OLIVIA Reynolds, aged 21, lives in Bury and studied special effects for TV and film at the University of Bolton. She graduated in the summer.

She said: “I have always been interested in make-up – when I was a younger I remember being amazed at how The Grinch looked in that film, how people managed to make someone into something else completely.

“I went to an open day at GMEX in Manchester and someone from the University of Bolton was there turning someone into a monster and that really interested me.

“I am particularly interested in beauty prosthetics. There is a professional makeup artist called Danny Marie Elias who does amazing work, so I based my design this year around a Japanese/Geisha kind of vibe.

“My friend Rebecca, who is also on the course agreed to be the model and she had to be really patient – there were 27 silicon pieces to apply and we were there from 8.30am and didn’t start taking photos of the end result until 4pm.

“It basically took eight hours to apply and position correctly and then paint and blend in.

“Rebecca was an angel – I bought her some cake and coffee during the whole process and she had Netflix to keep her occupied.”

As well as that piece, as part of her course she has sculpted and produced a replica of one of the cute little Mandrake plants from the Harry Potter movies series.

Olivia works at the Nix Professional Make-up in Manchester.

Olivia’s life model, Rebecca Albrecht, is a second year student on the Special Effects for Film and TV course.

The 23-year-old from St Helens spent five weeks of the summer working on a contract for the BBC, helping to make props and dress the set for the fourth series of a children’s TV show called Class Dismissed.

She enrolled at the University of Bolton after seeing staff at a stand at a sci-fi and comic convention in Liverpool.

“I was really impressed with what I was hearing and so I went to an open day a few days later and knew pretty quickly that Bolton was where I wanted to be.”

Rebecca says she has learned “a bit of everything” so far as part of her course.

One of her pieces, based on a video game character called Ori, was sculpted digitally on a computer and then created on a 3D printer.

It was then smoothed out and a mould was taken of the sculpture before it was cast in a translucent material, which enabled it to be lit from the inside.

As for her marathon modelling session with Olivia, she said: “I thought she might struggle to get someone to sit for that long so offered if she needed me.

“It was a long day and I got through a lot of films as she worked, but I was happy to help.”