First up is the 2017 Brickfilmer’s Guild Film Festival. This annual contest doesn’t have a physical prize, but does have pretty good bragging rights as it’s one of the biggest annual brickfilming contests and the past winners are all famously good films.

Second is Brickset’s Thor-related Brickfilming Contest. “The only requirement is that it features Thor in one form or another — it could be custom, brick-built, older minifig, newer minifig or anything — the rest is up to you” The prize pack is “a LEGO Super Heroes prize pack consisting of four LEGO MARVEL Super Hero sets and exclusive San Diego Comic-Con LEGO Thor poster.”

Last, but not least, Rebrick is holding a competition to celebrate the opening of the LEGO House. “Show us your idea of a day at the LEGO House in a fun stop-motion video – and your imagining could become a reality!” The animation must be betweeen 15 and 30 seconds. The grand prize is a trip for 2 to Denmark to visit the LEGO House!

Will you be entering any of these contests? let us know in the comments.

Dan Lin: Every one of our movies, so far, have been told from the point of view of one kid’s imagination. The LEGO Movie 2 will be the first one told through two kids’ imaginations – Finn and his sister. It’s going to be really interesting juxtaposing those two different visions.

Chris McKay: That’s the major thing that the movie is about. What’s different and similar about gender, when a boy plays vs. how a girl plays? What kinds of stories are there? … You can do that in a movie like this, and still have it be a great musical with fun songs, and have action and all of the other crazy things we’re gonna get into with that movie. It’s gonna be a really special movie.

Color me skeptical.

While I am very fascinated by the intersection of gender and LEGO, and the lack of female representation was one of our few criticisms of the first LEGO Movie, I feel like a movie that’s going to seriously examine the differences between male and female perspectives should probably have at least ONE female on the writing/producing/directing team (which consists of Dan Lin, Chris McKay, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and newcomer Mike Mitchell). I would love to be proven wrong and for this movie to be a subtle, insightful, and heartfelt examination of a complex, sensitive topic (with catchy songs to boot!), but right now it seems like this movie will continue to be heavily skewed to the male perspective.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Unlike most animations featured on this blog, “The Animator’s Anguish: A true story of animation’s trials” does not prominently feature LEGO pieces, the main characters are a Mega Bloks / Mega Construx figure, an SH Figuarts action figure, and some sweet cosplay. Mostly I blogged this so that the follow sentence would be true:

The Set Bump, a blog about animation, blogged an animation about an animator experiencing a set bump while animating an animator experiencing a set bump while animating.

My life is now complete.

The video goes by pretty quickly, so I took a few screenshots so you can appreciate some of the side by side comparisons between the live-action reference footage and the final animation.

As a frequent Kickstarter, I am no stranger to uncompleted projects, so I long ago wrote off my Melting Point pledge as payment for my enjoyment of all the brickfilms Jonathan produced for free. But judging by the comments on the video, there are still many who are upset about the status of this project. It’s truly unfortunate that it gained so much notoriety because it was featured in “A Lego Brickumentary”. I can certainly relate to putting a brickfilm on hold in order to write a book. But even after watching this update, the question remains “Will Melting Point ever be finished?”

What do you think?

I feel obliged to blog it because there are still so few examples of human-scale brickfilms. However, watching this film mostly just made me want to rewatch “Western Spaghetti” and “Paint“.

The most impressive parts (brick-built cracking an egg and pouring milk) go by so quickly they are hard to fully appreciate (thank goodness for the 0.25 speed setting on YouTube).

I’m curious what others think about this film. Did it feel fresh to you, or a little stale? (Bread puns intended)

It’s no wonder this delightful comedy won Best Film and Best Screenplay in the 2016 Brickfilmer’s Guild Film Festival. I really like how the living room set gets reimagined for each of the different dimensions they visit.

What’s your favorite example of the “two people hanging out in their living room” genre? Let us know in the comments.

For the Spirit of Adventure Contest, we are looking for brickfilms that convey a sense of adventure.

This theme is intentionally broad and is open to any interpretation. An adventure could take place in any setting and any time period. It could be any film genre, and could even be based on historical events. It does not need to be a dialogue-based film. As long as something adventurous happens, the rest is up to your imagination

The deadline to enter is Sept 10, 2017. Head on over to the official contest announcement for more details.

“LEGO Arcade Robot Breakdance Battle” is the stunning debut brickfilm by BreakBricks (though not their first stop-motion animation). The animation, lighting, cinematography, and music are all outstanding. The use of replacement animation for the 1×1 eye tiles make the characters really come to life with emotion. Some of those tiles were custom made for this animation, but I don’t think anyone can hold that against this charming film.

“Sheep” is a wonderful example of the possibilities for unique brickfilm characters when you look beyond minifigures. Using just a few different 1×1 round eye tiles, Maxime portrays a wide variety of expressions.

Maxime also goes the extra mile and makes all the sheep blink which not only adds life to the characters but helps hide some of the eye movements and replacements.

In addition to the fantastic character animation, the film has a nice story, excellent lighting and solid sound design.

Vox and Grant Freckelton from Animal Logic do a great job explaining the difference between the stop-motionesque style of The LEGO Movie and the “noodle limb” approach of the other LEGO CG movies. There are lots of great freeze frames from the movie that illustrate various points.

They also explore the influence of brickfilms (and The Magic Portal specifically) on The LEGO Movie. If you’re well versed in brickfilm history this is probably old news to you, but it’s all presented in a beautiful and easy-to-consume package.

Watch this video and share it with all your friends to make sure the world knows about influence of fans on The LEGO Movie and why respecting the limitations of the LEGO medium can result in better brickfilms!

The opening shot of a microscale castle on a lonely island during a lightning storm immediately sets the tone for what’s to follow. What really puts it over the top for me is the tilted angle of the camera. The sound, lighting, set design, and cinematography are all working in tandem to create an atmosphere of mystery and unease.

The film is full of gorgeous shot compositions. It’s rare to see a brickfilm with such intimate and thoughtful camera placement.

The repeated use of the tilted camera angle keeps viewers on edge right up to the final moments of the film.

I also like the open-ending nature of the film. It feels very much like a classic LEGO commercial where it tells just enough of a story to hook the viewer, but let’s them decide how to continue the story when they buy the toy.

“Bump and the Knight” by 5-K Animations

Story Lab is housed in the Green Zone of LEGO House. Based on this image, it seems to include at least 18 workstations where visitors can create stop-motion animations using a touchscreen interface. Each workstation has a green screen backdrop, so participants will presumably be able to choose from pre-set backgrounds for their films. Beyond that, it’s hard to know how much control participants will have. If nothing else, Story Lab should introduce a lot of new people to the art of brickfilming and hopefully get them excited to pursue it on their own.

Another area of LEGO House I’m interested to learn more about is the Masterpiece Gallery, which will have a curated selection of works by LEGO fans from around the world. Hopefully, the curators will put brickfilms on display in addition to LEGO sculptures. And if the curators need any ideas for films to include, hopefully the archive of this blog will be useful

When Lloyd flips across a roof, check out how they added stretch and squash using brick-built motion smears.

Sensei Wu uses white windshield pieces for a motion smear on his kick.

And his staff uses a variety of pieces for motion smears in this attack (the lipstick piece doesn’t actually exist in black, but every other piece used here does).

Even though this film is CGI, the fact that they treat it like a stop-motion LEGO movie means that brickfilmers can steal lots of ideas and techniques for their own movies.

Also, I can’t wait to buy this Legshark Mech

What did you notice in the trailer?

Retailing for 35 Singapore dollars (roughly $25 USD), the set includes 152 pieces, most of which seem to be used to build a smartphone camera mount. The camera mount looks like it can tilt using technic connections and do a dolly move by rotating at its attachment point (mixel ball joint) to the set. The set seems to include cardboard backdrops similar to the LEGO Studio sets.

This set hasn’t been officially announced by LEGO, so we don’t have many details, but it’s safe to assume that LEGO will be offering some kind of stop motion app in conjunction with this set. Which would explain why they recently removed their two stop motion apps.

It’s nice to see LEGO returning to this type of set after 15 years. We’ll have a full review of this set once it’s more widely available.

“Paragraph” is a great example of non-verbal communication, the story is told solely through creative visuals and a great soundtrack. One of my favorite moments is when the main character comes to a hallway of colored doors all of which are labeled with a different color.

The cinematography adds to the feeling of an endless quest through a bureaucracy because it it all one continuos shot on a giant set. The final pull back to reveal all the people endlessly lost, is a fitting ending for a film about a confusing hopeless quest. It also recalls the amazing end title sequence of “The LEGO Movie.”

The four Brick Tricks videos are well made; they mix live-action and stop-motion footage to clearly convey the information. I’m sure that beginning brickfilmers will find these tips helpful. In a weird coincidence, both Brick Tricks and our book illustrate the concept of deleting unnecessary shots from a movie using the example of someone walking to/from the Palace Cinema set.

The video descriptions of the Brick Tricks videos encourage viewers to “create your own stop-motion videos by downloading the Creator App.” However, the link leads to the Creator Island app (which is just a game with no stop-motion features) as opposed to the LEGO Creator app. According to the Google Play page for LEGO Creator, the app was last updated on December 12, 2016 (3 days before these videos launched on YouTube). It seems like the update was just to add a message that it is being discontinued.

I don’t mourn the loss of the LEGO Creator app; it was around for less than a year. The bigger loss—which I uncovered while researching the LEGO Creator disappearance—is that LEGO appears to have discontinued the LEGO Movie Maker app as well, after providing it for free for 4 years. The LEGO Movie Maker app wasn’t perfect (its biggest limitation was that it was only available for iOS), but it was a really good app for beginning brickfilmers and I have been recommending it to people since it was first released.

My hope is that LEGO has removed these apps in preparation for launching a new cross-platform brickfilming app in conjunction with the LEGO Batman Movie next month—but that’s pure speculation.

360 videos present a unique challenge for the viewer. Do you just watch the default view and trust that most of the action will be there (a safe bet with this particular video)?

Do you look around at random things that are potentially not very interesting (like the floor)?

Do you watch multiple times looking at various angles trying to find hidden stuff and inadvertently get the song stuck in your head for several days? I know I did.

Ultimately, this video relies more on the gimmick of “Hey look, it’s PENTATONIX in LEGO form!” than the gimmick of “Hey look, you can spin this video around in different directions to see interesting stuff.” For an example of a 360 video using LEGO that actually rewards the viewer for looking around, check out this Simpsons / Ghostbusters crossover.

It’s been over a year since “A Fixed System” came out, but it still manages to surprise and delight me every time I watch it. The standout feature of this film is the incredibly expressive computer-generated facial animation. While lots of brickfilms made nowadays use digital facial animation, this is one of the few instances where it feels vital to the storytelling. The incredible fast-forward montage shot from 2:17 – 2:44 is this film’s defining moment. So much information is conveyed here solely through the facial animation. It’s a defining moment not just for this film, but for brickfilming as a whole.

