LOCAL amateur animator Keshen Matus has hit the YouTube big time.

The 20 year-old digital media student from the SAE Institute in Byron Bay has received more than five million hits on his popular Custard Productions YouTube page in the past 18 months.

"It started as a joke. Originally I did a Lego animated spoof of the Dark Knight trailer which got heaps of praise and received over 2.5 million viewings alone," he said.

"That made me realise that the online Lego animation community is huge.

"And it has become a way of expressing myself, albeit in a weird way.

"The feedback has been the real surprise. I did a parody of a fight scene from The Bourne Ultimatum called the Lego Ultimatum and received a great email from the producer. He passed it on to the cast and crew including Matt Damon and Julia Stiles who, I'm told, also loved it.

"It's been a lot of fun but really I want to be a writer/director. I'm not the kind of guy who usually plays with Lego. I gave it up a long time ago.

"Still, it's been a great challenge eliciting an emotional response from little plastic toys. Timing is the key, and the subtle movements of the figures.

"The YouTube response has been a great way to communicate with a lot of like-minded animators. I've also been made a YouTube partner due to the traffic and I'm getting paid for Google ads. It's not a lot, but it's useful extra cash, especially for a student."

The aspiring writer/director has already had job offers as a result of his YouTube page.

"I had an offer to produce a piece for the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, but I don't think they liked my script. Might be because I actually don't think carbon taxing is the way to go. It was just another weird thing that happened."

To see Keshen's work go to www.youtube.com/user/Keshen8