lorecrafters

// creative production studio //
We engineer stories that spark joy - and empower creators to find their voice.
Inquiries: DM/Email

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

LORECRAFTERS x TAIGAXHOLIC:
PRODUCER'S LOG ✒️

🏴‍☠️ Every captain has a tale of mutiny...this one tells you what comes after. 🏴‍☠️

Here's the lore behind the lore video that we at Lorecrafters produced for @TaigaxHolic! (Take a shot every time we say "lore".)

This is also the first producer log we're writing under our name - so buckle up, because we're doing this properly.

When Taiga came to us, they actually had loose boards and rough script already down: decent progress on a betrayal-and-rebuild concept, but the project had gotten stuck partway through - with no clear way to the finish line. So that's where we came in.

Thankfully, dealing with stuck scripts, pre-defined spec, and prior revision hell is something our founder/director @CarillusArt has a long history of operating on. He's done it for Silvervale's and kson's lore videos with VShojo, and also for FSP Ravanis' lore videos.

Cari's past VTuber lore work also includes solo writing, directing, and (sometimes) drawing for a string of indie VTubers in the early 2020s - including BakaSae, girl_dm, rpr, Senz, and Buffpup.

Unblocking a stalled narrative and bringing it all the way home - all while still letting the VTuber's own voice shine through - isn't new for him (and us) at all...but it's not just indies we've got range on ☕️

If you don't know us: our founders made one of the earliest corpo VTuber lore/comic videos from the ground up.

Calli's Christmas Catastrophe (a 3-part series from 2021) was actually written, drawn, art- and voice-directed, AND produced by us + a team we handpicked ourselves. That's always been ours, full stop.

This project actually reunited us with one of the video editors from that Calli series, who brought in real motion-design chops to make the whole thing feel alive - adding the kind of polish that turns "powerpoint anime" into something more.

Paired with our audio engineer's ear for proper cinematic sound design, we got to make something that shows the difference between a video that just has music under it - and one that actually sounds like it was custom-scored, with proper attention to ambient soundscapes.

The rest of the team have their own stories worth naming, too. Two of our artists came up through a rough first sequential art project before this one - resulting in an experience that left them needing a real guided production to prove what they were actually capable of.

Cari invested a LOT of time doing real scaffolding, mentorship, and direction with them; giving them proper workflow and technique improvements to digest and use - not just handing down cursory notes. Watching them grow into the work was its own quiet win, and we're stoked to keep building with them.

It's one of the parts we're proud of as a studio: we aim to build people and their stories up together, instead of just polishing what's given to us and calling it a day. Sure, we engineer and support the story's structure - but the story itself is always theirs, whether it's VTuber lore or a personal growth arc.

And we refuse to impose our voice on someone else's, because that's just handing someone an expensive, ill-fitting costume of a "narrative" and sending them on their way - not something built to last long after the debut stream is over.

Our own build-back-up journey clearly showed up in the process as well. We included a much more deliberate pre-production phase for this project than we had ever run before - starting with actual character design sheets for Taiga and their crew that went through real approval rounds.

(Also: continuity checking is hard, and our artists deserve all the credit for making sure Taiga always had their ponytail and ribbon in all the frames 🤭)

Midway through, we built an actual custom internal dashboard and a VA-friendly script studio to replace what used to just live loose in Google Sheets and various folders - fully shaped by what the team actually flagged as workflow needs, not featuremaxxing for its own sake.

We also added a dedicated compositing phase this time around (the difference between "nice colors" and "this actually feels cohesive and real"), and trained our artists in it from scratch...even while knowing it would cost us time upfront. But we figured it was a time investment that would pay off in spades down the road - and it did.

All of these are small, unglamorous things - but they're the kind of stuff you only build when you're taking the craft seriously for the long run as we do, not just clearing the next deadline.

By now, it should be pretty clear that this project means something to us beyond the brief. Lorecrafters has its own history of being knocked down for reasons that weren't fully ours to control - it's part of why the studio exists at all! - and finding our way back to doing the work we love anyway. We know what that struggle costs, and we know what that's worth to those who keep at it (spoiler: a LOT.)

