Bricks in Motion
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I was wondering what would be the best way to do a large explotion for a brickfilm. I was thinking of using the bricks to make it look like there blowing up but also useing cotton for the smoke. I don't know what to use for the light of the explotion. Would it be better to go about it in an other way. What do you think.
Action essentials 2 by Video Copilot is one of the best stock footage packs I know of.
Admittedly, it does cast a fair bit of cash, but you'll get the most bang for your buck. Literally.
Action essentials 2 by Video Copilot is one of the best stock footage packs I know of.
Admittedly, it does cast a fair bit of cash, but you'll get the most bang for your buck. Literally.
I looked at that and it's too pricey for. I do brickfilms just for fun and I've already spent quite a bit with my new cam and the the stop motion kit I started with. Also it looks like it's only good for editing software that supports Quicktime so I'd have to buy that to. Any thing that's free, less expensive, or is supported by software other then Quicktime?
coolasice11 wrote:ANP uses orange transparent bricks for the explosions in his brickfilms. You can see them here and here.
Ya, but I don't have many transparent orange bricks.
Then get some on Bricklink. They have all kinds of pieces and they don't cost much.
Brick-built explosions fit Lego more than stock footage explosions. Stock footage is too realistic, and Lego is a simplified form of reality. So less realistic stuff fits Lego better.
Brickcrazy wrote:coolasice11 wrote:ANP uses orange transparent bricks for the explosions in his brickfilms. You can see them here and here.
Ya, but I don't have many transparent orange bricks.
Then get some on Bricklink. They have all kinds of pieces and they don't cost much.
Brick-built explosions fit Lego more than stock footage explosions. Stock footage is too realistic, and Lego is a simplified form of reality. So less realistic stuff fits Lego better.
Do you know how to light them up because I don't really know how you could.
Just shine a light on them (a flashlight or something).
I also thought of getting the bricks from Lego's pick a brick but I don't know if it would be cheaper to get them from Bricklink. You can get as many brick as you want from Lego without liking forever, just for a few bricks but I don't know what they have for selection.
Last edited by Brickcrazy (December 10, 2011 (04:47pm))
If you mean the online Pick-a-Brick, don't do it. They don't have a wide of a selection as Bricklink and they're way overpriced.
The in-store Pick-a-Brick wall is fine, but the types of elements available and quantity of them is limited.
Use footage from Detonation Films.
If you have a quite advanced video editing software, you can place it in front of the video, and key away the black.
Use WAX to composite stock footage, or if you already have Sony Vegas, Premiere, or Final Cut then use that.
Last edited by Fat Cat Films (December 11, 2011 (04:14am))
I used cotton wool in Marooned, where it was held up by a piece of lego hidden behind it. I then shone a torch through, and it gave quite a cool fireball looking effect. It wasn't perfect, no, but I still think it looks better than some really fake looking cgi. Plus it gives you some good opportunities to have things flying out of it and coming towards the camera, something which you can do with cgi but I'd think that you'd have to learn with it first. Its not brilliant, but at least it's simple and doesn't take forever.
I used cotton wool in Marooned, where it was held up by a piece of lego hidden behind it. I then shone a torch through, and it gave quite a cool fireball looking effect. It wasn't perfect, no, but I still think it looks better than some really fake looking cgi. Plus it gives you some good opportunities to have things flying out of it and coming towards the camera, something which you can do with cgi but I'd think that you'd have to learn with it first. Its not brilliant, but at least it's simple and doesn't take forever.
So you just shone a flashlight through it like behind it or what. Oh! I love your movie Marooned! 
Thanks. 
Yeah, I had a maglight which you could unscrew the cap at the front off, which left the bulb exposed. Then I put it behind the cotton wool, and it gave a kind of glow. I quite like it, simple but yet effective!
It's important to have as many torches/flashlights as possible for cotton or orange bricksplosions.
For I Am The Darkness I used five. Make sure they're red, or orange-ish, and absolutely as bright as possible. Shine them on the set, and you get some amazing yet simply executed lighting effects.
That's very nice method. 'Cause in the movie it looks so different and that thing is good. It looks in movie like real explotion with some orange studs, nothing more. This is great!
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