THE monstrous creation of a Teesside youngster has come to life thanks to 3D imagery.

Heena Hussain, 12, from Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, has won DigitalCity's Make A Monster competition and her winning entry has been turned into a stunning piece of digital animation.

Her monster, devised under the supervision of art teacher Stewart Collier, at Tollesby School, fought off competition from more than 120 entries.

Animation of Heena's creation was undertaken by 22-year-old Mark Shires, a recent visualisation degree graduate from the University of Teesside.

The judges were representatives from games courses at the university, DigitalCity, a group of animators at the university, and Middlesbrough Council.

Dave Sharp, digital media specialist at DigitalCity said: "Children have an incredible ability to create things that adults wouldn't even think about. They also have the inherent capability to explain how and why things work from their perspective which is often very different from an adult view."

Mr Shires said: "It took about a month to digitally re-create Heena's monster, using a combination of generating, texturing, and toning techniques. I also had to create the various backgrounds and sound rendering to make the monster come alive."

Heena's final 3D monster will be demonstrated at the Digital City Fellowship Exhibition at the university in February 2006.