Teesside greets Gollum and Bart

Gollum: A totally digital character from The Two Towers

The secrets behind Oscar-winning films like The Lord of The Rings and TV cartoon The Simpsons are be revealed on Teesside.

A major festival of animation is being hosted by the University of Teesside.

The Animex festival will feature some of the animators who created digital characters for the second Lord of The Rings film, The Two Towers.

Also making a star appearance is the star voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright.

Nancy Cartwright: The voice of Bart Simpson

Some of the best names in the business will give talks, attend screenings and stage workshops.

Some of the work created by local groups will be shown on a huge screen during the half-time break during Middlesbrough's Premiership clash with Aston Villa at the Riverside stadium.

Chris Williams, principal lecturer in animation at the University of Teesside, said: "This is going to be a very busy week for us.

"We've got events for everyone, from adult devotees of digital animation, to kids' stuff like Bart Simpson.

Animation secrets

"It's great for us to get Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart, to come over and spend an hour with young people going through the process of putting an episode of The Simpsons together.

"Another coup is getting Jason Schleifer, who is the lead animator at Weta Digital in New Zealand. They have done most of the work on the Lord of The Rings films.

"This will be the first time anywhere in the world that all the animation secrets of the films will have been explained in person."

Animex, now in its fourth year, runs until 31 January.