UNIVERSITY students have created an animated promotional video of City Park featuring an orca to encourage people to have 'a whale of a time' in City Park.

The University of Bradford's Digital Media Working Academy approached Bradford Council with a proposal to work together on a student digital media project.

The authority agreed to act as a client to simulate a real-world situation where animators and computer game programmers pitch to organisations to win contracts.

Teams of students then presented their creative ideas to promote the multi-award winning City Park.

Senior Lecturer in Creative Technology and supervisor of the project Mark Goodliff said: “It’s really important for students to gain experience of live project work, where they'll take on a creative challenge set by a client and go onto deliver something appropriate by an agreed deadline and within a fixed budget.

“Some of our students work with clients in other countries, which is often a great experience in one sense, but it’s also positive to see a successfully executed project that’s based in the city, especially if it’s community-based. Given that City Park has become a key part of Bradford's city centre, I’m really pleased that the team produced a piece of work that will be used to promote it."

A whale-themed animation was picked to be developed into a one and a half minute promotional video.

Winners of the competition were Raphael Pavel, Alan Standerwick, Jarell Enujuba, Olga Vilcinskaite and Steven Irving. Their video will be used to promote City Park and will be featured on the university and Council’s websites and social media feeds.

Raphael said: "It was a great experience to be involved in this project as I gained a lot of experience and I learned how to create, manage and deliver a project for an important client outside the University of Bradford, namely Bradford City Council."

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Portfolio Holder for Employment, Skills and Culture, said: “The animation produced by this talented team of students is excellent. It's a stylish and witty design.

“The University of Bradford is increasingly known for its leadership in the field of creative digital technologies so it's great that they also make sure that their students recognise the value of sharing their expertise in Bradford alongside their national and international commitments.”