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

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.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, David Pagano and David Pickett sat down and had a conversation about their past, present, and future. Below is a lightly edited transcript. Enjoy!

PICKETT: This month marks the five-year anniversary of The Set Bump! A lot has changed in those five years: in the world, in the LEGO community, in the brickfilming community, and in our lives. So I thought we could take some time to reflect on some of those things and talk about what it’s been like to be us (and not us) over the last five years.

PAGANO: I have no idea what it’s like to be not us. [deadpan pause]

A blog post like this might be the most bare-minimum celebration that we could possibly do—not because of our excitement level, but because we both have other work on our plates. We are busy people. But yes, we started this blog five years ago… and that is very insane to me.

Logo sketches by Nelson Diaz.

PICKETT: You know, we’ve talked about this a few times in all the interviews and stuff we’ve done for “The LEGO Animation Book”, but I think it’s worth reiterating a little bit of our history together and how it led to us starting The Set Bump: we met at Brickworld Chicago in 2008, and then really became friends the following year. That’s when we started collaborating on stuff like the LEGO animation workshop we ran at Brickworld, as well as Brickjournal issue 14, which I think only came out in 2011.

PAGANO: Well, we were writing it for like six months prior to that, which would have been 2010. (The digital version of that issue is still available.)

PICKETT: After that issue was published, that’s when we really started having a serious conversation: “what if we expanded this content into something bigger?” And that became the earliest plan for The LEGO Animation Book.

As we worked on that first book outline, we realized, “well, if we’re gonna make a book, we should probably start collaboratively writing together more.” So we started this blog as a way to do that, and to stay engaged with the LEGO animation fan community leading up to the release of the book. That was kind of the original idea behind The Set Bump.

PAGANO: All of that sounds correct to me. I was actually I was thinking about Brickworld earlier today, because I was looking for some photos for a thing that I can’t talk about yet, haha. But I found a few old pictures from classes and screenings.

David Pagano teaches an animation workshop at Brickworld Chicago 2010.

The winners of the 2013 Brickworld Film Festival pose with Pickett and Pagano.

PICKETT:  I am always in favor of digging up old, weird photos. You know, I feel like, to this day, there still isn’t a great blog about LEGO animation as a topic. The thing that keeps ours from greatness is the infrequency with which we post to it. I mean, I think our blog is the best blog about LEGO animation, but I’m also 200% biased.

PAGANO: Sure. Another reason that the blog was a great idea was that it allowed us to not only start a fanbase in anticipation of the book, but to have that conversation on our terms as well. We’re always trying to stay involved with the the brickfilm community, but online forums are neither of our styles. I don’t know if that’s due to our ages, or just… I think we both have an affinity for things that are more like prose; things that are a little more academic as opposed to an endless thread of comments.

PICKETT: I mean, we’re both very verbose (as evidenced by how we’re speaking in multiple paragraphs here), but also, we both have an aversion to internet drama. In my experience, forums always attract more drama than blogs because they are more about personalities and interactions. We don’t need to get into the “Great Schism of Brickfilms.com” again in this post, but when that divide in the community happened, both of us only realized it like six months after the fact—because that was about how frequently we visited the forums. Suddenly, everyone was over at Bricks In Motion.

Which reminds me: one thing to point out, of course, is that when we launched our blog, it wasn’t called The Set Bump. It was called BrickAnimation.com, and those URLs still work to this day.

PAGANO: But the reason behind that was that our book was originally going to be called “The Brick Animation Handbook”, right?

PICKETT: Yeah, that was the working title. We spent a lot of time thinking through titles both for the blog and the book, and just thinking about brick animation in general.

PAGANO: I tell this story often: I specifically remember the moment when we came up with the name for this blog. You were sitting at the table at my old studio, and I was laying on the carpet next to the television, and we were both just like… saying words back and forth to each other, trying to come up with ideas.

PICKETT: I know once we said “set bump”, both of us were like “oh!” Because we were literally brainstorming for 24 hours non-stop.

PAGANO: And this was after we already held a contest to name our blog, which didn’t give us a name we liked, but did give us a kind of jumping-off point. I’m scrolling through our naming document now… “Bricks, Flicks and Motion Pics” was one of the winners, which we ended up using as a tagline of sorts. Also, shout-out to “The Commanders of Blokammander”, which is just a wonderful phrase.

PICKETT: I really still want fanart of the two of us, in some sort of ‘80s sci-fi movie poster called “The Commanders of Blokammander”.

