Back home, Jiang Xia had barely taken a sip of water and hadn't even had a chance to sit down and rest when Lin Yanwan forcibly pushed him back to his room to work on his storyboard.

Summer vacation is almost over, and I still have 12 episodes of Tom and Jerry to finish. If I don't hurry, I probably won't even be able to finish 8 episodes.

After being sternly warned by her older sister not to bother her brother-in-law, Lin Xiaoman could only sit on the sofa and watch TV in peace. Since she didn't have to do summer homework, she could play however she wanted.

Lin Yanwan, meanwhile, was surfing the internet in her study, checking how the reputation of Tom and Jerry had changed after a night of fermentation.

As it turned out, she underestimated the influence of Tom and Jerry in the world. In just one night, the number of followers on the forum surged by tens of thousands, more than the total number of followers in the previous month.

In the bedroom, Jiang Xia was focused on drawing the storyboard for episode 15 when he suddenly received a call from Li Weiya. He thought about it and figured that the matter of asking her to help find two illustrators last night had made progress.

"Hello, Aunt Li."

"Ah Xia, the person you asked me to find has been found."

As soon as Li Weiya answered the phone, she went straight to the point: "They are all people with one or two years of work experience in the industry, and their skills are very good. They should have no problem serving as the original illustrators for Tom and Jerry."

"Is that so!"

Jiang Xia was secretly delighted, and her tone became lighter: "They all agreed? Even without a contract, it's fine as temporary workers?"

"As soon as they heard it was an outsourcing project for the second season of Tom and Jerry, they agreed without hesitation," Li Weiya said with a smile. "Who can blame them when your work became an overnight sensation? The internet is full of praise, and countless people are waiting to see the next episode of the animation. So they also want to enhance their resumes, and naturally they wouldn't miss this opportunity."

Jiang Xia chuckled. As someone in the industry, he naturally understood the logic.

With this experience, you can say you worked on the Tom and Jerry project team wherever you look for a job, and your salary will increase significantly.

"When is it convenient for you? Send me some storyboards so I can assess their true skill level and see if they're suitable. You know, when it comes to animation, the quality of the original drawings is crucial," Li Weiya said.

"Okay, Aunt Li, I'll send you a few storyboard drafts now, you can have them try them out."

Jiang Xia took a few fairly clear photos with her phone, then removed the memory card, inserted a card reader, and sent them directly via QQ.

Whether these two people meet his requirements or not, we'll only know after they're drawn.

Not long after, Li Weiya sent him back several original drawings.

Jiang Xia examined it carefully. Perhaps it was because his storyboard was more detailed. In any case, the original drawings produced by the two of them for the same batch of storyboards were not much different. The only difference was in the expressions and actions of Tom and Jerry, but both of them expressed the relevant requirements of the storyboard.

Of course, this problem is easy to solve. All you need is an animation supervisor to unify and oversee the overall art style of the work, which can maintain the original art style to the greatest extent possible and prevent it from falling apart.

Ideally, this job should have been done by Jiang Xia, since he is the father of Tom and Jerry in this world, and only the images in his mind are most in line with the original work.

Unfortunately, he is very busy now. The three artists are enough to keep him busy, so he can only focus all his energy on storyboarding.

"Ah Xia, what do you think?" Li Weiya asked on the phone.

"It's pretty good. The drawing techniques are also quite skillful. As long as we can unify the art style, we can officially participate in the production after a day or two of familiarization. It's just that..."

He paused slightly, then chuckled, "Aunt Li, you said you'd help me check the quality of the original artwork, but I don't have much time, so what do you think..."

"Supervision is your job, right? Okay, leave it to me." Li Weiya said helplessly, "Anyway, I'm quite familiar with Tom and Jerry. You just draw the storyboards, and I'll take care of the rest."

"Hey! Thank you, Aunt Li!" Jiang Xia was overjoyed. If they were face to face right now, she might have already excitedly hugged her.

Li Weiya is the perfect person to be the animation director. She is a very experienced art director and recently participated in the production of Tom and Jerry to reduce Wang Ming's burden. Unifying the art style is a piece of cake for her.

"I've told you so many times, don't be shy with me. Just remember to treat me to a meal when the second season of Tom and Jerry is released," she said with a gentle smile.

In her eyes, Jiang Xia was her student, Wang Ming was her son, and Qitian Animation Company was practically her own business. If she didn't help Jiang Xia, who would she help?

"Yes, yes," he chuckled.

"By the way, Aunt Li, you need to tell those two that the production schedule for Tom and Jerry is very tight. Excluding the time for post-production editing and dubbing, an episode has to be produced every eight or nine days on average. That means they have to draw at least eighty or ninety original drawings every day. It's a lot of work. If they can't do it, we'll find someone else."

Jiang Xia pursed her lips, thought for a moment, and continued, "In addition, a confidentiality agreement must be signed, and any leaks will be subject to legal action. Of course, if the results are good, there is a possibility of long-term cooperation in the future."

"Okay, I will pass it on."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Xia leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh. As long as these two people were reliable, producing 12 episodes in 2 months wouldn't be difficult.

When the second season is released, the names Tom and Jerry will gradually become household names this summer, and Qitian Animation's reputation will naturally rise accordingly.

His ambition gradually took shape.

The living room door suddenly opened and closed, followed by Xia Shanshan's laughter. Then the bedroom door was gently pushed open, and Lin Yanwan said softly, "Jiang Xia, Auntie is back."

He nodded, waved to his wife, Lin Yanwan hesitated slightly, glanced at her mother-in-law who was walking into the kitchen, went into the bedroom, and gently closed the door.

"What are you doing? Let me tell you, Mom's back. Don't even think about doing anything reckless," Lin Yanwan said warily.

"What are you thinking? I don't want to get spanked again."

Jiang Xia said helplessly, "I just wanted to tell you that Wang Ming's mother has already found some temporary outsourced workers. I've looked at them, and both illustrators are quite good. They should be able to officially participate in the production in about a couple of days."

“Isn’t that great?” she said.

“It’s good, but the workload for you will be much heavier. About three episodes of animation will be produced every two weeks, and you have to do all the sound effects at once, so you basically won’t have much time to rest,” Jiang Xia said, holding her delicate little hand.

Lin Yanwan said earnestly, "Don't worry, I won't delay the progress."

Compared to illustrators who often stay up all night drawing, voice acting is a relatively easy job. Although time is tight, she manages to schedule her time well.

"That's not what I meant. I was just worried you'd get tired."

"It's a joyful thing that the two of us can do the same thing together." Lin Yanwan gently kissed his forehead.

The bedroom door was quietly pushed open, and Lin Xiaoman peeked out furtively. From this angle, it looked as if her older sister was bending down to feed her.

The sister-in-law's eyes widened in shock; her young heart was deeply moved.