A CASTLEMARTIN student, who created a Pembrokeshire-flavoured online animation based on hit TV fantasy series Game of Thrones, has been astounded after it attracted more than 10,000 views.

Daniel Smith, 20, now in his second year of a graphic communication course at Cardiff University, created the animation, based on the Game of Thrones title sequence, as a final major project while at Pembrokeshire College.

The animation features Pembroke, Carew Castle and St Davids Cathedral.

For Daniel, the three week project involving the cult TV series was a labour of love.

“I hoped to promote Pembrokeshire in a way that hadn't been done before.

“There were a lot of late nights; normally to create something like this would take a couple of months; my lecturers were fans of it and were amazed how I managed to do it in such a short amount of time.

“I went to Pembroke and Carew and photographed every corner of the castles, it wasn’t just me sat at my computer for three weeks.

“It was originally going to be much more extravagant; I was going to do a couple more place in the county, I may do it in the future and add places like Tenby, and extend it a bit more.

“I was not expecting anyone to like it, but thousands liked it online, there’s 3,500 on Youtube and thousands more on other sites, probably 10,000 in total from all the different websites, that’s quite a surprise.”

The animation has attracted views from all over the world, which Daniel thinks has been boosted by Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke recently being filmed for the Me Before You movie in Pembroke.

He hopes the animation will encourage fans to visit the county.

“I hope out of those 10,000 views at least one of them will say: ‘What is this place Pembrokeshire?’ “With the amount of views I’ve got it definitely does garner interest in the county; you’ve got to always find these new and different was of attracting people, you’ve got to do something current for the times.”