Stabby

[ABOVE] Click above to watch the full animation.

 

Stabby

A hermit crab with an obsession for shiny objects comes across a wedding ring that a young woman lost at the beach. They both find it at the same time and a chase ensues. Will the woman get her beloved ring back? Will the crab outwit her and hold on to his newly-prized possession? Watch to find out how it all goes down! This short film was created and produced primarily at SCAD Savannah and finished remotely during our final trimester. It was a VFX-heavy animation production that consisted of hair, cloth, grain, and fluid simulation. The two primary software we used were Maya and Houdini. All textures were created using Substance Painter. The pipeline transitioned from Maya after character animation and cloth simulation (nCloth) to Houdini for hair simulation, FX, lighting, and rendering with Arnold for Houdini (HtoA 5). All compositing took place in Nuke and the final edit was made in Premiere Pro. -

My Role

For Stabby, I had the role of Sound Supervisor and Sound Mixer. My tasks included: keeping a close relationship with the animation team, working closely with the composer and sound designer Redd Phillips, conducting frequent meetings with the animation and sound team in order to ensure that we were keeping on schedule for the due date and release date of Stabby, mixing the final sound effects pass with the score in ProTools in order to fix any last-minute volume adjustments, panning, reverb, and automation. I also kept track of various other organizational and administrative duties.

Something that was special about Stabby was the small crew and limited resources. Stabby was produced when COVID-19 first shut down SCAD and we were no longer able to use SCAD’s amazing resources. The composer, sound designer, and mixer all had to work from home and make the best out of what we were gifted and scavenged up ourselves.

Awards and Official Selections

[ABOVE] A screen grab with of the awards and final selections laurels that Stabby received while on the film festival circuit.

[ABOVE] A screen grab with of the awards and final selections laurels that Stabby received while on the film festival circuit.

Official Credits

Date: SCAD Spring 2020

My Role: Sound Supervisor & Mixer

Stabby Created at Savannah College of Art and Design

Directed by: Jess Paolo

Story by: Don (Dongmin) Kim, Mimi Komthongchusakul, Jess Paolo, and Eunha Yeum

Layout & Animation Supervisors: Don (Dongmin) Kim and Bijay Chudal

Character Technical Director: Andrew Solari

Character Effects Supervisor: Jess Paolo

Visual Effects Supervisor: Kean (Tri Kien) Huynh

Houdini TDs: Kushal Das, Ian Harvey, and Hope Schroers

Directors of Photography: Andrew Solari (compositing) and Kiersten Yahn (lighting)

Produced by: Andrew Solari

Assistant Producer: Kate Jansen

Grooming/LookDev: Jess Paolo

Modeling by: Taylor Chan, Justin Espinosa, Kate Jansen, and Jess Paolo

Surfacing by: Rachel Lu and Jess Paolo

Rigging by: Sohee Lee and Andrew Solari

Animation by: Patrick Armario, Courtney Brewer, Erin Casey, Taylor Chan, Bijay Chudal, Don (Dongmin) Kim, Mimi Komthongchusakul, Jiacan Ruan, Tashi Sherpa, and Arryn Troche

Character Effects by: Laurel Griffith, Jess Paolo, and Christian Rodriguez

Visual Effects by: Kushal Das, Yanni Fong, Ian Harvey, Kean (Tri Kien) Huynh, Huy Lee, Sohee Lee, and Misha Manley

Lighting Lead: Kiersten Yahn

Associate Lighting Lead: Courtney Brewer

Lighting by: John Bacile, Justin Espinosa, and Austin Wright

Compositing by: Justin Espinosa, Laurel Griffith, and Andrew Solari

Matte Painting by: Julia Krizan

Sound Supervisor: Elizabeth (Liz) Moore

Sound Designer: Redd Phillips

Special Thanks: Barbara Paolo, Timothy Steele, Thomas Meseguer, Garret Ilardi, Deborah Fowler, John Webber, Willian Tessier, and Bridget Gaynor

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