PAGANO: Love it. Get Kevin Hinkle on the phone.

I’m reading through the other ideas… It’s a long document, but you can see that it ends when “set bump” came up like three times with different modifiers. “The Unfortunate Set Bump”, “The Unwanted Set Bump”, “The Inevitable Set Bump”.

That’s when we were like, “what if it was just ‘The Set Bump’?”

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?

“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.

I was all set to write a review of “The LEGO Batman Movie” way back in February, before the film even came out. The first of 2017’s two sequels to “The LEGO Movie” focused on not only a beloved character from the first film, but on one of the most popular fictional characters of all time. Batman is a pop culture institution. So is LEGO. Combining them is a sure thing.

And for the most part, that’s accurate. The film did well; it’s got a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The product line was robust and full of beautifully designed sets and characters. There was even a lovely Making-of book for the film (though it’s really more a collection of concept art book than it is a comprehensive look behind-the-scenes).

So why did I find it so hard to write anything about this film? Why didn’t I have the same vigor I had while writing my in-depth review of the first film?

I think it’s because a “LEGO Movie” is no longer the gamble it once was. This sequel was another fun, well-made film in the LEGO Movie universe, with a great cast and some wonderful designs. But unlike the original, the marketing for this film definitely had the vibe of “yeah, come on… we know you’re all gonna come see this.”

On top of that, the “Batman” of it all is nothing new, either. All of the familiar motifs are here:

• A gang of Gotham’s worst criminals (led by The Joker, natch) is loose in the city, wreaking havoc and conspiring against our heroes,
• The Gotham City government and police force struggle with this excessive amount of crime. And, of course,
• Millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne dresses like a bat man to clean up the town and work through the pain of losing his parents at a young age.

On paper, this might sound like a recipe for a dull film. But as with the first LEGO Movie, what makes it all work is a wonderful dose of humor, self-awareness, and an obvious love for the property. LEGO Batman is definitely a fun watch, and if you liked the original, you’ll probably like this one, too.

But unfortunately, this all means that I don’t much else to say about The LEGO Batman Movie itself. Dave Pickett and I talked at length about it on my YouTube channel back in February (see above), if you’re interested in some further random discussion.

However, I will say this: I am curious to see what comes next, given the fact that we’ll have “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” to watch and think through a few months from now. As far as IPs go, Ninjago is certainly no Batman…

You can catch The LEGO Batman Movie on DVD, Blu-ray, iTunes, and elsewhere.

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!

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?

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.

We’re a little less than one month out from the North American release of “The LEGO Batman Movie”, the first of this year’s two (!) sequels to 2014’s “The LEGO Movie”. In the time since our last post about it, there have been a number of trailers for the film, as well as a few TV spots with additional footage. Let’s review.

Teaser Trailer #1 – The Batcave

The first teaser sees Batman introducing us to his Batcave, general solitude, and the overall concept of the film. It also features an opening prologue, which suggests (albeit jokingly) that the film was written and directed by Batman himself. I would love it if that conceit carried over to the actual film.

Teaser Trailer #2 – Wayne Manor

The second teaser followed only a few days later, and gave some insight into LEGO Batman’s parentage (spoiler alert: Batman’s parents are dead) as well as how this film fits into the overall Bat-continuity. The Wayne Manor fireplace room is a gorgeous design, and the animation of Batman flopping around the floor like some sort of fish is very entertaining and well-posed. #ABR

Comic Con 2016 Trailer

The Comic Con trailer was the first to feature Michael Cera’s Dick Grayson/Robin, as well as more looks at the Batcave and Batman’s expansive costume collection.

Trailer #4

The succinctly-titled “Trailer #4” serves as an amalgam of the previous previews, while also showcasing more of the plot and characters—including Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon, and Zack Galifianakis as The Joker.

Extended TV Spot

Finally, the Extended TV Spot confirms something that I was curious about—this film will take place in “Gotham City” (or a reasonable brick-built facsimile) and not Bricksburg (home of Emmet from the original LEGO Movie). We also get more of the Dark Knight’s rogues gallery, including The Riddler, Catwoman, Penguin, Gentleman Ghost (real), Calendar Man (very real), and the Condiment King (really really real). Of course, my favorite villain (seen here in a quick glimpse) will most likely prove to be Killer Croc, if only for the retro LEGO crocodile head he sports in this film.

What are you most looking forward to in The LEGO Batman Movie? Did we miss any of the trailers? Let us know in the comments!

