Animated talent wins golds

Date: 10/09/09
Animated talent wins golds

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Dean’s creative talents and attention to detail are evident in his model Platybelodon.

UCOL Animation Lecturer Dean Reynolds’ creative talents outclassed 600 other entries at the IPMS Model-making Nationals and Scale Expo in Wellington last weekend.

Living up to his present title as Model-maker of the Year 2008, Dean won all the categories he entered, winning four first place golds, two second places and a third place award.

“I only came second and third to myself,” he says.

The huge public attendance at the Scale Model Expo also voted Dean’s Dinosaur entry as the winner of the People’s Choice Award.

Dean says the models are a lot of fun to work with, and he enjoys seeing how realistic or how stylised he can make them. “I put a lot of detail into my models. It’s a real pleasure to watch something come to life, and to see stories and amazing worlds evolve on-screen.”

Dean’s creative talents not only enthralled the public but impressed industry representatives Richard Taylor of Weta and Richard Alexander from Wingnut Films who attended the event.

“I am hoping this success will enable me to retain my Model-maker of the Year title in the upcoming October competition,” says Dean.

Dean, who is South African, developed his model-making and animation skills at the National Film School of Ireland, where he did a degree in animation, and honours in set design for film.

While he was working in animation in Ireland, he saw an advertisement for a lecturer’s position at UCOL in Palmerston North. He loved the idea of travelling to New Zealand, and now puts his model-making skills to good use teaching model animation to students of the Bachelor of Applied Visual Imaging at UCOL.

ENDS

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