Bricks in Motion
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A bit of amusing random madness I made over a few days to get used to my delightful new studio and get back into the swing of animation:
Sorry about the flickering and bumping. I'm usually better at that sort of thing for proper film animation, but I don't worry too much over tests.
Please give me your thoughts on these clips, which tests you liked best, and which thought could use something.
Wow, that looks great! As you said, in various clips there's a couple of bumps, etc., but other than that, technically-wise everything looks pretty flawless. I'll try to be thorough:
Test 2 (camera movement): Maybe try to ease out a bit more.
Test 4 (running): (maybe) exaggerate the arm and leg movement just a bit more. It kind of looked like he was gliding.
Test 5 (quick pan): It seemed to ease in, then ease out, then move again, then ease out. It didn't look amazingly fluid, but it was still a good test.
Test 11 (slow pan): I would've liked to see more easing and the camera to stop, but I suppose because it's a montage it isn't exactly necessary.
Test 14 (self conflict 2): The muzzle flash wasn't that great... With your style of animation it may have looked better to have actually just attached a translucent Lego cone onto the gun. (also, the cartoon Joker's hair kept on moving.)
Test 16 (machine gun): That was actually much better with the 'real' muzzle flash than the former.
Test 17 (double slap): The second slap looked like it didn't have any force behind it.
Test 18: 
Test 25 (death): Maybe when you just had the olive head-block on the body, you should have had a frame with a grey flat hair piece? (very nitpicky)
Test 29 (head bang): His arms should move to exaggerate the bang.
Test 40 (kicking the bucket): He seems to stop very abruptly, maybe his arms and back should've gone back a bit farther and then settled?
Test 44 (rimbledim): Hmmm... not sure what it is, but the walk looks too robotic.
Those tests really do look great, though. I'm being very nitpicky and am trying to be constructive.
Hope you can take some of this critique into consideration! Cheers.
Thanks.
Test 11 (slow pan): I would've liked to see more easing and the camera to stop, but I suppose because it's a montage it isn't exactly necessary.
That shot is actually done with a LEGO built machine I built made to move smoothly. You turn the crank, and you get extremely small precise even movements. Unfortunately, it's difficult to ease out of those even movements, so I use it for movements which are moving when the camera rolls, and not stop until after. The goal is consistency.
Test 29 (head bang): His arms should move to exaggerate the bang.
Good idea.
Test 40 (kicking the bucket): He seems to stop very abruptly, maybe his arms and back should've gone back a bit farther and then settled?
Ah, yes, I made an error with the bucket and had to delete two frames. it would have worked better without the frames than with them.
Ooooh, very nice!
I especially like the effect ones, such as; lightning, transformation, extermination, machine gun, Llor Kcir, arcane axe, freeze ray (also the reference in its title card), ghost, flashback, and the two Block-Bot tests.
Some of those could've used some more exaggeration on the anticipation, especially the fighting ones, the kinife throw, and the sword slashes (try turning the minifig on one foot).
#18 looks like more "Just Kidden-ish talking" to me.
Thanks.
Yes, perhaps, I've still got some to learn, obviously.
#21 is fantastic, I was wondering how you were going to make Scarface "talk" and you did it wonderfully.
The head bang needed more force behind it, and try not to ease-out much if he's about to hit something, because the object is supposed to stop him violently and cause pain, something that it can't do if he's already slowed down a lot.
By the way, who are "Adolf the Zombie" and "Rimbledim? I noticed Adolf on your channel background before, but never seen him in any of your animations, and although Rim has been in some after-credit pics, (If I remember right) I've never seen him in a proper scene before. And no tests with Mr. Munchie? I'm sure he feels very left out right now. 
Also, where did you get the "Troll" head?
Last edited by Pritchard Studios (June 21, 2012 (07:10am))
Rimbledim and Adolf the Zombie are characters I've made up for brickfilms I may possibly make in the far future.
Adolf would be in "Zombies Vs. Aliens", or another film called "Monster Theater" about monsters that make monster movies.
Rimbledim is part of a story called Rimbledim, where he and his crew hunt for treasure in an epic space adventure also involving the Block-Bots. The rest of the people from that frame you mentioned are his crew.
I didn't actually feel like testing Munchy.
The Trollface was edited on there.
I simply found an image of the trollface, erased the borders and pasted it on. For the helmet, I just masked it carefully and made some other slight modifications.
I loved those tests! I thought they were fantastic!:D All of the tests were really good and quite smooth. Very good job.
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