A redebut can mean different things to different people. To us, it's a VTuber called Taiga - and in this case, also a whole team, founders included - deciding to stand back up and try again. Which...is pretty much what's playing out inside the lore video too, and being trusted with that story isn't something we take lightly.

Something worth saying, though:
We can't take credit for the amazing hand-animated sequences later in the lore video (the magical girl transformation, and the kraken battle). That's all other skilled people doing great work under Taiga's direction!

It was honestly nice to see that Taiga themselves (outside of the in-lore version, heh) had a solid crew supporting their redebut journey; we just made sure that their work was carefully incorporated into the final stitched video, and made sure the sound design + audio mixing was cohesive throughout. The added impact of those animated cuts was absolutely worth it.

So...thank you SO MUCH to our team at Lorecrafters who trusted us to bring y'all along for this ride, especially while we founders were still finding our own feet again. We really couldn't have done this without you ♥️

And most of all: thank you, Taiga. We're proud to have been part of your build-back-up journey, and we wish you continued strength and self-improvement ahead 🙏 Onwards and upwards!

Full production credits below 🎬

~ @RAINAplease (@heyacazz)
Lorecrafters Founder/Producer

(...if you actually took a shot every time we said "lore", enjoy the hydration 🍻)

[TaigaxHolic @TaigaxHolic]

Hey! Some of you might have saw that I cancelled this weeks streams on discord.

I did a lot of self reflection last night and I just need to take a step back for a few days and realign my chakras.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for the incredible debut turn out. Over 3300+ viewers attended the debut stream at its peak, easily breaking our previous record for the last debut!!!

I cannot thank you all enough. We have been in the works with this design for over 2 years, and It feels amazing to have finally shared that with you.

Many of you know I have a lot of trauma with regards to past events, and I tried to explore that as much as I could in the lore video. As fun as it was, it was also exposing a side of myself that I tend not to talk about, so thank you for the positive reception. Thank you @HeyLoreCrafters, @AnimatorBruce, and everyone else for making it possible.

I loved seeing some of the theory crafting you guys have been doing based on my lore, It's so awesome to see something I created be engaged with in that way!!!

If you missed it during the debut, we also released my very first single 'SNOWPOUNCE'! (Produced by Odyssey Eurobeat) and your reactions have been everything I could ever hope for.

I really want to make more music professionally, I had an absolutely cosmic experience creating SNOWPOUNCE and I want to keep persuading more and pushing my limits vocally with more ambitious songs.

Also wanted to take a moment to thank Knoxi, Jade, and all the other mods for their service over the years and help with behind the scenes stuff and preparation. Love you guys so much.

Finally, I just want to properly thank and shout out @SlimyMana for creating and designing the model. I could not be more happy with just how CUTE THEY TURNED OUT and I'm looking forward to updating you with some additional outfits and accessories in the future~~

Once again: Thank you for everything. I wouldn't be here without you and your continued support. I'm so proud of what this community accomplished.

I'll see you soon. Going to take this time to rest, recuperate, and let people adjust to the new changes!

HERE IS TO ANOTHER 6 YEARS AND A SUCCESSFUL COMEBACK!~~

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

@TaigaxHolic Producer R here - glad we got to explore that story with you, warts and all...and that the audience have been engaging well with it! We still stand by the fact that it's a powerful one.

Enjoy your R&R, and thank you so much for the opportunity again 🩵

[Cazz // キャザ @ lorecrafters @heyacazz]

I'm so stoked to be moderating not just one, but TWO different panels at #AFACSF26's Creators Lab!

Sean's one of the more notable graphic novelists to come from this little red dot - Cari and I look forward to exploring his personal + professional journey at this panel!

[Carillus ✈ lorecrafters @CarillusArt]

To be fair to myself, my normal scripts read more dense, with camera angles, framing and character acting info.

Our artists have to do enough mental work as it is, so part of my job is to offload some of that mental load.