As a LEGO Creator themed contest, the goal is for entrants to create a 15 to 45 second stop-motion animation showing the building and rebuilding of a LEGO Creator 3-in-1 set. Films cannot feature other LEGO parts that are not included in the specific LEGO Creator 3-in-1 set used by an entrant, nor can the video feature anything besides the LEGO set (such as hands or clay). The video’s background must also be clean and uncluttered, according to the ReBrick rules. I assume this is to ensure that the completed videos correspond with the LEGO Creator branding and are similar to the building videos already featured on the LEGO Creator website.

In contrast to the previous stop-motion contests on ReBrick, this contest does not allow Creative Commons music or sound effects. Unfortunately for those who aren’t musically talented (), the rules state that all sounds and music must be original and created by the entrant or from a “LEGO movie editor/music creator.” If this is referencing the LEGO Movie Maker app, then many people are out of luck due to the recent closure of the app. (If there is some other LEGO movie editor/music creator app out there, please let us know in the comments!)

The contest is now open and runs until March 22, 2017 at 10:00 am EST. As with every ReBrick contest, it is only available for entrants ages 13 and older. I look forward to seeing many of your awesome entries there!

Do you think this contest looks fun? Are you planning on entering? What do you think about the rules? Tell us down in the comments below! Also be sure to check out The Set Bump on Facebook and Twitter!

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!

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.

We’re still alive. Things are happening. More posts coming soonish.

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.

When buying a camera, here are a few features to look for:

• Manual controls, especially for focus and white balance
• USB, Firewire and/or HDMI connection to computer
• Tripod connection (screw threads on bottom)
• Plug-in power source – avoid running on battery power if at all possible.

Some stop-motion software:

Windows:

• Helium Frog (free) http://www.heliumfrog.com/heliumfrogindex.html
• AnimatorDV (Simple+ version is free!) http://www.animatordv.com
• MonkeyJam (free) – Not HD, very basic. http://monkeyjam.org/
• Stop Motion Pro ($49 for Action! edition) http://www.stopmotionpro.com
• Dragonframe 3.0 (free trial, $295 for full) http://www.dragonframe.com/

Mac:

• Stopmojo (free) http://www.mondobeyondo.com/projects/stopmojo/
• Boinx iStopMotion Home ($49) http://www.boinx.com/istopmotion/
• Dragonframe 3.0 (free trial, $295 for full) http://www.dragonframe.com/

Mobile (iOS, available via iTunes):

• LEGO Movie Maker (free and AWESOME) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lego-movie-maker/id516001587?mt=8
• iMotion HD (free) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imotion-hd/id421365625?mt=8
• Stop Motion Studio (free) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stop-motion-studio/id441651297?mt=8
• Aardman Animate It! ($2.99) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/animate-it/id544691268?mt=8
• Boinx iStopMotion for iPad ($9.99) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istopmotion-for-ipad/id484019696?mt=8

Recommended books:

• Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. “The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.” Disney Editions, 1995.
• Richard Williams. “The Animator’s Survival Kit.” Faber & Faber, 2002.
• Allan Bedford. “The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide.” No Starch Press, 2005.

Web resources:

• Bricks In Motion – http://www.bricksinmotion.com
• Brickfilmer’s Guild – http://www.brickfilmersguild.com
• The Stop-Motion Animation How-To Page – http://www.animateclay.com
• Stop Motion Works – http://www.stopmotionworks.com/
• Creative Cow – http://www.creativecow.net

What are some of your favorite resources for brickfilming? Tell us in the comments!

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.

We’re very excited to announce the third 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 8 entries (spanning a variety of genres and styles, from a live-action comedy sketch to a pulp-style space adventure) to an enthusiastic audience of over 160 people.

The event theme for Brickworld Chicago 2014 is “Candy, Sweet Escapes,” so we’re asking this year’s entrants to keep this concept in mind when creating/selecting their submissions. We expect to see some films featuring the Ice Cream Machine and Downtown Bakery. However, we’re also hoping to see other creative approaches to the theme; for instance, last year’s winning film, “From Baking to Bad Guys,” could easily fit in 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.  Additionally, an ‘Audience Favorite’ 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.

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 “Candy, Sweet Escapes” in some way.
• Your film must not have been submitted to any previous Brickworld Film Festival.
• Limit one film submission per person.
• 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, 2014 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!

This new comedy series is going to be set in the Star Wars universe and will be based off of Johnson’s popular brickfilm by the same name. “We truly are breaking new ground with this series,” Johnson writes, “and if successful we are confident that this series will generate awareness and respect for the many talented artists in the brick filming community.” The series is a collaboration between several other brickfilmers including Zach Macias (MindGame Studios) and Spencer Olson (Olsonstudios).

