A VIDEO game artist raised thousands of pounds for a mental health charity by hosting a 12-hour live stream of his creating a 3D animation.

Ashley Sparling collected £1,245 in donations following the Youtube live stream on Friday, which will be donated to Colchester Charity The Haven Project.

And the firm the 33-year-old works for, Jagex, will match this amount pound for pound with a donation - topping it up to almost £2,500.

Mr Sparling said: "I have a family member who is part of the project and I have seen how it helps people.

"We try and support them where we can anyway but we heard their funding is very strained at the moment.

"The live-stream itself went really really well. We had 413 people tune in throughout with up to 25 people watching at a time.

"I was showing people during the stream how we create a character for a game.

"Normally when you do it for a game it takes months, but I did this in a few hours."

Mr Sparling has been working in the video game industry for 11 years.

He has worked for some of the world's biggest gaming firms, including Rare and Ubisoft, before taking up his current role as lead character designer with Jagex.

For the live stream the theme of Alice in Wonderland was chosen, with Mr Sparling putting together 3D character models of Alice and the Cheshire Cat.

An illustration of the models will be available to purchase in a bid to raise some more funds for the Haven Project, which supports people with personality disorder in Colchester.

Gazette:

  • The finished models created by Mr Sparling

Mr Sparling said: "I am used to have an audience as I do a bit of teaching but I don't usually design female characters.

"It took a little while for it to come together but I think it turned out well in the end."

Donate at justgiving.com/crowdfunding/thehavenproject.