Hey there Newgrounds!

Thank you for receiving Tales of Zale so nicely. It really warmed my heart seeing the film up on the front page for so long <3

Now, in case you are looking for a little indie-animation holiday gift for yourself or a loved one, here are some ideas. The store is planned to go offline again after January, so now's your chance! Also, for all of December, any store purchase comes with a free Zale Christmas card:

ART/MAKING OF BOOK:

WOODEN STANDEE:

PRINTS:

See you around hopefully!

- Sif

Hello hello!

It took a little while, but Tales of Zale finally made its way back to Newgrounds. Coming full circle, since this is where it all originally started. I had planned to upload the film here sooner, but a combo of technical issues and wanting to avoid the Halloween rush postponed it. Anyhow, here we are!

EXHIBITION:

So a few plugs and insights. This film/episode started production all the way back in 2016, and then restarted production in 2019. 3 years of production and a global pandemic later, it's finally out and about. It was first released on YouTube on September 7th, and has since had a behind-the-scenes exhibition going in Copenhagen and Viborg (so far).

SHOP & PATREON:

If you want some behind the scenes insight yourself, I also received local funding to create a "making of" art book, which can be purchased here. Other than Patreon, this is a great way to support my future projects and endeavours.

Also, there are a few wooden figures left <3

FESTIVALS & EXPOS:

Despite already being online, the film is currently doing a casual festival circuit. Just a couple of weeks ago, it won "Best Children's Film 2022" at Fredrikstad Animation Festival - Scandinavia's biggest animation festival. So that was pretty cool!

Here in mid-November, I'm also travelling to Los Angeles for CTNX animation expo to talk about my projects and path in European indie animation. It'll be my first time in the US, and I'm pretty excited to visit! Any suggestions for places to see outside of the expo?? (But still in the LA area... I'm only there for a little over a week!)

ROUND-UP:

Well, it's going to be a while before I have another animation of this scale to post. But I'll be around. It was such a monumental task to get this film made, so I want to make the most out of its release. I hope to make some behind the scenes break-downs and tutorials on my YouTube channel. We've also got a Spanish dub and small music video coming up, for those interested. There are more exciting news worth sharing bit by bit, but I'll keep it simple for now and just say: Thank you so much for watching. Thank you for being here, Newgrounds!

Be sure to check out the other cool people who contributed to the project too!!

All the best,

- Sif

Hi Newgrounds!! It's been a long time - I missed ya! I haven't been active here in a loooong

while, mainly because I didn't have anything to share. But I've been fiddling away on this

project for some years now, and now it's finally done and out. I'll be uploading here on NG

before too long, but for now, here's the YouTube version. Thanks for watching!

I participated in a Danish documentary over the summer, called "Nørd Livet". The documentary is about young passionate people following their dreams and is to be broadcast on national television sometime 2017. Pretty sure I also mentioned Newgrounds and NATA in some of all the footage we filmed, so who knows? Maybe this site will get a shout-out depending on how they edit the whole thing.

All the best!

- Sif

- Patreon

- Twitter

- YouTube

- Facebook

Hi Newgrounds, how are you doing??

I'll keep it brief this time around: Tales of Zale Episode 3 is in production and I'm looking for two male voice actors to take on the role of bison and barn owl. If you're interested, check out the audtion details here: http://sifps.dk/episode-3-audition.html

In other news another Behind The Scenes (animatic) video was released today:

Aaand people can now support the continuation of the series via Patreon!

That's all for now - stay coolio.

- Sif

Hello dear Newgrounders, how goes?

As to not completely lose presence on this site I thought I'd provide a little update while I'm hard at work on Tales of Zale Episode 3. To keep things short and simple; this is going to be a big one!

Diverting from the usual 6-minute format this upcoming episode will be 10 minutes long and act as a short on its own while also advancing the plot of the series. Who knows if I'll be able to continue the series in the same way that I have so far after this, so might as well make it grand!

Taking some measures to increase the quality of the production I've at long last decided to set up a Patreon page. I've long been hesitant about doing this, especially given that I share audience with many other amazing animators making use of the same platform - but for this production it seemed just right. If you're interested you're very welcome to go over there and make a pledge, or share the word around - and thank you for the support no matter what.

If it goes well I hope to be able to hire a couple of other artists to join me on this production, all adding to the quality and speed of the production. And if it doesn't I might at the very least be able to pay the amazing people who have lend their talent to Tales of Zale out of sheer passion, even if just a little bit. Bahh, money-- enough about that.

As for what's happening right now I am currently in the storyboarding phase of ToZ episode 3 and having a blast with that! It really is the season of storyboarding, cause while I'm doing this I'm releasing the animatics for the previous episodes bit by bit. So that might be something to look out for if you're interested in some behind the scenes stuff!

