Progress Update: Most of the Way

This has been by far the most interesting video I've worked on so far. Between the incorporation of Felipe's art, the collaboration with World Anvil, and toying with several new effects I haven't yet used on the show, it all feels so fresh and different to me.

It's good to feel this way again. I always love working on the show, but it does get a bit grueling at times. But I feel the momentum, now. With Felipe producing the art, Chloe working the audio and pulling the community together, and me holding a couple dozen levers and knobs and switches in my hands, and great friends like the WA team, it feels like this thing is becoming real now. 

It's hard to explain concisely what I mean by that, but mark me, it's a very, very good thing.

Where Are We?

We're most of the way through this video's production cycle right now, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're quite ready to release. Chloe's just finished the audio and we still have to give it a once-over. After that, I've got to finish the final animation and sync everything up. This time that'll include not only animating Talebot, but doing some brand integration with World Anvil as well. We want it to be clear this is not only a Tale Foundry video.

What's Next?

We just had a meeting with our pal Dimi from World Anvil (Hi Dimi, if you're reading this!) and we've decided together that it would be best to push the video back a little ways so we can get our collaborative wheels properly greased before go-time.

This is important because—something I'm not sure we've mentioned yet—Chloe and I are going to be leaving for Gen Con next Monday, which will cut into our work flow significantly. If we decided not to sleep or eat anymore until then, it looked possible that we'd have the video ready for release by that time. But where's the sense in rushing a project everyone has worked so very hard on? We want this to be a quality series, so we're all going to take our time and treat it right.

In the mean time, we'll continue to give you guys your bi-weekly sneak peeks, progress updates, Think Tanks, etc., etc.. Conveniently, it looks like the next Think Tank is going to fall right around the time of the video's release, so depending on where we are, we should have some interesting material to discuss.

Anything Else?

Apart from that?... well, you may have an inkling of this all ready if you were there for our last Think Tank session, but we've got some fun changes planned for Patreon in the not-so-distant future. I'm not going to spoil too much here and now, but what we're working on at the moment involves reaching out to some third-party merchandising teams and seeing what kind of partnerships we can conjure up.

All in all, the relief in the air is palpable. We've been killing ourselves to get this thing out within an unrealistic time-frame lately, but things should go far more smoothly now. 

Special thanks to the World Anvil team for being so chill and accomodating, and a special thanks to all of you. It's because of you guys that we get to do cool stuff like this.

We look forward to many such adventures in the future.

—Benji