Hi, I want to make a titanic animation but IDK how. can someone tell me how I can?

I can't share the full emails because 1) I don't want to get sued, 2) it's 14 pages of pure Tom.

Everything will be paraphrased.

(context) Friend made a Lusitania game demo, Tom saw it and offered him a job. Friend got nervous and wanted me to look over the emails and see if I could think of anything to say)

Tom: Hey I'm tom. We make Titanic videos, Britannic videos, and an Atlantic video. I've been wanting to make more videos but Matt and Kyle both saw yours and said there was no need to make those videos anymore that now you're doing yours. They only want to work on the game. I want to make videos. Want to come to work for us and make videos?

(He also made an interesting comment about "inventing" the idea of real-time sinkings. I found this, and my friend did as well, to be particularly funny considering I was 50% thru my 2nd real-time at the time, my friend had made 2 Titanic real times and an Empress of Ireland real-time...not to mention the dozens of others that had made a real-time before THG)

What I told my friend: If you're going to take this seriously then take it seriously and treat it like a job interview. you are within your rights to ask him questions because he has been very vague in stating what it is you will or will not be doing if you take the job.

My friend to Tom: "I'm very flattered.

1. these are done as a hobby and for free, I don't expect to make money off them

2. What kind of projects do you have in mind?

3. What could I do / not do in regards to continuing to make my own videos outside of THG?

4. Would it be possible to do game demos for future projects?

5. Is there a way to compile research and release it to the public once the project has been made?

6. I don't have a very good computer and can't handle complex models

7. Do I have to use my full name in the credits?

8. Would I have to take down my Lusitania video/game demo?

As you can see, he asked questions in the hopes of getting some context. Good job.

Tom back to my friend: "I'm happy you're interested. Addressing your concerns...

1. I'm in no rush to get things done, I just want to make videos

2. The biggest thing I need right now is someone to work on animations since Matt and Kyle are no longer interested in making videos since your video got so much attention.

3. I have plans to make the Great Eastern, Empress of Ireland, Republic, Artic, Carpathia, Eastland, Sultana, Wilhelm Gustloff as real-time sinkings. We really need to partner up if you've been wanting to make an Empress video! I've been in talks to make one for a while now and it'd make things difficult for us if you make one too!

4. "One of my goals is to make the youtube channel the ultimate source for ship information on YouTube" Be careful of others, they think they have all the data and forensics but they don't only we do.

5. If we partner up we could release game demos of the real-time sinkings and maybe they could even be profitable!! I'm only in it for digging up data and sharing it though, money doesn't interest me

6. A research document would be made in parallel to the animations

7. If we can make an agreement I'd be willing to buy you a new computer but only after you sign a contract

8. I wouldn't require you to take down your videos but you might want to take them down and divert the attention to one that we make.

9. I'm working on something right now in California that's going to blow peoples minds

Me to my friend, looking over Tom's email:

1. Seems like the only thing he's focused on is making documentaries and video game demos about other ships rather than focusing on the actual game itself. He wants you to make those since Kyle doesn't want to anymore.

2. His comments about Matt and Kyle not wanting to work on them anymore just reinforces the point that nobody wants to work on those videos, but Tom wants them to be made.

3. Seems strange that the CEO of a company that's always so secretive about their plans to prevent people from copying them is so forthcoming about their upcoming project plans when you two haven't even come to an agreement yet.

4. Seems like he only cares about getting attention. Sure there's a passion for ocean liners there, but it seems to have been buried by the need to be the biggest baddest youtube channel in regards to ships.

This wasn't included in my original message to my friend but in 2020 THG released their Britannic game demo, created by my friend, and they charged $15 to play it. Apart from 3d Printed model sales, the YT channel is their primary source of income for funding the game. You can look up their social blade status and see that they gross about $60,000 a year on that alone. They claimed to have earned north of $200,000 from indiegogo, and the steam sales (though not verified, nobody knows the true numbers but THG themselves) are around 20,000 units which is $300,000 profit (before Valve takes their 30%) if true. All told in the past 8 years they've made somewhere around $200,000 - $700,000 in donations and profits but yet they always seem to be "tight on money." Just thought I'd point that out.

Back to me talking to my friend:

- Notice how he both said you could make a research document but not that it would ever be released (they released no such document with the Britannic game for example)

- Seems to be another instance of saying yes and no at the same time with "I wouldn't require you" to take down the videos, but you might want to take them down anyway. (Friend took his videos and game demo down shortly after going to work for THG though he stresses this was his own decision to do so)

The "thing in California" meant to blow people's minds was getting a game studio to make a character model of Violet Jessup standing in a T-pose and a maid outfit which was showcased in a video 9 months after those emails were typed. Consider my mind thoroughly blown.

