Former RWBY Animator Shane Newille Releases Personal Account on RWBY's Production

[DudeistBelieve]

I love how people just want to believe this guy out of the gate just because he worked there.

https://beltravi.wordpress.com/2016/05/13/05132016-a-community-divided-opinions-on-rooster-teeth-rwby-and-shane/

I think this is a very good read and should be read. Shane seem to be very disturbed and needs some help in dealing with his depression. He made Monty look to be god-like when really, Monty was just human. I mean comeon, he talks about Monty is the only creator when there were two other, Miles and Kerry.

It's a very fair read, but it still... Like hey, if you're running a company? Running a business? Be a fucking business then.

I'm only a passive casual fan of RT, but it's another one of those companies that paints themselves as a fun place to work and a family. Well does a family that knows it has a member of it suffering from deep depression fire that son of a ***** on a technicality? No, a family doesn't do that. A family looks out for each other and doesn't see a member of the team as a liability.

And that's the bone I take issue with. There is nothing wrong if firing a guy if you're about the bottom line, I love Atlas Shrugged as much as the next guy. But don't do that and then still wrap your company a banner that your one thing and then do another, ya know? Channel Awesome did the same thing, and honestly? Still kinda bitter I actually bought it, gullible that I am.

But we don't know what they did for him, or what kind of helped Shane tried to take. We were never there and never will be.I'm not saying RT isn't out of the blame, but we shouldn't take everything Shane said as face value. They could have gotten him helped, but he could have refused it.

Plus you can only do so much for someone before its time to let them go. Let the link says, it seem that it was Monty way and only Monty way for Shane. Anything else is a disservice or worst a insult to the man image. I hope Shane gets the help he needs cause it sounds like he is very lost and isn't handling it very well and its showing.

Anyways, all I say to this is while RT does sound like a fun place to work, they are still a company and they can only handle so much before the company is suffering. IF someone on the team refuses to be a part of it, and refuses all the help you try to give them, you have to get rid of them.

No. No I don't buy that. If you're running a company, if you're about the bottom line? Then yeah totally.

But you don't get to claim to be a family, and then just give up on family and kick them to the curb because they don't want your help. I got a thing a about that. You stick by the people the who brought you to the dance, you don't look for any reason to get rid of them and when you do you don't start touching their personal hard drive without permission.

I argue a lot against idealism, but this is something I gotta say. You get into these things either to have friends or make money. You DO NOT get the luxury of doing both. That's business 101. There is absolutely nothing wrong with either path, but there sure as hell something wrong with doing one and pretending to be the other, in my eyes anyway. And I mean that, business is business. It just doesn't work both ways.

And Shane plenty looks like an asshole in this, he was very clearly not a very good employee. He's fighting with his employers at every point, but hes also one of the guys that helpt bring them to the dance. I believe very fiercly that when you're a small little indie company trying to survive, you stick by the people that bring you to dance because that's worth more than any dollar amount yo. That means you send homeboy home, with pay, so he can get his freaking life in order if you're going the family route.

 

[MatParker116]

I love how people just want to believe this guy out of the gate just because he worked there.

https://beltravi.wordpress.com/2016/05/13/05132016-a-community-divided-opinions-on-rooster-teeth-rwby-and-shane/

I think this is a very good read and should be read. Shane seem to be very disturbed and needs some help in dealing with his depression. He made Monty look to be god-like when really, Monty was just human. I mean comeon, he talks about Monty is the only creator when there were two other, Miles and Kerry.

It's a very fair read, but it still... Like hey, if you're running a company? Running a business? Be a fucking business then.

I'm only a passive casual fan of RT, but it's another one of those companies that paints themselves as a fun place to work and a family. Well does a family that knows it has a member of it suffering from deep depression fire that son of a ***** on a technicality? No, a family doesn't do that. A family looks out for each other and doesn't see a member of the team as a liability.

And that's the bone I take issue with. There is nothing wrong if firing a guy if you're about the bottom line, I love Atlas Shrugged as much as the next guy. But don't do that and then still wrap your company a banner that your one thing and then do another, ya know? Channel Awesome did the same thing, and honestly? Still kinda bitter I actually bought it, gullible that I am.

But we don't know what they did for him, or what kind of helped Shane tried to take. We were never there and never will be.I'm not saying RT isn't out of the blame, but we shouldn't take everything Shane said as face value. They could have gotten him helped, but he could have refused it.

Plus you can only do so much for someone before its time to let them go. Let the link says, it seem that it was Monty way and only Monty way for Shane. Anything else is a disservice or worst a insult to the man image. I hope Shane gets the help he needs cause it sounds like he is very lost and isn't handling it very well and its showing.

Anyways, all I say to this is while RT does sound like a fun place to work, they are still a company and they can only handle so much before the company is suffering. IF someone on the team refuses to be a part of it, and refuses all the help you try to give them, you have to get rid of them.

No. No I don't buy that. If you're running a company, if you're about the bottom line? Then yeah totally.

