A little dog is not allowed on the couch. He does not care.
UPDOG was my first year film at CalArts. Going into my first year, I had never made an animated film before. I had one singular goal for my first year film - finish it. And I did! Is it perfect? Nope! But it was proof that I am capable of producing an entire animated film from start to finish, and it is a project that I treasure deeply to this day.
For this film, I built a simple mockup of my set in Maya to use as reference for my backgrounds. I was really struggling to visualize the space, and being able to move the camera around exactly how I wanted it was tremendously helpful!
First time seeing it all put together! Made some stylistic changes between here and the final version, but this was the start of it feeling like I was really truly making a film.
I like to say UPDOG is based on a true story - my dog always had a sixth sense for when my mom would leave the house. She was the only one who cared if he got up on the couch. As soon as she would leave, he would be up there within minutes. It was so impressive she couldn't even be mad.
He passed away in May of 2024, about a year after I made this film. He had lived a very long life and was as loved as a little dog could be. I am incredibly glad that I made this film. Not only do I get to look back at it and remember him, but I get to share him with the rest of the world and other people get the chance to love him too.