The stop-motion animation is also very expressive and delightful. I love the opening moments where the main character’s disembodied arm bangs on a side table and carefully catches a falling picture frame. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice how Aaron used backwards legs to have the main character walk down a staircase. This inventiveness continues throughout the film.

The film also boasts a great original score and a compelling story. It’s no wonder it took home four awards in the 2015 Brickfilmer’s Guild Film Festival. The only problem is that this amazing video currently has less than 14,000 views! Share this brickfilm with all your friends. The world needs to see it!

Using just 10 pieces and less than 2 minutes, Mirko elegantly establishes characters and conflicts. The cinematography is simple and clean. There are no distractions here, nothing extraneous. It’s just great animation.

“Horse in Motion” is a mere 15 frames, but oh what a 15 frames they are! Jon Rolph has recreated in LEGO one of the most famous image sequences ever. To do so, he used an unusual technique; rather than connecting a bunch of pieces together, he simply arranged unconnected pieces on a flat surface.

I’ve seen this technique before in MOCs (such as this Spider-Man mosaic), but I can’t think of anytime I’ve seen this in a brickfilm. The closest parallels I can think of are Annette Jung’s “Thriller” and the Mr. DNA scene in “LEGO Jurassic Park” by Paul and Hailee Hollingsworth.

I recommend watching “Horse in Motion” in high-resolution on a large screen in slow motion. It’s a lot of fun to look at the unexpected LEGO element Jon sprinkled into the different frames (e.g. a chicken, a hand truck, and a pirate flag).

Zach Macias (MindGame Studios) and Philip Heinrich (SmeagolStudios) joined forces to create the most impressive LEGO version of the Star Wars teaser trailer.

A couple things that set this one apart from the others is the amount of effort put into LEGO-fying the trailer (note the brick-built smoke trails behind the landspeeder & X-Wings) and the careful mimicking of the camera movements (in particular in the shot in the woods with the cloaked figure). Also noteworthy is their use of digital effects to match the facial expressions. To better appreciate their work, watch this side-by-side comparison with the original.

That doesn’t mean the dozen other LEGO versions of the Star Wars trailer are without merit. One of the great pleasures in watching them is seeing the various way different builders adapted the trailer into LEGO. I particularly like seeing the various solutions that people came up with for the astromech droid with a spherical body.

Placid Sulfuric took the time to put 12 of these LEGO trailers side by side, which is a great way to quickly compare the techniques.

All that being said, Snooperking definitely deserves his nearly 4 million views for not only being one of the first people to do this, but also for having the most charming version. I love that he used actual LEGO pieces for the 3-way lightsaber rather than digital effects. Let this be a lesson to brickfilmers who chase pop culture trends that timeliness is paramount and that brick-built solutions can have mass appeal.

Have you been following Battle of the Brick Flicks by digitalwizardz? Every week he pits two well-known brickfilmers against each other and lets the audience vote which one should move on to the next round. My favorite part of this contest is the interviews he does with the brickfilmers. Always fun to get some behind-the-scenes info.

The talking dog is fun too.

Dylan Woodley shows us all how it’s done with Pokeballin 2. This brickfilm masterfully uses multiple scales of characters to convey a wide range of emotions and action. I count at least 5 distinct versions of the nerdy Pokemon trainer ranging from a tiny 8-bit-esque version (used to establish the geography of the scene) to a “Little Guys”-esque talking head (used to convey emotion and character).

What’s really impressive about all the different scales is how seamlessly they flow together. It took me multiple watch-throughs to catch them all (pun totally unintended, I swear). One particularly impressive one is when Magby uses the flame attack, there are two different scales of Magby that switch place so fast it’s easy to miss.

There’s a lot to love about this animation beyond the scales ( the character expressions, the humor, the brick-built special effects…), but I wanted to highlight the use of scales because I can’t think of any other brickfilm that has used so many scales or blended them so effectively. I urge you to watch through this film at least 5 times paying close attention to when different scales are used and what effect they have.

Oh, did you need more information than that?

Some of the rewards on this campaign are phenomenal values:

$25 gets you a HD digital copy of the finished documentary and the Bricks in Motion Collection, which features 2 hours of brickfilms by famous LEGO animators (including several of the writers of this blog).

$100 gets you a cameo in the film as a minifigure (+ the documentary and the BiM Collection).

For $250 Philip Heinrich will compose a song about you (or or a friend or family member), set to a custom-made 30 second animated short film by producer and animator Nathan Wells. This is such an outrageous value that I feel like I’m stealing from them by backing at this level (sorry guys!).

In summary, go check out their Kickstarter page and consider donating.

It’s a little hard to keep up with all the proper nouns, but the visual effects and sheer scale of the sets are mighty impressive. The soundtrack also sounds a cut above most brickfilm soundtracks. Who else is excited for this?

The picture quality is not great and the animation is pretty limited (though effective), but the humor and writing are fantastic. I could watch King Arthur and the Evil Dragon banter back and forth all day. They should have their own spin-off.

Sir Clumsy Bob by Kristóf Fekete-Kovács Kristóf Fekete-Kovács

If you haven’t done so already, you can watch the episode on Hulu or Fox.com now (or in a week if you don’t have an account that can unlock it). Once you’ve watched that come back here and tell us what you thought.

Overall, I would rate the episode a “Yellow 4×2 Flat” on the Love Tester in Moe’s Tavern. There were a few hilarious bits (the scene in the church made me laugh the most, and there were some great pause-or-you’ll-miss-them puns [here’s the best round-up of those]), some mediocre bits (“The Hunger Games” parody wasn’t very inspired) and plenty of smile-worthy material in between.

Visually, this episode would have been a lot more impressive if it hadn’t come out a few months after “The LEGO Movie“. The CGI is a cut above the style used for Ninjago and Chima (or “Clutch Powers“) and it really is a perfect blend of stop-motionesque CGI and the Simpson’s existing aesthetic, but it’s hard not to compare it to the much shinier movie (especially since the episode compares itself to the movie).

What did you think? Was this episode a sell-out or just great cross-promotion? Did it tickle your funny bone or leaving you feeling flat? Does it count as a “real” LEGO movie?

Yes the website is in French, which is confusing to those of us who speak English, but Google Translate can tell you what the different reward levels are. I just did it and it wasn’t hard to do. Go support a great brickfilmer!

“Egg,” a 17-second long brickfilm by CheesyBricks, oozes with personality. The animation is playful and inventive. It is exactly as long as it needs to be.

“Avicii – Addicted To You,” a 5-minute brickfilm by Keshen8, is boring and banal. The animation is sluggish and uninspired. Since it’s a music video, the length is pre-determined, so I won’t critique for being longer than it needs to be. But I will say it outstays its welcome.

Compare this video to Keshen’s masterpiece, “Lego Black Ops.” The characters in “Lego Black Ops” move with purpose and weight, the cinematography is interesting, it doesn’t outstay its welcome. The characters in “Addicted to You” hesitate, they pause, they move like they are in molasses. I’m happy that Keshen got commissioned to make this video—the more commissioned brickfilm work out there, the better for our community—but I couldn’t help but find the final product lacking.

Keshen says, “I don’t really like the cartoony over emphasis on movement that you see in some stop motion and CG work.” This may just come down to our stylistic differences (I love cartoony over-emphasis), but I argue that “Addicted to You” goes too far in the opposite direction.

The Dark Ages are the time in a LEGO fan’s life when they stop building with LEGO (typically in their teens when they get distracted by school and hormones) before rediscovering their passion years later (usually in their mid-thirties when they have children). Not every LEGO fan has a Dark Age (I myself only had a short Slightly Dim Age), and not all of them have the same trajectory I laid out above. Enough adult fans of LEGO (AFOLs) have gone through some sort of Dark Age that the term has an entry in The Brothers Brick LEGO Glossary.

But this is not a term that is used often, if ever, in the brickfilming community; probably because the brickfilming community tends to skew a lot younger than the AFOL community (75% under 21 in the 2013 Bricks in Motion census). This makes sense. Until very recently, it was really hard to make movies at home. Kids in the ’60s and ’70s may have been able to play with LEGO, but unless they were really lucky they didn’t have the equipment to make a brickfilm. That’s why the Magic Portal and this recently discovered brickfilm from 1973 are some of the only brickfilms we know about from that era. Most brickfilmers are either: 1) too young have had their Dark Age yet, 2) just entering into their Dark Age now, or 3) immune to The Dark Ages.

For a Dark Age to really be a Dark Age, you need to leave the hobby and then rediscover it later. Until very recently, there weren’t any noteworthy examples of a brickfilmer returning to the hobby. Then this happened:

To be fair, Nathan Wells has been back on the scene for a couple months now, but this film makes his comeback official. The video cleverly addresses the reasons for his absence (I laughed very hard at the part about lost subscribers due to Minecraft videos) and is also a visual tour de force showcasing Nathan’s skills as a set designer, cinematographer, and animator. Nathan Wells is a legend among brickfilmers, and this film reminds us why.

Nathan Wells returning to the fold means that there is hope out there for all the other brickfilmers who have fallen into The Dark Ages. Which brings us to the Saga of Stonebreakers10.

Most brickfilmers entering their Dark Ages don’t have a big laborious public breakup with the hobby; they just stop posting LEGO videos on their YouTube channel. Stonebreakers10 (Matt Giudice) is different. Matt wasn’t just a brickfilmer, he was a meta-brickfilmer, and his video I am a Brickfilmer was part of his successful campaign to become a winner of YouTube NextUp. He also made a hilarious video about brickfilmer problems. But after winning NextUp as the token brickfilmer, the Stonebreakers10 channel started to become populated with more and more live-action videos and fewer brickfilms.

Then, just over a year ago, Matt released a heartfelt video explaining his decision to leave brickfilming before posting his final brickfilm.

Even his final brickfilm is about his decision to leave brickfilming. His sigfig argues with characters from his past brickfilms, who all exclaim that his decision to leave brickfilms “just doesn’t seem logical.” This is clearly a decision that Matt (who paints himself as indecisive) had a lot of trouble coming to terms with. The video ends on an ambiguous note:

“No more brickfilms for the rest of your life?”
“For the rest of my life? Well, that just doesn’t seem logical, does it?”

The final screen reads “TA TA FOR NOW.” Given the lackluster performance of his live action videos, maybe that return will come sooner rather than later. Or not. I’m certainly not trying to be a stone to his flower. The value of having the shared concept of The Dark Ages in the LEGO fan community is that we don’t judge people who leave the hobby. We know they’ll be back some day, and like the Renaissance artists or Nathan Wells, they’ll produce even better work than they did before they wandered.

What do you think about The Dark Ages for brickfilmers? Do you know brickfilmers who are struggling with a Dark Age? Did you go through a Dark Age? Tell us in the comments.

One of the few reviews I’ve seen that actually focuses on the animation style of the film is this one over at Cartoon Brew:

Many films have attempted to break the Pixar-by-way-of-Disney animation mold by suggesting a more stylized approach to animated movement, among them the Madagascar series, Wreck-It Ralph, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. Lego Movie pushes further than any of those films with a consistently inventive style of movement (the key word being consistent).

