It's that time again! We're going to huddle up with our engineers and conjure up a brain storm. I recommend you bring your umbrellas, because this one'll be pretty intense!
While we finish up the first video for our worldbuilding series and prepare for the big collaboration with World Anvil, we've also got another big thing to handle, here. As anyone who saw our most recent post will know...
2018-08-16 05:25:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Alright you guys, prepare yourselves. A lot has been happening on the back end of Tale Foundry, and we've found like... five-million ways to improve our patreon.
So, before our big collab with World Anvil fires, we want to set this stuff in motion. Bear with us! These changes are mostly organizational and largely on the back end, but some of them *may* effect you!
What's happening?
We recently began a partnership with a merchandising company. With ...
2018-08-15 06:20:09 +0000 UTC View PostWe're trying something a little different here.
With the advent of video sneak peeks, we thought it would be fun for you guys to be able to decide what I focus on for the weekly sneak peek. So instead of just spoiling an image on Mondays and then go into detail in a Thursday video sneak peek, we thought we'd do votes on Mondays to let you decide what you want me to share with you from the process!
So, let's give this thing a shot. For our forthcoming sneak peek, wou...
2018-08-13 18:51:18 +0000 UTC View PostIf we were hypothetically to put out a piece of merch with one or more taleoids on it, which of the following would you be most excited about?
2018-08-09 20:45:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Back from Gen Con, to be more precise.
The day before yesterday, Chloe and I officially came home from the best four days in gaming the United States has to offer. Just like last year, it was a hell of an experience. We met a lot of other creators with their own awesome projects and discussed their businesses with them, and I personally am looking forward to keeping up correspondence with them. Maybe I can learn a thing or two. Who knows?
Beside the business side of things (which I s...
2018-08-08 01:38:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Here we are at gen con, having a lovely time and doing very little work on anything Tale Foundry related. It's good to have a bit of a break, but we thought it would be fun to get you guys in on some of the fun as well.
So! Since we aren't quite big enough to be invited here and we aren't quite wealthy enough to afford a booth, this is us finding our own way to include all of you. If...
2018-08-01 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello you lovely people!
This week Benjy and I will be having a fun, low stress week at GenCon, the best 4 days in gaming! So we thought we would find a way to include all of you.
Instead of our regularly scheduled Think Tank we will be hosting an all patron AMA on our discord server on Friday, August 3rd, 6:30pm CST. 2018-07-31 05:03:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Today was interesting. I spent an unduly large amount of time throwing together business cards for the convention we'll be going to next Wednesday, which does not sit well with today's animation quota. There was a place I would like to have been by the end of the day, and I am not quite there at this point.
Still, it's on the way. Things are chugging along just fine, business-y detours or no.
Where Are We?
Chloe's completely done with the audio ...
2018-07-27 02:39:54 +0000 UTC View PostThis 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 communit...
2018-07-25 00:34:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey all! Just wanted to share with you what we're sharing with the world.
This is only a slight update on an earlier sneak peek we shared for this video. You'll noticed the "join our patreon" rider on the bottom right there. That's because we're sending this out to our the fans on our social media sites as well! We don't do leaks often, but once in a great while doesn't hurt.
Thanks for all your patience and support. You guys are amazing.
—Benji
2018-07-22 23:59:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Soon now. Sooooon.
Unlike many of our think tanks, this one isn't going to be too much about the current video we're working on. We're presently deep, deep in visual production and audio editing, which, unfortunately, doesn't give us too much to talk about. Everything's already been planned; we're just producing it. We also haven't had the time to dig too much into how we'll be approaching our list video/story yet, so we won't be prepared to talk about those.
However, there ...
2018-07-18 22:22:11 +0000 UTC View Post
The progress is slow(?).
It feels like I’ve been working on (essentially) the same asset since graphic design for this video began: this dang book-with-turning-pages thing. It looks great in the sneak peek I shared the other day, but it’s a nightmare the way I prepared it in that gif. What you’re looking at there is a complicated bait-and-switch where, yes, the pages are moving in 3d spaces, but they’re 2d assets. That means they can’t have a fron/back on their own...
