Base14

So I completely forgot to mention this in the midst of the online launch of “The Girl and the Fox”, but we also have uploaded the first public teaser for our next film “Rain Dance”! If you didn’t see the previous post, the film is a comedy about a shaman who must confront a mischievous baby with mystical powers. I promise you, it’s a real hoot. We’re still working through post-production, which includes some great musical scoring by professional composer Kyle Newmaster, but the film should be completely done by this Fall, just in time for a 2013 festival run.

It’s been a good three days for “The Girl and the Fox”. We’ve been featured on a boatload more blogs and websites, including The Curious Brain, Film School Rejects, i09, and one of my very favorites, Short of the Week. The good folks at SotW touched on what really makes TGTF strong:

“…for many animators—especially those behind short films—the medium becomes a celebration of speaking with one’s pictures. Story through action, emotion through motion. So is the case with Base14’s The Girl and the Fox, a lyrical, dialogue-free fairy tale that is as easily accessible as it is deep.”

– Ivan Kander

Here’s a round-up of other blog mentions and my favorite lines from select articles.

i09
“This short, silent fairy tale illustrates the more tender side of the state of nature, and the animation thoroughly evokes a story book come to life.”

Film School Rejects
“Pay close attention to the outstanding lighting design in this animated short from Base14. It’s a combination of exaggeratedly detailed backgrounds and comic-strip-simple characters, but even beyond the beauty, the real joy is the story.”

Kuriositas
“I have to admit to being rather surprised to discover that they are based in Los Angeles as to me The Girl and the Fox had a much more European feel to it – perhaps because of the costumes the characters wear – it felt very much like an Old World fable.”

The San Francisco Egotist
“This film has been nominated and awarded all over the place. It won’t take long for you to see why.”

Forbidden Planet
“…the fox turns out to be rather handsome, with a wonderfully bushy tail and she’s not sure she can bring herself to harm him – but if she doesn’t what will happen between human girl and fox?”

The Curious Brain

Parka Blogs

Sopitas

Arte y Animación

Cold Hard Flash

OnAnimation

Dooby Brain

Update: I almost forgot, we were also featured on the central hub of Vimeo itself, as part of the Vimeo Staff picks. Thanks Vimeo!

Last night amid a flurry of tweets and status updates, “The Girl and the Fox” went live on Vimeo and Youtube! We’re already off to a great start across the blogosphere, with mentions on Coldhardflash.com and Kuriositas.com. Our next big goal is to get featured on Short of the Week, and you can help us do that by voting for the film did a great job voting! We made it!

Did you know we’re still showing in theaters, too? It’s true. We’ve got big appearances coming up at the Nantucket Film Festival at the end of this month and the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International in July. In fact, I believe that’s TGTF on the front page! Head on over to girlandthefox.com/festivals for the complete literary.

Thanks again to everyone that helped create, promote and support the film. It means the world to this small studio. We hope we’ll mean something special to the world.

It’s almost here… are you ready? The official online premiere of “The Girl and the Fox” is less than a day away now, and everyone here at Base14 is pretty stoked. Here’s a wrap-up of all the great things that have kept us busy leading up to the premiere:

• We’ve been updating the official “Girl and the Fox” website
  www.girlandthefox.com
• Base14 got a facelift on all its Facebook pages
  Base14 Facebook Page
  Duck Heart Teslacoil Facebook Page
  The Girl and the Fox Facebook Page
  Rain Dance Facebook Page
• Our YouTube account has been bustling with new tutorials
  Hand-Drawn Animation in Adobe Flash Tutorial
  Painting Hand-Drawn Animation in Adobe Flash Tutorial
• We made a Facebook Event for the premiere
  TGTF Online Premiere Event
• This picture exists
  This one

That’s all for now! Check back on Monday bright and early for the big premiere!!!

Here’s the second installment of our “making of” tutorial series for “The Girl and the Fox.” Since I covered hand-drawn animation last week, it seemed logical to show the next step in the process: how we paint the finished animation. This step was typically handled by an entirely separate team from the animators, and is much more focused on quality of line than quality of motion. The video also shows the unique methods we used to get the “contourless” style seen throughout the film. It’s a very specific technique that’s custom-tailored to Adobe Flash, and works surprisingly well.

» Download the tutorial files right here

Also, don’t forget about our online premiere on June 4th! Join our Facebook event page or follow us on Twitter, and help spread the word!

So in an effort to promote the upcoming online release of “The Girl and the Fox” and provide some context as to how the film was made, we’ve launched our first “making-of” tutorial for “The Girl and the Fox.”  This one is all about our process for creating hand-drawn animation using Adobe Flash. It’s been over TWO YEARS since our last YouTube tutorial so I hope everyone waiting for some more Base14 secrets can now rest easy. Below you’ll find the link to download the Flash files (CS5 version). Enjoy!

» Download the tutorial files right here

It’s the day we’ve all been waiting for! The online premiere of “The Girl and the Fox” has been set for June 4th, 2012. Look for it on Vimeo and YouTube.

A lot is going into preparations for the online premiere. The entire film is being remastered in 32-bit color, animating and compositing are getting some touch-ups, and an entirely new musical score has been written just for this version! We’ll also be releasing some “Behind the Scenes” tutorials on YouTube to give fans a better idea of how the film was made.

So mark your calendars! It’s going to be an exciting month!