Ireland’s Animation Hub Working With Terry Pratchett On Animated Short

Set in the Unseen University of Pratchett’s Discworld – the setting for a number of the English author’s fantasy novels – the short will blend fantasy and reality and feature a number of notable Irish landmarks in animation form.

Ireland’s Animation Hub is a collaboration between the Irish School of Animation at Ballyfermot College of Further Education; Trinity College Dublin’s Creative Arts, Technology and Culture initiative and the Irish animation studio, Giant Creative. It aims to give students the chance to experience working on a high-end project in a professional environment. The Animation Hub has previously enjoyed global success with its first animated short, the multi-award winning, ‘The Last Train’.

Pratchett, an adjunct professor of English at Trinity is working with Giant Creative on the character and story development. Talking about the project, he said: “‘The Duel’ is something new from something old – Discworld is being borrowed by our students in the Animation Hub to produce a wholly new adventure – where some familiar elements from our world will appear, but not quite as we know them. It’s wonderful to see this type of project supported and made real – and we intend to have a lot of fun while we’re at it.”

Speaking together, the programme leads from BFCE and TCD, Gareth Lee and David Lloyd, said: “It’s great to have the next Animation Hub project up and running with the valued support of the Irish Film Board. It’s very exciting to have both Terry Pratchett and Giant Creative involved. ‘The Duel’ is a very ambitious project that will provide great scope for many of our students across a range of disciplines to gain valuable professional experience.”

Emma Scott, production pxecutive with the Irish Film Board, added “The Animation Hub is an exciting partnership of students from two very important and creative institutions. We are delighted to support this initiative which provides students with excellent and very valuable experience working on high-end productions. We look forward to seeing all involved build on the success of last year’s very successful collaboration.”

‘The Duel’ is supported through funding from the Irish Film Board, Trinity College Dublin and Ballyfermot College of Further Education and will premiere in early 2013, as part of the Tercentenary Celebrations of Trinity College’s Old Library.

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