Over the past few years, we haven’t been able to update or post things as much as we would have liked, and our discussions on the world of LEGO animation and brickfilms have moved almost entirely to our individual web and social media channels (e.g. Paganomation and BRICK 101).

But before we take down the blog on DESTRUCTION DAY (May 16, 2018), we wanted to give you a chance to save any of your favorite links or articles from the site.

Thanks again for reading and contributing to The Set Bump!

– David Pagano and Dave Pickett

Brick à Brack, founded in 2008, is a website devoted to the French brickfilming community. With over 1,500 users and 3,400 brickfilms on the site, Brick à Brack is one of the largest brickfilming communities on the web, rivaling Bricks in Motion.

I got an exclusive interview with Brick à Brack administrator Maxou44 in Brick à Brack’s Discord chat discussing the forum changes:

– What is the history of the creation of Brick à Brack?

– Brick à Brack was created in September 2008 by Parod and R-Creator, at the begining it was a simple forum that allowed some brickfilmeurs to share their creations (it was the beginnings of the brickfilm in France), year after year, Brick à Brack grew, member after member a great community ready to share and exchange around their common passion: the brickfilm! For the last few years we have multiplied competitions and exhibitions with the aim of democratizing brickfilm!

– What prompted you to create an English section to your forums instead of keeping your community exclusively French?

For almost 10 years now, our goal has been to promote brickfilm and create an active and welded community around this passion, over the last few years many English members have joined us but were unable to use the site properly or participate in our competitions due to language barriers. We have therefore taken things in hand to make our site accessible to as many people as possible! Our goal is to bring the brickfilmers together, not to divide them

– Do you have any plans to expand Brick a Brack to other languages besides French and English?

For the time being, we would like to maintain and grow the English-speaking community that comes to our site, welcoming anglophones to our site is something that is not necessarily simple for us, we don’t speak perfectly English, we have to organize ourselves differently and spend more time maintaining and moderating the site. When everything will be in place and our English-speaking friends will be well integrated, if we think it could be beneficial for another community to translate our website, we will do the necessary.

So whether you speak French or English, Brick à Brack has something for you! Hop on over to their website and register today!

https://www.brick-a-brack.com

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.

We want this to be the best brickfilm festival ever, so we have very few eligibility requirements (see the official rules below). Your film doesn’t have to be recently made or contain any specific theme. We want your best work of all time. All eligible films will screen continuously in the Brickfilm Theater for the duration of Brickworld Chicago. The attendees of Brickworld Chicago will vote on the films to decide the winners. We’ve also pulled together a pretty awesome prize pack for the winner.

And while attending Brickworld Chicago isn’t required to enter the contest, we highly recommend it. In addition to the film festival, we will be running a LEGO animation workshop, screening a special film, showcasing models from our latest animations and just generally hanging out and talking about LEGO. You can register for Brickworld Chicago on their website.

Official Rules

• Anyone can enter a film in the festival, but you must be a Full Registrant of Brickworld Chicago to be eligible for the “Best Film” Trophy.
• Your film must be longer than 30 seconds and shorter than 5 minutes in length.
• Your film must be uploaded to YouTube.
• Your film should use LEGO elements to tell a story. It can be animated or live action, or a combination of the two.
• Your film must not have been submitted to any previous Brickworld Film Festival.
• By entering your film for consideration, you attest that you hold all rights to exhibit the given work. This includes (but is not limited to) visuals, music, and characters. Unlicensed use of copyrighted material is not allowed.
• Limit one (1) entry per director.
• Films should be enjoyable by all ages. Film content such as (but not limited to) curse words/swearing, excessive violence, sexual content, and drug use will be grounds for disqualification.
• To submit, e-mail [email protected] by June 5, 2017 with the following information:
  • A link to your film on YouTube
  • A completed entry form
• There will be two winners of the festival
  • Best of Brickworld Chicago – a Brickworld “Best Film” trophy will be awarded to the film submitted by a Brickworld Chicago Full Registrant that receives the most votes from the audience at Brickworld Chicago.
  • Best of Brickworld International – a Prize Pack (approximate retail value $250 USD) will be awarded to the film that receives the most votes from the audience at Brickworld Chicago.
• By submitting your film, the Brickworld Film Festival is granted the right to use and/or publish clips or the full videos, screenshots, director and crew names, and any other material related to an entry in the event program, the Brickworld Film Festival screening, the Brickworld website, re-screenings at future Brickworld events, and for any and all promotional purposes.

