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4 Years of Making Videos on RWBY Volume 6

Introduction

Hi, I’m Fabian. I run a YouTube Channel called Faboover in which I post Let’s Plays, Fan-Trailers, AMVs, Toonami Promos, and Toonami Music Videos. I also make Video Essays discussing, analyzing, and criticizing RWBY, which I started doing with RWBY Volume 4 back in 2017.

Over a 4 Year Period (2019-2023), I made 5 Videos discussing multiple aspects about RWBY Volume 6. The video series is titled “Thoughts” and covers my Thoughts on the Topics of Story, Animation & Editing, Design, and whatever Miscellaneous Topics can be included in each. What I want to do here is go over what went into each of these Videos I made this time around for Volume 6 and why it took me so long to produce them. I also want to finish this up by explaining what I’m going to be doing for Future Videos for RWBY.

Links to the RWBY Volume 6 Thoughts Videos are provided below with the Date I released them and how long each are.

Thoughts - RWBY Vol. 6: Story (12/1/19, 30:23)

Thoughts - RWBY Vol. 6: Animation & Editing (7/1/20, 30:55)

Thoughts - RWBY Vol. 6: Design Pt. 1/2 (4/15/21, 26:28)

Thoughts - RWBY Vol. 6: Design Pt. 2/2 (9/12/21, 35:36)

Final Thoughts - RWBY Vol. 6 (10/23/23. 1:09:30)

If you want to read this easier and easily jump to different sections of the post, please go to the Google Docs Link for it provided below.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D6j5usI6mTC-zvn8ioViyDvqcJ8hIKAfArg3Et3hS2E/edit?usp=sharing

Story Video

This is pretty standard fare for me as it closely resembles how I’ve done this Video for Volumes 4 and 5 in which I talk about the Characters and Overall Story Stuff for RWBY Volume 6. The change up here is how Ruby is the last Character and Topic for the Video after getting into all of the Other Characters and Overall Plot Stuff for Volume 6.

The reason I had Ruby as the Last Topic for the Video is because of how I felt it would be best to go over everything else first in order to get into Ruby’s Story for Volume 6. I especially felt that I needed to do it this way with the Overall Story Beats for the Volume as how the plot progresses would be important in understanding what is going on with Ruby.

My favorite Topic for the Volume 6 Story Video is Qrow. This is mainly because I hadn’t talked about him at length like this before. My favorite bits I talked about in relation to Qrow is how Qrow kept his distance during the initial phases of the heist and how important it is that Ruby kept approaching Qrow while his spirits were down.

I don’t have any issues with how this video turned out. I believe I started writing this video in the middle of 2019, recorded my Audio for the Video in September, and finally released it in December of 2019.

Animation & Editing Video

I’m going to start this one off and say that I really need to come up with a new way to introduce these Videos talking about RWBY’s Animation. I started this Video the exact same way I did for the previous two I made on the Same Topics for Volumes 4 and 5. I don’t remember if I noticed this repetitive intro after writing, recording, editing, or releasing the Volume 6 Animation Video. I most likely noticed when editing the video.

Anyway, this is a video in which I got to do some cool stuff with. Got to breakdown Oscar’s Character Animation for the scene in which Jaune comes at Oscar, which I hadn’t analyzed and brokedown the animation in a dialogue scene before. Got to revisit the Topic of Squash and Stretch and highlight the use of a Smear Frame on Nora, which actually isn’t the first time they’ve done a Smear Frame like that. The bit I’m more proud of is my breakdown for the Animation and Action during the Fight between Yang and Adam.

I actually took notes this time around starting from Blake and Adam’s Fight on the Antenna and through the Woods up to the end of Yang’s Fight with Adam. Helped me identify all of the strengths for these Fight Scenes. Obviously, I focused on Yang and Adam’s Fight. The part of the breakdown for Adam and Yang’s Fight that I got a lot of positive responses to is my analysis and breakdown for Adam’s 3 Drawing Slashes against Yang, which was adapted from Monty’s Test Animation for a fight between Adam and Yang.

