First, ensure that you have Kafka installed and running on your machine or server. Download Kafka from the official Apache Kafka website, extract it, and start the ZooKeeper service followed by the Kafka broker. Use the following commands in your terminal:
```bash
bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh config/zookeeper.properties
bin/kafka-server-start.sh config/server.properties
```

Next, you need to create a Kafka topic where the data from TMDb will be stored. Use the Kafka CLI to create a topic. For example:
```bash
bin/kafka-topics.sh --create --topic tmdb_data --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --partitions 1 --replication-factor 1
```

Sign up at The Movie Database (TMDb) platform to get an API key. This key is necessary to authenticate your requests to the TMDb API and fetch data.

Write a script in your preferred programming language (e.g., Python) to fetch data from TMDb using their API. Use the `requests` library in Python to make HTTP GET requests. For example:
```python
import requests

api_key = 'your_tmdb_api_key'
url = f'https://api.themoviedb.org/3/movie/popular?api_key={api_key}'

response = requests.get(url)
data = response.json()
```

Once you have the JSON response from TMDb, process and format the data as needed. Extract relevant fields that you want to send to Kafka. You might want to transform the data into a string or JSON format that Kafka can handle.

Use a Kafka producer client library (e.g., `confluent_kafka` for Python) to send the formatted data to your Kafka topic. Here’s a simple example using Python:
```python
from confluent_kafka import Producer

conf = {'bootstrap.servers': "localhost:9092"}
producer = Producer(conf)

def delivery_report(err, msg):
if err is not None:
print('Message delivery failed: {}'.format(err))
else:
print('Message delivered to {} [{}]'.format(msg.topic(), msg.partition()))

for movie in data['results']:
producer.produce('tmdb_data', key=str(movie['id']), value=str(movie), callback=delivery_report)
producer.flush()
```

To ensure that your data is correctly being posted to Kafka, you can use the Kafka console consumer to read messages from the topic. Run the following command:
```bash
bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --topic tmdb_data --from-beginning
```
This will display the messages that have been published to the `tmdb_data` topic, allowing you to verify the data transfer process.

By following these steps, you can effectively transfer data from TMDb to Kafka without relying on third-party connectors or integrations. Adjust the code as necessary to fit your specific requirements and data structures.