THE animator responsible for such great characters as Morph, Wallace and Gromit and now Rocky from the current blockbuster Chicken Run, was once a student at the University of York.

Peter Lord studied English Literature at the university during the 1970s and regularly produced amusing cartoons for the student publications, Rag and Nouse.

Turning his hobby into a career Mr Lord founded his Bristol-based company, Aardman Animations after leaving York, with his old school friend David Sproxton.

Their first character as professionals was cute plasticine man Morph, who appeared regularly on Tony Hart's children's programmes.

Mr Lord gained a BAFTA nomination for his animated film The Amazing Adventures of Morph.

With Nick Park as a co-director, Aardman has gone on to achieve phenomenal Oscar-winning success with Creature Comforts, the famous zoological vox pops and the unforgettable, Wallace and Gromit.

Their current creation is the feature-length film, Chicken Run, for Steven Spielberg's production company Dreamworks, which took four years to make. It has taken America by storm.

Inspired by such escape films as The Great Escape and Stalag 17, the film blends humour and drama created with their distinctive brand of creative story telling and painstaking stop-motion animation.

The story concerns a group of cooped-up Yorkshire chickens who enlist the help of Mel Gibson's character, Rocky, to try and escape their captors.

The voice talents of Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks and Timothy Spall can also be heard.

As a director, Mr Lord has been honoured with two Academy Award nominations in the Best Animated Short category, for Wat's Pig in 1996 and for Adam in 1992.

He has also worked with the Spiting Image team and even the Spice Girls.

The animator recently addressed the University of York Film Society in 1998.

Picture - ON CAMERA: Top film animator Peter Lord who studied English Literature at the University of York in the 1970s