The project goal is to raise $40,000 within a month. While the project size and goal are large, this isn’t the first time a brickfilm has sought to be funded via Kickstarter. In August of 2013, Greg Tull of Monitogo Studios raised over $14,000 for his team’s feature length film, making it the most successful campaign of its kind. Will Clone Training Center beat this record? For more information on the project, visit the Kickstarter page.

In this brickfilm, there is one thing I would like to share with you, one very simple thing that impressed me a lot (and made me laugh too). Watch it first, then read on.

The first time I saw “Alien,” I was very young and scared. But this remake made me laugh because it’s so simple.

Did you see it? Bricktease used a simple piece called “robot arm” to impersonate the bursting alien coming out of the poor guy’s chest. I call that brilliant. Well-animated, a single piece can make you remember a famous character, in a famous scene, in a classic sci-fi movie.

As of this writing, the most-viewed article on The Set Bump is this short-and-admittedly-more-snarky-than-helpful piece entitled “No, ‘The LEGO Movie’ isn’t stop-motion”. I posted this commentary last year, as a response to several articles that jumped the gun by describing the contents of The LEGO Movie trailer as stop-motion when it was clearly done with CG.

Now, when I say:

It was clearly done with CG.

I of course mean:

Based on my 20+ years of study; and my knowledge of the limitations of LEGO stop-motion, film scheduling, and cash money; I (and my well-trained eye) can say with 99.9% certainty that not one shot in “The LEGO Movie” trailer is pure stop-motion photography.

Of course, motion pictures are illusions by definition, but I was still confident in my assertion that The LEGO Movie wasn’t stop-motion. Further adding to the confusion were contradictory comments from the directors and filmmaking crew, which skirted the line between actual information and marketing hype soundbites. What we really needed was hard evidence in the form of behind-the-scenes featurettes and footage.

And over the past month or so, we got just that.

First up was this “Behind the Bricks” mockumentary featurette, which was basically just a promo piece and not anything about the making of The LEGO Movie itself. Funny, but not helpful. It all still looked like 100% CG.

Next was this weird footage dump from ScreenSlam of some LEGO Movie making-of clips. Still no sign of stop-motion. (They did release some fun behind-the-scenes bits of the dialogue recording session with Chris Pratt, though.)

Then came this (veeeeeery dry) episode and article from fxguide, featuring interviews with Animal Logic crew members who detail (greaaaaaat detail) the CG approach and pipeline used for The LEGO Movie. Vindication was mine!

Finally, earlier today, Art of the Title gave us a look at the creation of the end titles from The LEGO Movie, and — lo and behold — they actually are stop-motion. Annoyingly, I can’t embed the videos here, but you should definitely check out the link. There’s a ton of cool making-of goodness to pour over.

On the set of the full end title reveal.

So what does this all mean? Well, it means that technically the directors weren’t kidding when they said there was some stop-motion in the film. Although it does still feel a tiny bit disingenuous to describe the entire film as “part-CGI and part actual real LEGO bricks in stop-motion”.

To be honest, having seen The LEGO Movie for a third time this past week, I still wasn’t sure myself as to whether the end titles were stop-motion or not. The animation and physical built pieces looked like stop-motion, but the structure of the “cubbyhole” layout seemed too CG-like to me. Knowing now how much CG pre-vis was done on the sequence, that assertion makes total sense.

Anyway, I guess the most important thing to take away here is that it really doesn’t matter what medium is used to make a film; as long as the story is compelling, memorable, and filled with characters who invite you to join them on their journey. Of course, I’ll still be waiting with bated breath for The LEGO Movie on home video… despite being CG, there are some amazing builds that I really want to go through one frame at a time.

I’ll also be checking the DVD featurettes veeeeery carefully for any signs of stop-motion.

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?

What makes a LEGO movie a “LEGO Movie”?

In response to the release of “The LEGO Movie”, Fancy Pants put together this assortment of clips from 15 popular brickfilms. It’s a great showcase of some of the best the medium has to offer (we’ve covered a few of the selections here before), but something about the sentiment behind it seems off.

Here at The Set Bump, we can certainly be somewhat snooty in terms of what makes something “true” LEGO animation. On the other hand, as I said in my spoilertastic review: The LEGO Movie is, for all intents and purposes, a brickfilm in the truest sense of the word.

