WITH quirky landscapes of primary colours and scenes filled with chunky robots, the comical animations created by Bedminster's Ian Ball have a feel all of their own. But it's Ian's own voice-overs – complete with his authentic Bristol accent – that give the short films an inescapably West Country quality.

Ian has been doodling robots since he was a schoolboy, but it was only a couple of years ago, when he enjoyed success in an E4 animations competition that he began to take seriously a future career in animation and illustration.

It was a world away from his day job, working as a web page designer, but Ian began to believe his creative hobby could lead to greater things.

"I'd been making little animations for my own amusement for a while – often just little snippets of robots doing silly moves," he says. "I worked on an old PC with some freeware animation software. But I'd developed my own style.

"Then I heard that the television channel E4 was running a competition, E-Stings, which was asking people to make short animation for the continuity segments on the channel.

"I made a little 3D animation showing a robot with the E4 logo appearing in his eyes, and to my amazement, out of the thousands of entries, I managed to make it through to the top 25. That gave me a bit of confidence, so I entered again the following year, and that's when I made it in to the top three, which meant my animation would get shown on TV, which was very exciting."

But the 34-year-old father-of-two, says his new career really began taking off after entering another competition.

"It was organised by the NHS, which was looking to give health advice through short animations. I did a little short about the dangers of habitual drinking, and I got into the top five. I used my £3,000 prize to buy myself a powerful new computer, which allowed me to make much better animations.

"But it also meant I was up there with some incredible animators who had made it into the top five – including industry leaders, the McLeod Brothers. It was another real confidence boost for me."

Ian set up his one-man production company, Albinal, and was commissioned to produce a series of information films for the Avon and Somerset police website.

"They asked me to make a few little shorts warning about the dangers of messing about on mopeds," he explains, turning to his computer and playing the short animation – complete with comical slapstick and that wonderfully rich Brizzle voice-over.

"I used to be a bit embarrassed about having a strong Bristol accent," Ian says. "But I've come to realise it's one of my unique selling points – it's become an integral part of my animations. It also means I don't have to pay a fortune for voice-over actors to read the lines.

"I've also developed a style that relies heavily on alliteration and rhyme. On another animation I've completed recently for the NHS, I've even been able to do a little bit of Bristolian rapping, which was great fun."

One of Ian's earliest dalliances with the world of animation in his early 20s, led to his developing an infamous reputation with football fans in the city.

"It was back in the very early days of YouTube," he says. "I'm a big city fan, so I did a little animation that was poking fun at a woman called Irene – as in the Rovers' fan song, Goodnight Irene.

"I had tens of thousands of hits on YouTube, and thousands of comments – both from City fans who thought I was a legend, and from Rovers fans who didn't take kindly to the slight. I later followed it up by animating a comedy brawl between the City Robin mascot and the Rovers' Pirate mascot. But it was all done in good fun."

Ian's work recently took on an international aspect, when he was commissioned to make a short for an American company that makes high school "year books", and he continued in an international vein by volunteering his time freely for the Bristol-based Deki charity. It's a charity that organises micro-loans for Third World countries," he explains. "So somebody in this country might give a £10 loan via Deki, who send it on to somebody in Africa who uses that seemingly modest sum to start their own business, so they can then pay the loan back a few months later.

"I met people from the charity at an event designed to introduce people in the creative industries to charities. It was almost like speed dating, and I just really liked the idea of Deki, so agreed to make something for them in my spare time. Of course, the dream is that one day I'll be able to make a living out of the animations, but the fact remains that I love doing it. So even when I've not got commissions to look at, I'm happy to be working on something in the evenings."

For more information on Ian's work, visit his website at www.albinal.com.