2018-07-17 22:14:32 +0000 UTC View PostAaaaand production has officially started! We're out of the pre-production phase (research/scripting/writing/recording/visual planning, etc.) and into actual editing and asset creation!
I got the complete visual design document to Felipe last night (when I say last night I actually mean something closer to 4:40am, because I am an unhealthy human being). This is really exciting for all of us, because it'll be the first proper episode he does work on. I still have plenty of visuals to make mysel...
2018-07-15 02:10:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Things are interesting right now.
Despite the fact that we’re in a financial down-period with the show and the brand in general, things are also kind of coalescing in an interesting way. This has a lot to do with our correspondence with the World Anvil team, who’ve helped us figure things out about owning a brand with a community.
First, Chloe and I are introverts. That’s the truth. We both have strange histories with social interaction and a fairly poor grasp on...
2018-07-14 01:38:40 +0000 UTC View PostToday was one of those nothing-days where you just zone out, keep at the work, and somehow, eventually, you end up with a product. The only difference is that I have to be the opposite of zoned out because I'm dreaming up visuals for the upcoming Worldbuilding episode.
I'll give you a glimpse at what that looks like in tomorrow's sneak peek. Suffice to say, it's a lot to have my mind turned up to twelve for an entire eight-hour shift. By the end of this I'm gonna be completely d...
2018-07-13 00:46:43 +0000 UTC View PostToday is a bag of mixed feelings.
Yesterday I missed my window to make the daily update (which I apologized for), because after recording the audio for the upcoming episode we had to rush to a Lindsey Stirling concert—one of my birthday presents for Chloe/Chloe's birthday presents to herself. That was a blast, and I'm recovering from the lovely evening now...
But that's kind of offset by the fact that, listening back to the audio, we have a ton of gain peaks throughou...
2018-07-11 21:51:50 +0000 UTC View PostI'm mostly writing this to let y'all know that the worldbuilding script is done! I'm just looking over things now and whittling away the unsightly edges (which there are a lot of).
If all goes according to plan, we shall audio by the evening.
I'm so excited for this video. It's going to be so interesting to see how people respond to something so high-concept and... just... over-articulate. I think it might be a breath of fresh air to get away from literary paradigms tied to part...
2018-07-09 22:54:08 +0000 UTC View PostHello lovely intelligent lifeforms!
It is once again time to send out life time rewards to our magnificent supporters! Yay! This also of course means I have some reminders for all of you:
Pre-2018 Patrons
If you haven't already done so, please update your pledge to include your address if you would like us to ship you life time rewards. If you don't want them, you can write a funny message to us in those sections instead.
Interna...
2018-07-07 20:40:20 +0000 UTC View PostHey everybody!
Sorry this one's a couple hours later than usual. I'm adjusting to this new schedule and the think tanks/voice chat with our mod team came quicker than I was prepared for, so I had to push this thing back a little bit. I think that's all right though, because I don't have a whole lot to share today.
I'm just doing a lot of script writing and, as I said yesterday, playing around with layers and layers of abstraction. However, the think tank went quite well, and wi...
2018-07-07 02:10:31 +0000 UTC View PostSometimes, when you get deep enough into a subject, all the work you've put into reduction and concrete anchoring actually leads to a weird spiral into absurdity. It's something I have to keep a careful eye on with every script I write, but this time it's been a plague.
I'm just about done with the outline now, although it's been a hard-fought victory. I thought I had a really good handle on all of this two days ago, but as you write and try to articulate things succinctly, you begin to realiz...
2018-07-05 23:29:10 +0000 UTC View PostI am so glad to be writing this right now.
Look. Family is a wonderful thing. Blood, support, familiarity are all treasures in a person's life if they can get 'em. But ye gods is it difficult to maintain interest for sentimentality's sake. It's the 4th of July, and this post is saving me a lot of stilted conversation right now. I'll try to keep it brief, but Tehlu strike me dead if I'm not feeling a mighty compulsion to write a novel at several words a minute...
Then again, I did just st...
