silents429 wrote:Any simple fast and easy fx software thats free? Or can paint and lego pieces work well?
No and no. If there was, you would have heard about it already. (And I would have downloaded it already...)
Depending on the story and characters, you may not need too many effects. You can also pick the right camera angles and simply imply that something happened. (I.E. Instead of showing a laser exit the gun, show a close up of the guy and simply flash a flashlight on his face to imply that a laser was fired.) But that has to be pulled off well for the audience buy the illusion.
I also run into the problem of no cheap and easy effects, but there are ways of getting around it. (Well, the price part at least.)
Being a Star Wars film, you will need to some extent the following SFX:
Lightsaber/Lasers-Use GIMP and follow this tutorial.
(Some things are slightly different since it was written for Photoshop, but most everything is the same.)
Jumping/Telekinesis/Things flying or hovering-Mask using GIMP.
Space scenes Green-screen combined with Wookieepedia's vast amount of planet pictures should work.
As to using bricks, it depends on the effect. For examples, check out the animation challenge thread, and look at all the entries for the "Without VFX" challenges. Although a some of things can be done with bricks, most every brick-built explosion that I've seen looked odd, so for stuff like that I've stick with post-production effects.
Basic stuff like masking you should do yourself, but if you're not good at effects, then get someone like Lech to do them for you. I've had him do some SFX for me and it came out great.