This feature on io9 has some interesting quotes from the directors. Chris McKay, who was in charge of the animation, has nice things to say about brick films:

There’s a charm to those brick films. I think part of that comes with the heart and soul of the filmmaker who comes to the table and wants to create something that is probably beyond their scope… We wanted the movie to feel like that.

This NPR review reveals a scene that got nixed:

They initially penned a re-education scene for Emmet, with his eyes forcibly held open, after he strays too far from Lord Business’ way of doing things. The Stanley Kubrick reference was deemed “not perfectly appropriate for family audiences.”

(Don’t worry, someone else has got a LEGO version in of that in the works…)

The AV Club review (contains the spoiler) nicely mirrored my own sentiments and Mr Pagano’s:

The only real bone to pick with The Lego Movie is that the gender disparity of the toys themselves—a pervasive criticism of the brand—has carried over to the film’s major characters… Wyldstyle, though confident and talented, often exists to play the foil of Batman and Emmet. And the only other major female character, voiced by Alison Brie, isn’t portrayed as a mini-figure, making Wyldstyle the catchall female protagonist.

The Variety review helpfully points out how many bricks it would take to build all the stuff shown in the movie:

…if someone had orchestrated the entire experience with plastic toys painstakingly repositioned and photographed one frame at a time… that would have taken no fewer than 15,080,330 bricks

This behind-the-scenes video is a random collection of footage, but it does shed some light on the animation process:

Lest you think all the reviews of the LEGO Movie are effusively positive (though most are), there are some naysayers with some valid points. This bit from the Wrap is what resonated with me the most:

But while the film’s underlying message about creative independence and playfulness is a strong one, the movie takes a third-act turn (which won’t be spoiled here) that’s bold but ultimately wrong-headed, restating what we’ve already figured out and ruining the delicate balance of this movie’s goofy, click-and-snap universe.

I have more to say on that last bit, but I’m going to wait a couple days before writing about all my concerns with the movie’s big twist.

Which reviews have helped you in digesting the LEGO Movie?

This is the kind of video that reminds me why I make animations with LEGO bricks: because it’s fun! The camera movement adds a great momentum to the visuals that matches the momentum of the song and the paper backdrops are a lot more appealing than the monochromatic LEGO walls (or baseplates) that often appear in the background of amateur brickfilms.

Here’s hoping we’ll see more from Tasha R!

[via The AV Club]

What makes this short stand out is the character design and brick-built mouth animation. I also find his screaming really amusing. So much so that it inspired me to finally start a Vine account so I could make it loop forever:

I saw the trailer for BULB this summer and was intrigued. I can’t think of any other brickfilm that legitimately qualifies as a horror movie (but feel free to disabuse me of this notion in the comments). Most of the times that monsters show up in brickfilms, it ends up being a comedy or an action film (or a little bit of both).

Today, I finally got around to watching all twelve minutes of BULB and was disappointed. I’ve embedded the one minute of the animation I feel is noteworthy, but if you’ve watched the trailer you’ve already seen it. This scene is creepy and mysterious and features some nice cinematography, sound design, and editing. I particularly like the rapid pacing of the normal life shots immediately following the dream.

The other eleven minutes of BULB are boring and repetitive and don’t really explain or justify the  awesome minute in the middle. The intertitles and one-dimensional love interest are more intrusive than useful. If this had stayed focus on the bizarre occurrences in the Underground and how they affected the protagonist, it might have been an interesting film. If you feel compelled to watch the rest, I recommend opting into the YouTube HTML5 test so you can watch it at double speed.

I don’t know how “The Day Aliens Finally Invaded” by Pushover Productions only came in 10th place in BRAWL 2013. Sure, there’s no fancy cinematography and the sets and animation are pretty simple, but it’s absolutely hilarious! All the characters, from the bumbling aliens, to the inane citizens, to the sadistic general are exactly the right level of wacky. Of course, it’s pretty clear that the director and I share a sense of humor, considering I awarded his previous video “Block Ball” first place in one of my animation contests. I guess there are other legitimate criteria for judging a brickfilm than how much it makes me laugh. But as far as I’m concerned, this animation wins.

“Indus” by Aiwha Bruno Lefevre opens with a impressive 30 second moving shot that shows off a factory where robots assemble minifigures. That shot alone makes this animation worth watching. Bruno manages to give a pretty basic robot some personality through a well done head tilt, but the animation is over before the story goes anywhere.  A robot falls in love with a human woman and shows affection the only way it can. That’s a interesting setup for a story, but it it would have been nice to see the conflict explored more. Does the woman reciprocate the feelings? Does the robot get deactivated and replaced by one without emotions? Does the army of clone women take over the galaxy?

“Neighborly Part 1” by TopSecretSpyGuy combines the alien invasion and minifig assembly robots in an auspicious debut film. This really deserves 10 times the views it has. The set and lighting of the alien spaceship are detailed and atmospheric. The squabbling of the aliens is amusing (though not as laugh-out-loud funny as the alien banter from “The Day Aliens Finally Invaded”) and the ending leaves me excited to future episodes. But the real highlights are the aforementioned minifig assembly machines, which are delightfully greebly and smoothly animated.

Has anyone else encountered serendipitous venn diagrams of brickfilms?

I started by going through the Brickfilmer’s Guild directory and clicking through on all the profiles with social media links. Our Twitter list of brickfilmers has almost 350 LEGO animators (whether past, present, or occasional) on it. The equivalent Facebook interest list has close to 100. We’ve also subscribed to 400 brickfilmers on YouTube using our channel. (Unfortunately, YouTube doesn’t have a way to share a list of channels, the About page is the best we can do.)

We hope that these lists will help you to discover new brickfilms (as they have for us). We make a point of adding new brickfilmers as we come across them, but we need you do let us know who we’re missing. Did we include you and your favorite brickfilmers? While you’re at it, subscribe to us on Twitter and Facebook for our latest updates.

Everything you need to know is right here, but allow me to make fun of the executional mandatories and highlight other silly tidbits from the rules:

The world of LEGO® is large, but you are free to use any of the characters that appear in the trailer as part of your creation.

Don’t let the fact that all the characters shown in the trailer are only available in sets that don’t come out until a week before this contest is over hamper your creativity!

If submitting a live action entry, do not reenact life threatening or potentially dangerous situations.  For example, do not stand in the middle of traffic, do not swing a dolphin, do not try to fight crime like Batman.

Do not glue a LEGO brick to your back, do not name a character Wyldstyle, do not spoil all of Batman’s funny lines by putting them in the trailer…

For this project only, all entries will become the property of the Sponsor upon submission.  However, Sponsor agrees not to exploit a submission without compensation to the submitter.

Phew! For a minute there, I was worried about being exploited!

As thefourmonkeys pointed out, there’s a long tradition of recreating movie trailers in LEGO, so I would not be surprised to see this trailer recreated in stop-motion. I would take the Honest Trailers approach myself.

Let’s start with Emmet’s apartment

First of all, NPU on the ceiling lamps and the couch arms. Clearly they have some expert LEGO model designers on staff. Second, nice reference to your previous movies with those posters, Phil Lord and Chris Miller (who apparently get a joint Wikipedia entry, I guess neither has accomplished anything significant outside of their partnership?).

There’s a lot of fun Octan propaganda in this city scene, but what I really appreciate that is that the LED board is covered in actual 1×1 round plates and that the highway road sign references locales from LEGO themes new and old.

Why is “The Batwing” in quotations marks?

I love the use of arches in the windows of the Master Builders’ forum. Also love the rainbow color scheme. Very appropriate for a band of rebels who are building without instructions.

You really have to admire the brick-built explosions. They even used the ice cream scoops piece for the smoke trails like AFOLs do.  (Again, this is slightly less impressive since this is is CGI, but still).

I can’t wait to get Lord Business’s cool helmet in a set.

Based on that recess on the inside of Vitruvius’s arm, he was manufactured at a Chinese plant. Of course, that makes sense since it has already been announced that there will be a line of Collectible Minifigures based on the LEGO Movie. But still, talk about attention to detail.

Another awesome brick-built explosion. I also admire the care that has gone into the landscape. Those slopes on the hills are pretty accurate to what can be done with real bricks. Even where they deviate from the LEGO palette (look closely at some of the rounded corners), they are mimicking the shape of curvy LEGO pieces.

What details did you pick up on?

Lumière brothers by Alex Eylar

You may recognize Alex’s style from 2011 when he recreated scenes from all the Oscar nominees for Best Film. He has also illustrated Pixar’s rules of storytelling. With Alex’s clear affinity for moviemaking and excellent photography skills, we can only hope that he some day tries his hand at brickfilming.

We’ll be watching his Flickr feed and MOCPages for the next installment!

A Brief History of Hollywood, Part I – MOCPages

You may remember when we featured Annette’s last Michael Jackson brick animation back in March. “LEGO Thriller” is a step-up in terms of complexity and technique. Not only is it at a larger scale and resolution than her previous work, but her use of layering at key moments adds depth to the otherwise flat animation. It’s a powerful effect. I’m also quite fond of her use of upside down bricks to add a different texture to the girl’s shirt.
Keep ’em coming Annette!

(via The Brothers Brick)

Lego Thriller by Annette Jung – Vimeo

Okay, now that you’ve watched that, let’s talk about what makes it superlatively awesome. Amazing animation, creative character design, non-stop comedy, and great camera work, it’s got everything.. My only tiny criticism would be that there’s no real story (i.e. I don’t know why a robot is chasing two well-dressed chaps through a jungle), but then again it’s got about as much story as “Tom and Jerry” and most “Looney Tunes” cartoons. Also, that tiny complaint is buried under a mountain of adoration. I love the way the palm tree gets “bent” at 1:09, the way the guy with the hat keeps putting his hat back on, the absurdist touches like a sign with legs, the cartoonish back and forth starting at 3:20, and did I mention the piano-playing robot!?! Every action is well-motivated and fluidly animated. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Story

In “CL!CK”, our wacky inventor (let’s call him Dr. Zacharias Playwell) is trying to invent a way for humans to fly, he gets inspired after a visit to the Idea Factory. In “The Brick Thief” Dr. Playwell steals LEGO bricks from children so he can build a toy rock band and dance.

Both videos serve as charming parables about the creative process. “CL!CK” focuses on the frustration that comes from butting your head up against a problem repeatedly without knowing how to solve it, and the ensuing euphoria when you finally arrive at a solution. In short, it is a story about overcoming writer’s/inventor’s/creator’s block. The concept of the Idea Factory as the place to go to be inspired is a little half-baked (especially when you remember it is also a metaphor for the LEGO CL!CK website), but it serves its purpose.

If “CL!CK” is a story about writer’s block, then “The Brick Thief” is a story about how borrowing/stealing/remixing other people’s ideas is an essential part of the creative process. There’s less of a story arc here; Dr. Playwell doesn’t have what he needs, but then he gets it with little resistance. The stakes may be low, but the message is clear: LEGO is reaffirming it’s core principles as a toy of endless possibilities. It also works as a “so that’s where all the missing socks go” tale.

