Directed by Alyssa Copealnd, Julia Smith
Hop, Skip, and a Jump is an animated family action comedy that examines the connection between childhood imagination and a child's own strained relationship with their parents. Set in San Francisco, California, Carrie works as a social worker. Due to the nature of her job’s importance, she places it as a higher priority than her own 8-year-old child, Lia. When Lia asks her to play a game of hopscotch before work, Carrie concedes “just this once.” However, Lia’s childhood imagination ultimately translates into the physical as the whole world shifts into “Hopscotch World” when the game begins after she throws her “magic rock”. In Hopscotch World, the game is played to the ultimate extreme through a series of life-or-death obstacle courses. The course utilizes stereotypical items you would find in a child's front yard, such as giant jump ropes, jaxs, and traffic cones. The film progresses as Carrie finds a childlike enjoyment of the game and becomes more competitive. However, when Lia breaks the rules by accident and is put in danger of not surviving her own course, Carrie is forced to break her streak to save her daughter and have them complete the course alive. After they survive, they travel back into the real world, and Carrie begins to stress about being late for work. However, rather than abandoning work altogether, Lia uses her magic rock to bring to life one of her unicorn chalk drawings, which they then ride together into the sunset.
Alyssa Copealnd
Julia Smith is a Computer Animation Student attending Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. Julia specializes in environments with heavy detail and interesting color and lighting. She focuses much of her work on texturing, doing many projects with Substance Painter, while also exploring character design in both 2D and 3D concepts Living in Chapel Hill, NC during the summer, she has spent much of her time in nature. While studying to be an animator, Julia spends her time teaching art to younger children, playing/listening to DND, and staring at the Maya crash window. Alyssa Copeland is a creative leader, artist, and storyteller. She composes fantastical worlds and characters with a dynamic, vivid, and compelling sense of composition, color, and light. She was born and raised in Clovis, California, and will receive her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Computer Animation in 2026 with minors in Photography and Imaging, Film Studies, and Art History. She was recently selected as one of Ringling’s 16 Trustee Scholars, representing the Department of Student Life, and is a finalist for the Avant-Garde Scholarship. She excels in story-driven photography, whether it is in the studio or on location, and utilizes cinematic techniques to fully immerse her characters in their environments. She is an active participant in numerous on-campus committees and is a volunteer with the FIRST Robotics program. One of her pieces is currently exhibited in Phoenix, Arizona, for the Up Close Gallery’s show Faceless Portrait (2026), and her short film Hop, Skip, and a Jump in collaboration with Julia Smith will be debuted early May of 2026.
