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!
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Man of Steel Flying Test
"Superman Returns" in his "Quest for Peace"! ... But this time, in Lego. No it's not a bird, nor a plane, but Lego Superman from the "Man of Steel".
(This was mainly just a test to see how a "flying" effect would look... Even though he's technically "falling with style.")
OK, a key word here is "Test." Thus, it belongs in the "WIPs and Tests" forum. 
It wasn't bad, but here are some pointers:
#1. Don't surround the thing with titles. It was a four second clip bloated up to a ten second video.
#2. See what you can do about the aspect ratio. Most of it is in 4:3, which is fine. But the first title screen had bars added twice, making the image much smaller than normal. The bars also didn't match in color.
The set was a basic setup, but actually quite interesting and cool. Problem is, the top of the wall is visible. I like the great landing, and the cape work was done well, but his arms wiggled about a bit on the way down. I'm not sure if you masked or green-screened, but you did a great job either way. The image quality could be a bit better, and the lighting was a tiny bit off, but you did a great job never the less.
I was going to upload the clip to BiM, and when I chose "test" instead of "completed project" it put the clip here... I'm not sure why, though... (Hint, hint to Smeagol)
The video was originally about 2 whole minutes, but, I think youtube messed with it. Kinda disappointed, as, I had a great fight scene set up with General Zod. 
So, the titles DO seem to "crowd out" the test. (And makes me look amateur... Even though I've been brickfilming since 2008!)
As for aspect ratio, I usually chop off the top and bottom of the video and title pages, "forcing" the video into 16:9, however, being as lazy as I am, I didn't chop the top and bottom for this test. (This Johnny Thunder "film" I've been working on has been a long and hard road)
I'm glad you liked the set. When I first built it, it looked too flat, even though the "rocks" were different colors. So, I ended up rebuilding it more "jagged" to look like an actual rock formation. I masked the footage in GIMP, as, I used a (believe it or not) Green wall to have Superman fly down upon... So, kinda like green-screen as well. 
Thanks for the reminder about lights... I have a "blinder" screen that makes them dimmer (and reduces flicker) But didn't use it... (Now I REALLY feel lazy, lol)
Overall, I like the effect (I've masked a lot before, but never like this) apart from how "fast" Superman seemed to fall. Next time (or, in the film) I'll animate with smaller increments between shots. 
I'm glad to get feedback from a fellow brickfilmer, if not one of my favorites.
Hopefully, my new lights, new camera, and new program will make the actual movie look better than this test...
Pretty good, but he is the shadowless man... What I normally do to restore the shadows of the figure is use a brush with a similar hardness to the shadow and paint about where he shadow should be as well as the general shape of what I think it should be. Good, nice, smooth animation. Good work!
Caveman, I'm glad you pointed out the missing shadow, instead of his face that slightly glows green on the descent. LOL, maybe he glows kryptonite!
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