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.
So I've kinda been experimenting with lightsaber duels in lego. I've watched both fancy pants, and angry chair, and they both do a great job! When I do it, it just turns out all slow and not entertaining at all. I had the idea of watching a duel clip from a Star Wars Movie. Would that help?
Yes, watch a duel clip in star wars frame by frame and see the spacing.
One thing if you watch sword and lightsaber fights, is that there is a rhythm to the hits.
Actually Chiro, I've watched that many times.
I would recommend watching actual duel clips (like Rsteenoven said, frame by frame). I also recommend lots of camera movements, and lots of different shots. Another thing I've found out is that the better lego lightsaber battles are very fast (movement wise). So basically, only a couple of frames for something that would normally take more. I saw this on Fancypants' Force Unleashed by downloading it from YT, putting it in WLMM, and looking at each frame that way. Just some suggestions...
Hi GHB Productions. Thank you for taking the time to watch my vids (glad you liked the fighting style). As already mentioned I think one of the key things is to really mix up the camera angles and panning if possible. I generally worked on the rule of changing the camera angle every 2 seconds (in my case every 30 frames) to keep the fight looking fresh. I did panning for the first time in Episode 3 and was happy with the results. For that I made a dolly out of a lego car and had it glide on a couple of train tracks and move it every frame in small increments.
I watched the prequel dvd's and the Clone Wars a lot for reference and I think from memory I tried to make the sabers clash every 3-4 frames to keep the speed fast. I actually found the shaky cam movements for Force Unleashed a little too jarring for my taste (don't get me wrong, I'm not bad mouthing it at all as it's an awesome animation).
Having the figures move and spin quickly like in the Prequels helps to sell it as well
Hope this helps, but please feel free to ask any further questions.
Thanks again
Jay
Great thanks! That really helped!
Cool, glad it helped.
Something that helps in both beginner's brickfilms and when you are actually using sticks or swords or whatever in real life is that just remember, there is one attacker and one defender. The attacker would like to cut his opponent, and the defender blocks these advances. When I am shooting live video or whatever with my friends I always cringe a little when I see the footage because it looks like the two duelers look like they are just banging their sticks together, with no intention of actually touching the other guy.
So basically don't make it look like the characters are hitting the sticks together on purpose, but actually make well-defined attacks and parries. A few years ago I did a ton of research on lightsaber combat, and even though that sounds really silly it's very helpful and quite interesting as well. You can read the articles here on Wookiepedia if you feel like it. I won't guarantee that it will be helpful, but it will at least get you in the right mood.
Hey everybody, I just had another question, I need lightsaber sounds. I don't know where to get a complete list of them for free, any help?
Here you go. These should work for you and used them in my films:
Thanks for posting this question! I have noticed that when doing some test animations, so this was very helpful. For sounds, try these sites.
http://www.freesound.org/
http://www.findsounds.com/
Just search lightsber sounds (or whatever else) and you should get a pretty good response
Last edited by thedoorwaystudio (January 12, 2013 (03:46pm))
Sorry for the double post, but I have discovered something that might help. When you shoot the scene, film at your normal frame rate, let's assume 15 fps. Then, double the frame rate so the action is faster and seems more intense. This works great with almost any type of combat.
Posts [ 16 ]
