Mobile entertainment company Seriously has released King Slug Industries, a short produced by Golden Globe-nominated Reel FX Animation Studios. Directed by Reel FX’s Augusto Schillaci, King Slug Industries expands the animated world of Best Fiends, following Hank and Roger as they pursue the job of their dreams. This is the ninth short Schillaci has directed for the Best Fiends series of shorts, available for viewing on the game’s YouTube channel.
The short features an all-star voice cast of: Pamela Adlon (Californication, Better Things), David Herman (Office Space, Bob’s Burger), Alan Oppenheimer (The Neverending Story), Stephen Root (Office Space, Dodgeball), and Tara Strong (Inspector Gadget, Fairly Odd Parents).
Credits
Client Seriously/Best Fiends Petri Jarvilehto, creator, EP; Josh Wallace, writer; Bill Morrison, art director; Andrew Stalbow, Matt McMahon, EPs; Claudia De La Roca, producer; Philip Hickey, associate producer; Sydney Bright, associate producer & development; Miguel Francisco, original character designs; Ville Lepisto, Tuomo Kalviainen, creative consultants; Claudia De La Roca, casting; Sydney Bright, Heitor Pereira, music. Visual Effects/Animation Reel FX Animation Studios, Dallas & Montreal Augusto Schillaci, director/VFX supervisor; Rod Douglas, storyboard artist; Amy Grieshaber, Marc Salouze, producers; Esteban Cassagnet, associate prodn mgr; Adam Carr, Marie-Eve Bonneau, prodn. coordinators; Sam Wiemers, modeling; Douglas Bell, rigging supervisor; Joe Porritt, Ken Kanipe, Ludovic Faucillon, rigging; Yuri Martell, matte painter; Federico Moreno Breser, Vincent Bisschop, Nicolas P. Villarrel, art dept; Megan Shaffer, surfacing supervisor; Jeff Huard, Yoan Gorin, Justine Landau, Martin Luna Castillo, Quentin Peyssonneaux, surfacing; Chris Browne, PJ Torrevillas, character FX supervisors; Christina De Luca, Keanu Vallier, Jennifer Cruz, Cinthia Ramirez Rodríguez, artists; Dan West, layout lead; Thomas de Maleingreau, Sean Monteagudo, layout; Elyse Roy, environment; Eddy Lowinski, FX supervisor; Tony Fan, Jyota Malcolm, Yuri Vieitas, FX; Martin Ferland, animation supervisor; Kosta Dracopoulos, Jason Park, Justin Ustel, Syuan-Ru Wu, Anna Masquelier, Tiago Ferreira, Chris Burnham, animation; Kelsey Craig, ltg supervisor; Swapnil Halarnkar, Randy Tecson, Melissa Gilbreath, Srabani Halarnkar, Pierre Lauret, Alice Lepoutre, Luiz Fernando Araujo, ltg; Seth Schwartz, CG supervisor; John Anderholm, tech supervision; John Levanas, TD; Ted Lebeau III, render supervision; Aldo Victoria, render wrangler; Joanna D. Ferguson, Emmanuel Laurent, heads of production. (Toolbox: Nuke, Maya, Flame, Photoshop) Agora Studio (virtual studio), additional texture & animation McFly Studio, Buenos Aires, Argentina, additional modeling and surfacing
Apple’s holiday ad--“Heartstrings,” launched ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities--introduces us to a father with mild-moderate hearing loss. But thanks to the clinical grade Hearing Aid feature on AirPods Pro 2, he can now hear his daughter playing the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young classic “Our House” on her new guitar, just unwrapped on Christmas morning.
The breakthrough ability to hear clearly is all the more impactful in that it comes after we journey with the dad down memory lane as he recalls his daughter’s first guitar, her birthday, her first day of school--though the sound of his flashbacks is muffled. But once he activates the Hearing Aid feature, dad can properly hear his daughter in the present--and with that even the memories can be heard clearly.
“Heartstrings” was directed by Henry-Alex Rubin of production house SMUGGLER for TBWAMedia Arts Lab Los Angeles, with sound design by three-time Oscar winner Paul N.J. Ottoson who helps us experience the father’s hearing loss and then its restoration. (Ottoson won two Oscars for The Hurt Locker--for best sound mixing and best sound mixing--and another for best sound editing for Zero Dark Thirty.) Read More
