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Bricks in Motion
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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Forums - Bricks in Motion » Brickfilms » [THAC XII] Galactic Smugglers: How Captain Dude Got the Buffalo Skies
It's well made and all, but not being acquainted with this series meant not really understanding and/or caring about anything in the film. I'm only speaking from personal opinion here, but I feel like stand-alone stories are those that work best for THAC (and just about any other competition as well).
It's very well animated, but there's not an awful lot to it otherwise- and the credits take up nearly half of the video.
It's very well animated, but there's not an awful lot to it otherwise- and the credits take up nearly half of the video.
Yea, there is not a lot of meat to the story and I agree about the credits length at the end....I did make the credits a little long, but I really love that song. 
The mech battle animation was awesome. I didn't like the death part, I didn't feel that was necessary to the story, just useless violence. I see the theme in the video, but it didn't stand out, it was very subtle (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). The store seemed cut short, but for 24 hours, that mech battle is the best.
Jayem wrote:It's very well animated, but there's not an awful lot to it otherwise- and the credits take up nearly half of the video.
Yea, there is not a lot of meat to the story and I agree about the credits length at the end....I did make the credits a little long, but I really love that song.
It is a great song- I went back to listen to it again. Really fits an ongoing series like yours very well. I just realised that you use the same credits style in the previous instalments, so it does make sense to use it here.
I haven't seen the other Galactic Smugglers episodes, so this was a bit of a fresh start on the series for me. The animation was good, especially the mech animation - it was nice and smooth, which is a real achievement. As far as the story goes, I had no idea who the characters were or what the (robot?) was asking about, but the narrative during the mech battle did help me to put the pieces together (I had to watch it a second time before I could figure out what the Buffalo Skies was, though). Overall it was a fun THAC film to watch, especially that battle, though it was a little confusing for me due to the lack of context.
I haven't seen the other Galactic Smugglers episodes, so this was a bit of a fresh start on the series for me. The animation was good, especially the mech animation - it was nice and smooth, which is a real achievement. As far as the story goes, I had no idea who the characters were or what the (robot?) was asking about, but the narrative during the mech battle did help me to put the pieces together (I had to watch it a second time before I could figure out what the Buffalo Skies was, though). Overall it was a fun THAC film to watch, especially that battle, though it was a little confusing for me due to the lack of context.
Same here, I haven't seen any other galactic smugglers videos, but this seems like one of the best lego series that I have seen so far.
I've seen a bit of your series, enough to know who Captain Dude is, at least.
The animation was great, and the use of large mechs was awesome. The large set looked great, and I'm impressed that you have the resources to build that. The camera movements really helped to sell the scale and give it that brutal duel feel.
My only gripe is that Captain Dude doesn't seem to be one for casually killing, especially just for a ship.
I think making clearer his desperation for a new life, or causing the others death to be a accident, would have been more sympathetic routes, especially for a major protagonist. But again, I haven't seen all the episodes, so I may not remember his character correctly.
Having seen all the episodes (or, at least, I think I have), I liked your entry. I do think that it would have benefited the atmosphere in the flashback if there was "arena ambience", maybe some cheering or jeering. I mean, I know it's a game show and all, but I kept thinking it was like some sort of live stadium venue, or something. Nice job, on the whole, though. The camera pans at the beginning of the flashback looked really smooth and cool.
I liked it. The mech animation was very cool.
I wanted more though! A drag down, battle-to-the-death junkyard robot battle.
Tearing off mech arms and beating the other mech over the head with it kind of grit.
(Unfortunately, more battle scenes would have been difficult to pull off due to time constraints, though.)
Still, very well done film for THAC.
Being very familiar with the series I enjoyed it. I thought it was a clever story to connect to THAC. And I know I've been out of the loop here for quite awhile, but your animation has really improved since last time I've seen it. As others have said, credits take up a large part of the video...but the song is really good. And it's really how the other ones end as well so it's a nice consistency.
Overall, it's a great THAC entry, though next year I have to say perhaps doing something not attached to the series so those who don't know it too well won't be left in the dark. Very clever idea, though!
The huge issue I have with contest-exclusive series like Abduction, or long-running series having an episode entered into a contest like this, is that in order to understand and enjoy the material to its full extend, the viewer must have watched the previous entries into the series and understood all the lore in the series to enjoy the film. In doing so, people who make series entries during contests take advantage of their past work, and isolate viewers. The film acquires the narrative, characters, setting, and themes of previous entries, and thus, people who have seen previous entries will pick up on and enjoy a story not present in the film entered for the contest. The problem with this film and films like Abduction 5 is that while the story in the series as a whole is very interesting to watch, as a standalone, the story is incredibly weak and harmful to the film as a whole. While films like the examples I brought up and your own are great from a technical standpoint, as a viewer who never watched the previous entries to Galactic Smugglers (I did watch one, but it was also late in the series and I didn't understand it either) I couldn't connect with this.
It's really impressive that you guys managed to make a mech fight in day a day. That's the sort of thing that would take me a month most of the time.
However, I felt like the length of the credits relative to the video itself felt a tiny bit Mon Chat Regarde, but that's okay.
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