What do you guys think? Are there definite criteria for what makes a “real” LEGO movie? If so, do you think The LEGO Movie qualifies?

The REAL Lego Movies – YouTube

Check out this interview with the directors and listen carefully, right at the beginning, when they talk about “pouring over all the crazy movies people are making.” That’s us, gentlemen.

Indeed, everything is awesome!

This year’s theme was “A Mistaken Identity.” You know, when you see someone and think they are someone else. In THAC, the theme can be interpreted however the participants like (and they did so in very creative ways).

If you like to play the game, you can try to spot the mod element. In every frame of the movie, there must be a red brick connected to a grey brick or the there must be the letter T visible in any way (printed, built, or anything creative that looks like a T). That is a way to make sure the participants produced their brickfilms within the 24 hour time frame of the contest.

It would take you over 2 hours to watch all 76 brickfilms made for THAC11, but I picked out the best ones for you. Just for the fun of it, here’s my favorites in categories I just made up.

Best overall performance

“The Does” by A&M Studios

“The Does” takes us into a classic family sitcom with a nice setup and good animation. As the director says… well, you’ll see. I only want to point out that it is a very good use of different minifig’s heads.

“Con” by AquaMorph Productions

Based on a good narration, the animation is well done and really helps to tell the story.
Very good lightning… I love all those back lights.

“The Code’s Game” by AniMax

I don’t know the show they are referring to, but I catch the gist. What I like is the way there is a helicopter in the movie… without ever seeing it.

Best Space Themed movie (aka MonsieurCaron’s favorite)

“Sector Se7en” by Spencer Olson Films

Wow, the best short in my opinon. And it’s in Space, what can I ask more? The use of SFX for the holograph and the flying is very well done.

“The Supervisor” by Legoander

WOW. This is a simple yet effective little story. And well animated robots and humans.

“Planet of the Sneeuwpop” by Annoying Noises Productions

You gotta love the way those spacemen teleport.

Best use of microscale

“Expectation” by Loïc F-B

Loïc F-B made good use of lightning in his film. I love his city landscape in forced perspective. I’m taking notes here for my own movies.

“The Key” by Binding Brick

Making the spaceship in microscale was a great idea. A nice montage that goes well with the music.

Most amazing integration of the mod element

“Mental” by Chris Wynn

The way the MOD element (the letter T) is hidden is just awesome. Check the white walls.

Best use of Chima

“AX 2” by PritchardStudios

Good use of Chima minifig and Chi bricks. I like the way we switch between worlds.

Best dream sequence

“No Crawme Steals Christmas” by Brickhead Productions

You must see that cop sleeveless ! And… is that a song or what ? It’s a great movie!

“How I survived” by Sean Willets

I could have put this one into the “Best use of microscale” too.

Best plot twist

“The Liberator” by Bluper8

There’s a good twist in this story.

“The Police Delivery” by ForlornCreature

Another well animated good short story.

“Magnus Lapsus” by Mighty Wanderer

Nice smooth animation and good voice acting… except for the end. NOOoooo

Best non-English language

“Fish tale” by soppenjim

Very funny use of the theme. The spoken language is Norwegian. Don’t worry, there’s subtitles.

You can wath all 76 brickfilms on this playlist.

As you know, the C in THAC is for Contest, but I prefer to look a this event as a Challenge. If you can make a good brickfilm within 24 hours, you’re a winner, you made the challenge. Tell us which one is your favorite brickfilm in this year’s THAC and why… because there are so many ways a brickfilm can be great!

It’s one of those videos that, by the time it was over, had me sitting and thinking. The animation, simple white set, and that truly bizarre red dot carried me through this three-minute short, but it didn’t stop there. Some of my favorite movies and animations are the ones that don’t have a conclusion. Sure, the video definitely had an ending, but it didn’t conclude. It doesn’t spoon feed the answer but begs for questions to be asked and things to be thought over.

What do you think it means?

“The Spot” on YouTube

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:

One can choose between five notable brickfilming contests with deadlines between Christmas morning and the end of year.  Two of the competitions do not even require that the brickfilm be made special for that particular contest, just as long as it was made in 2013.  All of the contests have prizes.

