Let's get right to it. My biggest undertaking in animation production was just released this past Sunday, on September 1st. TOME Episode 08: Gemini Tournament Yin, the first part of a long-awaited part of the story I've been producing since the series premiered in 2011 almost two years ago now, is up on the official website for viewing in HD:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW /TOME EPISODE 08: GEMINI TOURNAMENT YIN/.
I have many, MANY people to thank. As always my great background artists Dave, Terrence and Jourdan for their design of the Tournament stadium and arena. Kajet for his kickin' music and Yoav for arranging a kick-ass rock version of the theme song for the ending credits. Liz for helping to fine-tune the script on this 23-minute monster. My stars, Anna, Casey and Martin for their fantastic performances, as well as Shady for recording on the ending credits song and hauling ass on the sound design under immense pressure. Mack for helping out on voice direction and the writing on Rockoon & Skeight's scene for this episode. My tremendous returning cast who all came together: Micah, Apphia, Sarah, Masako, Jontron, Psy, Andy, Kimlinh, Chris, Bosco, Edwyn and my very special guests for this episode: Kyle, Jackie, Kira and Cristina. Plus, my two very gracious auction winners Zack and Bradley, and Scott for spending several hours to help render the final HD video for your viewing pleasure...AND the attendees of AnimeNEXT and Kami-con 2013 for being the "audience" of the Gemini Tournament stadium.
WOW. Yeah so I get a lot of credit from people for this series being a "one-man-show" but this episode is the exact reason why I always combat that comment with "it wouldn't be a fraction as good as it could be with all the help and support I've got." Thank YOU to everyone who watched and enjoyed it. It means so much to me and I promise I'll continue to step it up on the next episode...and speaking of which, here's some good news for you. TOME Episode 09: Gemini Tournament Yang, is already a 3rd of the way fully animated! Since there were so many delays on behind-the-scenes stuff with Episode 08 and the Rockoon short (thanks for the front page, Newgrounds!) and the eventual launch of the website, I had a lot of time to get the jump on the next episode! The audio's been fully recorded and edited and I've got about 8 minutes already finished.
HOWEVER! Before that, I've got another new short to put out! This will be a new short that will release between Episodes 08 and 09...I'll keep the content a secret for now, but I think you'll enjoy it. I've just started on that this week and I'll try my absolute best to finish it within the month if possible. After that, I'll be getting right back to Episode 09. Another issue I'll address here, as there've been numerous people asking about how I'll be handling the release of TOME episodes AFTER premiering them on the website. Newgrounds will be where they hit second. As for YouTube, I'm concocting a new plan of action on releasing on that platform. I'll keep you posted when more details are available.
Thanks folks, there's more to come!
Ran-Cossack
Interesting stuff Kirb. Though, like many, I wasn't a huge fan of how lacking in actual combat the tournament has been thus far. I loved it for what it was, but with how the announcers keep hyping up how "action packed" it is, so far there's been a rather distinct lack of... Action.
However, loved the episode all the same, despite that small issue. Looking forward to the next one, as always.=) Keep up the great work man.