With that little update I'll leave you all for now. I'm very much looking forward to bringing episode 3 to Newgrounds when the time arrives - in the meanwhile, cheers!

Good day people of the New Grounds, how are you?

What a month it’s been. April, which I’ve dubbed “Tales of Zale Month” sure has been a blast. You may have noticed, or you may not, but a lot of ToZ-stuff has been going around these past 30 days, celebrating the release of Episode 2 – which has now made it’s way to Newgrounds, just now, go watch it!!

Anyways, just to get ya'll up to speed, this is what's been going down: Every Friday the ToZ project members and myself have been streaming, and addition to that I've been making weekly follow-up videos. A fan-art competition has also been going on, where I've been recieving lots of amazing art from fans across the world. The results for that one will be announced this Thursday. This has all been build around the releases of weekly Tales of Zale animations that you might have noticed around Newgrounds as well. And to conclude it all is the canon continuation of the series.

Tales of Zale - Episode 2:

Tales of Zale - Minisode 3 by @dylan

Tales of Zale - Minisode 2

by

Anita Tang Tales of Zale - Minisode 1

by

@zbob90

There are so many people who have done an amazing job helping out on these project, and not enough time to name them all. But I'll try my best in a video to be released this Tuesday. It's really been an amazing ride.

If you're interested in seeing more, you can help out by sharing these videos around - and if you want to stay up to date there are a few options:

- Subscribe to me on YouTube

- Subscribe to the Hikarian Animations Newsletter

- Follow me on Twitter

- Follow me on Tumblr

- Like Hikarian Animations of Facebook

...As you can see I'm really trying my best with the PR this time around. Might as well when you've been working so long on a project, right?

I'd also like to take a quick moment to say, that despite the number of YouTube links in this post, I am so glad to be back on Newgrounds again. I haven't had a lot of Newgrounds-material to upload for quite a while, so I'd come to take it a bit for granted - but this site still feels so alive to me and I hope it stays that way. This really is the crib of creativity on the Internet, and continues to play a big role in my life as an animator. Many of the people I've collaborated with on this project were people I met on here. Now I'm probably gonna go quiet for a while again as I work on the next big project. I'll be releasing behind-the-scenes videos, updates and more experimental animations on my YouTube channel in the time to come, and then we'll see what comes next. If there were ever to come such a platform on this site to post how-tos and behind the scenes videos on animations posted here, I'd be happy to upload these - even if the material would only be available to supporters or something like that.

Well, I'll be seeing you around! Thanks for having a read!

(PS. I wanted this to be a seperate post, but I can only front-page posts once a week, and the deadline is this Tuesday, so here's just a quick little heads up: For the voice actors out there we're holding auditions for a narrator for a smaller upcoming project. Read more here.)

Helloooo people of the New Grounds!

How goes, did you survive the Trump take-over? Joking aside, I am finally back with a new animation right around the corner, and so I have returned! Look forward to seeing a brand new episode of Tales of Zale coming to your screens both of YT and NG within this month! Here's a trailer to get you up to speed:

Anyways, believe me- I shall write plenty about that as the time arrives. In the meanwhile I thought I'd let all you creative souls know that we're holding a Fan Art Competition to celebrate this "month of Tales of Zale". There are some prizes and fun to be had, which might interest you!

- More about the contest

- More about Tales of Zale

Hi all! Tales of Zale episode 2 is on it's way, and on that occasion we're looking for a couple of people to join the team: An animator/artist to give minisode 3 their spin and a sound designer to help out with Episode 2. Now I won't bother you with too long of a wall of text- instead I'll direct you to this page where you can find all the details: http://sifps.dk/jobs.html

Here's episode 1 in case you're not caught up:

Greetings people of the New Grounds!

It's been a while, mostly because Tales of Zale episode 2 is taking quite a bit to make. But today I bring you a new series from me in the meanwhile; The Animation Spotlight!

In each of these (hopefully monthly) installments I'll be featuring a professional animation, a student animation and an independant artist on the internet that could use some more exposure - because there are so many awesome animations out there that I wish more people knew of!

I'm currently in the middle of putting together my picks for the next episode, and I'm taking suggestions! What animations and artists do you think I should feature?

But there's also another reason I come to the Newgrounds community, and that's because I'd also like to make a NG-centered episode soon, featuring artists from this site only. But I've been a bit out of the loop for a while, so I think it'd be only fair to ask more regular Newgrounders what artists you think could use a feature. Of course the format will be changed a bit for this purpose- the number won't be limited to just 3 animations- so don't be afraid to suggest away!!

A few guidlines:

*This is an "Animation Spotlight", so animations/animators only (apoligies to all the other awesome artists out there)

*The artists have to have been active in one way or another within the last year or so.

*No parody-content, as those animations usually have more options when it comes the aquiring audience.