In the summer of 2000, a college student by the name of Anthony Thurman, created a documentary film based on a class trip to a computer show that he and several of his classmates attended. He edited it on a VCR and created his own production company logo to air before and after the film as sort of a joke. This is when the name ALT Key Productions was born. The name comes from a combination of Anthony's initials (A.L.T.) and a reference to an actual ALT Key on a keyboard since his major in college was Computer Information Systems.

The film was such a surprise hit with the people at his college, that he realized he should start taking filmmaking seriously. About a year later, Anthony decided that it might be best to further his college education by fulfilling his dream of going to an art school. After being accepted, it wasn't soon after that Anthony understood that the cost of classes would be too high for him to enroll. One of the advisors at the art school even insisted that he would amount to very little if he let his lack of money stop him from attending.

That same week, Anthony used his frustration towards his unfortunate financial situation, and at what the advisor said, to move him into another positive direction. He decided to go back to work on a short animated project that he had earlier abandoned due to the cancellation of a contest he wanted to enter. He rewrote many aspects of the story and decided to make it 22 minutes and 30 seconds longer than it was originally intended to be. The short was about two explorers in the future who go in search of a lost 20th Century artifact. The name of the short film was "Tomb Hackers." It was the first official film, since his playful stint at documentary filmmaking, to use the name ALT Key Productions.

From then on, Anthony has continued to use his natural artistic abilities and his skills on a computer to create short films that not only entertain, but that often invoke serious thought and conversation.