AN animator reached the finals of a national award for a film she made at university. Katie Steed, aged 24, was one of the runners-up in the Best Student Animation category of the Royal Television Awards for her animation Death by Scrabble. Katie, of Roth

AN animator reached the finals of a national award for a film she made at university.

Katie Steed, aged 24, was one of the runners-up in the Best Student Animation category of the Royal Television Awards for her animation Death by Scrabble.

Katie, of Rothamsted Court, Harpenden, was presented with a certificate at the awards ceremony in Southampton last week.

The winner was a film called Haven't made by a student of the University of Southampton.

Death by Scrabble is based on author Charlie Fish's short story about a married couple's game of scrabble.

The husband hates his wife and he realises while playing that the words he uses in the game become a reality.

He plots to kill his wife but she hates him just as much and kills him by forming the word "death" before he has the chance to finish her off.

Katie, who went to St George's School in Harpenden, made the animated film for her graduation year at University College for the Creative Arts in Surrey.

She had to draw more than 6,000 frames and then ink them and draw them onto her computer to make the five-minute animation.

Her film has been shown at film festivals worldwide including UK festivals.

She currently works in television and has started her own animation web design company but hopes to get a job in the competitive animation sector and her dream would be to make animations for Disney.

To view Death by Scrabble go to http://www.slurpystudios.com and then click on animation.