Sif Savery

Call for Video Testimonials - Can we turn Tales of Zale into a TV-series!?

Hi dear Patrons!

So I didn't post this when I first did the soft launch of this "call for video testimonials", especially since I knew a good majority of you were all aware through Discord or Twitter. But now that I've made this video, I thought I'd share!

So it's been no secret to you that I've been pushing for the TV-series for a while, and that we've now got the wonderful studio Nørlum onboard. That's a good start, but no guarantee that something will come of it. So we'll have...

Clean-up Update #2

Dear Patrons,

We've made it through another month! This one felt like it went by very quickly. I've started working on the episode from Nørlum's offices rather than from home, which really is a relief. There, I'm joined by Giorgos, who's going to be interning for the next 1,5 months helping me with clean-up. You can see some of his, my own and others' work in this little update clip where I've compiled clean-up progression. A few shots you already saw in the last update, but I wanted t...

Clean-up Work has begun! Also, I've started Streaming!

Dear Patrons,

I hope you're all well. Since my last post was more of a public service announcement I thought I'd just take a moment to provide a more update-y update.

As you can see in the video above work on cleaning up the animation has begun. It takes the time it takes, but I think it's gonna look all the better for it in the end. Actually, the last four random shots have been cleaned up by Viktoria Binder Knudsen and Josh Lumaya! At the end of the day we're able to keep it pre...

Today the Art Zine sendoffs resume!!

For most of you this may be irrelevant. But as those of you who have pledged 10 dollars or more per month recently know, I've had a period where I've been unable to access the Patreon Art Zines due to me only coming back from France after my usual workspace had been placed under corona lockdown. Well- after all these months I finally managed to "sneak" in there and grab the prints!

That means that I can finally start sending out these things to those of you who have pledged for...

Another New Animated Scene! A week of many meetings complete

Dear Patrons,

Hope you're all faring well! 

INTERNS:

It's been a pretty big week on my end. The interns started their online internship at Nørlum helping to construct concept and character art for the TV-series pitch. It's been pretty much as great of a start as anything could be under the circumstances! I'm really looking forward to eventually showing the fruits of their labor - but it might take quite a while before the time is right for that. <...

Another Scene of Rough Animation Done! (preview)

Like a game of Bingo, little by little we're filling in the rows and finishing up one scene of rough animation after the other. This little scene here is majorly thanks to Myra's hard work - she's being super fast and efficient! 

I'd better work hard to keep up!! Though these coming weeks will also very much involve preparing for the Sheridan interns and the Animation Production Days pitch. Lots of meetings ...

New Animated Scene! + TV-Series Progession and More Pitching

Dear Patrons,

Thanks to those of you sticking with me in these odd times! I hope you're all in good health. It took a little while to get back into things with the new workspace, but luckily not as long as I'd feared. Got a pretty stable internet connection set up, and TVPaint autosave is cranked up to every 5 minutes as to not lose too much to the crashes. It all seems to be working out for now. Working from home I'm also able to enjoy being around my birds who are nesting and have lai...

I was sent back home from France - Here's what's happening...

Dear Patrons,

You know that feeling when things seem so good that you just know something bad is about to happen? A couple of weeks ago I was feeling on top of the world – I’d just passed my driver’s license test and gotten a cheap little car. My head was starting to fill with dreams of moving to an apartment a bit outside of the city and getting a dog, all while work on Tales of Zale progressed smoothly. At the studio, we had started recruiting interns to help with early concept ...

News! TV-series progression, Pitch applications, Animation & More!

Dear Patrons,

I hope you're all well! It's been a little while since I sat down and wrote a proper update, and a lot has been happening - so how about we jump right into it?

TALES OF ZALE (TV-SERIES) HAS FOUND A PRODUCER:

Alright, so starting off with one of the big changes Tales of Zale has found a producer. Three, actually. One from Germany and two from a Danish studio. Now I don't think that it at this current point in time makes sense to share...

Last chance to get a Patreon Art Book Zine!

- Well, I'm writing last chance, but I think I'll probably make a 10$ Patreon tier afterwards for people who come in later and want one (while supplies last, I think there'll be around 15 left).

Anyways! It's been some extremely busy weeks, but also very exciting ones. I'll share the full update with you when I can, but there's still an Annecy MIFA pitch application to finish up first. The weeks being so busy has also meant that I have not gotten around to sending the last batch of art ...

Art Book Reminder!! + General Update

Dear Patrons!

I hope you're all doing well and have gotten off to a good start in the new decade!

Before I get too far into the general update though: REMINDER! If you want one of the 2019 Patreon Art Book Zines then remember to sign up with your address at: https://www.patreon.com/pledges --- or send me a private message. They've JUST arrived, look pretty cool and I'm gonna s...

The Printed Patreon Art Book is Ready!

Above is a little preview! I'm pretty happy with how this little zine came out all in all - looking forward to getting the printed version at the beginning of January and start sending them out!

Now as for shipping, I've tried setting this up as a new Patreon benefit in the existing tier. You should be able to set your shipping address at https://www.patreon.com/pledges. Shipping is on m...

Tales of Zale Preview: FIRST HALF of Episode 3 (rough animation)

Dear Patrons,

Happy holidays! I hope you're staying warm and cozy - unless you happen to live on the other side of the equator in which case I hope you're able to keep your cool.