BricksInMotion.com will be holding their annual Twenty-four Hour Animation Contest just a few days before the end of the year.  THAC11 will start at 12pm GMT on Saturday December 28th, 2013. Brickfilmers that enter a THAC do all the idea-making, writing, recording, animating, editing and submitting in just one twenty-four hour period.  It can be quite a grueling process.  At the start time of the contest, details about THAC will be announced on BIM that will include the theme and mod elements.  Although BIM has a few other official contests, I tend to view THAC as their most prestigious contest.  Some notable past winners are Sméagol, Legoander, ForlornCreature, and SpastikChuwawa. The contest does have prizes from its sponsor Brickworld.  Hazzat (Zoot Productions) is administering the contest announcement thread on BIM.  Let’s hope for an on time start this year as there has been issues with that in the past.

A Repelling Spider is hosting another installment of Christmas in a Minute.  The goal of the contest is to make a 20-60 second Christmas themed brickfilm that “can stand out and claim a victory”.  There are prizes for the winners which were provided by contest sponsors Firestar Toys and Mighty Wanderer. The deadline is Christmas Eve, Tuesday December 24, 2013 at 11:59pm EST.  For more information about this great contest, watch the announcement video here.

Members of the French brickfiming website Brick-à-Brack can enter Brickstars.  Brick-à-Brack hosts their big annual brickfilm contest at the end of the year.  Any film released in the year 2013 is eligible for this contest.  Entries will be judged in several different categories such as Best Soundtrack, Best Production Design, Best Special Effects, Best Screenplay, Best Animation, and Best Brickfilmer. Other awards will also be given out for “Most Promising Video” and “Audience Award” that is voted on by Brick-à-Brack members.  Past winners have included great brickfilmers such as France & Alex, Legoander, Aiwha, and Loïc F-B.

 A sports themed brickfilming contest called OYO Video Challege II is being hosted and judged by thefourmonkeys.  OYO Sportstoys is sponsoring the contest and providing prizes. OYO Sportstoys make LEGO compatible minfigures for NFL and Major League Baseball teams. The deadline is  December 31st at 9pm EST.  The rules are posted on a blog by thefourmonkeys on the Brickfilmer’s Guild. You can also checkout the announcement video here. The main directive for the contest is to show an OYO Sportstoys minifigure(s) in action.  The deadline has passed for the free OYO minifigure, but prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.  BigBudLego and PritchardStudios placed 1st and 2nd last year.

The Brickfilmer’s Guild is also back with the 2013 Brickfilmer’s Guild Animation Festival.  The Brickfilmer’s Guild Animation Festival is the annual animation festival hosted on the Brickfilmer’s Guild and judged by thefourmonkeys and members of the Brickfilmer’s Guild (Member’s Choice). The festival is in its sophomore year and has slightly tweaked rules from last year. Only one brickfilm per person is allowed and there is a 10 minute time limit for the brickfilms. The festival is open to any brickfilmer including non-Brickfilmer’s Guild members. Honors will be mentioned for many categories and there will be a prize for Best Brickfilm.  Last year, the Best Brickfilm went to the amazing brickfilmer namchild for his outstanding brickfilm entitled The Duel (LEGO).

I was hoping to report about a sixth brickfilming contest, but it appears that Megabloks Toymation will not have a 2013 edition.  That’s too bad as the past winners have had some really great entries.

Happy competing!

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.

Tyler’s Tips:

Tyler’s Tips #1 Introduction

Tyler’s Tips #2 Planning

Tyler’s Tips #3 Lighting

Tyler’s Tips #4 Movement

Tyler’s Tips #5 Final Techniques

Tyler Gregory produced the winning entry of the Halo Toymation 2011 contest with his action-thriller The Rookie.

He was also a judge for the Halo Toymation Fest 2012. Most of Tyler’s  video productions on his YouTube Channel are machinima videos.

Another animation tips videos series can be found on Halo Toymation website produced by stop-motion expert Erik Goulet. Erik  teaches stop-motion animation at Concordia University and also founded the Montreal Stop-Motion Film Festival. His series is educational as well.

Even if you brickfilm only with LEGO products, you can still get something out of this series. Check it out. 

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.

A few of the things that impressed me the most about the film were the intricate camera movements and character motions. They’re some of the best I’ve seen in a brickfilm in a long time. Their behind-the-scenes video is truly inspiring and enlightening. From the very practical lighting set-ups, to the complex camera and motion rigs made from LEGO, France & Alex take the “limitations” of a webcam and push them as far as they can. In fact, after watching this video, I’m even more convinced that webcams are one of the best cameras to use for brickfilming. Set some time aside to watch “Bestia” and then be sure to watch the incredible making-of video.