One of the things I took major umbrage with is how people would passive-aggressively dismiss the quality of the Fight between Yang and Adam by saying that it was only Good because of Monty. This being because it took moments from the Test Animation Monty did for a fight between Yang and Adam that leaked. So, I started this section of the video by highlighting Yang’s Animation since the Test Animation mainly focused on Adam. Doing this would show how much additional stuff was done in this Fight that didn’t come from that Leaked Test Animation Monty made.

One of the last topics for this Animation and Editing Video was a small bit in which I brought up the Special Effects Animation for Volume 6. This section was originally going to contain more, but as you will come to see, the Topic became much more complicated as I first pushed it into the next Design Video. A Video which would then become a 2 Parter because of how complicated covering the Topic truly became.

Design Part 1

This Design Video covered Topics that I usually cover in my previous Design Videos for RWBY (Characters, Environments, Grimm, Sound, etc.), but I went about covering them differently. This time around, I took the approach of presenting what went into producing what was seen in Volume 6 and not just talking about what I think about each Design Topic, which obviously bloated the length of the Video.

The section of this First Design Video for Volume 6 I’m very proud of is the section in which I went over the Conception, Influences, Initially Planning, and Implementation of The Apathy. How I approached writing this section was mainly influenced by the “Exploring” Series on the YouTube Channel GoodBadFlicks. This is also a section that I spent more time scoring (implementing music) than anything I had done previously. Another thing I did is purposely not show the Apathy until I actually started talking about them. This is a section I put a lot of thought and effort into how I wrote, spoke about, and edited. I would later upload this section as a Standalone Video while editing my Final Thoughts Video for Volume 6.

Design Part 2

The Design Part 2 Video covers the Special Effects and Visual Effects (VFX) of RWBY up to Volume 6 with brief mentions about Volumes 7 and 8. This is the first time I have ever spent so much time researching a subject and writing about it in a presentation/video essay type format. I kid-you-not, I spent months going through the Commentaries, watching the Behind the Scenes, looking over Crew Demo Reels, reading Articles, etc. in order to understand as much as I could about the Production of RWBY in relation to Special Effects and VFX. What was originally intended to be a small section to be included in the Animation & Editing Video quickly became more and more complicated as I continued to gain knowledge through my research.

Why did I even start researching these aspects of RWBY’s Production?

It started with the 2D Special Effect for the Fire in the Fireplace at the Brunswick Farm.

My first reaction was, “This is odd. I know they don’t do Fire Effects like this from what I saw in Volume 2 Episode 4, Volume 4 Episode 8, and Volume 5 Episode 10.”

But then I went, “Wait, do I actually KNOW that they don’t do Effects like this or am I just making a Baseless Assumption?”

I later messaged Hypeathon, who had done a 3 part video series on Monty and RWBY, and asked if he had any resources on the Special Effects for RWBY (I was only focused on the Special Effects at this time and was looking to get sources for the Volume 6 Animation Video). Hypeathon would then provide me much more than I expected and directed me to review the Commentaries.

As I mentioned earlier, I found myself traversing down a Rabbit Hole I wasn’t expecting. See all of my Notes and References used for the 2nd Design Video in the Google Doc linked below.

RWBY Special and VFX Sources, References, Notes, etc.

I would write this section with the original intention of including it with everything I was writing for the 1st Design Video; however, when it came time to review my initial draft for the section that would become the 2nd Design Video, I found myself not liking it.

I felt like it was directionless and uninteresting. It came off like I was just spouting information rather than presenting information. That’s when I messaged Hypeathon again and asked if he would be okay with proofreading and providing feedback on the First Main Draft of the Special Effects and VFX Section for my Original Volume 6 Design Video Script.

Hypeathon accepted.

So I provided him the Current Draft of my VFX Script and a Document with all of my Notes and References so he would know where information was coming from and have context to how I was writing this part of my script. Hype would give feedback, suggestions, alternations, and notes to the Draft I gave him as I continued to write the rest of the Original Design Video with consideration to everything Hype was providing me and giving feedback to.

As we were doing this, the page count on this Original Design Video’s Script ended up getting pretty high and about to hit 20 Pages. Why this was a big deal is because the previous Story and Animation Video Scripts were around 10 Pages and ended up to be about 30 Minutes each. I came to realize that I was about to have an Hour Long Video on my hands. Thus, I made the decision to split the Design Video into two parts.

