Alumna Wins Academy Award for Work on Animated Film

Video still from Academy Award-winning film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, for which Digital Arts alumna Kyoung “Kay” Park provided technical direction

A Digital Arts department graduate, Kyoung “Kay” Park (M.F.A.’07), was the character technical director for the movie that won this year's Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film category—The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

The film, about a man who is invited into a houseful of animated books in the wake of a hurricane, was created by Shreveport, Louisiana-based Moonbot Studios. For the film, Park, along with her crewmates, rigged most of the characters, modeled props and extra characters, and worked for months on the film’s rigging, simulation, and lighting. She and the team of more than 50 other people employed a variety of techniques—using miniatures, computer animation, and 2-D animation—to achieve a hybrid style of old-fashioned and cutting-edge animation.

Video stills from Academy Award®-winning film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, for which Digital Arts alumna Kyoung “Kay” Park provided technical direction.

Park was born in Pusan, South Korea, and grew up in Gainesville, Florida. Prior to her studies in Pratt’s Digital Arts department, Park attended the University of Florida as a computer science major.

She credits her time at Pratt with providing her the knowledge and experience she used in working on Morris Lessmore.

“Through my time at Pratt, I learned that rigging is a mixed art of being technical and creative. Another great quality of the program was the student club TAG (The Animation Group), in which students and professors—such as Sean Sullivan and Andrei Savu—worked together to create a film from scratch: from story to the final animation.”

Park’s 2007 thesis animation, Manny, was selected and screened at more than 25 festivals in the U.S. and internationally between 2007 and 2009.

“Pratt provided me the opportunity to learn from talented professors and experts in the field of digital arts, and also gave me the experience of learning from my hardworking peers,” says Park. Her advice to current Pratt digital arts students: “Always work and interact with your classmates. They can probably see things you’ve missed and these interactions can always improve your work.”

Text: Kate Ünver
Photos: Courtesy of Kyoung "Kay" Park and Moonbot Studios

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[Iraqi Dinar]

“Through my time at Pratt, I learned that rigging is a mixed art of being technical and creative. Another great quality of the program was the student club TAG (The Animation Group), in which students and professors—such as Sean Sullivan and Andrei Savu—worked together to create a film from scratch: from story to the final animation.”