Prize Pack Details

• 8077: Atlantis Exploration HQ
• 60134: Fun in the Park – City People Pack
• 21103: The DeLorean Time Machine
• 71238: Cyberman
• Misc. Collectable Minifigures (x6)
• 40021: Spiders
• 852948: Female Minifigure Magnets
• 6868: Hulk’s Hellicarrier Breakout
• 852690: Designer’s Toolset
• Medieval and WWII BrickStix packs
• Signed copy of Brickjournal Issue #14
• Signed copy of The LEGO Animation Book

If you have any questions, please e-mail [email protected]. We look forward to seeing your films!

LEGO Life seems to be the replacement for the LEGO Club, the former hub of online LEGO activity featuring games, challenges, videos, and of course, the LEGO Club magazine. With the introduction of LEGO Life comes the introduction of the LEGO Life magazine.

Besides user-submitted content, the app also features officially curated content, most of which comes from LEGO.com. Along with stop-motion videos that were commissioned by the LEGO Group, some of the videos in the Ninjago category are entries to the LEGO ReBrick Greatest Villain of all Time in NINJAGO contest—a few of which did not even place in the runner-up category.

As a pleasant surprise, I noticed that the the app also features the brickfilm classic The Han Solo Affair alongside the more modern animated videos.

Other than that, there unfortunately does not seem to be much stop-motion content within the app. However, now that LEGO has undergone this massive overhaul in their online presence, let us hope that they will bring back the stop-motion aspects once again.

LEGO Life is available in some countries for iPhone and iPad, with an Android version reportedly coming soon.

Philip Heinrich directed, edited, and produced the feature length documentary that “explores the lives of individuals involved in the hobby of creating stop-motion animated films with LEGO bricks and other building toys.” Fellow producers include Zach Macias, Doug Vandegrift Jr., and Nathan Wells. (Editor’s note: and our very own David Pagano!)

The documentary film was a crowd funded Kickstarter project backed by 270 funders. They raised $12,800 to help send the producers of the documentary around the world to interview brickfilmers. Most of those Kickstarter funders have had the opportunity to see the documentary, but the general public has not… until now. Pre-order is available for $8.99!

The interviews were filmed in 17 cities on both sides of the Atlantic.  Interview filming consisted of 18 days in North America and 18 days in Europe. The film also has original animated segments along with dozens of pre-existing brickfilms. Producers Philip, Zach, and Nathan animated for three weeks “tirelessly together on a tight schedule to complete.”

Seán Willis is credited as assistant editor. His task was cataloging and organizing the interview content for Philip to edit. The editing process was extensive and many revisions were made. Different cuts were “shown to various producers and audiences in order to gauge pacing and clarity.” After about 4 months of editing, the film was completed.

“Bricks In Motion” runs 1 hour 27 minutes and has both English and French subtitles available. The filmmakers have also set up a Thunderclap campaign to promote the film’s online release.

To say this book has been a long time in the making would be an understatement. Way back in 2008, David Pagano taught an “Introduction to LEGO Animation” workshop at Brickworld Chicago. After it was over, David Pickett walked up and nervously introduced himself as “that guy that made that weird brickfilm that one time.” Ever since, we’ve been building a friendship and creative partnership using films and LEGO bricks (and awkwardly referencing ourselves in the third-person).

One of the first things we bonded over was how frequently we were asked intensely specific questions about animating, such as:

• “What is the exact model of camera that you use?”
• “How many frames per second do you shoot?”
• “How did you make your character do that cool thing at 2:17 in your last movie?”