Design

There is no dialogue in either film aside from Dr. Playwell’s frustrated grunts and jubilant “AHA!”s, so the storytelling is almost entirely visual. Question mark boxes float above Dr. Playwell’s head when he’s stumped, his ideas come to life on paper and in bricks, and his face says all we need to know.

The set design of the laboratory evokes the stop-motion films of Jan Švankmejer. In particular, Dr. Playwell’s wall of tiny doors recalls Svankmejer’s “Alice“. The controlled playfulness of the Ideas Factory brings to the Google campus or the building where LEGO set designers work. Creativity is portrayed simultaneously as messy and personal and as clean and corporate.

The dim, flickery lighting and vignetting makes the films feel like early silent films. This is an appropriate stylistic choice given the lack of dialogue. Makes me wish some one would do a Méliès homage brickfilm.

Animation

The first time I watched “CL!CK” and “The Brick Thief” I was blown away by the animation. I couldn’t believe that they had managed to do such intricate stop-motion of the LEGO models while also stop-animating the human actor. I was right not to believe.

Though it’s not immediately obvious to the untrained eye (or, at least, wasn’t to mine), the animated LEGO bricks in these two films are photo-realistic CGI rather than physical LEGO bricks. The telltale sign is the unnatural sheen of the bricks; they are just a tad too luminous to be real. The CGI was done by a52, which specializes in photo-real visual effects.

I wanted to highlight these films in light of the recent revelations that “The LEGO Movie” will employ a similar style of photo-realistic stop-motionesque CGI (though on a much grander scale). It is an interesting compromise that retains the stop-motion aesthetic while significantly reducing the cost/complexity. It is certainly preferable to the animation style of the Ninjago TV series which gives characters un-LEGO-like flexibility.

All that being said, the animation in “CL!CK” and “The Brick Thief” is inventive and well-executed. Highlights include a rocket turning into shoe then into an exclamation point, a windmill that lets off musical notes, and the puffs of smoke coming out of the Idea factory.

Marius Begai also deserves mention here as the actor behind Dr. Playwell. His animated expressions are delightful and his stop-motion dance moves are enviable. Stop-motion acting is a unique skill, much like being a puppeteer and a puppet at the same time.

Conclusion

“CL!CK” and “The Brick Thief” are different than the average LEGO commercial. They have a unique visual style and rather than selling the latest LEGO set, they have timeless messages about creativity. In this way, they are reminiscent of vintage LEGO commercials.  I would love to see more LEGO commercials in this vein. “Build Together” is the only comparable one I can think of from recent years.

However, it’s also important to evaluate these videos in the context of LEGO CL!CK writ large. The LEGO CL!CK website and social media channels are now dormant, only a few years after they launched. They have become more cruft floating in the LEGO digital ocean. My guess is that they were either abandoned so LEGO could focus efforts on ReBrick, or because they were being run by an ad agency and never intended to be long-term. There’s a parallel here to the many YouTubers who used to brickfilm and have either disappeared or turned into video game focused channels.

Even when it was actively updated, the CL!CK website was hard to use. Its Flash-based design means it won’t load on mobile devices. Pieces of content appear as giant teetering stack of LEGO bricks. It looks cool, but it is confusing to navigate. If you know how to find them, there are a few awesome micro-blogs by my illustrious co-editor, but it’s impossible for me to link directly to them. Given the emphasis placed these days on mobile-friendliness and content sharability, the LEGO CL!CK website serves as a stark reminder of how much web design standards have changed over the last few years.

In this sense, the LEGO CL!CK website becomes a parable for another part of the creative process: the idea that didn’t work. Despite winning a bunch of advertising awards, LEGO CL!CK has clearly not been a long-term success for LEGO. One of the things the LEGO Group does well is try out a wide variety of ideas and then focus their resources behind the ones that are successful. This means they have a lot of themes and products that are swiftly abandoned after only a year or two. LEGO CL!CK is another crumpled piece of paper in the great LEGO trash bin next to Galidor, LEGO Universe, and Clikits.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to get my hands on some high-quality custom minifig arms. I snatched up Guy Himber’s Crazy Arms and I have made a habit of removing minifig arms from their sockets and holding them in with putty to increase their poseability. And, as with every other brickfilm Kickstarter project I’ve come across, I backed “The End of Magic” almost immediately after seeing it. That being said, let me explain why I think this project is doomed to fail. I hope this can serve as an example to others about how not to structure a Kickstarter project.

The goal is too high

$20,000 is a lot of money. That’s more than double the amount raised by the most-funded brickfilm Kickstarter project to date. It’s also more than was raised by Guy Himber’s successful Pigs vs. Cows custom minifig parts project. There are only three LEGO-related Kickstarter projects that have raised over $20,000 (1, 2, 3), and only about 10% of successful Kickstarter projects have passed that bar. Greg Tull will be very lucky if he manages to raise $11,000 for Bound (which we highlighted previously), Emiliano Acevedo will be a miracle worker if he gets to $20,000.

The marketing is wrong

Is “The End of Magic” primarily a project that appeals to LEGO fans who want new custom parts, or LEGO fans who want to support independent LEGO animation? The goal puts it in the range of custom parts projects, but the rewards offered line up with those of brickfilm projects (custom minifigs, DVDs, etc.). In a project like Pigs vs. Cows, higher reward levels offer different amounts of parts packs, in “The End of Magic,” the custom arms are only available in a few low-price rewards and there’s no clear way to get multiple kits. This is two projects smushed into one and the result is muddled.

In addition to muddling two distinct markets, Virgeo Studios doesn’t seem to have a large existing base of fans to market “The End of Magic” to. The reason BrickMania was able to raise over $50,000 for custom LEGO tracks is that BrickMania is an institution in the LEGO fan community. Their booth is always packed at LEGO fan conventions and they have dedicated marketing channels with significant followings. Guy Himber was able to raise over $18,000 because he is a well-known builder, tied his project into the theme of a major LEGO convention, and got covered multiple times by the premier LEGO blog. As Kickstarter says “Kickstarter is not a magical source of money.”

Conclusion

Emiliano has put a lot of work into designing these custom pieces. This video makes that clear (while also providing an unfortunate example of male gaze):

I’d like these arm pieces to become a reality, but given how the project is structured, I don’t think it’s going to happen. I hope that my critical analysis of this project will help those of you who plan to do Kickstarter projects in the future think about how to make your project successful. Research other successful projects as well as your market to set a realistic goal.

(If you are scratching your head thinking, “Brickumentary? Didn’t I already see that, and wasn’t the name better?” — you are thinking of “Blocumentary” from 2010, and the sequel webseries. Jess Gibson and her team did an excellent job with these, so I highly recommend them. And since the official LEGO YouTube channel is a morass of bizarre playlists, I pulled them together in a playlist on the Set Bump channel.)

Back to the matter at hand, “Brickumentary” is a feature-length documentary about LEGO being made by Futuristic Films. (Perhaps they’ll take a cue from the other feature-length LEGO movie coming out next year and switch to a simpler title like “The LEGO Documentary”). We saw them filming at Brickworld Chicago 2013, so production is definitely underway.

The tie-in ReBrick contest challenges users to make a stop motion animation that explains what an AFOL is in under 2 minutes. The grand prize winner will potentially be used in the film and potentially be commissioned to create additional brickfilms for “Brickumentary” and definitely for sure gets a signed Sydney Opera House set. Perusing the official rules pulls up some other interesting details (my emphasis added for humorous and editorial effect):

• The video must be uploaded to YouTube (videos submitted from other sources, such as Vimeo or Flickr might not play on ReBrick and will inhibit voting)
• You must capture your film using these specifications: 1920 x 1080 H.264 MPEG @ 24fps (23.98)
• Entries with military vehicles or vehicles featuring weapons will not be eligible for the Challenge
• Entry movies should not show recognizable features of any person or any commercial product
• Entrants may not use LEGO Bricks in their Entries that can be clearly identified as part of a third party branded LEGO set…  Entrants may not use Minifigures from these sets or any decorated pieces that would identify one of these properties if used in an original creation
• …all intellectual property rights to your Entry and any materials submitted by you are automatically awarded and completely transferred to LEGO

In line with our increasing concerns over the exploitative nature of the LEGO Tongal contests, we urge you to consider the possible costs and benefits before entering this contest. Getting officially commissioned to do a brickfilm is a pretty cool opportunity, but considering that you are essentially doing spec work to get that opportunity, it might not be worth it.

Show Us an AFOL Competition – ReBrick

1) In addition to the DC Universe Tongal Contest, LEGO also launched a Marvel one. Since I already made fun of the “executional mandatories” in the last post, I’m all out of jokes on this one.

2) I don’t blame you if you’ve never heard of Monitogo Studios or Greg Tull. Even though he’s been making brick animations since 2008, none have been released online. Unless you were at SAICFF 2009, you probably missed their last animation.

David and I first met Greg Tull during our “Intro to LEGO Animation” workshop at Brickworld a few years ago. The workshop is three hours long, so we let the audience interrupt frequently with questions and comments. In addition to the usual questions about how to make characters fly and what frame rate we use, one audience member kept raising his hand to discuss the finer points of DragonFrame and advanced lighting techniques. My co-author joked “maybe you should be the one up here teaching the class.”

The very next year, Greg was leading his own workshop on brick animation which gave participants hands-on experience animating and taught them how to think about lighting and camera angles the way a Hollywood director would. It was a great compliment to our workshop and it was a nice opportunity for us to be students again. This year, Greg had a last-minute commitment that prevented him from attending most of Brickworld, but he still drove 8 hours (each way) just so he could give the “Advanced Animation Workshop” again.

I say all of this to give you a sense of who Greg is and show how dedicated he is not only to making brick animations, but to teaching and inspiring others. He follows through on his promises, even if it means putting in some extra hours of tedium on very little sleep. If that’s not the mark of a true animator, I don’t know what is.

The few glimpses of “Bound” on display on the Kickstarter page are promising, the animation is fluid and the facial animation is good (if you’re into that). There are some epic wide shots in the video (starting at about 1:21) and I really want to see the parts of the film set in the mine. I talked at length in my last post on this subject about why I think it’s important to support artists, so it should come as no surprise to you that I’m supporting this one.

Will “Bound” be a success like “Melting Point” or will it join “Ghost Town” among the ranks of brick animation projects on Kickstarter that didn’t quite make it? Only you can decide! Go check out the project on Kickstarter!

3) Here’s a really great interview with the directors and co-director of “The LEGO® Movie.” More interesting tidbits about how the film is animated:

…with stop motion there’s no motion blur because every frame is its own little thing.  We found out if a character is moving really fast across the screen, it was going to get a little bit jumpy.  And so, we developed this brick-built motion blur of the characters when they’re moving really fast, and we have these special clever solves for things like that.

See!? Even fancy Hollywood people with budgets of millions of dollars prefer brick-built special effects! Or at least brick-built-and-then-cleverly-replicated-in-a-photo-realistic-CG-environment special effects. I really can’t wait to watch every behind-the-scenes feature on this movie.

