Base14

Posts have been a bit thin recently because I’ve been spending most of my time on the set of another thesis film down here in Savannah. In fact, we finished our final (and ninth) day of shooting yesterday. I got some great photos that I’ll be featuring in a post soon, but for now, please enjoy another yield of my principles of animation class. We animated sliding pendulums to work on spacing, timing and declining energy. In the end, I had to make several decisions on minute details like the mass of the string, strength of gravity and air resistance in order to simulate the motion of the pendulum.

I thought of the title of the post when someone said they saw Brad Pitt in Savannah last week. I’ve got a great movie idea for him…

For those that may not read every blog post, a little update: I’m currently earning my MFA in Film & Television down at the Savannah College of Art & Design. But as I like to tell people, I’m having a bit of a love affair with animation. I’m in Film & Television to learn the essentials of directing, screenwriting, editing and the like, but ultimately I prefer working in front of a computer rather than on a set.

So while I take my required 700-level Film & Television classes, I’ve begun sneaking over to the animation building this quarter to take “ANIM 202 – Animation I,” or basic principles of animation. Today we finished our first assignment, a bouncing ball and a cannon ball. Pretty basic stuff compared to Ara, I know, but it’s so nice to get back to the basics before I go any further. This class should make me much sharper as an animator, and after this I can move on and take some character animation classes.

Anyway, if you’d like to see square one for professional animators, take a look below. I guess now I can officially change my business cards.

Note: Videos after the break. Continue Reading »

To follow up the announcement of the new animation, Duck ♥ Teslacoil, I would like to release the first pictures of our shameless promotional pieces. Just when you thought the duck couldn’t get any cuter, feast your eyes upon him in plush form!

I chose to use hand embroidery on felt so that his features would stand out from his body. I also attempted to reflect the animation style by keeping his body flat. Since it was the first piece and was intended as an experimentation in style, I kept the scale small. Plus, as everyone knows, small things are precious.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Crazy Kwanzaa, and Best of Winter Solstices to all! Everyone here at Base14 would like to show our sincere appreciation for all our readers and passersby this holiday season, and give to you something we feel is very special. It’s a first look at our newly-announced animated film: Duck ♥ Teslacoil.

This teaser is the first few shots of the new film, before much has a chance to get started. That’s all we can really show for now. To see how the rest unfolds, you’ll have to wait until the film hits festivals this Spring. Screenings will be announced as they are confirmed, and hopefully there will be several. Until then, we’ll be featuring additional content on the site like concept art, character bios and interviews in preparation for the movie’s Spring run. So grab an RSS feed and keep checking back! And happy holidays!

Well, things are busting with holiday cheer around here, and there’s no better way to spread that cheer on to you than with a digital holiday greeting card! But this one is particularly special.

While going through old data files this summer, we stumbled upon the very first Flash animation ever produced by Base14! This is the one that started it all, folks. I made this back in December of 2003, when I was a senior in High School. At the time, I was blindly stumbling my way through Flash, and consider it a miracle I accomplished this in two weeks. But now I yield it like a deadly ninja star… it’s amazing how far we’ve come! So give it a spin and feel the joy of what would be the first step on a long road to animation enlightenment!

And you’ve probably also noticed the strange weather we’re having here in Base14land – it’s snowing! Makes me want to pour some hot chocolate and eat something with sprinkles. Mmm… sprinkles.

Note: You may experience sluggish graphic performance due to the snowflakes. If so, jump on over to YouTube to watch the video snowflake-free.

I am thrilled to officially announce today the next Base14 animated film: Duck ♥ Teslacoil. This new film (pronounced “Duck Heart Teslacoil”) has actually been in the works since April of this year, and has reached a proof-of-concept stage worthy of publication.

Duck ♥ Teslacoil is a return to comedy for Base14, pulling together all the strengths of the company for what should be the highest-quality piece we’ve ever produced. DHT enjoyed an extensive pre-production phase that solidified the plot and sent the visual style through numerous design revisions. The final look of the film is meant to replicate paper cutout animation photographed with a rostrum camera setup.

Like our previous film, Ara, DHT is being animated in Adobe Flash and composited in Adobe After Effects. Unlike Ara, DHT has been designed to be the perfect movie to animate in Flash, because the characters are made up of flat, solid-colored shapes. Still, the use of motion tweening in Flash produces a pseudo-3D look that adds more life to the characters (and would have been more difficult using traditional methods). One of the goals of this project is to demonstrate the potential of digital 2D workflows to instigate new styles of animation.

Well, enough of the technical talk, let’s get to the goodies! To kick off our official announcement today, I’ve created an official DHT teaser poster, as well as official DHT wallpapers to adorn your computer background. And did somebody say teaser trailer? Let’s just say Christmas might come a wee bit early this year.

Duck ♥ Teslacoil Poster

Teaser Poster: 11×17

Duck ♥ Teslacoil Wallpaper

Widescreen: 1920×1200 1680×1050 1440×900 1280×800
Fullscreen: 1280×1024 1024×768
Other: iPhone(320×480)

It’s only Tuesday, but this this week has already been a blast because I’ve been working as the set photographer for “The PreShow,” a short film finalist for the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker’s Award. SCAD actually has two finalists this year, and that’s out of ten nationwide! Pretty impressive. Just like the students running this production; things are top notch. And I have plenty to do photographing all the action and pitching in as a grip when needed. Here’s an initial photo to whet your fancy, but once the shoot is done I’ll share my best-of. And if Coke likes ours enough, you’ll see it on the big screen.