But you don't get to claim to be a family, and then just give up on family and kick them to the curb because they don't want your help. I got a thing a about that. You stick by the people the who brought you to the dance, you don't look for any reason to get rid of them and when you do you don't start touching their personal hard drive without permission.

I argue a lot against idealism, but this is something I gotta say. You get into these things either to have friends or make money. You DO NOT get the luxury of doing both. That's business 101. There is absolutely nothing wrong with either path, but there sure as hell something wrong with doing one and pretending to be the other, in my eyes anyway. And I mean that, business is business. It just doesn't work both ways.

And Shane plenty looks like an asshole in this, he was very clearly not a very good employee. He's fighting with his employers at every point, but hes also one of the guys that helpt bring them to the dance. I believe very fiercly that when you're a small little indie company trying to survive, you stick by the people that bring you to dance because that's worth more than any dollar amount yo. That means you send homeboy home, with pay, so he can get his freaking life in order if you're going the family route.

The hard drives were in a work issued laptop, RT had every right to check them for company files. Do RT wish that they had done certain things differently? Undoubtedly but Shane was not a part of senior creative team on RWBY and nor was he RT management. Gray, Koren and Kerry had to make decisions for the benefit of RT animation as a whole and Shane was apparently making life very difficult throughout the production of V3 and refused to adapt, then for the benefit of the team they had to let him go.

 

[Rednog]

Have to note, I'm a bit biased against RT because I've not been a fan of their since the Geoff/Gavin "Connect the Hots" controversy.

Meh, RT went full corporate.
It really isn't a shock, the signs have been very apparent for about a year or so.
I find it kind of funny that on various places they say this is the incident that is going to split the community apart. A chunk of the community has been at RTs throat for a while now, and they really don't have anyone to blame but themselves.

People hated when Let's Plays extended out from the core achievement hunter. Quick shove in more people and recruit more group and let's get more gamefootage with people just screaming over each other.
Oh man people really love the podcast. Oh we're getting some complains about too many ads, shove more ads in, screw it make half the podcast about us talking about how amazing the sponsored product is.
Oh man we have a core set of guys that people adore, but they hate people we try to crowbar in? Drive out Ray and shove the ones people hate down the fans throats.

I honestly wanted to see an implosion like Channel Awesome, but sadly RT has become way too big, and most people there know they wouldn't make it solo so they toe the line.

 

[Outcast107]

I love how people just want to believe this guy out of the gate just because he worked there.

https://beltravi.wordpress.com/2016/05/13/05132016-a-community-divided-opinions-on-rooster-teeth-rwby-and-shane/

I think this is a very good read and should be read. Shane seem to be very disturbed and needs some help in dealing with his depression. He made Monty look to be god-like when really, Monty was just human. I mean comeon, he talks about Monty is the only creator when there were two other, Miles and Kerry.

It's a very fair read, but it still... Like hey, if you're running a company? Running a business? Be a fucking business then.

I'm only a passive casual fan of RT, but it's another one of those companies that paints themselves as a fun place to work and a family. Well does a family that knows it has a member of it suffering from deep depression fire that son of a ***** on a technicality? No, a family doesn't do that. A family looks out for each other and doesn't see a member of the team as a liability.

And that's the bone I take issue with. There is nothing wrong if firing a guy if you're about the bottom line, I love Atlas Shrugged as much as the next guy. But don't do that and then still wrap your company a banner that your one thing and then do another, ya know? Channel Awesome did the same thing, and honestly? Still kinda bitter I actually bought it, gullible that I am.

But we don't know what they did for him, or what kind of helped Shane tried to take. We were never there and never will be.I'm not saying RT isn't out of the blame, but we shouldn't take everything Shane said as face value. They could have gotten him helped, but he could have refused it.

Plus you can only do so much for someone before its time to let them go. Let the link says, it seem that it was Monty way and only Monty way for Shane. Anything else is a disservice or worst a insult to the man image. I hope Shane gets the help he needs cause it sounds like he is very lost and isn't handling it very well and its showing.

Anyways, all I say to this is while RT does sound like a fun place to work, they are still a company and they can only handle so much before the company is suffering. IF someone on the team refuses to be a part of it, and refuses all the help you try to give them, you have to get rid of them.

No. No I don't buy that. If you're running a company, if you're about the bottom line? Then yeah totally.

But you don't get to claim to be a family, and then just give up on family and kick them to the curb because they don't want your help. I got a thing a about that. You stick by the people the who brought you to the dance, you don't look for any reason to get rid of them and when you do you don't start touching their personal hard drive without permission.

I argue a lot against idealism, but this is something I gotta say. You get into these things either to have friends or make money. You DO NOT get the luxury of doing both. That's business 101. There is absolutely nothing wrong with either path, but there sure as hell something wrong with doing one and pretending to be the other, in my eyes anyway. And I mean that, business is business. It just doesn't work both ways.

