Things We Miss In The Moonlight

"Things We Miss in the Moonlight" is a sci-fi, comedy, 3D animated short film that reimagines Aotearoa in a post-apocalyptic community run by household service robots after the disappearance of humans. 

Set in a 1950's retro-future Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, we follow Buddy, a controlling household service robot. When her mutated rat companion - One-Eye - brings her an unidentified sapling, they struggle to make it grow and Buddy is faced with the choice to break out of her programming or stay stuck in her ways.

One-Eyed-Rat Studios is a 3D animation production team founded by a crew of young artists during our final year at university. Since graduating, we have grown to 26+ recent graduates and creatives who love 3D animation and film, and want to continue working on projects and bring new and unique stories to life.

Sophia Kwon is our hardworking director and witty 3D generalist behind the project. Co-writer and co-founder of One-Eye-Rat Studios.

Adriana Martinez and Tayla Randall are co-producers with a strong understanding of the creative process, ready to bring animation in Aotearoa to life!  A duo of talented 3D generalists and co-writers on the short film.

Our incredible animation & vfx artist team consists of Miguel Gamil, Sophia Aizon, Yoxuan Chin, Sofia Jones, Amiila Chaston, Josh Tarrant, Michaela Edwards, Oliver Martin, Estrella Ochoa, Albert Qiu, Emma Row, Nikita Hoff-Nielson, Katie Tschang, Theresa Taghoy, Kaz Takarangi, Terrence Leota, Xavier George, Abby Riordan, Cassidy Laurie, Cody Thompson, Dylan Hedley, Thomas Coutts, Jordan Reddish, and Tony Yuan.

Connor Cully is our brilliant and talented sound engineer, who will be developing original scores and foley for the entire film.

Vivienne Tam, with her impeccable taste and creative eye, is in charge of our social media marketing to bring our ideas to our audience.

And last but not least, we have Whitney Dai as our amazing PR marketing and administrative assistant.

Our team is ever-growing and we continue to bring on more artists, crew, and voice actors as our film comes to life!

Unfortunately, 3D animation is expensive to make - but it's worth it! Here are where your donations will go straight towards:

• Software Costs: These include Maya, Nuke and Adobe Services, as well as digital storage for our incredibly large files (eek!)
• Social Media Marketing: Promotion via social media and other marketing tactics. As well as going directly to our marketing talent.
• Sound Production: Funding for foley, voice acting and music production. It is important to us that our sound engineer and voice talent are compensated.
• Post-production and Preview Screening Costs: The rest of our budget will be what takes us over the finish line to complete the film. And we will also be hosting a preview screening once the film is done as a sweet treat for our crew, friends, family, and supporters!
• Film Festival Strategy: Before a full release, we will be taking the traditional film festival route and plan to submit to festivals that open mid 2027. These include national and international opportunities, in NZ, South Korea, France and more! Support will help us reach more festivals and garner more global attention!

We wanted to create a 10 minute short film fully in CG for one simple reason - we love it - and there's nothing else we want to do. Since graduating and struggling to find hope in the current job climate, we want to tell our own stories and continue to share our craft of animation. 

'Things We Miss in the Moonlight' reflects the struggles of the past that are hard to shake, and the importance of connecting to others. The charm of 3D animation allows us to create a fantastical world, and develop original characters. The story blends comedy while tackling a more serious undertone, all while imagined in a never seen before Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa.

The whole of our animation team is volunteering their time and talents for the love of animation, and craft of film. Upon graduation, we realised that the industry is in a tough spot right now - but we didn't want that to stop us from doing what we love. 

'The Things We Miss In The Moonlight' is purposefully set in Aotearoa, to represent our home in the indie animation space, with the long term goal of generating our own IPs. 

Upon completing this project, we want to continue with our studio and keep making animated projects. All donations and sharing of our fundraiser campaign are deeply appreciated by us, and we cannot wait to bring you along our journey.