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

@CarillusArt "...until I don't"

[Carillus ✈ lorecrafters @CarillusArt]

I write incredibly detailed and very eloquent scripts

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

@featherosenthal That's such high praise, @CarillusArt would be proud - thank you so much! We really try our best with our artists, and we're glad to see it's paid off.
(And yes - definitely watch this space for more...)

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

LORECRAFTERS x TAIGAXHOLIC:
PRODUCER'S LOG ✒️

🏴‍☠️ Every captain has a tale of mutiny...this one tells you what comes after. 🏴‍☠️

Here's the lore behind the lore video that we at Lorecrafters produced for @TaigaxHolic! (Take a shot every time we say "lore".)

This is also the first producer log we're writing under our name - so buckle up, because we're doing this properly.

When Taiga came to us, they actually had loose boards and rough script already down: decent progress on a betrayal-and-rebuild concept, but the project had gotten stuck partway through - with no clear way to the finish line. So that's where we came in.

Thankfully, dealing with stuck scripts, pre-defined spec, and prior revision hell is something our founder/director @CarillusArt has a long history of operating on. He's done it for Silvervale's and kson's lore videos with VShojo, and also for FSP Ravanis' lore videos.

Cari's past VTuber lore work also includes solo writing, directing, and (sometimes) drawing for a string of indie VTubers in the early 2020s - including BakaSae, girl_dm, rpr, Senz, and Buffpup.

Unblocking a stalled narrative and bringing it all the way home - all while still letting the VTuber's own voice shine through - isn't new for him (and us) at all...but it's not just indies we've got range on ☕️

If you don't know us: our founders made one of the earliest corpo VTuber lore/comic videos from the ground up.

Calli's Christmas Catastrophe (a 3-part series from 2021) was actually written, drawn, art- and voice-directed, AND produced by us + a team we handpicked ourselves. That's always been ours, full stop.

This project actually reunited us with one of the video editors from that Calli series, who brought in real motion-design chops to make the whole thing feel alive - adding the kind of polish that turns "powerpoint anime" into something more.

Paired with our audio engineer's ear for proper cinematic sound design, we got to make something that shows the difference between a video that just has music under it - and one that actually sounds like it was custom-scored, with proper attention to ambient soundscapes.

The rest of the team have their own stories worth naming, too. Two of our artists came up through a rough first sequential art project before this one - resulting in an experience that left them needing a real guided production to prove what they were actually capable of.

Cari invested a LOT of time doing real scaffolding, mentorship, and direction with them; giving them proper workflow and technique improvements to digest and use - not just handing down cursory notes. Watching them grow into the work was its own quiet win, and we're stoked to keep building with them.

It's one of the parts we're proud of as a studio: we aim to build people and their stories up together, instead of just polishing what's given to us and calling it a day. Sure, we engineer and support the story's structure - but the story itself is always theirs, whether it's VTuber lore or a personal growth arc.

And we refuse to impose our voice on someone else's, because that's just handing someone an expensive, ill-fitting costume of a "narrative" and sending them on their way - not something built to last long after the debut stream is over.

Our own build-back-up journey clearly showed up in the process as well. We included a much more deliberate pre-production phase for this project than we had ever run before - starting with actual character design sheets for Taiga and their crew that went through real approval rounds.

(Also: continuity checking is hard, and our artists deserve all the credit for making sure Taiga always had their ponytail and ribbon in all the frames 🤭)

Midway through, we built an actual custom internal dashboard and a VA-friendly script studio to replace what used to just live loose in Google Sheets and various folders - fully shaped by what the team actually flagged as workflow needs, not featuremaxxing for its own sake.

We also added a dedicated compositing phase this time around (the difference between "nice colors" and "this actually feels cohesive and real"), and trained our artists in it from scratch...even while knowing it would cost us time upfront. But we figured it was a time investment that would pay off in spades down the road - and it did.

All of these are small, unglamorous things - but they're the kind of stuff you only build when you're taking the craft seriously for the long run as we do, not just clearing the next deadline.

