Base14

Earlier this year I was in a motion media theory class where, for a final project, I decided to examine the way that digital tools are designed to emulate old-fashioned physical tools. For example, Microsoft Word is a typewriter emulator. iTunes is a jukebox emulator. Skype is a telephone emulator, etc.

So I set my sights on Adobe Photoshop, which is an emulator of a darkroom and an art table, and ended up with the above video art piece. You can view the YouTube page for the full description and theory discussion, but just to summarize, I used a combination live-action video and stop motion animation to simulate Photoshop occurring in the physical world. Whereas the digital usually imitates the physical, by inverting the process I call attention to its strengths and weakness as a user interface design methodology.

Heavy stuff, huh? Well, if you don’t like all the theory you can just watch it and laugh at how funny looking Windows 95 is by today’s standards. Haha! Look at that copy of Norton.

This was the question everyone was asking me last night. Well, in a pretty tragic turn of events, “The Girl and the Fox” was not screened last night at the SCAD Animation Graduate Show. There were so many submission that the programmers had to limit it to only graduating filmmakers, and thus TGTF got axed. This is sad since we lost that opportunity to see how a large audience responds to the film, which might of helped prioritizing production retakes next month.

Still, we did get the film finished to a presentable degree, and soon I’ll be sending out a test screener to people I know and trust to give me valuable feedback before the final cut of the film is sent to festivals. It’s good to have the extra time to finesse.

Next week I’ll give a run-down of all the films I work on this quarter. It was a pretty interesting variety!

Over the past month, Base14 has been deeply immersed in the final stages of production for “The Girl and the Fox,” and I would say it’s just about time to finally show the fruits of all our labor! So I’m taking a short break from my work schedule to inform everyone that exactly ONE WEEK from today there will be a sneak peek test screening for “The Girl and the Fox.”  It will be showing as a part of the SCAD Animation Graduation Show on Thursday, May 27th at 8pm in the Lucas Theatre in Savannah, GA. I’ve included another film still to further whet your appetites. Check out that full HD picture quality! Nice.

Now that we’re finally wrapping up our eight-month-long production of The Girl and the Fox I can start leaking some more tantalizing details of just what the new film is all about. First off, I’d like you all to meet our main protagonist: Ilona [ee-loh-nah]. She is a nine-year-old girl who lives with her parents and siblings in a cold, lush forested region. Ilona takes after her mother in appearance, but after her father in fervor and tenacity. Having been brought up as the daughter of fur trappers, she is unafraid to brave the dangers of the wilderness alone. But as we’ll see, it can sometimes lead to trouble.

Here are the two main model sheets our animators and painters used during production:

Ilona’s character design was inspired by a number of sources, most notably Alysha’s concept designs for her fashion line this year, but also by the work of the Australian artist Ghost Patrol. The original idea and story was driven by this theme of children and woodland creatures in cold weather, with a flair of mystical qualities interwoven throughout. Her clothing and features had to be a perfect balance of an old-fashioned hunter/trader society while still making it apparent she was a girl, especially with that hood on for most the time. The tiny skirt helps a lot.

The design style also is an evolution of some of the elements used in Duck Heart Teslacoil, specifically the simplistic facial features, such as black dot eyes and single-line mouth. Much of this was adapted to keep the character design simple, since we needed to make it easier for a larger pool of animators to draw her. Still, Ilona can show a wide range of emotions and poses. She was certainly the most difficult character I’ve ever had to design for a film, but I’ve been happy with the results and hopefully our audiences will be, too.

So somehow, by the time we had reached the end of March, I went from having one animated short film in production to having three. Not only am I directing “The Girl and the Fox,” which is going through animation retakes and post-production, but I’m also co-producing a 2D Flash film called “Coyote Dinner” and semi-directing a CG 3D film with the working title “Cube Dog.” More on all these… eventually. Considering all three must be done by the end of May, I figure there will be time for reflection once they’re all finished.

So in the meantime, here’s a new promo still from “The Girl and the Fox,” this time showing off the full HD detail we can achieve with our digital production system. This particular shot features layout by Lyle Nagy, background paint by Andrew Miller and character animation by yours truly.

In early January, the apparel division of Base14 made an extravagant purchase. Ever since, I have been itching to play with my new four color silkscreen press. We have a lot of shirt ideas piling up on our product list, but nothing seemed worthy of the first run off this new press. Fortunately, Tyler gave me my first assignment and it was a big one! (Crew shirts for The Girl and the Fox.) After much debate over the design and what line thickness we could print with the new screens, Tyler finalized the design and I was off to the races. After printing the nearly 50 shirts I was completely in love with our new setup. More importantly, the shirts look fantastic!

Well that was easy. What should I print next?

Today I am very proud to announce the next Base14 animated film: The Girl and the Fox. In production since September 2009, TGTF has reached the long-awaited proof-of-concept stage to make it worthy of publication.

The Girl and the Fox is a new foray into dramatic animated storytelling for Base14. Leaps and bounds above our first attempt at animated drama, Ara, this new film channels all the professional filmmaking and storytelling techniques I have learned since starting graduate school here at The Savannah College of Art and Design. TGTF also marks our return to hand-drawn digital animation, which thanks to the talent and resources here at SCAD, will be far superior to anything to come out of Base14 previously. The production staff has grown to over 40 members, including a dozen character animators, half a dozen layout artists, and another dozen or so ink & paint artists. It’s safe to say about 80% of my time is currently spent managing and directing such a large crew, but it’s possibly the most enjoyable and rewarding endeavor of my life. I’m honored to work with such a talented and dedicated team.

To see what they’ve been cooking up, though, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. Animation is almost completely done, and we’re now entering the ink & paint / composting stage. Later this month we’ll be launching into overtime with another experimental Base14 Studio setup, this time here in Savannah, to tie up any loose ends in production. By late March, we’ll move into post-production, finalizing editing and sound design. And now that things are really getting exciting, every noteworthy event will be chronicled right here on Base14. So stay vigilant, loyal base14 readers! Much more is on the way.