Sho, a young Shiba Inu, learns about the ancient tradition of sacrifice from his sensei, a wise and disciplinary figure. According to legend, their kind must send away one of their own to appease the angry Gods outside their walls. Shortly after hearing this story, it is revealed that they are actually toys inside a gacha machine, and the “Gods” are just normal humans. One boy in particular, Tsukino, excitedly pays for a toy at the machine Sho lives in. Back inside the machine, the two toy dogs make their way up to the sacrificial temple. As they reach the top, Sho begins to have second thoughts about the sacrifice and makes a run for it. Sensei, fearful for the state of the village, rushes after him. As Tsukino waits for his toy to come out, he becomes more and more impatient. He starts knocking and shaking the machine, causing the toy world inside to crumble. Moments before Sho is crushed by falling pillars, Sensei pushes him out of the way. Seeing how Sensei risked his life to save Sho makes him see the true meaning of being a hero. Sho decides to fulfill his duty as “Hero of the village” and sacrifices himself. Once he is outside the machine, he realizes that there was nothing to be afraid of. Tsukino happily puts Sho, his favorite character, on his backpack and the two of them leave the store smiling.

Director Biographies - Susan Huang, Stacy Moon, Nadya Sugiarto

Susan Huang is a visual development artist from Taiwan. She is a 2020 graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, majoring in Computer Animation. She has loved drawing since she was a kid. Painting classes were always the happiest times during her student life. Although there were not a lot of art majors at that time, she tried to get into the Industrial Design of Tatung University in Taiwan. Learning about basic product design and graphic design helped her to become a graphic designer after she graduated. She also has experience working in illustration and game design. Susan decided to go back to school and become a visual development artist in 2015. Since learning the whole animation pipeline would be helpful for a Visual Development artist in the animation industry, she applied to several top animation schools and was accepted to Ringling College of Art and Design, Department of Computer Animation. It was a whole new art experience for her. It was the first time she learned about the drawing composition. 3D skill is another important skill that she learned from Ringling, especially 3D modeling. Working with rough 3D models was really helpful for environment design. It has made her design process faster. Susan loves traveling and listening to music when she is not drawing. She is always inspired by her travels and the museums she visited. Ringling College has provided a great creative environment to let her experiment with lots of different styles and learn from them. Susan is currently re-designing an old project, "Farewell", which is another thesis film story she created together with her teammates. Learning is the most important thing in her life. Everything needs to be learned, whether it be art skills, new technology, communication, etc. She hopes that she can break into the animation industry and continue to tell amazing stories with her art in the future!

Stacy Moon is a born and raised Southern Californian with a Korean cultural upbringing. She was born on July 15th, 1998 and will be 21 years old by the time she graduates Ringling College of Art & Design. As a young child, Stacy would watch animated TV shows like Spongebob, Pokémon, and W.I.T.C.H. with her older sister. She also had a deep admiration for her mother’s work, which was textile design. Some of her fondest childhood memories come from going to the fabric studio and watching her mom paint. Stacy decided to pursue a career in the arts after discovering Japanese comics in the first or second grade. This admiration for manga and illustration soon developed more into animation once she started high school. Once she started taking art seriously, Stacy began attending afterschool art classes during the last two years of high school. At Ringling, she found her art drastically improving thanks to the competitive but highly supportive atmosphere of her major. Stacy will always be grateful to Ringling for giving her more confidence in her work and better social skills for entering the industry. Her art is inspired by her own experiences and travels. Some of the biggest themes revolving around her work include family, culture, and all things cute and colorful. Some of her favorite subjects to draw/ design are small animals, fashion, and fruit (specifically lemons). She hopes to enter the animation industry someday, though she has grown very fond of product/ toy design recently as well. Stacy’s work has been featured in the Best of Ringling Showcase 2019, and now in 2020 for her thesis film, Gatcha!, which was created with her wonderful teammates Nadya Sugiarto and Susan Huang.

Nadya Sugiarto is an Animator and a CG Generalist from Surabaya, Indonesia. She went to Ringling College of Art and Design, majoring in Computer Animation, and will be 22 upon graduation. She has loved drawing since she was young. She also loves reading stories and watching animation. It wasn’t until mid of high school that she realized, animation could be a career path. Growing up in a country far from the where the animation industry is, she never considered it as a choice. Not until she discovered an interview with Rini Sugianto, an Indonesian animator who was able to make it into the animation industry in the US. She thought that if someone else could make it, maybe there was a chance for her too. She started looking up animation schools online and Ringling was one of the schools she found. Still unsure if animation was the right thing for her, she decided to go to 3dsense Media School in Singapore for a year before making up her mind on animation. 3dsense helped her to confirm that animation was what she wanted to do. Ringling CA thesis films were the biggest attraction for her and it was amazing to finally finish her thesis film together with her thesis partners. Other than Ringling and 3dsense Media School, Nadya also took some online animation workshops from Animsquad. All her teachers and mentors have helped her to push her work to the next level. During her time in Ringling, her works got selected for Best of Ringling 2018 and 2019. In Summer 2019, she got her first job as a Technical Animator at Blue Sky Studios for “Spies in Disguise”. Her group thesis film, “Gatcha!” created together with Susan Huang and Stacy Moon, was featured as part of “Best of Ringling 2020”. Now, she is looking forward to work in a team again, be surrounded by creative minds, and create meaningful stories.