Bestia (making-of) – YouTube

Bestia – YouTube

Last week marked one of the major brickfilming competitions that are held almost every year within the community. BRAWL challenges animators to create an entire short animation in only week or less. These events always bring about some really quality entries. One of my favorite this year was this clever and powerful animation about a soldier. The video is rather short, the audio isn’t the greatest, but it is an excellent example of what a great brickfilm is. The pacing and structure of the short lends to its powerful conclusion. It also uses the contest’s theme, “Outlook,” quite well. Take a moment and watch “Homefront” by Chris Wynn.

[BRAWL 2013] Homefront – YouTube

Quite recently there have been some discussions about whether brickfilming is on the decline. People have said that the “golden age” of brickfilms is over (whenever that was). They support this opinion by pointing to the surplus of mediocre and sub-mediocre animations that are coming out each and every day. It seems to many that truly “great” brickfilms are produced less and less often. I, however, do not see this as being true. Even if it were the case, it does not change one simple fact: it’s a great time to brickfilm. At no other time in the short history of the art has there been so much opportunity, so many resources, and an abundance of encouragement. Allow me to explain.

Inexpensive, Abundant Tech

With the rise of webcams, smartphones, and DSLRs, gone are the days when not every Tom, Dick, or Jane could pick up a camera, a box of LEGO bricks, and begin animating. Rapid advances in technology have put brickfilming in the hands of almost anyone who wants to try it. It is easier to do than ever before, especially in comparison to when Lindsay Fleay first created “The Magic Portal” on a film camera back in the 1980s. Combine this with the software options filmmakers have today and it is relatively easy to get started. The upfront cost could be as little as $40-$100. Compare this to the $11,745 budget for “The Magic Portal,” the bulk of which was probably spent on things like film stock, processing & transferring, and simply getting access to studios with sound editing equipment.

Perhaps herein lies the real problem. When brickfilming was harder and required a greater investment, people were less apt to begin unless they were serious about it. Today, there are still plenty of people who are serious about making quality animations. It is simply harder to find them and become noticed in the sea of mediocrity.

Distribution on a Global Scale

Let’s consider Lindsay Fleay again. When he finished “The Magic Portal,” the internet was still in its infancy. There was no YouTube, Vimeo, or DailyMotion. Getting a brickfilm to an audience was not as quick and easy as rendering, uploading, tagging, and then tweeting. Lindsay’s only option for distribution was to work with a film distributor and apply to film festivals, a time-consuming process that doesn’t always yield results.

I won’t even begin to take the time to intimately describe the ways in which the World Wide Web has impacted this art. That’s a topic that would require a post of its own.

Encouragement from the LEGO Group

Over the short history of brickfilming, copyright issues have constantly plagued animators. For quite some time, it was apparent that the LEGO Group did not condone or even support a group of fans that wanted to make movies with their product, and then distribute them. Lindsay Fleay came against this very issue when he wanted to get his film out to the world, or at least a greater portion of it. Basically, LEGO told Fleay to stop all of his actions and turn over all of the content. Thankfully, Fleay was able to resist and retain his creation, but he was never able to distribute it like he dreamed.

As the internet began to grow and mature, companies began to change their policies on how they would allow people to use their products. Over the past two decades it seems that the LEGO Group has slowly changed their stance on the issue of brickfilming. They have switched from actively discouraging brickfilming to actively encouraging it.

For instance, over the past few years, LEGO has sponsored a number of brickfilming contests. Just recently, there was one such competition that was held to accompany the production of the upcoming LEGO Movie. This contest even offered the opportunity of featuring one of the winners in the movie itself! Also, the Tongal video challenges hosted by LEGO must be considered. LEGO was and still is paying animators young and old to produce brickfilms that they end up using for advertising and promotional purposes. Twenty years ago, the chances of a teenage, amateur animator to be paid $10,000 by LEGO were slim to none.

Oh, and I must not forget to mention the smartphone and tablet application that the LEGO Group recently released. It allows users to create and then share stop-motion brickfilms using the camera on their devices! Clearly, LEGO has become a supporter of sorts.

Doorway to a Broader Future

Ever heard of Christopher Nolan? You know, the man who made a few Batman films that a couple of people like? Did you know that he once made videos with LEGO? Or take Lindsay Fleay—he went on to do 3D animation work on major films like “The Matrix,” “Moulin Rouge,” and “Happy Feet.”

I say this to make a point that has become very real in my own life. What started as a simple hobby turned into a doorway for greater opportunities. I’ve been interviewed by LEGO more than once, helped on a larger film project, and more recently have been asked to create some small animations to be used at the end of a feature-length documentary. All because I started to brickfilm. None of these opportunities would have been possible without my hobby.

