How BYU Animation Students Find Success While Relying on Their Faith

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By Aimee Cobabe, Church News

A teenage girl’s driving test spirals into chaos when a burly bank robber hijacks her car, setting off a comedic chase scene. This is how the short film “Student Accomplice,” created by BYU animation students, begins.

The award-winning piece is just one testament to how BYU animation students merge technical skills, artistic vision and their faith to tell captivating stories.

Since the BYU Center for Animation was established in 2010, students have won 22 student Emmy Awards, four awarded for music and seven student Academy Awards. “Student Accomplice” earned a bronze medal in the 2024 student Academy Award.

The program’s focus is providing students with both technical skills and spiritual tools. Program co-creator Kelly Loosli credits heavenly help for much of the program’s success.

“They leverage prayer and the Spirit as much as they can,” Loosli said of his students. “In my mind, there’s no other way we could be as competitive as we are without His help.”

They are outperforming the top schools when it comes to creating award-winning films. Loosli doesn’t think Heavenly Father cares about BYU animation, but he does think Heavenly Father cares about these students.

“He cares that these students are developing their talents, that they’re going to be able to support families, that they’re being emotionally rewarded and able to pursue something they love,” Loosli said. “And I do think that’s important to Heavenly Father, and I think He’s blessed us for that.”

Loosli challenges students to do the spiritual work that brings Heavenly Father’s promised blessings.

“I just say, ‘Hey, look, if this is important to you, it’s important to Him, and you make sure that you keep Him in your mind,’” Loosli said. “And we emphasize, ‘Look, don’t be working on this film on Sunday, and make sure that you’re doing all the little things that you’re supposed to be doing religiously so that you can merit the blessings that will then yield the rewards you want.’ And I see that happening all the time.“

Loosli is also proud that he and other professors are constantly pushing students to work hard on their craft.

While working on “Student Accomplice,” Lisa Bird, recent graduate and lighting specialist, often spent long hours in the computer lab. Even after graduating in the spring, Bird continued to go to the computer lab each day to work on the film — just like she had done for the past three semesters — in order to finish the film.

“It’s kind of funny, because a lot of the time as animators, we don’t really get to go outside and see too much light,” she said.

Even with the long hours, Bird’s faith grew as she and other students overcame several technical challenges with creating the film.

“I think BYU is a really unique environment where we are able to pray together and share our testimonies with each other,” she said.

Receiving the student Academy Award was an acknowledgement of all the hard work students put into the project together, according to Bird.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty that comes with animation ,and it’s really nice that we don’t just brush away all the hardship,” Bird said. “We are able to acknowledge ‘This is something that’s really scary, and it’s really uncertain, but we can rely on Heavenly Father and we can pray and we can have faith.‘”

Kevin West, who composed the music for the “Student Accomplice” film, said coming up with the musical score took a lot of faith. He orchestrated a score fusing jazz’s spontaneous rhythms, which he’s had a long-standing passion for, with the grandiosity of an orchestra.

“I had to have a great amount of faith in Heavenly Father having prepared me to do this over the years, because I’ve never worked on a project quite like this before, and so I had to have faith that I had what it took,” West said. “To me, it was just a testament that if we put our faith in God, He can bring out potential in us that we had no idea we had to begin with.”

Although not an animation student himself, West was invited to join the animation students in praying and fasting together.

“I really liked that feeling of unity that that created where it’s like, OK, we’re all fasting this Saturday or Sunday, and we’re all praying together, and we’re all finishing that fast with a prayer,” West said.

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