Miller: It was inspired a lot by brick films that people make online.  There are a ton of these on YouTube where these people very creatively make funny, funny LEGO movies and the limitations of the characters is kind of funny.  Also, there are some photographers that photograph the little LEGO people and try to make it look really epic, just from the lighting.  And we thought that was pretty cool when they tried to marry a cinematic lighting style with a brick film aesthetic.

Lord: I think it was a choice we made the instant that Dan Lin pitched us the project.  We were like, “Well, if you did it like this, we would be interested.  But if you don’t, if no one will commit to that, then there’s no way we’ll do it.”

This commitment to the visual aesthetic gives me a lot of hope for this movie and what it could mean for other LEGO movies and TV shows in the future. If this is a runaway success, maybe the goofy CGI of the Cartoon Network shows and Traveler’s Tales games will give way to more “realistic” stop-motionesque CGI or maybe even honest-to-goodness stop-motion? I can dream at least

The interview goes into a lot more about the voice actors, some classic LEGO themes they are including, and so on, so definitely check it out if you are interested in every little scrap of information about this movie (and if you aren’t please let me know before I write 10 more blog posts on the subject).

There is also some shaky handheld footage of the Comic-Con panel available: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. I haven’t watched these all the way through yet, but the kid who asks a question at the beginning of Part 4 is awesome.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Video Project on Tongal

“Bound” – Fun. Animated. Brickfilm on Kickstarter

Comic-Con: Directors Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Chris McKay Talk THE LEGO MOVIE on Collider

BRAWL logo made by Bricks in Motion user RealBrick

BRickfilm All Week Long (BRAWL) challenges participants to make a 30-second (or longer) animation in the space of a week. In order to make sure no one does any animation beforehand the theme and “mod element” aren’t announced until the contest starts at 12:00 am GMT on July 28, 2013.

The mod elements are visual elements that must be included in every shot of your film to ensure that nothing is animated before the beginning of the one week time period; they are different for every BRAWL and will be announced at the start time.  There will be two kinds of “mod” elements, and entrants only need to ensure that one of the two elements is present in every shot of footage for their film.

I myself have never participated in BRAWL before (maybe this year will be the year?). I always look forward to it though, as there are a lot of animations produced in a short space of time. What about you, are you going to be BRAWLing next week?

BRAWL 2013

on Bricks in Motion

Continuing our on-going coverage of “The LEGO® Movie,” here are some new details that came out in the media frenzy surrounding Comic-Con.

Unsurprisingly, the LEGO Group released the first image of one of the 17 tie-in sets, and announced the other inevitable tie-ins—a videogame (guess what it’s called?) and truckloads of merchandise. If you missed this news, I don’t blame you since it was announced within days of two new Minecraft sets, a Batman set, a Hobbit set, a Star Wars set, and the Back to the Future set went on sale.

On Saturday of Comic-Con the directors of “The LEGO Movie,” Phillip Lord and Chris Miller, were on a panel and had some interesting things to say:

The LEGO Movie is part-CGI and part actual real LEGO bricks in stop-motion, and Lord and Miller told the audience they absolutely do not want you to be able to tell which is which.

To further add to the confusion, Phillip Lord tweeted out this picture. Animation experts can see that it quite obviously staged—the camera’s not connected to anything, the lighting’s all wrong for animating,  etc.— but I’m sure there are some people who will take it at face value.

Producer Dan Lin said they had a fan contest and invited people to make short LEGO films, and some of that stuff made it into the film.

Hey, that’s good news for the three winners of the contest! It wasn’t clear if they would actually put those bits in or not. They also revealed some casting news:

Channing Tatum is Superman, Jonah Hill is Green Lantern — and Cobie Smulders is “the first film incarnation of Wonder Woman.”

Stay tuned for more details as they come out!

Is “The LEGO Movie”really the best film ever? Signs point to yes! on i09

Here’s another chance to win some money for making a brick animation. As always, we urge you read the “Executional Mandatories:”

• No mixing of the DC Comics Super Hero characters with any Marvel characters

• DC Super Heroes should always appear heroic and their actions should reflect their identity

• DC Super Heroes can be placed in humorous situations but they should not appear dumb, stupid or silly.

• Content should be family friendly – no foul language, sexual situations, blood or extreme violence

• DC Super Hero characters should not be portrayed using alcohol, tobacco or drugs

• Do not use any crude body humor with the DC Super Heroes

• Do not use the DC Super Heroes in any religious or political situations

In other words, this is not the contest for ForrestFire Films.

The many LEGO Tongal contests have been a good source of new brick animations (awesome!), constraints and money are always big drivers of creativity, but we are still wary of this trend as it is very easy for these kinds of competitions to cross into exploitation of artists (not awesome). As always, we urge you to think critically about the costs and benefits of participating.

LEGO DC Universe Super Heroes Video Project

We’re grateful to all the Lego filmmakers who dedicated hours to making these films. We know how much work and courage it takes to make a film and show it to a crowd of strangers. Without them, there wouldn’t have been a festival.

This year we gave out two trophies. The “Most Popular Film” trophy went to Paul Vermeesch (and friends) for “Nottingham Tower.”

“Nottingham Tower” was easily the most technically impressive and ambitious film in the festival. It features smooth animation, fast-paced fight choreography, and impressive camera movements. We were quite pleased to see it win the popular vote; it was richly deserved.

The second trophy went to the film that David and I agreed on as being the most well-rounded. We looked for a film that balanced story-telling, creativity, humor, and technical skill while also fitting into the Brickworld 2013 theme of Heroes and Villains. The winner of “Best Film” was “From Baking to Bad Guys” by Caleb Schilling.

We felt that of all the films submitted, this one did the best job of giving the audience an understanding of the protagonist’s motivations. The protagonist has a clear goal (become a real fire fighter), faces challenges along the way (he is better at cooking than fighting fires), but ultimately triumphs. The film also did an excellent job of setting a mood through the lighting and music, and it featured interesting animation throughout (the opening city shot and the cake baking sequence are my favorites).

After we finished the main festival screening, we showed some of our favorite brick animations that we’ve highlighted on this blog in the past year. You can see the playlist we screened here. Thanks to every one who came out for the festival! We hope to see even more people there next year.

P.S. On Thursday of Brickworld we taught a 3-hour workshop on LEGO Animation. We took that opportunity to publicly unveil the Set Bump Logo for the first time. Here’s a photo of that which is 100% candid and not at all staged:

So I speak from experience when I say that there is nothing quite like the feeling of contributing to a successful Kickstarter campaign. We are at a wonderful historical moment where it is possible for a relatively wide range of people to become direct patrons of the arts for a relatively small amount of money (i.e. these days you don’t need to be a Medici to help support working artists).

One thing that has become quite clear to me in the past few years is that we all end up paying for the culture we consume (i.e. animations we watch) one way or another. Sometimes we pay by watching ads before YouTube videos, sometimes we pay by spending a few dollars on the iTunes store, sometimes we pay by buying a movie ticket or a DVD, sometimes we pay with a subscription to NetFlix. However, those are all examples of paying to watch something that’s already been produced. It’s a rare an wonderful thing to get to pay to help make something which does not exist become a reality.

Which brings us to:

You should all be familiar with the work of Nick Durron (whose real-life name is Jonathan Vaughan, but I am incapable of thinking of brick animators other than by their usernames on YouTube/Bricks in Motion), if for no other reason than we’ve featured it here twice. With “Melting Point,” he is setting his sights higher than ever before and attempting to make a 30-minute brick animation.

The story follows a cop, Tony, as he tries to protect the city from a ruthless villain intent on melting the entire plastic world.

By this point, you should already have enough information to want to go donate , but if you need further convincing, don’t miss his clever promotional video which has lots of call backs to his previous works. The part of his pitch that really convinced me to donate is his ambitious desire to build an entire LEGO city as the set for the film rather than using CGI. We here at the very-soon-to-be-officially-renamed BrickAnimation.com are big believers in using physical, brick-built effects instead of CGI. I’m proud to be able to say that I am helping support another brick animator stay true to his vision by doing something the slow, costly way. If you look carefully at the project management triangle, you’ll notice that the majority of good projects are neither cheap nor fast.

On that note, I really ought to get back to putting the final touches on my Kickstarter project (I finished animating it earlier this week!), so I can finally get my backers their richly-deserved rewards.

You may be familiar with Akiyama Makuro and the robotic heroes from Tongal’s first LEGO Hero Factory project but this time the heroes are battling an army of evil brains that ruthlessly inhabit the bodies of innocent beasts, turning them into powerful and destructive villains. Although the heroes defeat the villains’ host bodies, the evil brains simply move to another host relentlessly applying pressure.

What are you waiting for? Go enter an idea! Or are you too busy mindlessly destroying stuff because you’re being controlled by an evil brain? That’s my excuse >:)

There’s a virus in your computer! But don’t worry, it’s adorable, and very-well animated. How has a great brick animation like “VIRUS” by Fred Mangan gone virtually unnoticed on YouTube for two years? You’d think that it would be a little more… viral (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Seriously though, this is a high-caliber brick animation that you need to watch. The large-scale characters are expressive in their movements and the sets have just enough detail to be interesting. The sound design is perfectly matched to the action and the story is unusual enough to be interesting. Makes you wonder what else is waiting out there undiscovered in the depths of YouTube…

VIRUS – YouTube

For a first attempt at brick animation, “LEGO: The Time Machine” by FlyingMinifig shows a considerable amount of promise. While the animation is shaky (set bumps ahoy!) and the light flickers throughout, there is some interesting camerawork, good use of replacement animation for the flickering time travel effect, and some superb sets. It’s a heck of a lot better than my first brick animation.

Watching it, I couldn’t help but think of “GO MINIMAN GO – 30 Years: The Story of the Minifigure” by Nathan Wells. It’s a very similar concept (brief snippets of history played out over a single piece of music with interesting cinematography) executed at a much higher level. It’s too bad Nathan has seemingly abandoned brick animation to focus on Minecraft machinima, he was one of the greats. (It’s never too late to rediscover the joys of brick animation, Nathan!)

LEGO: The Time Machine – YouTube

Insomniac Animations has done it again with another painstaking music video that uses facial animation to great effect. His use of camera movements throughout really take this up a notch. My favorite moments include the microscale barge/waterfront at 0:39, the lighting at 1:11, and the slow pull of the curtain at 1:50. The sets are also quite well done.

UPDATE: Enjoy a full-screen version of the LEGO half.

ED SHEERAN – “LEGO HOUSE (LEGO VERSION)” – YouTube

Ed Sheeran – Lego House (Full-frame LEGO Version) – Vimeo

Annette Jung of Talking Animals animation studio has done the impossible and perfectly captured the King of Pop’s dance moves in LEGO. She side-skirts the limited articulation of the minifigure by using a top-down perspective on some basic bricks. This method essentially turns LEGO bricks into pixels. It’s a great technique to keep in mind when looking for creative approaches to brick animation.

