A STUDENT has brought history to life with a a stunning digital reconstruction of Corfe Castle.

Ciprian Selegean’s clever video footage is so realistic it looks like someone has filmed the ruined castle in its prime today.

In fact the 22-year-old has used computer animation technology to digitally rebuild the hilltop fortress that was blown up by Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarian army in the English Civil War.

Ciprian spent months researching the history of the important monument and studying drawings of it to determine exactly how it used to look.

He then brought it to life using several software programmes to create a realistic

moving 3D representation.

The clever historical reconstruction makes it look as if the impressive stronghold was never destroyed and even has a period guardsman standing watch outside the impressive castle gate.

As the footage rolls in the digital reconstruction is morphed with real film shot today to reveal how it actually looks.

Staff at the National Trust, which owns the tourist attraction, are so impressed with

Ciprian’s work they are showing the video in their ticket office to help visitors understand what the castle used to looked like.

Ciprian, who is from Romania but moved to Britain to study in September 2012, is doing a masters degree in computer animation at Portsmouth University and the Corfe Castle project is part of it.

He said: “I’m interested in medieval culture anyway and wanted to reconstruct a castle. I found out about Corfe Castle and thought it would be perfect because it is in ruins but it is still a really beautiful castle with great views. It really captured my attention.

“I started gathering material about the history of the castle and found some illustrations but the problem was all of them were different in some way.

“I managed to find more detailed descriptions in a few history books.

“I had a really hard time figuring out what kind of battlement the castle had but from visiting the castle I found a small area that has some preserved battlements.

“I wanted to combine real live action film with digital effects; it’s the same techniques they use in films. The biggest challenge was making it accurate and blending the CGI model with the real live action footage.

“It took about four months and two field trips to create but I’m really pleased with it."

“The people at Corfe Castle were especially impressed with the realism.

“I’ve had a passion for films since I was young and I was always curious about how the digital effects were made.

“Once I’ve finished my masters I would like to work as a visual effects artist for films or I could do 3D visual construction for architects.”

Corfe Castle, which sits on a hill on the Isle of Purbeck, was originally built in wood sometime in the 10th century but was rebuilt in stone by William the Conqueror in the latter half of the 11th Century.

It was a royal fortress for almost 500 years until Queen Elizabeth I sold it to Sir Christopher Hatton, her Lord Chancellor, in 1572.

The castle was bought in 1635 by Lord Chief Justice Sir John Bankes as an occasional private residence, but the family moved in permanently when the English Civil War broke out.

Lady Bankes and her supporters successfully withstood a six-week siege by Parliamentarians in 1643 and by 1645 Corfe Castle was one of a few remaining strongholds in southern England that remained under royal control.

But a garrison officer colluded with the Parliamentarians and they seized the castle in February 1646.

The family was allowed to leave but the castle was then destroyed.

The Bankes family regained their properties with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, but decided not to rebuild the castle. It remained in the their ownership until it was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1982.

The castle - a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument - is open to the public and receives about 190,000 visitors a year.

Pam White, from the National Trust, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the video. It really shows the castle as it would have been in medieval times as a castle and then a massive country house.

“It’s brilliant the way it then falls away to show it as it is now.

“One of the problems we have is trying to get people to envisage what it would have looked like. Ciprian has done a very good job, the reconstructed castle looks very authentic.

“He has kindly given us a copy and we have it on show in the ticket office and people love it. It really does bring the castle to life for them.

“It was a big and quite important castle in its day, it was one of the top six in the country.

“But less than 40 per cent remains now, people think of it as a ruin, and it is very difficult to see what was there.

“The staff were all excited to see what Ciprian had done, we haven’t had anyone do something like that for us before.

“We’d love to use his video more in the future.