One of the AAU’s Original animated shorts, Pets was the first of its kind in the sense that it gave myself as well as other students the chance to work with established models, rigs, environments and props to tell short-form stories and provide solid animation examples for student portfolios and experience. In an effort to provide the grounds to produce more like it, project “Pets” led the way in having a strong, established; formulaic approach to repeatable shorts that would give everyone a chance to direct, animate and produce within the AAU, on student-time and budget.

Working with the talented animators with the direction provided to us by our animation lead; Michael Parks, we developed and produced this short on student time, budget, and experience! Not only was it an exercise in animation, but it also helped me build on my leadership, organization and coordination skills while keeping my production eye sharp for creative avenues and pathways to take as a collective team to see the vision through to the end.