And Shane plenty looks like an asshole in this, he was very clearly not a very good employee. He's fighting with his employers at every point, but hes also one of the guys that helpt bring them to the dance. I believe very fiercly that when you're a small little indie company trying to survive, you stick by the people that bring you to dance because that's worth more than any dollar amount yo. That means you send homeboy home, with pay, so he can get his freaking life in order if you're going the family route.

Look, I understand and would love if this world was always had a happy ending and everyone got along and push through their problems. But this is the real world and it sucks hard. You can do everything you can for someone and they will stab you in the back sometimes in the end.

You can do everything right for that person. Make sure they get the help they need, give them time off, and everything they need to help them cope. But if that person refuses to give up, refuses to actually see the problem they have then what more can you do?

You can only do so much so help for someone. You should do all you can, yes, but sometimes you have to cut the rope cause if you don't that person will drag you down and you will end up like them. They are a company, they have tons more of employees who also need help, might need a job, and look to them to provide comfort at the work place.

And if the one employee they keep, keeps on making trouble and causing problems at the work place, what are they to do? Say "Well sorry, he having a lot of problems so we can't get rid of him. It wouldn't be right." Then the ones who are getting effected by this will leave to find better work place.

Should RT done more to help? Most likely, but like I said before. We have no idea how much they tried to help and we can't really relay on Shane on telling his part cause he seems fragile at moment and not the best to recall things.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

There might be some valid points in there, I certainly don't know what actually went down, but oh god he drowns it out in so much of what is essentially "they changed it now it sucks". He keeps using the "only Monty knew what to do and only I knew what Monty would have done" line over and over and just makes him look...I dunno, fanatical? Like he's just been dragged out of a cult or something. Whenever he says "they weren't doing it the way Monty would have wanted it" instead change it in your head to "they weren't doing it the way I wanted" and see how differently it reads...

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

No. No I don't buy that. If you're running a company, if you're about the bottom line? Then yeah totally.

But you don't get to claim to be a family, and then just give up on family and kick them to the curb because they don't want your help. I got a thing a about that. You stick by the people the who brought you to the dance, you don't look for any reason to get rid of them and when you do you don't start touching their personal hard drive without permission.

I argue a lot against idealism, but this is something I gotta say. You get into these things either to have friends or make money. You DO NOT get the luxury of doing both. That's business 101. There is absolutely nothing wrong with either path, but there sure as hell something wrong with doing one and pretending to be the other, in my eyes anyway. And I mean that, business is business. It just doesn't work both ways.

And Shane plenty looks like an asshole in this, he was very clearly not a very good employee. He's fighting with his employers at every point, but hes also one of the guys that helpt bring them to the dance. I believe very fiercly that when you're a small little indie company trying to survive, you stick by the people that bring you to dance because that's worth more than any dollar amount yo. That means you send homeboy home, with pay, so he can get his freaking life in order if you're going the family route.

Rooster Teeth didn't kick Shane to the curb before Monty's body was cold. They spent their off-season restructuring RWBY so that it could continue to function without Monty, which is a big change- one of the things Shane rails against is changing the programs and schedules that were being used to the industry standard, after RT had bent over backwards to accommodate Monty's idiosyncrasies when it came to programs and workflow. They also tried to keep Shane on for a year, through Volume 3, but that eventually his personal friction with the rest of the production team made it impossible to work with him. I don't believe Shane is an asshole, just someone who is depressed, hero-worshipped an eccentric creator (and in doing so inflated his own importance past 'assistant' to the level of 'best friend, mentee, and brother') and disagreed with the people said creator had worked with who were trying to continue with his vision, but could not do so using the eccentric methods.

To use your metaphor, they tried to continue the dance with Shane, but he refused to change his rhythm to match the new song the band was playing, and when he stepped on people's toes he blamed them for having their feet in the wrong place. Rooster Teeth danced with him for as long as they could, but eventually it became too much, and they told him to find another partner. I disagree that companies have to be black and white "love or business", because even real families aren't like that. At a certain point, when your mentally ill cousin won't stop hitting your children and you can't get him to seek help on his own, you forbid him from being in the same room with them. It's not your cousin's fault, exactly, but he's not well and you can't let his desires dictate what happens to everyone else you love.

Did Rooster Teeth take his laptop through deception? Yes, and using someone he trusted was pretty scummy, but having seen the dance that goes on when a company tries to fire a mentally ill employee I know it's very difficult to do, especially if you care about them and don't want to provoke them into doing something that will hurt themselves or others. Did Rooster Teeth ice out Monty's wife? Maybe. I can certainly see them telling Shane (as he was obviously pushing for them to make her creative lead, and positioning himself as the left hand to her right, with the ghost of Monty guiding them both) that Sheena did not have an official role with RWBY or Rooster Teeth, that they still had two-thirds of the writing and directing team, and that it would be their job to handle RWBY. Shane is clearly hurt, and and maybe there was a better way of handling him given the damage Shane had done to his personal life, but they couldn't just send him off with pay and expect things to work out.