2 BYU animated films win Emmys

"Some of the kids didn't like the idea at first, didn't think it was fun enough," said Jordan Pack, the 26-year-old producer of "Kites."

Pack, who graduated last year and is now working for Disney, said he feels a sense of accomplishment in having taken the "road less traveled."

The university frequently invites executives from major animation studios to drop by throughout the year to monitor students' progress and provide pointers. At one screening, Pack said, a few CEOs left a little teary eyed.

"It's cool to see that we can do that," he said. "I mean, I don't want to make people cry. But it's cool to see we can evoke that kind of emotion in just a few short minutes."

As head of the animation program, Kelly Loosli said he and the other professors generally spend most of their time "standing in the back of the classroom." That's part of the reason BYU has not only a tradition of bringing home student Emmys, but also a 90 percent success rate placing students with high-profile studios like Pixar, Disney and Sony.

"We don't want the students to work on our projects," he said. "We want them to own the creative content. When they take that ownership, artistically and in terms of the message they are trying to portray, they just kill themselves trying to make it work."

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