UCA Rochester's Imagineering Masterclass at Canterbury Anifest 2011

UCA Rochester's BA (Hons) CG Arts & Animation course will be holding an interactive workshop at the Canterbury Anifest, to reveal how your imagination is just as important as your sketching and computer skills.

The Imagineering Masterclass will run from 1.30pm-3pm on Saturday 1 October and will also feature additional input from Samy Fecih, who was a CGI animator on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 &2. He'll also be revealing some of the secrets behind the film's visual effects on Saturday 1 October at 12pm.

Samy, who works for Oscar-winning visual effects house Double Negative, said: "I'm really looking forward to speaking at Anifest with UCA. I'm a big animation fan myself so I'm as excited as everyone else to be there.

"My talk will be about my job animating the dragon on the latest Harry Potter movie. I will go into depth about my research, which took me to bats, camels and komodo dragons, and how we gave life to her.

"I want people to understand that being a good animator is not about knowing the best programs or being technically brilliant but more about focusing on the character: giving life to it and understanding how it moves, talks and breathes."

The festival finishes with an awards ceremony which celebrates the best of 2011 and also honours the best new talent with several awards for the industry's rising stars.

For the full programme, and more information about Anifest 2011, visit www.canterburyanifest.com.