We love seeing so many people eager to learn more about the subject we’re most passionate about, but there’s only so much you can explain in a short conversation or a YouTube comment. So in 2011, we started talking seriously about writing a book that could answer these questions in detail. Over the last five years, this book has grown from a dream in our heads to a real physical thing you will be able to hold in your hands. (It will also be available as an e-book—slightly less tangible, but still easier to access than the insides of our minds.)

In addition to answering the questions listed above, the book will also contain:

• A step-by-step guide for making your first animation
• Techniques for creating special effects like explosions and flying minifigures
• Acting methods for your minifigs—learn how to convey action and emotion
• The SECRET FORMULA for bringing inanimate objects to life
• Tips and tricks for designing sets—make three buildings look like an entire city!
• Advice for dealing with practical problems like lighting, framing, and capturing consistent photos
• Building ideas for LEGO-­based camera dollies and rigs
• Instructions and inspiration on the filming process, from storyboarding to post-production
• Recommendations for cameras, software, and other essential animation tools

We’re excited to be working with No Starch Press as our publisher; they have a long history of publishing great books about the LEGO hobby. You can pre-order The LEGO Animation Book through their website. Our hope is that this book will inspire and educate a whole new generation of LEGO filmmakers. We can’t wait to feature their films here on The Set Bump.

P.S. – If you noticed that our blogging decreased sharply in mid-2014, you now know why. We’ll be busy wrapping up the book over the next few months, but we’ll be back to blogging with gusto afterwards.

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.

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.

Something is happening in outer space…

Peter Reid’s Exo Suit is the latest release from the website-formerly-known-as-Cuusoo, LEGO Ideas. To announce the impending arrival of this set, TLG put out the above CG animated video, “co-created” (whatever that means) by Chris Salt of Oblong Pictures. I think having promotional videos for upcoming LEGO Ideas sets is a great concept on TLG’s part, but as with so many of their releases, this one suffers from being about twice as long as it needed to be.

Oddly, I don’t think the running time would have stuck out to me as much if the video had been done with stop-motion. As much as I’d love to see the real Exo Suit kit get animated (and I’m sure we will), it is a fragile-looking design. TLG tends to use CG when there are clear advantages to having a weightless wire-frame model, and that makes sense here from a production standpoint.

Except… none of those advantages are really utilized, and there’s large swaths of time where we’re basically looking at a video of a still image. It’s neat that the characters adhere to real-world minifig limitations (the influence of The LEGO Movie continues to be felt), but there is just SO MUCH DEAD TIME in this piece that it makes me wonder why they bothered making an animated video at all. When Exo Suit pilot Yve punches the keypad at 2:00, and the door starts whirring open with all the quickness of an inebriated turtle, I literally yelled at my computer screen for it to hurry up.

Anyway, I can certainly appreciate the effort that goes into making an animated video of any kind; this one just didn’t do it for me. Despite the less than stellar (space pun) execution, I’m hoping that promo videos for LEGO Ideas sets become something we see more of in the future. At the very least, it did get me excited about the set itself.

LEGO® Ideas #007 — Exo Suit – YouTube

Bricks by the Bay is the latest LEGO fan event to add a brickfilming component to their schedule. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I’m involved with this one, too (though only as a judge).

Here’s the lowdown on the festival:

Show off your LEGO animation skills at the Bricks by the Bay Brickfilm Festival. Create a film that exemplifies the convention theme, or send us your most recent stop-motion masterpiece, and it might be part of a screening for convention attendees.

Winners in the following categories will be announced during the Bricks by the Bay Convention awards ceremony, and will receive a brick-built trophy and a LEGO set:

• Best Film
• Best Film in the convention theme (2104: “Fun & Games”)
• Best Story
• Best Technical Achievement
• Young Filmmaker Award (12 and under)
• Special “Sweatbox” award to the best Film by a convention attendee

All of the rules and regulations for entering the festival can be found here. The submission window closes July 1st, but it’s open to everyone (including non-attendees) and any film made in the past year is eligible. There’s literally no reason not to submit. Do it!

Brickfilm Festival » Bricks by the Bay

Big thanks to Nelson Diaz for the excellent logo. You can check out more of his work at http://www.nelsart.com.

