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Ian, 37, a former Speedwell School pupil along with funnyman Justin Lee Collins and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit's co-director Steve Box, has been working in the industry since leaving Speedwell's hallowed halls.

In fact it was his association with Box that led to his first big break in the industry:

"Encouraged by my art teacher Brian Evans I was making my own animated film at school and used to borrow equipment from local animation company CMTB, where Steve also worked," said Ian.

Bump

After making two such films at school, Ian was offered a job as an animator at CMTB where he worked on the children's series Bump the Elephant.

He then began work at Aardman on commercials and soon joined the production team working on Wallace and Gromit's second short film, The Wrong Trousers, as Assistant Art Director.

By 1995 he was an assistant animator working on W+G's third outing, A Close Shave, and after a spell working in New Zealand returned home to Bristol as key animator on Aardman's first feature film collaboration with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks company, Chicken Run.

He then spent three and a half years working on Wallace and Gromit's first full-length feature film, in particular as animator of a strange beast called the Were-Rabbit.

"It was a quite different puppet than Aardman had ever made before and we spent about 14 months just developing and building the character," said Ian.

"I had my own set of problems with the materials used to create it. I had to be very careful how I handled it!"

The model itself was about 12 inches tall on its haunches, larger stood up and different puppets standing and running were needed to show it moving.

Big production

With a couple of hundred people working on the film, Ian admits things could have felt a little like a production line.

"In the same way one director couldn't direct a film this size, but Nick (Park) likes to be really hands-on and made sure we kept to the spirit of Wallace and Gromit."

A big fan of the duo himself, Ian says he was delighted with the way their characters developed through the feature.

"Nick takes the characters in a different way than you would expect. You think you know what they will do, but he's not afraid to expand them and add some nice little surprises," he said.

"He borrows from a lot of films but mixes it up so there's a freshness to it that's original."

Long hours

Working on the film meant long hours for the staff, some of whom were working 12 hour days and weekends to help get things finished.

"Script changes were being made literally to the very last day, " explained Ian.

"Nick and Steve were also spending long hours making script changes. After five years working on it they knew they had a good movie and they wanted to make it a great one."

And yet despite, or perhaps even because of, the long hours and pressure, Ian does maintain a bit of a social life.

In fact you can catch him at weekends DJing as Masterchef at venues across the city - though he admits this dropped a little in the last few months of production.

Family

Ian is also well aware of the affection people have for Wallace and Gromit - particularly in their own city.

"People are always taken aback when I say I've worked with Wallace and Gromit, it's as if you are working with stars that people know," he said.

"I think mum and dad are quite proud of me and they certainly enjoyed the film, even if they don't understand it technically.

"But we've always strived to make Wallace and Gromit seem human. You want people to be lost in the film, not thinking 'oh, that must have been difficult to make!'"

Doing his bit to encourage the next generation of animators, Ian has regularly returned to Speedwell School - now one of the city's Academies - to talk to youngsters about his work.

"The children really seem to enjoy it and because I went to the school they can see that I made something of myself in an out-of-the-ordinary industry," he said.

"My art teacher Brian Evans started my career and I owe it to the school to give something back."

Ian was in America, working on DreamWorks last collaboration with Aardman before the two companies went their separate ways - the feature film Flushed Away - when Curse of the Were-Rabbit won the 2006 Oscar for best animated film, and was enormously proud to be representing the company.

Since then he's been back in the US working on other film projects, but says he is looking forward to returning home to Bristol and Aardman later in 2008.