This decision helped give Hypeathon more time to go over and provide feedback on the rest of the Special and VFX Draft I sent him and also gave me more time to finesse my scripts for the now 2 Part Volume 6 Design Videos.

If you would like to see the Original Draft of the Special and VFX Script I sent Hypeathon and the feedback and notes Hype provided to it, it is linked below.

(I DID ASK HYPEATHON IF HE IS OKAY WITH ME SHARING THIS HERE FIRST)

Special Effects of RWBY Draft (with Hypeathon’s Feedback)

I am overall proud of how the Volume 6 Design Part 2 Video turned out. The only thing I wished I did better on is the section of the Video talking about RWBY Volume 3.

When it came to my research I did for this Video, I was initially only focused on anything dealing with the Special Effects of RWBY. It wasn’t until I started researching Volume 4 that I pivoted to research not only the Special Effects but also the VFX and Production of RWBY as a whole.

Despite this change in approach to what topics I was going to be researching and covering for the Video, I never went back to Volume 3 and is why I said that the Special and VFX for Volume 3 had little change. This is also why the Volume 3 Section of the Design Part 2 Video covers mostly the Production of RWBY and not the Special and Visual Effects. That said, doing it this way did help provide a smoother transition to talking about Volumes 4 and 5.

Final Thoughts

Talk about another mile and a half. This Final Thoughts Video for Volume 6 took me a long while to write and edit. Part of it was all the stuff regarding Adam and the White Fang I had been planning to cover in this video, and another part was the Jaune and Pyrrha Section of the video.

I was originally writing the section regarding Adam’s Character as a sort of play by play about Adam, what we see of him, what others say about him, and what he says throughout each Volume. That was getting very long. I got to the point where I was writing in this way up to Volume 5 and went, “This is too long” and I didn’t feel like this is how I actually want to talk about Adam’s Characterization. I’m referring to the Tone of my writing. Thus, I consolidated it with a complete rewrite so that it would be better focused. Even with that done, I still faced hurdles when it came to writing those sections about Adam and the White Fang.

The number of times I thought about removing specific sections of the Adam and White Fang Topics to the point where there were times when I did remove them. This is all because I was super anxious about covering these topics as I am obviously going to be getting into and discussing the Racial Subject Matter and Implications regarding the character of Adam and representation of the White Fang.

Running through my mind when considering whether to keep these topics were:

Is my perspective important?

What if I’m ignorant?

What if I say something in this video that someone could take major offense to?

What if I say or present something in a way that makes someone who respected me now think less of me?

What if I make the conversation regarding these issues in RWBY Discourse worse?

Thoughts like these would just spring up from time to time during the writing and editing process. Yeah, I even considered cutting these parts out from the video during the editing phase after I had already recorded my audio for the video. This anxiety once I got up to the Adam’s Character Section of the video during the editing phase really kept me away from the video timeline and hindered me from making any significant progress on the full video. I think it took me 2 to 3 months to finally edit those sections of the video. It took me about a month to edit the first 20 minutes of the video.

The reason I kept these sections regarding Adam’s Character and the White in the video despite my anxiety about them is because I essentially forced myself to. “If I don’t talk about this now, then I am never going to.” That was my mentality with keeping these sections regarding Adam’s Character and White Fang in the video.

“If I don’t do it now, then I never will.”

Now, why would the Jaune and Pyrrha section of this Final Thoughts Video be hard for me to write and such? Well, that’s because that section was originally intended to be a Standalone Video. One that I hinted I was going to be making in my Update #14 Video that I put out on 11/7/18. I later confirmed that I was planning to make a video regarding Jaune and Pyrrha in my Update #16 Video that I put out on 9/1/19.

I started writing the script for the Standalone Jaune and Pyrrha Video, but all I was able to complete is a single paragraph. That video would only make sense with what was already out for RWBY at the time when I first hinted at it, which was Volume 6. That’s why the Topic for Jaune and Pyrrha got added to the Final Thoughts Video. It was also to address the scene in which Jaune talked to Nora and Ren at Pyrrha’s Statue.

When I finally got around to including that section about Jaune and Pyrrha in my script for the Final Thoughts Video, I was at least able to start making good progress. That was the case until I actually got to talking about Jaune in Volume 6 in which I hit a wall.

