The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has always been dedicated to providing all different kinds of innovative pediatric care. They have a class called “Story Medicine” which is comprised of student volunteers who work to put on shows based on the children’s very own stories. Once upon a time, staff at CHOP and the Animation Department at Drexel University decided to try to collaborate to make some of these childrens’ stories into fully animated short films. Initially when I signed up for the class,  I knew nothing about any of this. It was just there to fulfill a space in my curriculum. But as I learned more about the work we were set to do, I felt more and more that we were doing what may be the most important work I’ve done so far, in my life.

I’ve had conversations with people over the years, concerned about their work in the entertainment industry. My skills land me in the area between tech and entertainment, but I know my goals are to entertain people. One day a close friend of mine came to me in a frenzy, unsure that the path she’d set for herself (and the one I too was on) was the right choice. What was the point of it all? She wanted to know. I’ve never doubted myself when it came to my work. Here’s the thing about entertainment. We can’t directly help people with physical ailments, or build tech to aid those in less modern societies. We’re not doctors or engineers or scientists. But our work feeds the other part; that metaphorical heart and soul. That’s what Story Medicine is, and that’s what we do. Because we’re really just our brains in a squishy automaton shell, and there needs to be TLC for that too. My ultimate goal has always been to put that TLC in all my work, and further in my career, to get that to a wider audience. Which is why this CHOP project was so very important to me and close to my heart.

It was decided that four CHOP patients were to be chosen for this project. The staff there would work with the kids to make screenplays, which would then be delivered to us to work with. In the meantime we continuously sent concept art for the kids to look over and critique. It was a lot of fun. Setup like an independent studio, it was largely up to us students to divide the work efficiently.

Being a small class of people, working on 4 separate projects, the turnaround was quick. Based on the above concept art, I had to model, rig and texture the character “Dog Jackson,” in addition to another dog waiter,  and various restaurant assets. To save time we relied on mental ray to render the final results.