2018-07-04 21:41:34 +0000 UTC View PostMy mind has ruptured.
I've spent virtually all day poring over my notes and trying to make sense of the chaos of worldbuilding, and I feel like I'm so close, I'm just... missing something. I'm about to just start throwing things onto an outline template and seeing what sticks. I think that'll be a pretty joyful process.
This isn't to say I haven't been making progress. This looks like it's going to be a pretty good episode. I feel confident that, provided we don't manag...
2018-07-03 22:52:26 +0000 UTC View PostHello all!
First daily since the new schedule began, and I must say, I'm feeling quite good about things. Better to work this stuff into the middle of my day than to squeeze in an extra 15-60 minutes before bed in the fade between sleep and waking. Perhaps you can expect me to be a few degrees more sober for these posts from now on. What a treat~
At any rate, things are swimming on just fine. We're in the middle of a... rather devastation patron die-off from the Lovecraft series (...
2018-07-02 21:52:13 +0000 UTC View PostWe've brought this up in several updates now. At last, it's time to stop teasing all of you and commit to an actual schedule for our patreon posts! No more random pings 20 minutes before the think tank begins, no 3am daily updates, no more missed sneak peeks because we posted them in the dead of the night.
It can be very difficult to adhere to a regular schedule with these things when the nature of the show is so very cerebral and nebulous and artistic. Very hard to p...
2018-07-01 20:46:24 +0000 UTC View Post
In the wake of his wife's death, Vadim struggles to understand the growing changes in his daughter. When a dragon kidnaps her, the task becomes infinitely more complex.
After all this time it is finally here! This... has been a heck of ride. So many set backs, delays, and unexpected hurdles. We may have missed a daily update or two, but it was definitely worth it.
This may just be our best so far.
Thank you for all your patience and s...
So I'm not gonna mince words with this one. We're in a bit of a rough patch, here.
Right now we're attempting to make up for a healthy span of lost days due to the technical difficulties we've experienced with this video's audio. Sleepless nights, missed meals, zombie days, grind grind grind. It gets this way on occasion, but it's pretty brutal at the moment. We'll pull through. We've planned our collective schedule with enough padding to compensate for the difference, but it's... quite a stre...
2018-06-26 05:12:45 +0000 UTC View PostToday I had oatmeal for dinner in a Starbuck's cup. This, because in addition to my hunger and isolation, I am also blessedly resourceful. Certainly not because I am an ill-prepared child. Understand you, this is a mark of intellect. Be persuaded.
I see that you are. Good.
While I have you under my oatmeal spell, I'd like to make a great event out of the small amount of progress we made as a team today. I finished an animation loop, and Chloe blew through a couple pages of audio de-breat...
2018-06-25 05:23:03 +0000 UTC View PostPhew. I think it might be too early in the morning for me to be writing this, but I wanna make sure I'm staying as on top of things as possible. This is my attempt.
So the show is still going great, our collaboration is still going great, life is hard (mostly because I'm human) but that's too be expected, I have very little to complain about. It's just been a rough season so far. We've lost a huge number of pledges for no clear reason in the last few months (~$155 or so?), which isn't somethin...
2018-06-24 08:15:23 +0000 UTC View PostNothing terribly exciting to report today. We've been shutting ourselves in and working very hard to make up for the time we lost with last night's bug-out, and we've just about climbed back to where we were. In addition, I've all but finished collecting the music for this video, and Felipe has sent us his rough concept work for the story art (if you're a $3+ patron, I'll be sharing that as well in a moment).
We maaaaay not be getting as much sleep as we perhaps ought to be, but it'll...
2018-06-23 07:35:31 +0000 UTC View PostAt the worst possible time, too.
We're drawing nearer to this story's release date all the time. Things are in motion. I've gotten the majority of my work done at this point, and now I'm waiting on materials from Chloe and Felipe. The only problem is that... Chloe's audio... vanished.
She was working on it earlier today and Audacity bugged out on her. And then poof! Two days of work, gone.
We're pulling an all-nighter right now to catch back up and hopefully release within three da...
2018-06-22 08:41:54 +0000 UTC View Post