These things did not happen to me overnight of course. It’s taken me several years to get to this point, but it goes to show that brickfilming can eventually be a door to greater projects. I’m sure if you ask other talented brickfilmers, they could say the same thing. Just look at Dylan Woodley, the teenager who was commissioned to create an official LEGO version of Ed Sheeran’s LEGO House music video. Now that’s impressive!

Conclusion

Sure, there are a lot of bad brickfilms being created today. But does this mean brickfilming is on the decline? Of course not! Just like any art, there is plenty of junk to sort through. Finding the quality work can be hard at times, but that does not mean it is not out there. Trust me, it is. [If only there were some sort of blog that highlighted great brickfilms… –Ed.]

Here’s a quick call-to-action to the animators out there: don’t get stuck looking at all the negative aspects of the art. If you’re sick and tired of seeing cliche shoot-em-up action videos, work extra hard and create something truly unique and amazing. The opportunities, resources, and encouragement have never been so available.

Now is a great time to start brickfilming; more so than ever before. Get up, grab some LEGO, find a camera, and get animating!

“The Magic Portal” – YouTube

Behind the scenes of “The Magic Portal”

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

I usually shy away from clicking “related videos” links — there are about 14.2 million LEGO videos on YouTube, and it’s way too easy to fall down an internet hole and never come out/get any work done.

This time my curiosity got the better of me, and I was delighted to find “Late for Work Again!” by Brick a Brack Studios. It’s your standard “Spider-Man on patrol” tale, but it’s got some neat touches. The dialogue and pacing are strong, there are some neat cameos (love the custom LEGO Marvel characters), and there’s a nice fourth wall break in the middle that leads to some interesting scale work. I think what really impressed me was how much it felt like a Spider-Man animated short — moreso than the last live-action movie, I’d say.

It may not be the most technically impressive short, but it’s definitely worth checking out. I guess Dave was right to be curious about the many hidden gems of brick animation waiting for us out there…

Late for Work Again! – YouTube

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:

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.

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.

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!

“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

Here’s a neat video wherein a minifigure waxes poetic about the potential and possibilities of LEGO bricks. While I think it could have benefited from being about 30-60 seconds shorter, it’s definitely worth checking out — it’s got lots of great animation bits, and some clever dialogue and gags.

I caught it on the official LEGO YouTube channel, which we’ve mentioned before. There’s still no sign of comments or consistent descriptions on these *official* videos… and therefore, I have no clue who made this video, when, or for what. Any ideas, dear readers?

Notes From The LEGO® Tub – 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?

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.

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.

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:

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?

It’s been just about a month since BrickAnimation.com launched, and now that we have some substantial content, we thought it would be a good time to address a glaring issue with our site: it has a boring name.

BrickAnimation.com was a logical domain for us, but it lacks the poetry of titles like The Brothers Brick, Boing Boing, or Gizmodo. We’re hoping you can help us come up with something better.

Here are some ideas we came up with, to give you a sense of what we’re looking for (of course, your name will be much more clever):

• The Brick Animation Handbook
• Moving Bricktures
• 8 Stud Theatre
• Blocks Office
• Studs and Sprockets

The Contest
Post a comment below with your idea(s) for a new name for this site. The ideal name is related to brick animation, easy to say and to remember, and no more than three syllables long. The name cannot contain the word LEGO, “brickfilms”, or any other registered trademark. For consideration, please submit your comment no later than October 24th. And keep in mind, by submitting a name, you are giving us permission to trademark it (and signifying that you agree to our Official Naming Contest Rules). You can enter as many times as you like, but you can only win one prize.

Prizes

• Grand Prize: David and David will create a minifig in your likeness (we promise not to use it in any voodoo rituals) and feature it as the star of a short (< 30 seconds) brick animation.  After we’re done animating, we’ll send you the minifig!
• 2nd – 4th place: An honest-to-goodness Little Guys! figure from Paganomation
• 5th – 10th place: A tiny-but-evil Pinchbot from NNN

That’s all there is to it; so get a-brainstormin’!

YouTube user Brotherhood Workshop brings us this short stop-motion LotR parody. Not too much LEGO (apart from minifigs), but good stuff nonetheless.

LEGO Lord of the Rings: Orcs – YouTube [via BoingBoing]

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?

Zach Macias (Mindgame Studios) has created this mildly spoilerish TDKR parody. When it is done, and Gotham is in ashes, then you have my permission to chuckle to yourself.

R I S E  [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