Watching this makes me thinks of two things:

1. Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker for the Sega Genesis (the sprites in this animation are smaller, but more limber than those in the game).
2. The “Fell in Love with a Girl” music video by Michel Gondry, one of the finest brick animations of all time. If you haven’t seen it, drop what you’re doing and watch it now. If you have seen it, go watch it again, because it’s just that good. Also, watch the making-of video.

Their anniversary episode serves as a great entry point for those of you who have never seen an episode before. It introduces the main recurring characters, features a few moments of creative animation (Chris putting himself back together is a highlight, as is everything Archie does), and it ends a sequence of choreographed explosions. It’s fun and silly and relatively low-stakes, which is a pretty good summary of Minilife TV as a whole. I’d like to do a more detailed breakdown of the show for this blog at some point in the future, but for now, I just urge you to sit down and watch it. Have some fun, get it done, it’s time for Minilife TV.

The influence of “Country Buildin'” on “Tout le bloc en parle” is clear not only in the brick-built characters, but also in the use of forced perspective sets for the background. That doesn’t take anything away from MonsieurCaron’s considerable accomplishments here. The characters are well-designed and fluidly animated and I found the use of miniland scale (see chapter 4 of The Unofficial Lego Builder’s Guide) characters for the audience particularly inspired. I mention the clear heritage of “Country Buildin'” mostly because it’s a good excuse to promote the two excellent behind-the-scenes videos which show all that goes into to making an animation at this scale.

Also, vive les enseignants!

There is very little animation in this video, but what is there is crisp and character-driven. I highlight it to remind readers that a compelling concept that is well executed can make a lasting impression. I also had a similar problem with this minifig head, which i initially saw as having a nose above a moustache, but I now see as having an evil smirk above a goatee. Have you even encountered an ambiguous minifig head?

“Blink” is widely regarded as one of the best episodes of Doctor Who. I highly recommend it, it’s a great self-contained horror story that’s accesible even if you’ve never seen any other episodes of Doctor Who. If you haven’t seen it, you should stop reading this, go watch it on Netflix, and then come back.

Now that you’re back, let’s talk about “Don’t Blink” by Repelling Spider. While it probably won’t make much sense to someone who hasn’t seen “Blink,” this brick animation does an excellent job using lighting to convey a mood. The shadowy hallway is the perfect place for an encounter with one of the weeping angels. The short dolly shot of the main character walking in front of back-lit windows is particular noteworthy. The sets are well designed and the animation is crisp. My one criticism would by that the push-in shot on the wedding altar is bumpy. Still, Repelling Spider is to be commended for even attempting such a complex camera move.

“Don’t Blink” by Repelling Spider on YouTube

“The Grand Stratagem” by The Builder Brothers

“No Crawme’s Sing Along” by SpiderSock

“Red Eye” by Nick Durron

What are your favorite THAC X films?

Wishing everyone a tiny construction worker minifig to fix their electrical problems!

I saw “Gollum does Gangnam Style in LEGO” by Hampster Productions earlier today and had several thoughts:

1. Gollum’s arm animation is impressive.
2. Excessive violence is not an appropriate response to something that annoys you.
3. Oh wait, didn’t I do this same concept back in 2003?

This bizarre moment of déjà vu caused me to reflect on how frequently disturbing violence is causally included in brick animations. Some times it’s there for comedic effect.  The “Dane Cook Gets _______” meme was all about making a central act of violence funny through clever presentation. TV Tropes calls our ability to selectively turn off our empathy so we can laugh at the pain of another comedic sociopathy, which is both apt and chilling.

Far more frequent are the violent brick animations without a punchline (or story). Custard Production‘s “Lego Street Shootout” is perhaps the best known of this type, but it’s hard to turn over a rock without finding a dozen of similar animations on YouTube. What is the appeal of all this stylized violence? I’m really curious to hear what people think.

Michael Hickox is something of a phenomenon. With nearly 60,000 YouTube subscribers he is certainly one of the most popular brick animators out there today. (The only two I can think of with more subscribers are Keshen8 and ForrestFire101.) His fame is well earned, his animations are always well done. He animates simple scenes from everyday life and infuses them with LEGO charm and humor. With straightforward titles such as “Lego School,” “Lego Mini Golf,” “Lego Birthday Party” and, of course, his break-out hit “Lego Pizza Delivery,” his animations lay their cards on the table before you even click play. You always know what you’re going to get with a Michael Hickox production.

“LEGO Shopping” focuses on frustrating minutia that can accompany a simple trip to the store: not finding a good parking space, getting the shopping cart with funky wheels, etc. The most entertaining bits come when a LEGO twist is put on these activities. For instance the frustrated minifig simply rebuilds his car when he can’t find a parking spot, minifigs partially disassemble themselves to try on different clothes, etc.

Michael Hickox is a great animator with a great command of visual language, his ability to tell a story without any words is enviable. Most of his films are entirely silent save for well placed music and sound effects. So I found it very jarring when the main character turned to the camera at 3:54 to make a comment about LEGO fashion that had already been adequately made visually. The voices continue after that, but I don’t think they add anything essential to the animation. The old adage “show, don’t tell” applies here, especially since Michael does such a great job showing.

Seeing this Nyan Cat creation by Mr.Attacki that incorporates motors and other technical bits to bring it to life reminded me of another impressive creation in this vein by NeXTSTORM:

While this doesn’t fit the traditional definition of what we’d consider a brick animation (there’s no stop motion involved), it’s too cool not to share here. While there are a lot of fan creations that include motorized elements, this is the first I’ve seen that tells a complete story (albeit a short one). I’m sure the programming and design of this creation was just as complicated and time-consuming as any animation.

What other LEGO fan creations have you seen that incorporate motorized elements like this?

2. You may not vote for yourself…
7. An entry should win based on it’s own merits. This isn’t a popularity contest.

So if you were a EB member before November 3, 2012, go watch the films and vote!

Some noteworthy moments from my viewing: the parallax effect when Superman flies in Super Heroes Daily Life, the frantic energy and general zaniness of Thor’s Day Off, and the grappling hook animation in Life on Gotham Street.

“LEGO Indiana Jones and the Mystical Gemstone” by kd2apoof came out of nowhere for me. One of the best things about the brick animation community is when a total stranger from another continent uploads an amazing video that they spent years making and you stumble upon it by chance. It just reinforces the fact that it’s possible for anyone to make a great animation if they put the work in.

This animation starts off with an homage to the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark (not to be confused with this shot-for-shot recreation) and then gets into a sequences of fights and chases that are entertaining, if unmotivated. The cinematography and sound design are the most impressive aspects, but the use of facial animation is under. I also like the use of actual rocks and dirt in the sets. Totally lacking in story, this brick animation is on the impressive-solely-for-its-technical-achievements end of the spectrum, but still well worth a watch.

P.S. For a brick animation that came out of the blue (for me) from France that is impressive for its story as well as technical achievements, make sure you check out “Henri & Edmond – Droits d’auteur” by studiosepsilon if you haven’t already. It’s one of my all-time favorites and I’ve been meaning to do a full review here for a while.

Thanks to Websitecommissie for drawing my attention to “The Call of Farqunglu” by Bionicle28. It’s a clever short that weaves together Lovecraftian tropes and a courtroom drama, providing some good laughs along the way. The most impressive aspects from a technical standpoint are the fluid animation of Farqunglu and the massive scale of the church set. I also appreciated the funny henchmen and the use of the neutral and sad faces by Citizen Brick.

I watched/played “Lego Adventures” by MySnailEatsPizza1 back when it first came out and really enjoyed it, but I was waiting for the results in the Bricks in Motion Kitchen Sink Contest to be announced before I did shared it here. Now that they’ve been announced I can say that this interactive film deserves its first place finish.

Like any good interactive branching narrative, there are lots of different paths you can take in “Lego Adventures.” Some are dead ends, some are infinite loops, and all of them are a lot of fun (SPOILER: you haven’t really won until you have a pet dragon). The animation and sets in “Lego Adventures” are decent and serve their purpose. The story is a bit convoluted (like any good interactive branching narrative), and seems mostly to exist to tie together some disparate set pieces (superhero fight, escaping a military base, a day at the zoo)  the animator envisioned, but in a contest called Kitchen Sink, you can’t really fault the winner for taking a grab-bag approach. Take some time and play through it, you won’t regret it.

Also, if you haven’t seen it before, don’t miss the archetypical interactive brick animation, “Ronald has a Spider on His Head,” by SpastikChuwawa.

This is a great example of how Hero Factory characters lend themselves to more subtle expressions than their minifig counterparts. It also reminds me of Justice Friends, and anything that reminds me of Dexter’s Laboratory is a good thing.

Kevin Ulrich of Brotherhood Workshop shares some of the secrets to his incredibly well animated Lord of the Rings brick animations in an equally well produced behind-the-scenes video. I particularly liked his discussion of how he builds his sets using sticks and rocks and why he prefers animating on clay to LEGO surfaces. He does a mean Gollum impression too.

Let me preface this by saying how great it is to see the LEGO Group supporting the brick animation fan community with a stop motion app and numerous video contests with substantial prizes. Additionally, I know how much hard work goes into every brick animation released on YouTube, so all the entrants to the ReBrick contest should be very proud of their accomplishments.

That being said, the results of this contest highlight the problems inherent in video competitions that involve a public voting component. Opening a contest to public voting seems like a great way to ensure a fair result, right? (Yay democracy!) However, unless people are incentivized to watch multiple entries, voting will always favor entrants with large, established audiences. One might as well just compare the number of YouTube subscribers each entrant has and declare the winners that way. Additionally, if the voting period overlaps with the entry period, entries finished early will tend to accumulate a disproportionate number of votes. These means that great videos entered by up and comers close to the deadline are basically doomed. (Yay democracy?)

Public voting doesn’t always ruin video contests. Sometimes, public voting will be used in conjunction with judging so that there is a “People’s Choice” winner/finalist in addition to a winner selected. Other times, judges will whittle down the field of entries to a few finalists and let the public vote to determine the winner (as opposed to the reverse, as ReBrick did). I have also seen really elaborate voting systems (i.e. the annual IAWTV nominations) where voters don’t necessarily have to watch every video, but a back-end system ensures that every video is viewed and voted upon by an equal number of voters. In this situations like this, voters are been treated like judges, so it’s more of a crowd-sourced judging than a random popularity contest. So, if you are creating an online video contest, please be thoughtful about how voting is implemented. Judging is almost always better than voting.

Having watched all the entries to the ReBrick contest, here’s the video that I think should have won because it best fits the theme of “spooky fun” and is well made:

And here’s one that was legitimately scary (to me at least):

One final note, the ReBrick contest has lessons for those who seek to enter online video contest too. Read the rules carefully, lest you be disqualified like two films were that would have otherwise been semifinalists were in this contest.

“What Does LEGO Mean To You?” on Tongal

The goal of this project is to produce a 2-3 minute video that is emotionally resonant and explores what LEGO means to you or your family, or what LEGO means to the world.

