THE next Nick Park – the man behind Wallace and Gromit – could be studying at Coleg Ceredigion.

Three students recently brought Ceredigion legends back to life in a claymation video to promote Ceredigion County Council’s Year of Legends app, which celebrates Ceredigion’s legends and places of interest.

Working to a client brief and a tight deadline, students Chris Bridger, Ross Gill and Steffan Johnson, who are currently studying a Level 2 Diploma in IT, set about trying to create a claymation that was fun, eye catching and imaginative.

After several pre-production meetings with representatives from Ceredigion County Council, a concept was agreed.

Having learnt the principles of animation at the Cardigan college, the students were ready to bring their storyboard creations alive,

Using the very latest industry-standard equipment and software, the painfully slow process of claymation began, which takes 24 frames to create just one second of footage.

After many long hours in the animation studio, the creation was complete. All that was left to do was to add the soundtrack ‘Craig Cwmtydu’, kindly supplied by actor and musician Ryland Teifi from his album ‘Man Rhydd’.

This challenging collaborative project stretched the students, providing them with a wealth of experience and skills which they can take forward.

Former Coleg Ceredigion students are studying at several universities including, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the universities of Bournemouth, West of England, Brighton and Portsmouth.

This successful collaboration with Ceredigion County Council is set to continue with further exciting projects in the pipeline.