Base14

I leaned things the hard way from MySpace and YouTube. If you don’t jump on a new Web 2.0 craze fast enough, you’re going to lose the user name that’s rightfully yours! So today I got my act together and reserved http://twitter.com/Base14 for everyone right here at Base14! Take THAT, http://www.myspace.com/base14. Someday I will track you down in your comfy Providence, Rhode Island home and make you hand that domain name over to me! As much as I hate MySpace, I can’t bear to think Base14 isn’t properly represented.

Anyway, if you just love everything we do here at Base14 and just need more, more, more, then jump right onto the Base14 twitter and get all the exciting minute-by-minute updates as they come rolling in! And if you’re more old-fashioned, remember that the Base14 RSS feed is a great way to get new posts delivered right to your digital doorstep.

With the Fall quarter done here at SCAD, it’s time to launch into high gear on the long-term project at Base14. For now it is still classified, but what I can tell you is that it’s another animated short film expected for a Spring 2009 release.

Today, however, I’d like to share with everyone another stepping stone on my personal path toward animation enlightenment. I present to you a paper I penned for my contemporary art class, entitled: The Potential of 2D Animation as a Digitally Produced Art Form. The paper explores the maturation of animation as a traditional art form, and how it has progressed into a digital world. As you can guess from my main argument in the paper, my next film is a digital 2D piece. I learned a great deal about animation history and current trends from this paper. I’m actually really glad I wrote it.

You can read the entire paper via the link on the right.

And you know, while I’m thinking about it, I’d like to step onto my soap box for a moment and suggest that the APA and MPA bring their style guidelines into the 21st century. The indentation, rugged double spacing and non-existent italicization all stem from the days when masters students plunked out their thesis papers on typewriters. Get with the times, guys. Rewrite those guidelines to take full advantage of modern word processors. Same goes for script writing standards, too. Just think how much the readability would improve if we could format scripts in a modern way.

*Steps down from soap box*

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I’ve been trying to release new comics on Fridays, but since this one is holiday-related, I thought I could deliver it a day earlier. In hindsight, I find it odd I wrote a Thanksgiving comic with no reference to turkeys… because those are dang funny birds. Ah, well… enjoy!

“Look at you, you’re nothing but skin and bones! Better make that four.”

I can’t stop reading the news these days. It’s just too readily available. So naturally many of my ideas pop out of what’s going down in Washington. This comic has a lot of Rightfield in it… in the character’s poses and expressions. That and the kid looks an awful like a young version of “The Guy Who Comes to Every Meeting but Never Contributes Anything” from this Rightfield strip. Haha, I love that.

Looks like no enchiritos today.

Is anything “leaked” these days actually unintentional? I suspect that advertisers are smarter than we think… and viral is the way to go. So to show I’m not one to miss the trend train, I’m officially leaking some concept art for a web series idea I pitched today in producing class. We’re not revealing the actual idea; I think it’s actually half-way viable. If a quarter million dollars lands in my lap sometime soon, you might then see the series become reality!

Sweet beans! While I was visiting home this weekend, I found a copy of the Fall 2008 Purdue Technology Magazine, featuring moi in the Student Involvement section. Looks like “Ara” is still making a few headlines these days. Maybe we can use this to help push it into imdb, eh? C’mon Amazon, I buy your books all the time. Why not do me a favor?

Click the thumbnail above to see the whole article.

I wanted to mention some slight additions to the site today. With all this business card distribution, I was looking over the Base14 site and decided it needed some updates. First and foremost, I realized that the information on the About Page was slightly outdated. So I updated the content and altered the focus a bit to be more about the general history of the company, not just the name.

Also, I realized that Ara came out on DVD two months ago, but still is not featured in the Base14tv library! So the film in its entirety, along with the unofficial trailer, has been added for your viewing pleasure. If you haven’t seen yet, jump on over and check it out!