Provo » Brigham Young University's Center for Animation is like a mini-Pixar in more ways than one: The students produce Hollywood-quality computer animation like the makers of "Toy Story" and "Monsters Inc." They have an untold winning streak for national awards like Pixar. And they are willing to branch out and explore stories that do more than just tickle the funny bone.

Such is the case with the program's latest award-winning short, "Kites," which debuted last week on the Provo campus. It's the eighth straight animated short film from BYU to win the national student Emmy.

Unlike their previous award-winning shorts like "Pajama Gladiator" or "Lemmings," "Kites" is a drama aiming not for laughs but for heartstrings. It tells the story of a small boy struggling with the loss of his grandfather. One day, his grandfather appears on a kite and invites the boy to ride with him to the afterlife.

The five-minute short, which has no dialogue, little sound effects and only an orchestral score to help move the story along, doesn't rely on a single joke or pratfall. It simply uses imagery to tell the tale of a boy's final goodbye.

The center's director, R. Brent Adams, admitted it was a big risk to produce a drama and had initial reservations when the students came to him with the idea.

"It's easy to make someone laugh in two or three minutes," Adams said. "It's much harder to touch someone in two or three minutes. I knew it was a big risk because I know how hard it is."

Students faced a similar hurdle as that presented to Pixar last year when the makers of "Finding Nemo" and "Ratatouille" risked creating something different with "Wall-E," in which the first act of the movie is told with no dialogue.

But the students' efforts paid off. The film, along with last year's "Pajama Gladiator," won this year's student Emmy ("Pajama Gladiator" barely missed last year's deadline for the award). Now "Kites" is headed for screenings at a number of film festivals.

"I've never been so nervous about a film in my life," said "Kites" co-producer James Jackson, 23, a junior in BYU's animation program. "With the animation, we had to be very subtle in the acting. Our goal was just to make sure the film had narrative without falling into too much drama."

Some 40 students worked on "Kites" for 1 1/2 years, at a cost of about $40,000, a fraction of what is spent for the same amount of footage on a Hollywood animated feature.

Students like Jackson spent eight-hour days, in addition to their normal jobs and student workload, to complete the movie. At one point last summer, they endured working in the center with no air conditioning, which threatened to overheat the computers. "Every single day was a grind," Jackson recalled, smiling.

Beyond the success of their shorts, Adams is most proud of the center's ability to get students jobs in related fields. Graduates of the program have gone on to work for Hollywood studios and special-effects firms like George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, Digital Domain, Pixar, DreamWorks, Sony and Disney. "We have about a 90 percent placement in either major game companies or major film studios," Adams said.

Pixar also has a working relationship with the university, sending mentors to Provo twice a year to work with the students.

The center was created last year through the colleges of engineering, fine arts, math and physical sciences. That's because people working at Hollywood computer-animation studios or game companies want people who can program software as well as be artists. The center is striving to create students who can work both sides of their brain. "We have smart artists at BYU," Adams said.