An equally big thanks to everyone who submitted name ideas to our site naming contest last year. “The Set Bump” was not actually one of the entries, but rather a name that we came up with — one that we felt best evoked stop-motion, LEGO, and shared animation experiences. (How many times have you bumped YOUR animation set in the middle of a shot?)

We’ll be slowly-but-surely updating the site in the coming weeks to reflect this change. In the meantime, you can follow The Set Bump on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

You’ve heard us talk before about “The LEGO Movie”, the forthcoming motion picture from the LEGO Group and Warner Brothers. You’ve also seen our posts regarding various animation contests hosted by Rebrick.com. Well, now the two have become one…

Starting today, brick animators will have the opportunity to submit a video of their own for the chance to be featured in “The LEGO Movie”. From ReBrick.com:

Between March 25^th and May 6^th, submit your video on ReBrick. The top 25 films with the most community votes will enter a final round of judging, and the winning video will be included in the upcoming movie!

The setup is that the evil Lord Business (played by nice guy Will Ferrell) is going to destroy the entire LEGO world. Emmet, the hero of our movie, inspires all of the citizens of the LEGO world to go out and create cool stuff that will stop him.

We need YOU to help make that cool stuff in LEGO bricks and then shoot your character creating that cool stuff on camera to use in our movie.

To be honest, I found the contest summary a bit confusing, although the mods on ReBrick are answering questions in the comments section. Essentially, the entries for this contest are “video clips” and not “films” — that is, the point is not to tell a story, but to showcase some cool MOC quick-build action in a silent 15-30 second clip.  Here’s the rest of the guidelines as I understand them:

• The running time of your clip should be between 15 and 30 seconds long.
• The final frame rate of your clip should be 24 frames per second. You can shoot on “ones” (24 unique frames per second) or “twos” (12 unique frames per second) or anything you want (probably a good idea to stick to factors of 24), as long as the final render is 24 fps.
• Your clip should feature one “hero” character and one “prop” (the prop can be a vehicle, a piece of equipment, or some part of the hero’s environment).
• Your clip must be uploaded to YouTube, and then bookmarked on ReBrick.com.
• Don’t add any sound or music, and don’t have any dialogue. If your clip wins the contest and gets featured in The LEGO Movie, they’ll add the sound design later.
• Don’t use any LEGO characters, sets, or pieces from licensed products, i.e. Disney, Marvel, DC, Lucasfilm, Nickelodeon, etc.
• Keep your set together after you complete your animation — if you win, they might need to recreate it for additional scenes.
• The full rules can be found on the ReBrick.com post.

The contest is open for entries between now and May 6th — but, as with the previous ReBrick contests, the longer you wait, the less time you’ll have for people to vote for your entry. So get building!

ReBrick | Blog | The LEGO Movie Competition with ReBrick

We’re very excited to announce the second annual Brickworld Film Festival!

The Brickworld Film Festival is part of Brickworld Chicago, one of the largest conventions of LEGO fans in the world. Last year, we invited attendees to submit their brick animations (or live-action brick flicks) and screened the 14 entries to an enthusiastic audience of over 100 people. This year, we’re bringing the contest back… with a vengeance.

The event theme for Brickworld Chicago 2013 is “Heroes and Villains,” so we’re asking this year’s entrants to keep this concept in mind when creating/selecting their submissions. We expect to see many films featuring LEGO Super Heroes sets, Hero Factory characters, and the many action themes that LEGO has produced over the past 35+ years. However, we’re also hoping to see other creative approaches to the theme; for instance, this film from last year’s festival could easily be re-titled “My Mom: The Hero” to fit into this year’s theme.

Like last year, David and David will carefully review all the entrants, and select the best one to declare the winner. Last year’s winning film was “Battery Troubles” by L&H, and you should definitely check it out; both because it’s a great example of what we’re looking for in this festival, and because it’s hilarious. This year’s screening will also feature a new, additional category — the ‘Audience Favorite’ — which will be voted on during the festival screening.

