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.

The Golf Channel website has a couple of brick re-creations of moments from golf history; apparently created in anticipation of/to promote the 146th Open which starts this week.

These don’t seem to be anything close to a cross-promotional tie in with The (all lower-case) lego Group, but they are officially branded with the rainbow peacock logo. (I’m picturing an NBC page animating these in a spare office.)

Anyway, here’s minifigure Jack Nicklaus beating Doug Sanders at The Open in 1970.

And here’s Henrik Stenson’s win at Royal Troon—with one of the most unusual attempts at minifig lip-sync I’ve ever seen.

As (nearly) always, the viral intent of these spots means that we get no credits and no attribution for the animators. The style here is perhaps a bit too simple to be able to recognize the animators by sight, but maybe some of you internet sleuths can figure out who was behind these.

EDIT 07/21/17: Thanks to my co-editor and some smooth simians, we now know that these spots were made by Jared Jacobs, aka Gold Yeller! Check out some more spots (as well as some behind-the-scenes) here.

There’s some nice stuff going on here, from the dogs playing fetch to the idling crowd outside the Today Show studio. It’s always interesting when TV personalities and celebrities get “LEGO-fied”; something I expect we’ll see a lot more in the coming year with “The LEGO Batman Movie” and “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” on the horizon for 2017. (EDIT: or right now.)

I wasn’t quite sure what this campaign was all about, but it seems like it’s an NBC News promotional drive. Not quite a charity fundraiser, and not to be confused with this non-profit. I like the sentiment of it all, but it could be a bit clearer. Maybe it’s just because I don’t watch the Today Show.

(And of course, despite the YouTube description touting “the super creative folks behind LEGO’s legendary stop-motion animations”, there is no attribution to Kevin Ulrich or his team. For TLG, “Sharing Kindness” apparently does not include giving credit where credit is due.)

NBC TODAY Show: KLG, Hoda and LEGO Get Animated About Kindness | Hulu

Today is the 15th annual International Animation Day (as begun by ASIFA back in 2002). And what better way to commemorate the occasion than to highlight this super sweet brick-built Zoetrope by Alan Mann?

For such a simple form of animation, it’s a deceptively intricate build. Of course, I especially love the brick-built run cycle of the character within. Well done!

You can check out more photos at Alan’s Flickr page.

(PS: Now that our book is on the shelves, we’ll be slowly (but surely) picking up where we left off here at The Set Bump. Thanks for waiting!)

Go to the “Animators’ Collective” for more information about the dream brickfilming team…..then watch the VFX Breakdown:

And don’t forget to watch the side by side comparison:

The trailer recreation was so awesome that even Popular Mechanics wrote a blog post about the video. Gareth Edwards (the actual director of Rogue One) also wrote to the animators, commending them on their LEGO Rogue One trailer.

It may be a bit too quiet here lately, but nothing stops the brickfilming community from pressing onward with impressively cool stuff. (We’re working on some cool stuff of our own, I promise.)

This Jurassic Park tribute was helmed by the father-daughter team of Paul and Hailee Hollingsworth, aka Digital Wizards. They (along with folks like Sean Willets, Forrest Whaley, and Garrett Barati) spent several months on the piece, re-creating some of the most memorable scenes from the classic 1993 film. My favorite bit is the stop-motion inclusion of Mr. DNA. Gotta love brick-built animation.

It’s always a point of pride for the community as a whole when brickfilms get high-profile attention, and this one certainly made the rounds—being featured on NPR, Mashable, USA Today, and elsewhere.

What else can be said? Check it out, and be sure to watch the behind-the-scenes video as well.

LEGO JURASSIC PARK – YouTube

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.

I researched a bit today on the ole’ internet for some examples of sporting brickfilms and I found ten videos plus two of our own creations that we made recently.  So……I present “A Dozen Sports Brickfilms” in order based of the current number views.

