ANIMATION fans will have a unique opportunity to meet the people behind the drawing board this weekend.

Following the success of last year’s Puppet Masters exhibition, Waterside is back with Puppet Masters Return with Aardman Studios.

Featuring puppets, props and production artwork from a range of Aardman titles including, Wallace and Gromit, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! And Timmy Time, the exhibition will tell the story of how each character is brought to the screen.

The opening of the exhibition will be marked with a special launch event and the Meet The Puppet Masters Master Class Event on Saturday November 5.

This one day event welcomes Merlin Crossingham, creative director for Wallace and Gromit at Aardman Studios, BAFTA-award winning director and animator Brian Cosgrove (co-founder Cosgrove Hall Films), and BAFTA and Academy Award-nominated animator Barry Purves.

Merlin Crossingham has spent the past two decades at Aardman and has been involved in the smash-hit film Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of The Were Rabbit, and Creature Comforts USA series, for which he gained an Emmy nomination.

Merlin also directed and voiced the re-launch series of Aardman’s oldest stopmotion character, Morph.

Brian Cosgrove is a BAFTA-winning director, producer, animator, designer and sculptor best known as the creator of the animated children shows Danger Mouse and Count Duckula.

He co-founded the Cosgrove Hall Films which produced some of the most well-known animated children's shows and films in Britain, including The Wind in the Willows, Noddy's Toyland Adventures, Bill and Ben and Fifi and the Flowertots.

In 1989, Brian directed and produced the The BFG, based on the Roald Dahl novel.

Barry Purves has been writing for, animating and directing stop motion puppets for nearly forty years and had significant roles on Mars Attacks! and King Kong. Barry has written three books about animation and teaches around the world.

Richard Evans, creative industries and exhibitions co-ordinator at the Waterside, said: “We hope the exhibition will fascinate and entertain all ages as well as provide inspiration for the next generation of animators.”

The Puppet Masters free exhibition will run at Waterside Arts Centre from November 5 to January 14.

Saturday’s Meet The Puppet Masters Master Class Event will take place from 11.30am-5pm and costs £15. Visit watersideartscentre.co.uk or call 0161 912 5616.