The problem was how I couldn’t think of what I wanted to say and how to say it. This was because I essentially looked at what I was writing so far regarding Jaune and Pyrrha and went, “Where am I going with this?” It was the last part of this section to write before concluding it, and I had lost the narrative.

I think it took me quite a while to figure it out. Rewatching the scene with Jaune, Nora, and Ren helped me to finally develop a connective through-line for what I wanted to cover and get across.

The only other major topic in the Final Thoughts Video I want to talk about here is the Bumblby Section. It was a topic I had originally planned to be in the Final Thoughts Video since around the time I started writing the first Story Video. I originally wrote it as though RWBY Volume 6 had just ended and was focusing on a specific aspect about the relationship.

Did they pander with Bumblby in Volume 6?

I had finished writing the full Final Thoughts Video around October or November of 2022. Volume 9 had not come out yet. By the time I finally got around to editing the Bumblby Section of the Video, Volume 9 had finished and Yang and Blake officially became a couple. I was playing back what I had said in the Video in my Video Editor and asked myself, “Does it even matter anymore?”

The answer I came to was obviously, “No.”

So I cut out all the parts where I referenced anything regarding fan-service and pandering. Re-recorded some of my lines to remove mentions of those as well. All so I could just focus on the 2 small problems I had with Blake and Yang’s Relationship, how it was presented in Volume 6, and then talked about how I wasn’t impressed with how it progressed afterwards in Volumes 7 and 8.

If I had to pick what my favorite section that I did for the Final Thoughts Video, it would be a toss up between these two.

Adam in Volume 6

Jaune and Pyrrha

The reason for the Volume 6 Adam Section is because of how it is an overview and analysis regarding Adam and his Character. It also gave me the opportunity to cover aspects about Blake’s confrontation with Adam at the end of Volume 5 that I didn’t get to cover in my original RWBY Volume 5 Thoughts Series due to how I needed to compress and focus my talking points regarding the last 4 episodes of that Volume.

My favorite bit I talked about regarding Adam in Volume 6 was the line in which Adam said to Blake how he just wasn’t good enough for her for Blake to then retort back that it was way more than that. I really liked digging into why Blake would respond back with that in regards to Adam.

The Jaune and Pyrrha Section should be obvious as Jaune is one of my Favorite Characters in RWBY. So, getting into stuff regarding Jaune and Pyrrha and explaining why I have interest in Characters like Jaune was really enjoyable.

If I was to put out one of these as a Standalone Video, it would be the Jaune and Pyrrha Section. It was originally intended to be one and covers more about the Characters than just one Volume.

Why Did These Videos Take So Long?

The title for this part of the write up speaks for itself. The answer is due to a variety of reasons.

Motivation

Energy

Time

Distractions

Procrastination

Anxiety

Just to name a few.

One of the big contributors as to why I took so long to make each of these Videos is because I would just end up in a Writer’s Block pretty frequently as I wrote the scripts for the Videos. I would just get stuck. I would know what topics I wanted to include and talk about. I would have these topics titled and listed out in my initial draft. But then, I would just struggle with figuring out what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. I also struggled with the script writing process itself because of how I would just forget how to write. I cannot count how many times during the writing process for these Volume 6 Thoughts Videos that I would stop and ask myself,

Should I be starting a new paragraph?

Wait! When should a new paragraph be started?

Am I employing proper Grammar here?

Am I structuring my sentences properly?

I bet if you look over this whole write-up you are reading right now, you can find examples of me still struggling with stuff like that.

Another big contributor as to why it took me so long to get these videos out are the lengths of each video. Each video is 30 minutes or longer. Those are some daunting video lengths to produce.

I ended up developing a way to help myself not feel so overwhelmed by the length of each video by adding markers for each section/topic of the Video in the Video Editor’s Timeline and then moving these marked sections/topics far apart from each other in the Timeline. This is so I could just focus on the current section I am editing and not worry about how much more I have left to do in order to complete the video. Essentially, I broke down the video into sectioned tasks instead of just one large project. Despite that, I obviously still struggled to make progress when editing the Videos.

Another thing I would do to help me make progress when editing the videos is open my Vegas Project for whatever Thoughts Video I was working on at the time every time I started up my computer. However, I would also open other things such as YouTube, Social Media, etc. I would also spend time on my Phone reading through and watching the same stuff. I would just gravitate to whatever would be more interesting or immediately fulfilling for my mind to engage with.

