An animation student who goes by Lumi spent eight weeks making friends with the local squirrels and getting them to eat at a miniature table with tiny dishes and books. Lumi presented the resulting videos as her final project, named Sciuridaes, in an Experimental Capture class.
This project is inspired by children’s book illustrations of animals picnicking together in the forest, and is a continuation of the same project from earlier this semester. The squirrels perform uniquely ‘human’ activities such as reading and “baking”. They eat from tables with tea pots and snack on bagels in their kitchens. Their choices of activities, mirror how I, a human, spend my time.
It wasn't easy. The project took both patience and plenty of treats.
Key materials: For the span of this project, to train and film the squirrels, I have exhausted the 8lb bag of squirrel food, two bags of walnuts, 4.5 apples, some carrots here and there (trying to offer healthier options, they are getting chunky), a full jar of Jif peanut butter and half a jar of fancy Costco peanut butter (which they like significantly less than the Jif). I have also accumulated a cast of 8 ‘repeating visitor’ squirrels and in the last week an additional 5 squirrels just out of the nest.
The things we do for grades. See plenty of short videos and read more about the project here. -via reddit