User blog comment:CreatorTheta/How dead is RWBY?/@comment-4010415-20190106210413/@comment-4010415-20190112212207

Monty knew how to build models, considering we know he built Ruby's weapon himself, so I dunno why he used models from elsewhere, to be honest. As for the Paladin, they may have been uncertain about how good of a job they would do making their own mech, considering this is years before they started on gen:LOCK. And even then, they hired Dishwasher onto the gen:LOCK team specifically for the dude's ability to draw and design robots and mechs really well, making for a good choice of concept artist for a mech show.

Everything that's in Volume 4 and onward, though, is specifically built by Rooster Teeth's RWBY crew. When they switched over to Autodesk Maya, they had to rebuild their entire library of models. The only reason they had been using Poser Pro to begin with was because Monty insisted on it and didn't want to learn the interface and shortcuts for Maya. He was more comfortable with Poser and didn't want to leave that comfort zone even though it would make RWBY look so much better. So for Volumes 1-3, they built models in Maya and then animated in Poser because... sure.

And yes, it reflects badly on Rooster Teeth, but it's still unfair to claim that the whole company is a bunch of thieves because one employee used the questionable models on his own without input from the company, potentially without the company's knowledge of the act.