Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
A place to discuss, share, and create stop motion films.
Ad
You are not logged in. Please login or register.
One of the hardest things for me in brickfilming is creating fight sequences. This is why you haven't really seen any films which include them from me. Well, I've decided to challenge myself and perhaps create a short action flick. Tonight I did a fist fight shot to see if I could do better than my previous attempts. I was pleased with how it turned out and thought I'd share it with you all while you wait for a new video from me. Enjoy!
The animation was nice and smooth (as always). Some of the punches could've used a little more momentum though, especially the last two. And I feel like the shaky cam was a little much. Maybe tone it down a bit. One thing I've learned about creating a realistic-looking shaky cam is that the camera should always be reacting to the action. So the camera would be maybe a frame or two behind. Idk if that makes any sense. But anyways, the test was really nice overall.
As with all of your animations, splendid lighting! The scene looked good, but the camera shake was a bit unnatural, perhaps a little overpowering, but like Mouse Droid Productions said
the camera should always be reacting to the action. So the camera would be maybe a frame or two behind.
The motion was rather sporadic and random, good for panning action shots, but for static camera use I would use Mouse Droid Production's advice. As far as the animation, very nice work! 
Girl won yeah! 
That doesn't mean that I'm a girl.
Nice. How did you do the shaky camera?
Animation was smooth and neat, so you nailed that quite well I'd say. Just work on the camera shake, like what MouseDroid said.
Nice. How did you do the shaky camera?
Shaky cam was done using After Effects. It can still use some work though, as others have pointed out. I'm beginning production on my action short film now, so I hope it all turns out good.
Like I said on YouTube, I thought that the punches needed some more force.
The felt a bit weak, and more like silly fake cartoon fighting as a gag of some sort.
Try adding more movement to the punches, adding lots of shoulder movement by having the figures rotate on the studs is a good way to go.
When I make punches, I also like to make the figures move forward on the ground a little bit to add even more force.
Also, watching Mindgame's "Profession" frame by frame can be very enlightening on brickfilming fist fights.
As MouseDroid already told you, the fists could use more momentum. I also noticed there's no anticipation when they throw punches: they need to "charge" the fist, and you can do that by moving the arm in the opposite direction, that way you can make it go faster, so it looks like it hits harder. The more you exaggerate the anticipation, the more it feels powerful. At least, that's the way I see it.
I think their reactions could be improved too: they should move more.
About the shaky cam: yeah, it's well done (althougn I'm not really a fan of shaky cameras).
So I really need to be doing more build up for punches and such. Thanks for the tips guys! I think once I apply all of this it'll look even better. I'm pleased I got this far though, my previous attempts were down right awful and hideous. I'm hoping to have an action short film out by next week perhaps, mainly because School is about to start back and I'd like to get one more film done before then. (not that I'll be stopping making films during school of course)
To add to the advice, here's some tips on how to make punches have more force:
Don't have a contact frame. If you leave it implied, the hit appears to have more force to it. Also, don't ease out (the easing at the start of the movement) on the person being affected. This also helps with adding more force.
To add to the advice, here's some tips on how to make punches have more force:
I wrote:Don't have a contact frame. If you leave it implied, the hit appears to have more force to it. Also, don't ease out (the easing at the start of the movement) on the person being affected. This also helps with adding more force.
Nice tips, thanks, minifig! Both of those sound like great ways to do it and I'll have to remember those when I come to animating a fight sequence for the film.
I think when you do the shaky cam movement, you should follow the punches, it seemed a bit all over the place. But the animation was good! Add some cinematography and it would look photo-fantastic.
Felt like a slapfight, not a fistfight. Exaggerate.
Needs some power behind those punches! Her "finishing hit" looked like she used the force on the guy 
Other then that I liked it 
I actually really enjoyed it repelling spider, It's nice to see your moving onto new challenges, however I enjoy all your films as they are even if they don't got the action, as you make great stories anyhow,
However I am looking forward to your action short
Posts [ 17 ]
