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Merlin director gives visual effects master class

David Moore, an acclaimed director who was recently involved with the successful series Merlin (BBC1), gave a master class to digital visual effects students at the University of Kent on Tuesday 16 December.

Following the screening on Saturday 13 December of 'Morte d'Arthur', the climax of the latest Merlin series, David Moore described in detail the planning and execution of state-of-the-art effects such as the 'Questing Beast' and the 'Isle of the Blessed' sequences from the programme. This was followed by a workshop where students were encouraged to develop their own special effects composite ideas.

'It was great to see the enthusiasm with which the students on the MScs in Computer Animation and Digital Visual Effects courses embraced the techniques involved in making the series,' said David Moore. 'It was also interesting to see how they chose to incorporate them in their own projects.'

David Byers-Brown, who leads the Masters programmes in Computer Animation and Digital Visual Effects, said: 'We are very lucky to be able to present the ideas and approaches of a professional director with such current and cutting-edge experience. This is exactly where we want to set the bar for our students' abilities on graduating. We aim to produce graduates able to fit right in to the current visual effects industry in Britain.'

David Moore's masterclass follows a visit to the University on 27 November by two Computer Animation MSc alumni who recently finished work on The Tale of Despereaux, the $100 million Universal Pictures feature which will be released in the UK on 19 December.

Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 10:00am 17 December 2008