Thanks for your reply, I honestly improved thanks to your tips! i really appreciate it, i know it is still a bit choppy and still very unrealistic especially with the head butt scene, but i don't understand what I'm doing wrong which is were i hope you can help me improve, as you can see i wanted the guy with the halo helmet to do a brief speech but was unable to due to the fast speed, so i just want to ask, i captured this through helium frog which is great for me, as its just easy to use and has great accessories, but what i want to know now is, how do i fix the light flicker ? i kind of try to keep my camera as close to the set as possible, though my camera is on a tripod so that might be the reason, and one more thing i really tried with the head but and punch i mean i really tried i kind of tried to ease in and ease out like you said so i swung the #2 guys hand back then went for the swung as i tried to make it fast and realistic.

what software would i need to use to add the audio and how can i delay the images or pause them to make the recorded parts i need?

Thanks again mate always appreciated.

Generalned

Edit: I loved the profession it was a fantastic spy movie, i wish i could do something like that, hopefully maybe someday.

Last edited by Generalned (August 28, 2012 (09:57am))

Good start of brickfilming experience. You can now doing nice (not yet very nice ) animations. But you need to more practice and patience . Watch some tutorials of walking and start filming, but dont push yourself to be "perfect". Of course skill training is good, but... perfection is not exist.
If you see its good its good and upload it . (this is only brickfilming...)
I see that you are using webcam and probably standard bulbs light. Cheap webcams haven't good white balance and optics... So light flickers are standard with using cheap webcams and standard bulbs. Im testing my cheap webcam and led lights (1,2W and 0,6W) and its much better than bulbs. If you can try led lights.

Im also started making brickfilms. Exactly four days ago .
This is only hobby for me.
I think that when we try to make ours hobby-skills too good...its no more hobby, just forced work and its more stressful than relaxing and instructive...

To add pauses, all you need to do is make copies of a single frame to make it last longer on screen.

Using your example; that line would take one movement, say a arm raising then lowering. Pause on the "who", raise the arm up during the "are", and lowering it during the "you".

It's also a good idea to add some pauses (I usually do eight frames) at the beginning and end of a shot (a shot is from one camera angle change to the next). You might need more or less depending, though.

You're using MonkeyJam right?
In that case you have two options:
#1. Simply keep mashing the capture button until the required number of frames have been taken.
#2. Drag the first, already captured frame down and stretch it into the required number of slots.

I recommend #2. If you keep hitting the capture button, chances are some teeny-tiny differences will show up in between the frames, and while for a moving picture this is fine, with nothing else going on, those become painfully obvious. If by some shear luck there are absolutely no differences in between the frames, then there is no reason to not do the former other than the speed and ease of stretching the one frame.

Practice makes perfect.
You are doing great and all the help you've gotten is excellent, but I just felt the need to say that some things you just learn by trying them out for yourself. Tutorials are great and all, but you can't have one for every movement you're going to make.
For example, it isn't necessary to ask people how helium frog is. Simply do this, download it, and try it out for yourself.
I don't mean to be mean or sarcastic, I'm just trying to help you out as well.

(PS I can see you're from Australia, so you're evidently a native speaker. Do your think you could work on those run on sentences and capitalize your i's? Sorry I just can't stand bad grammar. If you aren't a native speaker, obviously ignore this.)

Edit: I forgot to mention that I don't say this just about you, so please don't take offense.

Last edited by Realm of the Unreel (August 29, 2012 (04:21am))

"Are you a native speaker" is another way to ask "Is English your first language."

You're confused on what to do with all the frames after their captured? Try looking for a "Make movie" button.

Disclaimer: The below advice is based on what I have heard about Helium Frog, and is not based on any personal experience.

I believe with HF to achieve pauses you will either need to capture that many frames, or do it in post-production. Onion skinning ain't that necessary, and when compared to having the raw frames backed up, as well as being able to directly manipulate them in the capture software, I think you should stick with MJ.

Now, should you switch, this is how you would create the necessary pauses in post.

With WMM, all you do is split the clip, and then import one of the original frames into the gap. That, or simply click the screenshot button. (I think that's how it works, but I haven't used it in a while.)

With Vegas, it's a bit more complicated. It doesn't have a handy-dandy split feature that I know of. And I'm not sure if it's just my copy, but the screen shot feature doesn't work. What I sometimes do is bring in another copy of the clip, cut each one to the same frame, then bring in that original frame, stick it in the middle and adjust its length as needed. The problem with this is it causes a noticeable bump when going from clip to frame. (Put this on full-screen, and then pay attention to the edges of the frame.)

I get around that by bringing in another clip and cutting it down to just the one frame, then stretching it out to the needed length. If it can't stretch that far, (Which commonly happens) I simply copy/paste.

Oh, and don't forget....

This is true.  Although "Holding My Own Ep 1" is my first brick film, I've done some hand-drawn animation in the past, one which appeared in a film festival.  The animation pioneers Harman & Ising have a great list of animation tips that translate into Legoland.  One is (I don't have the exact quote on hand): The audience requires the first four to six frames to identify what's on the screen.  I put about eight frames in before moving.

When using Helium Frog it is quite simple to extend a pause to sync movement with sound. Go to the editor and cut copy / duplicate frames as required. It does this on the fly and rebuilds the animation .avi file.  Another useful function in the editor is the ability to paste invert, where you can paste the frames back in reverse order. This can be useful for arm movements or head turns and saves you having to capture the movement in both directions.

Check out the documentation below for more information.

http://www.heliumfrog.net63.net/Helium_ … indow.html

A link to the full documentation is below

http://www.heliumfrog.net63.net/Helium_ … guide.html