With the help of an overly cocky hiker and a couple of rams, the BYU Center for Animation has earned yet another Student Emmy.
The animated short Ram’s Horn marks the 17th award the Center has won in the past 12 years, adding to the program’s rising prestige. Computer science professor Parris Egbert contributes the Center’s thriving success to its students.
“By the time we get to the point where we submit to the Student Emmys, [the students] have already been working on the film for over a year,” Egbert said. “Winning the Student Emmy is the culmination of all the effort they’ve put in.”
The Center’s Director Brent Adams also agrees the students’ success comes from their dedication to the project.
“It isn’t the awards that I base the success of our students on,” Adams said. “I base it on how hard they work, how helpful they are to each other, and how much they grow.”
Along with these awards, BYU’s Center for Animation landed high on the list for the Animation Career Review’s best animation schools of 2015. The Center ranked #6 both nationally and among private schools and colleges, and it ranked #1 in the Southwest.
Egbert is glad to see the Center receiving more attention because it will benefit the students.
“Our main goal is to get students jobs,” Egbert said. “Any accolades we can get along the way are great . . . because it exposes the program more and gives students better opportunities to get jobs.”
Another measure of the Center’s growing success is the mentors who have come to BYU. Among those mentors are the president of Pixar and the directors of Frozen and Prince of Egypt.
Even though the Center for Animation is incredibly small compared to other animation programs (BYU has less than 75 animation majors while other programs boast more than 800), Adams believes these mentors come because of the quality of the students.
“Studios really like our students because they’re hard working, they’re honest, and they have the experience that they’re going to get in industry,” Egbert said.
The Center for Animation aims to place its students in influential jobs in the animation industry so they can be a positive force for good.
“We hope that with our students in the industry, they’ll keep animation family friendly and producing good quality films that you’re comfortable taking your kids to,” Egbert said.
Both Egbert and Adams encourage students to apply to the Center for Animation, even though it’s a challenging and competitive program.
“The student who should be in our program is the student who is going to go into this industry with or without our help,” Adams said. “They need that dedication to be successful.”