Seattle Seahawks Win OYO Super Bowl XLVIII! by thefourmonkeys was released on the Sports Illustrated Kids YouTube channel and website.  It recreates the most recent Super Bowl with OYO Sportstoys minifigures.  It’s the newest of the dozen brickfilms.

LEGO Snowboarding Tricks – Brickfilm (HD) by Plastic Planet Productions is a beautiful take on snowboarding done brick style.  It has very smooth animations and is quite a fun watch.

The Red Sox World Series Victory, in OYOs! by thefourmonkeys was also released on the Sports Illustrated Kids YouTube channel and website.  It was released just shortly after the completion of the 2013 World Series and enjoyed a small viral affect due to the blogging and tweeting about it. Of the 1/2 dozen sports brickfilms that thefourmonkeys made for SIKids, this one is the most popular. The sporting fans loved the beard tug and helmet adjustment.

Lego Freeskiing: Deep Pow by Oxburger Studios.  I found this film for the first time today. Wow!! The cinematography, lighting, and scenic elements draw you into this awesome snow skiing adventure.

Lego Sport Champions: Hockey by LEGOsports The LEGOsports channel looks pretty dormant these days, but they left us with some great sports brickfilms. Although the equipment they used to make their films is fairly antiquated, their brickfilms stand the test of time and are well worth the watch.  They also used no minifigures which makes them special just for that fact.

Lego Sport Champions: F1 Racing by LEGOsports This F1 car race is a super exciting thrill ride at high speeds.

Champions League Final 2013 in LEGO (Borussia Dortmund v Bayern München) by Weevil888.  Pure football (soccer) excitement.  The stop motion is not incredibly smooth, but the use of the original announcer audio pulls you into an exciting brickfilm.

5 Greatest NBA Finals Moments Legoized by tauntrtv recreates plays from basketball championship games.  It’s a well produced video with decent stopmotion that has me remembering the old NBA days. I’m not a big fan of basketball, but you don’t have to be in order to enjoy this. Ahhhh, the days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

Lego Skater by Keshen8 brings brickfilming and skateboard half-pipes to amazing reality, with a little exception to the overly gory spill the hapless skateboard takes.  OUCH!

Bricksports.de: NFL Super Bowl XLV by Bricksports.de.  Bricksports.de recreates Super Bowl XLV in LEGO.

Brick by Brick: Running: Usain Bolt wins gold in 100m final by the Guardian.  The video was produced by the Guardian (an online news group) and they have also released a dozen or so brickfilm sports recreations. The animation is a little choppy, but the sets are really good and you get a great feel for the energy of the events recreated.  I really liked the water in the Michael Phelps video.

Lego Mini Golf by MlCHAEL HlCKOX Films is the king of sporting brickfims according to views.  It currently has over 12 million views and is one of the most popular brickfilms on YouTube.

If you know some more great sporting brickfilms, leave a comment with a link.  We would love to watch them.

As the holiday season draws to a close, enjoy this brick-built Yule Log from Kooberz Studios. Merry Christmas, everyone.

LEGO Yule Log – YouTube

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

Things to keep an eye out for:

• Croissant moustache
• Mangled LEGO highway ramp elements
• Hinge birds (hey, that idea sounds familiar!)
• Some fantastic mosaic animation work
• Brick-built sparkles

All in all, nothing less than what you’d expect from a Screen Novelties stop-motion piece. Fantastic.

EDIT: For those of you outside the USA, you can check out the video here. They’ve also posted a cool (albeit short) behind-the-scenes write up here.

Adventure Time LEGO Main Title | Geek Week | Cartoon Network – YouTube

Garrett Barati brings us this LEGO version of the trailer for the new Sandra Bullock/Melissa McCarthy comedy “The Heat”.

What does this film have to do with LEGO? I have no idea, but there’s some cool stuff happening in here. I particularly like the brick-built 20th Centruy Fox and Chernin Entertainment logos, as well as the end title. I can’t find a 30-second edit of this trailer for comparison, but here’s the brick-free full version. 

The Heat – LEGO Trailer – YouTube