CHEMICAL works and blast furnaces have provided the inspiration for an interactive digital city.

Michael Dinsdale has drawn on the industrial heritage of Teesside for his first foray into the world of digital film-making.

The result is Ether, a digital city which is a mix between a film and a computer game that can be adapted by software to include people and moving objects.

"The idea to use the skyline came because it was what I could see from my bedroom window," said Mr Dinsdale, 30, of Norton.

It is the same graphic vision that was the inspiration for film director Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

"It is such powerful image that it must have just been a subconscious thing to use it, but it is a bit surreal and not too obvious where it has come from," he added.

His project earned him a first class degree in graphic design at the University of Teesside. During the past six months he has developed it into a 24-hour interactive production after gaining a £6,000 boost from the university.

The idea is to have people buy software so they can contribute to the same game like virtual citizens.

Whatever interests them, such as stories, characters, music or politics, can all be incorporated into the city.