Tom Davis, 18, was named the Future Designers Champion of the Future Frames Competition, a competition run by Victoria University of Wellington School of Design Innovation.
The competition only allowed competitors 48 frames to create their animation and the year 13 student earned first place for his creation of a two-second animation of a frog jumping through a forest.
Tom said he was informed he earned first place earlier in the month and was "excited" when he opened the email with the news.
"It’s just really cool to win something like that."
As his dream was to work in the animation industry, winning this competition was the perfect stepping stone towards that, he said.
His enjoyment of drawing, creating and telling stories started when he was younger.
"I wrote [three] books when I was younger, but that moved on to animation."
He found animating to be the most expressive form of creativity, he said.
The two-second animation took him six months to complete.
He had to draw each individual frame on his iPad using a programme called Procreate.
Once it had been finished and sent away to be judged, he had been "excited" to see what the design school would say about it.
Cartoons such as Amphibia were used as inspiration for the design.
"I considered calling [the frog] Olive, but I haven’t stuck with a name yet."
For winning the competition, he received a cash prize and planned to put it into his savings account.
Next year he would attend Otago Polytechnic, where he would study towards a bachelor of design (communication).