One of the things that I do, which can be called a compulsion at times, is Day Dream whenever I’m listening to music. Not just Day Dream, but imagine and play out whole scenarios in my head to the music I’m listening to. This is how I develop the ideas for my Fan-Trailers, Toonami Promos, and Music Videos.

The reason this can be called a Compulsion is because sometimes my mind will just get stuck and locked into one thing, this one scenario. So, I have to grab my phone and start listening to music so I can play out what is currently running through my head until it’s done, but then like 30+ minutes have passed.

This can all be related to ADHD, which I have now started taking medication for after completing an ADHD Test that my Psychiatrist had me take. If you look through my Likes on Twitter, you can find me liking and retweeting stuff in regards to ADHD over the years because I just related them to my experience when editing these videos over the last 4 years.

Neurodivergent Kids when listening to music:

https://x.com/EthanTheRaccy/status/1690786287349846016?s=20

ADHD when you are passionate vs not:

https://x.com/AdonisThuul/status/1680623330800304131?s=20

“I just need to finish this project”:

https://x.com/choinheap/status/1651924410570350592?s=20

Markiplier Talks about ADHD:

https://x.com/ac_maestro/status/1642882059801698305?s=20

McNasty’s Quote Tweet adding onto what Markiplier said:

https://x.com/McNasty/status/1644400896221265921?s=20

Future Videos

I’m now 3 Volumes, 1 Spinoff, and a 2 Part Crossover Film behind in regards to my Thoughts Series of Videos for RWBY. Obviously, it now takes me too long to produce these videos. So, what am I going to do moving forward?

The Thoughts Video Series I’ve been making for each Volume of RWBY will be no more. One reason is the aforementioned time it now takes for me to write and produce them. The other reason is that my Format with these videos just won’t work with Volumes 7 through 9. Especially with the Story Videos as each of the Characters’ Stories are told through those Volumes and not isolated to just one.

Will I be making any videos talking about, discussing, analyzing, and criticizing RWBY?

YES

How am I going to do so if I’m not going to do it in my usual format anymore?

I will instead be producing Videos that are about a single topic rather than just a Broad Topic with a bunch of Individual Topics. This will make the Video focused and, hopefully, shorter. This will also be focused more on Topics that I want to talk about rather than Topics I’m not that interested in.

I already tested putting out Videos in that format by uploading sections of my previous Thoughts Videos for RWBY Volume 6, which are all linked below.

How RWBY Vol. 6 Put More Focus on Ruby (3:33)

Yang VS Adam - A Brief Animation BREAKDOWN (13:11)

The Apathy: Influences, Design, and Implementation (7:23)

A VERY GENERAL Overview of RWBY's VFX (12:56)

These also showcased the new Thumbnail and Video Title Formats I will be using when making Videos like this. I previously opted for just “Thoughts - <Subject>: <Subject about that Subject>” as I didn’t want my Titles to come off as Clickbait or anything like that.

The previous titles would communicate that these are my thoughts about this subject and will be talking about this sub-subject of the subject in the Video. The Title explains exactly what I’m doing in the video. Of course, this Title format is boring and doesn’t really prepare the person coming into the video with what to expect.

The New Video Title Formats I’m going to be doing, as seen in the Titles of the previous 4 videos I linked, are much more intriguing and attention grabbing. Each of these videos has already done better than the originals they came from in regards to Engagement (Likes and Comments).

I’m gonna be challenging myself over the next week to write, record, edit and upload a Video in this format. I will be discussing and going over a Scene from RWBY Volume 9. So, please look forward to it!

If you want to hear my early thoughts regarding Volumes 7 and 8, you can hear me talk about them on this Episode of the Dumb Weebs Podcast linked below.

Dumb Weebs Podcast Episode 9 - IRONWOOD WHY (RWBY Volume 8)

If you want to read an Analysis Piece I wrote and posted to my Tumblr Blog about Ruby for Volume 8, that is also linked below.

The State of Ruby as of RWBY Vol. 8 Episode 8

#blog #rwby #video #youtube #CRTQ #Thoughts #RWBY6 #analysis #review #critique

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