Online production house Rooster Teeth has seemingly downsized its 3d animation department, following the removal of most of the studio’s modeling team ahead of the release of RWBY volume 9.

Following a cursory check of the team’s credits, most of the names listed under the studio’s modeling department credited for their involvement in RWBY Volume 8 are no longer listed as being part of Rooster Teeth on linked in, save for two members of the team.

These members are all listed on LinkedIn as having left around the same time, which is between January and March 2022, likely following the end of pre production on the RWBY project.

What’s more, said staff members are also credited on other Rooster Teeth projects as well, such as their Death Battle program, indicating a company-level downsize rather than just reducing resources for one show.

Meanwhile, the Rooster Teeth website makes no mentioning of hiring new modelers, meaning the company could have found alternative ways to outsource pre-production on upcoming projects.

We’ve reached out to Rooster Teeth for comments on the events, though the company has refused to respond to said request.

The Fate Of RWBY Volume 9

This comes as fans are eagerly anticipating any news for RWBY Volume 9- the 8th volume of the popular web series ended in March, 2021, and the RWBY franchise has since announced a 2d side story made in Japan- titled Ice Queendom.

The time difference bucks the trend of the typical RWBY release schedule, which sees Volumes end in the first quarter of the year with the next volume starting in the fall of the same year.

We can say with certainty that pre production on the series is complete- after all, the company had shown a sneak peak at the volume at last year’s RTX.

With Anime Expo and RTX coming up, there’s also a good chance we could be seeing more news on RWBY Volume 9 soon, though it’s unlikely they will comment on the downsizing there.