I ended the conversation with my friend by saying: "You can look at it two ways"

1. They didn't invite you to the team until they thought you were worthy enough to join

2. Tom wants all the attention your Lusitania project got to go towards THG instead, so he wants to hire you.

Judging by the way the email was worded I said, "This is just me, but I'd politely decline"

A couple of days later he accepted the job. A few weeks after that I got my own email from Tom. Again paraphrasing everything:

1. Hi I'm Tom. Heard about you from your friend. He's helping us make a White Star Line history documentary.

2. The channel is getting bigger and bigger and I need more people to help make videos.

3. Would you be interested in helping? There is a paycheck involved but it's not much, we're pretty tight on money.

4. We have 200,000 subscribers and nearly 60,000,000 views and all our videos get massive attention.

5. There's no real commitment, I won't lay out deadlines or expectations.

6. Let me know.

7. Btw, saw some of our fans had attacked you in one of your videos. That's not cool, and it doesn't represent my outlook towards you. I've seen your stuff, "I think your work is great."

Knowing how vague Tom can be I responded with an email asking for clarifications:

1. I go to classes part-time for IT tech support, work as a part-time security guard, and manage my YT channel. I can't afford to devote much time to your project and I can't stop making videos on my channel as it would kill my revenue and force me to work one or more part-time jobs to get back on my feet financially.

2. I build all my own 3D models and have plans to sell a few of them in the future to set up a secondary revenue stream. I would need to retain the rights to models I make and have permission to sell them.

3. As far as compensation goes, I require it. I don't work for free.

4. I want any research handed to me to be made available publically preferably in a free downloadable .pdf in the video descriptions which is what I did for my real-time videos.

5. I use Blender to make models and I don't know how to use Unreal Engine. I don't know if that complicates things for you guys or not.

6. No deadlines sound great

7. What exactly am I going to be working on? I know next to nothing about anything other than Olympic and Titanic.

8. I'm sure I'll be required to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) to work for you. I also require in writing that all of my terms and conditions above are met, agreed upon, and upheld.

After 9 days of complete silence, I email Tom to see if he's received anything and agreed to it

Just following up, it's been 9 days. Thought it might have got lost in the emails you get on a daily basis

3 more days go by and I get an email from Tom.

"While your terms are certainly agreeable, I am forced to withdraw the offer. I do not wish to work with people who distort private conversations and accuse me of threats I did not make"

I spend 2 hours typing up a "please don't fire my friend" email to Tom. The email, over the course of the next 48 hrs, fails to be delivered multiple times. I assume Tom has blocked me from emailing him and go about my business as usual for the next 1.5 years.

Just last week, friend msg's me, "Lusitania looks good, btw expect an email from Tom"

Email from Tom:

Hey, saw that you thought I had blocked you from emailing me. That's not true, we just used a crappy domain service to host our emails. Anyway, hope you're doing fine. Feel free to ask me any questions.

The response he got this morning:

"Hi Tom;

I don't know what prompted this email from you after 1.5 years of silence, probably all of the rumors, negativity, and sour taste in people's mouths that have been accruing online since that time. And possibly wanting to hold out a rapidly decaying olive branch in the hopes that I would work for you in your new company, HistoricalFX. I had my suspicions when you created the Part-Time Explorer channel, and again when it was announced that you had created the HistoricalFX channel/company. (Friend name here) has now confirmed it. That you've created these channels so that people stop complaining about you wasting time on side projects and actually focus on the game that you've been promising for nearly 10 years now. And now there's talk of completely abandoning the game and releasing it as a museum mode, with no storyline or sinking attached to it. I wish you luck with all the thousands of people around the world asking for their refunds in donations because there will be a huge outcry if you did actually do that. That's why it's important to assess your project and what you can complete in a timeline that you make for yourself instead of promising people that you're going to take them to the Moon, then changing the destination to Mars, when in actuality all you can give them is the top of the Empire State Building.

Why don't I want to work for you? not only because you treated me the way you did, taking things to the extreme with little to no context at all, but the way you've treated others in the past and present. I've heard (and seen, not just speculating here. I've seen screenshots) the things that you and your team have done to people around the world in the past 8 years, and honestly, you guys aren't the type of people that I want to associate with. I don't want to associate with someone who constantly and habitually uses others for his own benefit and gain then tosses them aside on a moment's notice never to be spoken to again and they move on to the next people to use. I have no interest in working for a team leader who regularly ignores criticism and valid constructive criticism. I have no interest in working for someone who at my last count 13 prior coworkers and (former) friends have said, "is a nightmare to work with." I have no interest in working for someone who uses others for their knowledge and expertise and then takes advantage of that and claims that expertise and knowledge to be their own. I have no interest in being your whipping boy.

I have no interest in being a part of your machine.

Now allow me to do what you did to me last June, blocking you from emailing me.

Oh and by the way, stop sending (friend's name here) over to message me on discord because YOU want to talk to me. I think I've made it perfectly clear in this email that I do not wish to speak to you."

Sent copy of the reply to the friend, they said "he never wanted to hire you, just wanted to let you know he had never blocked you from emailing him. Sorry for causing stress"

fin

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