I've been eager to show you this first half of the third episode (w/ rough animation) ever since I started showing the first couple of scenes animated, and just in time for the end of the year we've made that benchmark! It's still rough around the edges - missing some lip-sync and effects animation here a...

Poll time! Would you like a 2019 Patreon Art Zine?

Alrighty, so I've been mentioning this a couple of times in other posts, but time to put it to a vote!

I've been thinking of doing a small highlight compilation of artworks previously shared in the "Patreon Artbook PDFs" and putting them into a printed zine to end off the year. 

The zine, probably around 20 pages would then be signed and sent to anyone who's been a patron in 2019 t...

Tales of Zale Episode 3 - Another minute of rough animation!

Greetings from Budapest! I am currently attending the second module of Animation Sans Frontirère here, which is looking to be a bit of a hectic affair. Nonetheless I just saw that it's #ThankYouPatrons day, so I wanted to share another minute of animation I've been doing...

...Well, it's 47 seconds to be exact, but after these two scenes I started doing shots from a few different scenes spread throughout the episode, so it made more sense to cut it here.

This one was quite fun to...

Tales of Zale Episode 3 - 1 minute of rough animation!

Dear Patrons,

Hope you've been well. It's been about a week since I returned from Stuttgart, where I had a wonderful time participating in the Animation Sans Frontière. There isn't too much new to report since this first "module" focused on facilitating workshops to loosen the participants up and let us all get to know each other a bit better. 

I did also try my best to set aside time to work on episode 3 while there, though. I've gotten to the point where I fee...

Back from Cartoon Springboard, and off to Animation Sans Frontière!

Dear Patrons,

I hope you've been well! It feels like just a couple of weeks since I last wrote an update, but I guess it's already been a whole month. A lot has happened since then, though. 

Things got very busy in preparing for the upcoming pitch sessions, especially in the week right up to Cartoon Springboard. I also got the opportunity to test my pitch at the Viborg Animation Festival's Creative Media Industry Forum beforehand. It was just a small networking event for 6 Ko...

New Patreon Art Book PDF... and possibly a printed Magazine..?

Dear Patrons, 

As promised here's a new Artbook PDF! I initially didn't think I was going to be able to put out any more of these for the rest of the year, as production on episode 3 started up and the season of pitching began as well. But with the pitching, I ended up feeling the need to create some more presentation assets and these pretty quickly became enough to justify another compilation.

The next Artbook PDF you'll see from me will likely be the end-of-the-year compila...

And so Nordic Talents 2019 Comes to an End.

Dear Patrons,

After a busy week of pitch preparations and presentations, Nordic Talents has come to and end! It was a fun experience, and I got a slightly better idea about what's moving in the Nordic film and TV industry - although it was very live-action focused. 

Especially the pitch preparations were a lot of fun though, and I look forward to bringing what I learned into the upcoming Cartoon Springboard pitch, where I gotta figure out how to extend this pitch into 13 minu...

Tales of Zale Episode 3 Preview & More Good News!

Dear Patrons,

I hope you’re well and have enjoyed your summer! I’m writing this little update while on a bus on the way to Copenhagen. Once I arrive I’ll be participating in the one week long Nordic Talents pitching event, putting Tales of Zale to the test in front of a live audience. I’m pretty excited to add this experience to the toolbox! …or whatever the phrase is in English.

Matthew Pablo (composer), Nick Standing (sound mixer) and myself have been hard at work on a...

New Patreon Art Book PDF & Scene Breakdown!

Dear Patreons,

As always, I hope you're all doing well!

-  As previously mentioned, Anne came over to help on Tales of Zale for a bit. She mainly worked on the poster during these two weeks and has now returned to Copenhagen - for now. 

- Meanwhile, I keep trucking along on the production. A layout has been giving me a bit of trouble this week, but that's precisely why I focus on these harder layouts to start with - so I can provide them with ...

Tales of Zale - Shot Breakdown #1

Dear Patrons,

Following the first week of actual production I thought I would share with you a breakdown of the shot I've been working most on. It's pretty exciting to be back at it, after confining myself to storyboards and character designs for quite a while. 

There are still some fix-ups I will need to take care of in certain scenes of the animatic, but while I think about the right solution for those I can indulge in some vertical slices. In this case it was important for...

Production month begins! + Going to Nordic Talents and Animation Sans Frontière!!

Dear Patrons,

I’ll try to keep this update brief, since I have the feeling that my walls of text might not be quite as inviting to read. Here goes!

- I got a yes for both Nordic Talents and Animation Sans Frontière! The hard work on the applications paid off, and I’ll now be off to pitch Tales of Zale at new and exciting venues throughout the coming autumn and 2020!!

- Tales of Zale episode 3 script is now finished and the voice actors have been co...

Bird drama, finished applications & art raffle draw

Dear Patrons,
Hope this update finds you well! Some weeks pass quicker than others, and in the case of these previous weeks it feels like they have gone by in a flash!
I have made a new version of the Tales of Zale project bible (attached) once more, and been hard at work applying for Nordic Talents and Animation Sans Frontière. To keep you up to date, I got a no from NiNoKo with the reasoning that the project was already too advanced for this universe accelerator – which, as far as ...