When Al Seymour, Jr. conducts an animation workshop for 14-16 year-olds at the Bermuda National Gallery on Saturday, he hopes to ignite in his young audience at least some of the same spark which launched him on his lifelong passion.

Mr. Seymour may be Government Information Services' photo librarian by day, and VSB television's technical director part-time, but animation is the fuel which drives his creative engine.

From early childhood, Mr. Seymour knew that animation was the art form he wished to pursue in life -- thanks to the influence of his father, artist and well-known former broadcaster Al Seymour, Sr.

"I came from an artistic family,'' the younger man explains. "My father was an artist and a home movie man, and he also worked at ZFB, so he did a lot of work for the media. My sister Lisa (who draws and paints children's illustrations) and I grew up being around all things of that nature.'' Recalling those formative years, Mr. Seymour says two things in particular affected his decision: his father owning an old Popeye cartoon, and a little animated cartoon he made using a GI Joe doll.

"My father was a home movie man, and he was always a fanatic for animation from his youth at the old Opera House. He got his hands on a `Popeye' film and tried to figure out how the artists drew on film!'' Mr. Seymour relates.

"But I think the actual trigger for me was when he took a GI Joe and set it up on the grass. Using an old Brownie movie camera he shot it one frame at a time. When it was developed you could see GI Joe moving his head and arms. I still have the film. When I saw that the hooks were in my gills!'' Noting his son's interest in animation, Mr. Seymour, Sr. regularly took him to ZFB studios at "By-the-Sea'' on the North Shore on Saturday mornings, where the child watched cartoons while his dad worked.

"I remember seeing all the screens in the studio, and I said to myself, `That's what I want to do', and I have spent most of my life pursuing animation. It's about endorphins -- the whole thing is so fascinating.'' It came as no surprise, therefore, following his graduation from Berkeley Institute, at age 18, Al Seymour Jr. enrolled in Edinboro University, Pennsylvania to study film, animation and video production. Memories of his first day in film class -- "Animation 101'' -- remain vivid.

"There was a long table with all this art work laid out on it, mostly from the Hanna-Barbera film television company, creators of Huckleberry Hound and The Flintstones.

They had cells, drawings, little records (mostly 45 rpm's) and cartoon character voices, which they gave to cartoonists. One sequence from The Flintstones took about 200 cells. That blew my mind because a lot of it was hand drawn.'' Four-and-one-half-years later, the enthusiastic Bermudian graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Cinematography. Years later he completed post graduate studies at the Film & Video Institute in RockPort, Maine.

Today, in addition to his other jobs, Mr. Seymour has his own animation studio, Seymour Artists, at home.

There, he combines both hand-drawn story boards and images with all the wonders of computer technology.

"Computers have made animation affordable and do-able for me,'' he says.

"They have taken the process, particularly for television, and speeded it up.'' Referring to the Lindo's commercials as one example, Mr. Seymour notes that ten years ago they would have been too expensive for him to produce.

Today, instead of hand-painting cells, he scanned his drawings into the computer and painted them electronically -- a process that took 15 seconds per cell versus 15 minutes in the old days.

He cautions that animation is not a profession for quick-fix artists.

"If you don't learn anything else in animation you will learn patience, but the actual process is rather dull. It is not until you actually see your work on the screen, and you look at it synchronised to sound, that you start getting blown away by the whole thing.'' The Health Department's mosquito campaign commercials, the animated rat commercials for Crime Stoppers, and the new visuals for VSB Channel 11 news are other examples of Mr. Seymour's work.

That rare breed -- a working animator in Bermuda He is proud to note that the colour key cell from his mosquito commercial "Fight the Bite'' 2000 is included in the current Bermuda National Gallery exhibition, as is a production cell entitled "Henchmen'' from his 1984 film, "Super Invaders''.

Currently, Mr. Seymour is working on an animated film which he hopes to include in next year's Bermuda International Film Festival.

So far he has completed three of the anticipated 30 minutes, and to illustrate how painstaking the process is, he explains that it takes 120 frames at 30 frames per second to produce 4 seconds of video.

Not that he minds, saying: "For me it's part of my life. Everybody should have something in life that they like.

"I am a fun person, and I really like the bright side of things. Having watched thousands of cartoons, I try to look at the funny side of life, and see how things move on a daily basis.'' Married to Candace, whose encouragement and tolerance has been invaluable, Mr.

Seymour is the father of a three-year-old son, Al, and a seven-year-old daughter Kerri, who is already showing artistic talent.

Both children love watching him make commercials on his computer, and get very excited when they see his work on television. Even his mother Barbara, whom he says has always been a steadfast and silent supporter of whatever he has undertaken in life, is impressed with his creativity.

"She said to me recently, `I remember when you asked me to go away to school and study animation. The other day I saw your commercial on TV and that makes it all worthwhile'.'' For information on Mr. Seymour's three-hour Animation Workshop at the Bermuda National Gallery on Saturday, during which participants will learn how to make an animation clip, contact Mrs. Louisa Flannery at 295-9428 between 10 a.m.

and 4 p.m.