As a brickfilmer, I get asked lots of questions about how I make my brickfilms. There are also people who ask for advice on how they should start. So, I was very happy to see that Kevin Ulrich of Brotherhood Workshop answered those questions (and more) in these two videos.

Kevin has been making brickfilms for 10 years now, which explains why he is so good. It’s been only three years for me, so I still have time to improve. I hope you learn some tricks, and find as much motivation in Kevin’s words as I did. (Pay close attention at the “good enough” part.)

How I Became A Stop Motion Animator | Interview With Kevin Ulrich

Getting Started In Stop Motion Animation

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

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

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!