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Main Crew statements
Sofia Azpe
Director, 3D Animation Lead, Visdev
"Ahoy! I am Sofia, a 3D character animator and visual development artist from Texas who likes to create more lighthearted content with wacky characters. For the story of Pirate Lesson, I had a lot of fun brainstorming with the crew about our experiences on learning how to drive, bouncing off jokes from each other, and then trying to combine everything. I’ve loved this entire process of watching concept art come to life by the whole crew’s hard work and I can’t wait for y’all to see it!"
Producer, Rigger, Look Development
Dara Insixiengmay
"Hello, my name is Dara and I am a 3D rigger from Charles Town, WV! For me, Pirate Lesson has always been a dream project that I've had the honor of working on in this past year. Being the producer allowed me to manage and organize all parts of the pipeline while being very hands-on with multiple jobs. My other main responsibilities, when I'm not keeping track of spreadsheets, were creating the look development through our "outershell" method and rigging the Father's facial setup and the Kraken! I am so blessed to be a part of an insanely talented crew who all came together to create this goofy film, I'm excited for y'all to watch it!"
Madelin Ahren
Co-Art Director, 3D Animator, Visdev
"I'm a 3D character animator originally from Cleveland Ohio! I joined the Pirate Lesson crew at the end of my junior year and it's been an amazing experience ever since. I focus in 3D animation but I've had the awesome opportunity to work on so many more aspects of this production. When I'm not strapped into my computer, I'm either roller skating, knitting, playing video games, doing some life drawing/painting, or losing time on my phone. I'm so excited for people to see our film! We put a lot of love and explosions into it!"
Lighting Lead, Modeler, Texture Artist
Hailey "aech" Akre
“Hi! I’m Hailey, or some of you might know me as Aech, and I’m the lead lighting artist! This was such a fun film to light on due to the unique stylization and colors. Besides lighting, as a technical animator I also got to focus on modeling and texturing throughout the pipeline. Despite the challenge of mostly collaborating virtually, working with this team has been such an amazing, gratifying experience. I hope you enjoy our film!"
jonathan ip
Lead Character Modeler, Texture Artist, Lighter
"Hello! My name is Jonathan Ip, and I am responsible for modeling the son, part of the kraken and some other assets. I also helped out on texturing and lighting. Although I major in animation, I mostly focus on creature and character sculpting and would like to get into the action figure and collectible industry~ The film has come a long way and thanks to our amazing crew, we have an awesome film to be proud of!! I hope you enjoy watching it as much we did working on it!!"
3D Animator, Rigger, Compositor, A "One-Man Band"
Brandon Kolaczewski
"Hi, I’m Brandon Kolaczewski, and I’m an Animation Major from Libertyville, Illinois. On Pirate Lesson, I was responsible for creating an Auto-Rigger for our Bird Characters, modeling and texturing one of our Birds, some look development on the Water, a lot of 3D animation and compositing, and a little bit of 2D clouds, effects, lighting, and rendering. After SCAD, I hope to work in Game Animation, and I work on personal projects to improve my skills throughout the entire production process in my free time."
hallie "Hal" Kujawski
3D Animator, 2D Effects Artist, Modeler
"My name is Hal Kujawski and I am an animator! While my main responsibilities included 3D animation and 2D effects animation, I also contributed to modeling, texturing, and rendering. Being able to work with our amazing team on Pirate Lesson is something I’ll cherish forever! I’ve learned new skills from different parts of the pipeline thanks to my crewmates, as being on a small team like this means I was able to work in parts of the pipeline I was unfamiliar with. Everyone helped each other grow through this experience, and I couldn’t have done it without such supportive and kind people. I am so very, very proud of the Pirate Lesson team, and I hope you enjoy the film we’ve created."
Technical Director, Rigger, Lighter
PoHsuan Lin
“My name is PoHsuan Lin, from Taiwan. I'm the technical director of the film. I enjoy animating, texturing, lighting, and of course character rigging!! I feel wonderful when animators create amazing animation using my rigs, and I’m sure people down the pipeline feel the same when they do a decent job!! We've faced countless challenges during the production. Not only we did not back down, we solved those problems one by one. I worked in an opposite time zone with most of the team due to the pandemic, but all teammates communicated super well and were always responsive, which makes everything so much easier. With so much hard work we've done, I'm really excited to show you the film!"
Risa Suzuki
Lead Environmental Modeler, Texture Artist, Lighter
"My name is Risa Suzuki, and I grew up in Japan. I am an environment artist but I also worked on lighting, background painting, 2d effects, and title logo design on this project. I’m so grateful that I could be part of this team and work with a talented pirate crew. I appreciate how the team made a flexible and pleasant working environment, especially since I was in a different time zone most of the time. Although we had to work at home from the beginning, we communicated well, helped and motivated each other, and we are so proud of how it came out! It was the most stylized film I’ve worked on so far, so it was challenging for me but I had so much fun! And I’ve learned a lot such as how the production pipeline works and how to make things cohesive. I hope you enjoy our film!"
3D Animator, Lead Character Modeler, Compositor
Tailah Williams
"Hello! My name is Tailah Williams, and I'm from Brooklyn, NY. My main role on this film was 3D animation. I was also able to contribute my skills within 3D modeling of our strong character Papa Meatball (the father), texturing, compositing, and some 2D effects! I enjoyed working with all of my talented crewmates within Pirate Lesson! My experience working on this film was nothing short of hard work and helpful criticism to more importantly laughter. I enjoyed having to challenge myself getting used to a cartoony style of animation. It pushed me to explore super expressive body language and goofy gestures within the birds and son. I'm over the moon to have helped over these past 9 months seeing our film grow and evolve into a unified cinematic treasure! Much love to my family members and significant other consistently pushing me to be my best me every day."