This contest is actually open to videos other than stop-motion animation, but given that the winning video(s) will be featured on a relaunched BuildTogether website, mimicking the hybrid live action/stop-motion style of the previous commercials might be the best way to go. I really hope the Four Monkeys enter this contest (nudge nudge), I can’t think of a better poster family for the power of building together. As with other Tongal contests, there are multiple phases, so be sure to read the details.

2012 Brickfilmer’s Guild Animation Festival

Speaking of the Four Monkeys, they are currently accepting submissions for a contest that will highlight the best brick animations made in 2012. All you need to do to submit a video response to their YouTube video. You can enter up to three videos and there are very few restrictions (read the description of their YouTube video for details). You’d be silly not to submit. They are also looking for sponsors to donate prizes, so those with LEGO-related businesses should consider what they can donate. Also, have you been to the Brickfilmers Guild yet? It’s like MOCpages for brick animators.

Superhero Moviemaker Video Contest on Eurobricks

This won’t be the same old superhero movie we’ve seen a hundred times. We want to see a superhero or villian in daily life, not fighting the bad guys (or causing trouble for the hero).

This contest is a great excuse to use the LEGO Super Heroes Movie Maker iOS app and there are exclusive minifigs on the line. The theme has the typical cheeky Eurobricks humor and I look forward to seeing what the community produces. As always, you should go read the details.

Are there other animation contest out there right now that you are excited about? Let us know in the comments.

The fine folks over at Eurobricks have launched a new subforum devoted to developing the skills of brick animators (and comic creators). Building off the success of the long-running Reviewers Academy which trains forum members in the art of making detailed photo reviews of new LEGO sets (random example), the Brick Flicks & Comics Academy not only offers detailed tutorials, but also a cadre of teachers who will review works in progress, assign you lessons to complete, and grade your progress.

While the majority of the current content is focused on the comic creation side, I know that more brick animation focused content is coming soon (I am still on hook to create a lesson ¬_¬ ). I encourage you all to visit the Academy Index to browse the existing content and/or submit requests for tutorials & lessons that you’d like to see in the future.  While anyone can browse Eurobricks, please note that members are required to be 18 years or older.

The BF&CA was originally created by Hinckley (who also made the awesome illustration above), but the forum moderator Darkdragon is responsible for the hard work of organizing it and getting teachers to contribute. Unlike the perpetual beta status of the Bricks in Motion Resources page, I think that Darkdragon’s leadership will make the academy a vibrant destination for brick animators who want to take their craft to a new level. I encourage the more experienced animators among us to think about contributing a tutorial or lesson (and I will take my own advice to heart and finally get to work on my own long-overdue contribution).

P.S. Check out Darkdragon’s animation “Code Monkey Music Video,” which features a Fabuland character, a Friends minidoll, and an awesome color scheme!

Yesterday, I led two stop-motion animation workshops geared towards children and families as part of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts’ Launch Festival. Over the course of two hours, there were over thirty kids who worked in small groups to make twelve short animations. The most epic of these is “Monkey Kill” which was made by two boys who stayed for the second session since they weren’t able to complete their grand vision during the first one:

In the weeks leading up to the workshop, the amazing staff of the Logan Media Center purchased multiple licenses of Dragonframe to install on their computers and I helped them test the software using their digital cameras. Combined with my own animation set-up that I transported to campus, we were able to set-up five animation stations in the Logan Digital Media Lab. While the animation workshop was the impetus for purchasing and installing the software, the long-term benefit is that students and faculty at UChicago now have access to professional stop-motion animation software at the Logan Media Center.

At the beginning of each session I gave a 10-minute talk about what stop-motion animation is, the basic tools involved in creating it, and how to use Dragonframe. Then each group had about 30 minutes plan and create their animation. Some people brought their favorite LEGO models to animate with and others used a selection of toys that I provided. At the end of the workshop we played the finished animations back on the big screen for everyone to appreciate.

It was a whirlwind two hours yesterday, but it was a lot of fun. I had two volunteers from Fire Escape Films who helped out during the workshop by assisting individual groups, troubleshooting technical issues, and helping clean up at the end. Many thanks to Alejandro and Anurag for their vital support. It’s always great to see kids getting their first taste of animation and talking enthusiastic about their creations; it reminds me why I make animations. Last night, I was inspired to finally jump back in to to my own work in progress.

The format was very different than the 3-hour workshop David and I give at Brickworld Chicago every year, which is usually heavier on the presentation and lighter on the hands-on animation. David and I are always looking for ways to improve our workshops. What have your experiences with introductory stop-motion workshops been? What have you liked and what has been missing?

P.S. One kid who showed up was more interested in building than animation and spent about an hour and half making this cool circular creation:

“The Machine” is the latest of a handful of brick animations that blur the line between stop-motion and live action. According to the animator, it was filmed at 25 frames per second (FPS), and had motion blur added in post-production to make it ever smoother. The short is worth a quick watch for the great cinematography and the inspired animation of the eponymous machine, but I’m mostly using it to launch into a larger discussion of FPS.

Choosing an FPS is an important part of making an animation, there is a constant balancing act between the smoothness of the animation and time required to make it. An animation set at 5 FPS is bound to look jumpy, but it can still be engaging (this is the frame rate I recommend for beginners). As the FPS increases (10, 12, 15, 20, 24, 30), the animation gets smoother, but the time investment to create it rises steeply. Many brick animators settle at 15 FPS as a good balance between smoothness and amount of time invested, but there are a few that venture into those high ranges.

The best cautionary tale in this respect is “Dr. Jobs and his Scary Laboratory.” While the single completed episode of this series features some of the smoothest animation I’ve ever seen in a brick animation, the incompleteness of the remaining segments stands as a testament to the dangers of independent animators pursuing hyper-real frame rates. But let’s pretend for a minute that time is not an obstacle, what would the optimal frame rate for brick animations be? Is super-smooth, life-like animation the end-all be-all?

Personally, I think very high frame rate animations can feel sterile, and I find attempts to perfectly simulate real motion in animation to be uncanny. I am reminded of Jean Baudrillard’s essay on Simulacra and Science Fiction:

There is no more fiction… it is the real which has become our true utopia… presented with transparent precision, but totally lacking substance, having been derealized and hyperrealized.

What do you think? The more frames per second the better? Or is the charm and art of animation precisely in the frames an animator chooses to include (and which to exclude)?

“The Machine” on Youtube

“Dr. Jobs and his Scary Laboratory” on YouTube

What makes “Sharks and Clowns” memorable is a creative story told in an interesting way. I love the way elements pop into existence as they are described by the narrator. The animation of the giant squid and cackling Clown King are also highlights. The voices are difficult to understand at certain points and there is some distracting light flicker on the close-up shots, but overall this is a well-done animation with lots of clever moments. Be sure to check out the discussion on Bricks in Motion to see photos of Harrison’s lighting set-up for the flames.

EDIT: Also don’t miss this behind-the-scenes post on the Annoying Noises Facebook page.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

After the pillars of the community left, the Brickfilms.com forums became a desolate wasteland; filled primarily with spambots, questions about what had happened to the once great site, and a trickle of sub-par animations.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Brickfilms.com has continued to sputter on, undergoing several redesigns in the hands of subsequent webmasters. The latest of these launched in the last month. On the plus side, some of the old content (the film directory) from a previous incarnation of the site — which was hidden in the last redesign — is once again accessible. On the down side, the film directory is an absolute nightmare to navigate.

On the humorous side, the site is riddled with bizarre errors. My favorite of these is that the “contact us” links on the site currently link to an old forum discussion about contact with alien lifeforms.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

But since this is a review, I should probably talk about the actual videos rather than the behind-the-scenes features. Each 30-second short features a different product line that was on shelves in summer 2011: Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Alien Conquest, and Star Wars. The connecting thread is a red 2×4 brick that flies through each setting indiscriminately wreaking havoc, much like a mischievous pixie. Each video has a madcap pace, rushing from scene to scene with little explanation or closure. Did Jack Sparrow escape safely? Did the humans fight off the alien invasion? No time for answers, the red brick is off on another adventure!

While the shorts may not provide much narrative substance, there is plenty of spectacle to enjoy over repeat viewings. The animation is so fast and buttery smooth, you may not appreciate how good it is until you see some of it slowed down in the behind-the-scenes videos (e.g. the brick-built explosions). The Alien Conquest short is full of great “blink and you’ll miss it” moments like the screaming crowd running away from the tripod walker. The design of each short is clean, professional, and suited to the subject matter. The Star Wars short does an excellent job recreating the iconic Death Star hanger (the lighting of the walls is particularly impressive), and you have to love the tiny bricks circling around the dazed Darth Vader’s head. Fans of the licensed properties will notice cameos from popular characters. The hallway scene in the Harry Potter short is particularly notable for this, but careful viewers will also notice a white Boba Fett in the Death Star hanger. As always, the Paganomation team uses LEGO bricks in inventive ways, such as a simple hinge brick to represent birds flying in the distance in the Pirates of the Caribbean short.

All told, there’s a lot of detail packed into a short amount of time. Which is another reason it’s best to mull over them while watching the behind-the-scenes videos

“Red Brick Saga” playlist on YouTube

In a move that comes completely out of left field, LEGO and Fox Sports have joined forces to align Cleatus, the Fox Sports robotic football mascot, with LEGO Hero Factory. Now, I’m all for wacky mash-ups:

Remember when the Jetsons traveled back to Bedrock in Elroy’s time machine as uninvited guests to the big Flintsone/Rubbel family camping trip?  How about when Josie and the Pussycats linked up with the Scooby Doobies in the Laff-A-Lympics?

But, what’s really interesting about this contest is that they’re going long with the concept:

 The Pilot that LEGO and Fox like the best will be ordered to a mini series of an additional 3 episodes (4 in total) which you’ll be required to delivered as laid out under the Project Details.  If Sponsor orders your Pilot to series, they will retain the option to order an additional 4 episode, 120 second per episode “Season 2 by July 1, 2013” at the pre-negotiated rate of $30,000. Or, they may elect to order single episodes at the rate of $10,000 per episode.

Let’s just hope whoever wins this really knocks it out of the park. The Hero Factory characters have enormous potential for expressive animation because of their ball joints (for the best example of what is possible, see the Bionicle fan-film “The Legend of Ignaqua“), but the budget is kind of low-balled for a stop-motion animation series. Was that enough sports puns for you?

It’s awesome to see TLG running so many paying contests, and even more awesome that well-known people from the brick animation community like The Four Monkeys and Builder Brothers are winning. But I’m curious as to why TLG hasn’t been promoting the Tongal contests very much (the Superhero ones being the only exception). I discovered the LEGO CITY one only by chance, and have been watching Tongal closely ever since, but I’m sure there are lots of brick animators out there who have no clue these contests are happening. What do you think about all these Tongal contests?

1) “Mein Herz [My Heart]” by Pawnshop Orchestra (2006)

This music video is probably the most straightforward Fabuland animation out there. A cat and a goat are in love, but far apart. The goat overcomes distance and an octopus to be reunited with his true love. Short, sweet, and barely weird.

