Jacob
updyke
Director - Producer - Layout Artist - 2D Animator - Story Artist
Pippin and the Mountain Troll
About
Pippin and the Mountain Troll is a SCAD 2025 collaborative animated capstone film pitched by Jacob Updyke. It's an internet humor inspired comedy about a medieval stone mason named Pippin, and his best friend Muledrid the horse.
On a quest for riches and gems, the pair encounter a bridge guarded by Tabernacle, an eccentric mountain troll. Tabernacle refuses to let the pair cross, which leads to an encounter that forever changes the course of their lives. The short is about greed, corruption, and how everyone has the potential to do good, and evil.
The film is currently being submitted to film festivals across the US, and will have a public release with a date TBD.
Watch the Trailer!
Contributions
Jacob Updyke had many roles for the short. He created the original pitch, served as the films executive producer, preproduction lead, and audio mixer. He designed environments, characters, storyboards, shot lists, workflow systems, social media pages, animations, animation guides, background sketches, background paintings, and is the voice of Tabernacle the Troll. Explore some of his work below!
Pre Production Designs
Schedules and Guides
Layouts and Animation
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
History
Pippin and the Mountain Troll was created by a team of ten skilled BFA animators from the Savannah College of Art and Design. The pitch was first developed by Jacob Updyke in 2023 as an assignment for his Anim 345 Storyboarding class. At the encouragement of his professor and classmates, Jacob pitched the film for his senior capstone project. Hundreds of pitches were submitted and voted by the SCAD rising animation seniors. While the exact number of votes was unknown, Pippin was one of the top 35 ranked submissions, qualifying the pitch to be green lit for production.
From there, the remaining 35 pitches competed with each other to recruit available animation students to join there teams. Pitches that could not assemble a team of 10 before the quarter ended were cut, and would not make it to production. Jacob launched a social media campaign, managed recruiting events, and successfully gathered nine other classmates to join the team. Under the guidance of the incredible Rachel Schmieg and leadership of RJ Knaggs, the team began production on the short in the fall of 2024. The film changed a lot form its original conception, and ultimately became a work of love and dedication.
The short wrapped up production in the spring of 2025, and is being submitted to festivals across the US. The film will have a public release with a date TBD.
Above is the original pitch submitted to the Savannah College of Art and Designs animation department. Submissions were asked to be 3-5 minutes long, and include information about the mediums of animation what would be used, how long the film would be, and early concepts for characters, environments, storyboards, and more.
The designs used in the pitch were not final and changed when the team entered preproduction. This helped the film be more visually appealing and made it easier to animate.