By now, it should be pretty clear that this project means something to us beyond the brief. Lorecrafters has its own history of being knocked down for reasons that weren't fully ours to control - it's part of why the studio exists at all! - and finding our way back to doing the work we love anyway. We know what that struggle costs, and we know what that's worth to those who keep at it (spoiler: a LOT.)

A redebut can mean different things to different people. To us, it's a VTuber called Taiga - and in this case, also a whole team, founders included - deciding to stand back up and try again. Which...is pretty much what's playing out inside the lore video too, and being trusted with that story isn't something we take lightly.

Something worth saying, though:
We can't take credit for the amazing hand-animated sequences later in the lore video (the magical girl transformation, and the kraken battle). That's all other skilled people doing great work under Taiga's direction!

It was honestly nice to see that Taiga themselves (outside of the in-lore version, heh) had a solid crew supporting their redebut journey; we just made sure that their work was carefully incorporated into the final stitched video, and made sure the sound design + audio mixing was cohesive throughout. The added impact of those animated cuts was absolutely worth it.

So...thank you SO MUCH to our team at Lorecrafters who trusted us to bring y'all along for this ride, especially while we founders were still finding our own feet again. We really couldn't have done this without you ♥️

And most of all: thank you, Taiga. We're proud to have been part of your build-back-up journey, and we wish you continued strength and self-improvement ahead 🙏 Onwards and upwards!

Full production credits below 🎬

~ @RAINAplease (@heyacazz)
Lorecrafters Founder/Producer

(...if you actually took a shot every time we said "lore", enjoy the hydration 🍻)

[_//TRIS @_Trismegistos]

Yey is me i am bideo editor guy 🫠

Had a great time and will be expecting to do more of this 🙏

[𝗢𝗦𝗖𝗘𝗡 || 𝗔𝗨𝗗𝗜𝗢 + 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡 @heyitsoscen]

Been in the NDA trenches but I'm happy this one's finally out! First lore video with the @heylorecrafters team!
Sound Design duty for Main Lore video, Audio Mixing for a bunch for everything!
Congrats @TaigaxHolic on your re-debut! Happy to be a part of your new chapter!

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

@_Trismegistos vidya more like vidYAAAAAAAAS

(thank you SO much 🙏)

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

@TaigaxHolic @CarillusArt @koiyaroid @RAINAplease @haho_03 @Rius_Isonder 🎉

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

@TaigaxHolic @CarillusArt @koiyaroid @RAINAplease @haho_03 CORRECTION:
Our apologies to @Rius_Isonder - we have just been informed that his contribution actually also includes composing for the Magical Girl transformation sequence! 🙇

Those kirakira beats didn't come out of nowhere - thank you for your work ✨

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

@kitsenvt @TaigaxHolic @CarillusArt @koiyaroid @RAINAplease @haho_03 Thank you for contributing to the crew mayhem! (And our producer's request to ham up the voice, lul)

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

@DatBoopy das you, the multi skilled duck 🦆 ✨

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

@JadeDoeDesu Thank you so much for also being one of the reasons this happened to begin with <3

[lorecrafters @heylorecrafters]

It's the calm before the storm...and what happens after a captain's mutiny.
Our first-ever Lorecrafters producer's log drops soon - it's for the first VTuber lore video we've shipped *and* can finally talk about under our own name, fully owned.

More when it goes live soon(TM) 💙

[RAINA ライナ 🍱 lorecrafters @RAINAplease]

Also FYI:
As part of the professional creative process, it is ABSOLUTELY vital that your oshi-slash-VA gives it to me RAW--

--I mean their voice recordings, because it's better to let the experts do cleanup and processing. Duh. ☕️

[Tea & Tomes Studio @TeaTomesStudio]

Meet our Studio Director @CarillusArt! Part of @heylorecrafters,15+ years of writing & drawing exp working on some of your fav comics & lore videos! Including; Creator of ExCo, ex-Creative Director at Merryweather Media, art & writing for Kson & Mori Calliope.
Follow us for more!