2) “Edward and Friends” by FilmFair (1987)

“Edward and Friends” was an officially licensed series to promote the Fabuland sets. However, rather than using actual Fabuland products, the characters are made of clay, allowing for a much greater range of expression. This series is standard kid show fare; each episode presents a small challenge that is overcome in a friendly manner. The only weirdness here is intrinsic to the Fabuland product line: it takes place in a Scarreyesque village of anthropomorphic animals. But as we all know, overly-cheerful facades often harbor horrible secrets. (There are plenty more episodes for those who want more.)

3) Nestlé Orzoro Commercial (1985)

In this frenetic 15-second commercial, a pig and a panda pull back a curtain to reveal a forest. In the forest, six Fabulanders pop out of a tree and wave before disappearing again. But the forest was just another curtain! Some characters fly through the air to place logos! Another curtain! Oh look, it’s the product! How did the pig get trapped inside? No time to worry about that, he’s saved by a parrot on a trapeze! Another curtain, everybody bows! What was that commercial about?

4) “Barney’s Cherry” by Thauka Kuki Team Entertainment (2012)

Even after watching this film half a dozen times, I’m not sure I’ve quite “solved” it. This animation is very clearly a riddle on multiple levels. Firstly, there is the riddle presented via intertitles, which the viewer is given time to ponder before being presented with an answer. However, that answer doesn’t really satisfy, and it’s clear that there are visual clues throughout that point to the real solution (the very first titlescreen makes sure we know this).

But even after I figured out that (highlight to reveal spoilers) Bonnie is cheating on Ed with Barney and actually wanted to free Barney, but was tricked by the statues watering the flowers, I still don’t understand why the horses on the side of the screen turn into different animals at 0:47, why the characters spend so much time looking at the sword and cherry, or what random flashes of light are all about. But because the film is well animated and has a good score, I don’t mind revisiting it again and again.

Warning: the following films contain objectionable content

5) “A day in the life of…” by Complesso Gasparo (2007)

Following the advice of a real-life chihuahua, a Fabuland monkey breaks the shackles of his buttoned-down life. He then proceeds to break-dance everywhere, deface a wall with obscene graffiti, take off his head, and attack a pig on a motorcycle.

6) “The Franky Job” by David M Pickett (2007)

Rather than review my own film, I’m going to quote Zach Macias‘ Bricks in Motion review:

It’s essentially a noir private-eye film, but at its core is laced with hidden subtexts of racism and bigotry. The film is at times humorous, thought-provoking, and disturbing, mixed together in a blend that would seem abstract (and is for the most part), but seems to come together somehow at the end.

7) “Fabuland” by Grégory Métay et Olivier Couëllant (2000)

This is the quintessential Fabuland animation and deserves 10 times as many views as it has. It features the most fully realized busy Fabuland town, and music and voice acting that perfectly fit the style of the characters. There’s a lot to admire here from  an animation perspective; the swaying palm trees are my personal favorite. Despite not knowing French, I felt like I understood the story perfectly thanks to the great visual storytelling. But why did I put this as the weirdest animation? Let’s just say it takes some very surprising turns.

Honorable Mention: “The Fabuland Housewives” by Mark Larson

Though not animated, this hilarious webcomic by Mark Larson is an impressive feat that must have taken countless hours to script, design, photograph, and code. Like the ABC show that inspired it, it is chock full of scandal, gruesome murders, and shocking twists. However, it’s also uproariously funny and well worth a read if you’ve got a few hours to kill.

So what do you think? Why are Fabuland animations so weird (or did I exaggerate how weird they are)? Are there any major works I missed?

LEGO has just launched a Tongal contest for LEGO Friends videos with $20,000 at stake. This is the latest of several contests TLG has run through Tongal this year (a few are still open for submissions, so be sure to check them out). The winning entries of the past contests can be viewed on the Fan Creations tab on the new LEGO YouTube page.

While the current phase of the Tongal contest is just for submitting the story ideas that will guide the later video entries, I’m already thinking ahead to the problems that animators will run into in the video phase. Unlike minfigures, which have 7 points of articulation (2 at the hip, 2 shoulders, 2 wrists, 1 at the neck + a bonus 1 with hat/hair), the Friends mini-dolls only have 4 points of articulation (1 at the hip, 2 shoulders, 1 at the neck + bonus one with hat/hair). Because their legs are fused together, mini-dolls can’t perform the standard walk cycle (or the many variants) of their minifig cousins.

So how are the LEGO Friends figures going to get around when it comes time to animate them? Submit a video or image of a mini-doll walk cycle in the comments of this post before September 20th, and I’ll feature the best ones in a follow-up post.

LEGO Friends Video Project [Tongal.com]

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London may have ended last weekend, but you can relive the highlights in LEGO form, thanks to the Guardian’s “Brick by Brick” series of animations. While I am not a sports buff myself, even I can appreciate the amount of work that went into creating these videos.

What’s really interesting to me about “Brick by Brick” are the constraints under which it was produced. As outlined in the above behind-the-scenes video, nine animations were created by a small team in the span of two weeks. Because of broadcasting restrictions, news organizations can’t in many cases show video footage of Olympics events, so these brick animations stand in for the video. Considered as a form of sports journalism, “Brick by Brick” is a delightful, creative solution to a frustrating problem. It’s also cool that brick animation has become so widely embraced that it gets casually integrated into the operations of a major news outlet.

However, when judged as examples of the brick animation form, these videos are less remarkable. The low frame rate (about 5 FPS by my eye) makes the animation look choppy, and a lot of time is killed showing still images. Again, this is understandable given the constraints, but still leaves little to recommend. Those interested in these animations only for the animation should stick to the highlights video or the gymnastics video.

In stark contrast to “Brick by Brick” is “LEGO Sport Champions,” one of the earliest examples of brick animation.

Whereas “Brick by Brick” is a series of play-by-play recreations of real-life sports events, “Sport Champions” presents whimsical takes on traditional sports that frequently break the laws of physics. For example, in the hockey short, one of the players briefly turns into a snake, and the “winner” of the match is a dog from the audience. Rather than using minifigures, “Sport Champions” favors expressive, brick-built characters. While “Brick by Brick” features English narration to explain the action, “Sport Champions” is voiceless, and features a strong score that responds to the action.

As an official series of animations commissioned by the LEGO group, “Sport Champions” is one of the few brick animations that can safely be said to take place in LEGOLAND*. It’s a place where animals and inanimate objects have as much agency as people do (the scoreboard wins the gymnastics competition), and where everything can be easily taken apart and recombined (when two F1 racers collide, their cars combine into a giant striped race car which they decide to co-pilot). I want to live there.

The “Sports Champions” weightlifting video above is probably the one that comes closest to having a story. It follows a gorilla as it escapes from the circus and heads across town to investigate (and then compete in) a weight-lifting competition. In addition to giving a brief glimpse of some wonderful large scale town buildings, this video is chock-full of creative moments. For instance, when the two circus workers realize the gorilla has escaped, one of them turns into a dog to track its scent. The scenes in the massage room where the gorilla and masseur take turns molding each other into strange shapes are prime examples of “exaggeration“.

All seven of the “Sport Champion” videos are must-sees (and it will only take about half an hour to watch them all). Like the best brick animations, there is so much going on that you will want to watch them multiple times. Enjoy!

*I’m using LEGOLAND here in an anachronistic sense to refer to the fictional universe that LEGO characters exist in, as opposed to the real-life theme parks with the same name.

Brick by Brick – The Guardian [YouTube]

LEGO Sport Champions [YouTube]

“Would you rather be Spider-Man or a Jedi Knight?”

This impossible question was once posed to me by a friend who knew that my geeky obsession with LEGO was rivaled only by similar obsessions with Star Wars and Spider-Man. So you can imagine the kind of loop-de-loops my brain did in 2003, when LEGO Spider-Man sets first appeared on the shelves next to LEGO Star Wars sets. While I treasure the few Spider-Man sets I was able to buy then, my favorite thing to come out of the LEGO Spider-Man license is “Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock” by Spite Your Face Productions.

For those of you who can’t remember the internet before YouTube, brick animations used to be something of a rarity. Spite Your Face Productions was one of the early pioneers in this respect, and their work helped inspire a generation of aspiring young animators. In the summer of 2004, I had just finished my first major brick animation (an incoherent, 45-minute, pop culture mash-up), and was starting production on a longer, slightly more coherent sequel. With its buttery-smooth character animation, “Doc Ock” became the ideal to which I still aspire.

Story

Doctor Octopus is terrorizing New York City until Spider-Man arrives to save the day. Somewhere in the middle, an elephant shows up. The “two characters fight” plot is, sadly, a very common one in brick animations. With no narrative arc to speak of, these films tend to live or die on the quality of their technical aspects and the popularity of the characters fighting. “Doc Ock” not only excels in both of these categories, but also manages to fit a good deal of humor in, making it enjoyable for a broad audience.

Design

Since “Doc Ock” was commissioned by LEGO and Sony to promote the release of “Spider-Man 2” and the associated LEGO product line, it incorporates both the perpetual sunset of the movie posters and characters, vehicles, and buildings from the official LEGO sets.

After a few detailed establishing shots of New York City, the animation progresses to more simplistic sets that keep the focus on the action. By the final showdown, all traces of the skyline have vanished.

The orange and purple lighting schemes bring out some really nice hues in the tan and bley buildings, and are very flattering to Doctor Octopus. The lighting is not so kind to Spider-Man, who occasionally looks jaundiced. Occasional lens flares reinforce the connection to the movie poster.

Animation

Doctor Octopus’s tentacles are the real stars of this short, and four of the reasons I can watch it again and again. They are in near-constant motion and move with amazing speed and fluidity. Repeated viewings are necessary to appreciate the nuances of their movement (and to see all the humorous objects they grab).

Spider-Man is also well animated; his web-slinging in particular is as fluid as possible given the constraints of the minifigure’s joints. One of my favorite moments is when he scrambles behind the speeding train car.

There are a fair deal of special effects used in the short; many of the wide shots of the city are composites of multiple shots. Now that I have a keener eye, these shots look flatter and less impressive to me than they did eight years ago. However, they serve their purpose, and given the constraints this short was produced under, it is understandable why SYFP went this route as opposed to building a massive New York City set.

Sound

Since there is no dialogue, the music and sound effects do a lot of heavy lifting in this short. The score by Jason Graves responds perfectly to every action on screen, switching quickly and effortlessly between epic, antic, and frantic. The sound effects are similarly well-matched to the animation. This is a perfect example of what sound design should do — punctuate the animation without distracting from it.

Overall

Nearly a decade after it was released, “Doc Ock” is still one of the finest examples of the brick animation form. What it lacks in story, it makes up for in animation prowess. It blends action and humor in a way that has become characteristic of official LEGO animations, and remains popular in LEGO fan animations. It is also notable for its place in the history of brick animation, and well worth your viewing time.

And for those who would rather be a Jedi Knight than Spider-Man, don’t miss “Star Wars: The Han Solo Affair,” also by Spite Your Face Productions.

Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock [SpiteYourFace.com]