For those of you on the fence about attending Brickworld Chicago, keep in mind there’s more to the event than just the film festival. On Thursday, we’ll be teaching a three-hour workshop on brick animation, which covers basic techniques and includes some hands-on animation time. There are also displays, workshops, presentations, contests, games, and a ton of LEGO bric-a-brac to keep your attention.

Plus, it’s also a rare opportunity to connect with other brick animators in person… previous attendees have included Shatterpoint Entertainment, Whistleworks Pictures, CarrollFilms, SteveFrog8,  TLFScarheart, and DarkDragon.

Anyway, we’ve changed the film festival entry rules a little bit since last year, so be sure to read them carefully:

Official Rules

• You must be a Full Registrant of Brickworld Chicago to enter.
• Your film must be longer than 30 seconds and shorter than 5 minutes in length.
• Your film must be uploaded to YouTube.
• Your film should use LEGO elements to tell a story. It can be animated or live action, or a combination of the two.
• Your film must not contain any copyrighted audio. Bricks in Motion has a great list of places you can find royalty free music and sound effects.
• Your film should incorporate the theme “Heroes and Villains” in some way.
• Your film must not have been submitted to any previous Brickworld Film Festival.
• Limit one film submission per person.
• If you would like your film considered for inclusion on the Brickworld 2013 DVD, you will need to complete an additional release form. (We’re working on this; more info to come.)
• Entries that feature actual LEGO themes or licensed characters will not be eligible for inclusion on the Brickworld 2013 DVD.
• Films should be enjoyable by all ages. Curse words, excessive violence, sexual content, and drug use will be grounds for disqualification.
• To submit, e-mail [email protected] by June 1, 2013 with the following information:
  • Your Full Name
  • Your Age
  • A link to your film on YouTube
• A prize will be awarded to the film that best exemplifies the LEGO values of creativity, fun, and technical excellence; as decided by the judges.
• An additional prize will be awarded to the film that receives the most votes from the audience at the festival screening.

If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments. Also, leave a comment if you’re planning to attend Brickworld Chicago.  We look forward to seeing your films!

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!

Though they’ve had a presence there for several years now, TLG has finally created a central hub on YouTube for all of their video content. I’ve found myself puzzled about the bizarre fracturing of LEGO YouTube channels in the past (I don’t know about you, but when I think of LEGO, the first thing I think to search for is “Dzine123”).

But yes, this is a great step in the right direction, even though right now there are a lot of duplicate videos from elsewhere, and comments seem to be universally closed. I’m sure as new shorts are produced, we can expect to see their releases on the official LEGO channel first. Good luck with it, guys!

The Official LEGO® Channel – YouTube

Hi there! Welcome to The Set Bump [formerly BrickAnimation.com] — a LEGO fan blog that focuses on stop-motion animation and filmmaking, featuring our favorite plastic building toy.

The Set Bump is run by two guys named David:

• David Pagano is an award-winning animator and the “brains” behind Paganomation, the creative entity responsible for short films like Little Guys! and Playback; as well as things like Space Police, Adventures of Max, and the Red Brick Saga for The LEGO Group.
• Dave Pickett is a lifelong LEGO fan and pop culture enthusiast. He runs the YouTube channel BRICK 101 where he shares his LEGO animations, custom LEGO creations, LEGO set reviews and other fun videos.
• David and David have collaborated on several projects showcasing the history and craft of brick animation, including: The LEGO Animation Book, BrickJournal Issue 14, the annual Brickworld Film Festival, and an annual “Intro to LEGO Animation” workshop at Brickworld Chicago.

This blog feature posts about all aspects of the brick animation hobby:

• Highlighting the best animations made using LEGO bricks (“brick animations” for short)
• Hardware and software packages, and other useful items for the brick animators’ toolkit
• News, previews, and reviews of LEGO sets, fan-made accessories, and (of course) films
• Interviews with the foremost filmmakers in the LEGO fan community
• Tutorials covering animation techniques, tips, and tricks
• Contests
• “And much more!”

If there’s something specific you’d like us to talk about, please let us know in the comments below! Thanks, and… ACTION