leader, said: “Hartlepool’s creative sector is central to the town and it’s great that these children are getting a taste of animation from an early age.

“The funding that the Combined Authority has pledged to Hartlepool for this centre and other creative industries projects is putting our area on the path to becoming a UK leader. With more activities such as these coming, as well as being fun, they will show our young people they don’t have to go far for a rewarding career in this field.”

Funded by the Tees Valley Combined Authority and run by Hartlepool Borough Council, CECA opened to the public last September with the purpose of serving as a training centre for the creative industries, whilst also offering facilities for commercial hire.

The centre houses facilities for TV broadcasting and film making, sound engineering, theatre, coding, gaming and VFX.

For more information about the centre click here or visit www.facebook.com/cecahartlepool