Thinking About Dogs depicts a regular guy just trying to go about his day, except for the fact that he is always being confronted by Dogs. For some reason, the dogs are definitely noticing him, and they want him to know it. My project is not about people and dogs relating to one another. In this piece, Dogs is a place that exists in one’s mind; somewhere to go when feeling like there’s nowhere else. It is about alienation, retreating into one’s own head, and trying to get over stuff and move on.

I chose to animate this project because it allowed me to take the most liberty with my characters.There were a lot of things in the piece that I wanted to not imbue with any obvious meaning, regardless of how what I thought meant. Maybe the audience will think, “What are the dogs trying to tell these people? What do they know that we don’t?” The ability to be sort of canvas for one to project themselves onto is something that is unique to animation and I wanted to take that opportunity. This way, I didn’t have to depict the dogs as anything but dogs.