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.
The Tree [D&L Entry]
Some things are never pure...others are.
Although it wasn't perfect, I found the creation process to be very inspiring. Hope you enjoy!
Last edited by legoguy501 (August 31, 2015 (08:24pm))
Wonderful film, top notch all around (although I wish the moon had been in the same level of out of focus as the rest of the background)
Beautiful and incredibly moving. Whenever I see an old tree, I often wonder what tails it would tell if it could talk. You deserve to win!
So poetic...
Wow, that was great. I can only imagine how many times you had to film the revolving motion to get all those seasons. I agree with Brickcrazy, the forced perspective was excellent! This deserves more attention. Great work!
I'm glad everyone enjoyed the film.
@slothpaladin - I know what you mean about the moon. I noticed the issue (and several others) after I had finished the render. However, I would've had to re-render the entire film (40-ish minutes), so I decided that it was good enough.
@rioforce - Yeah. The final product was 2880 frames, but I had to take 4280 pictures. I also had to put a ton of time into the pre-production stage, in order to know exactly when and how long each part would take to animate.
This is one of my favorites! The whole film is fluid and cinematic!
A smart entry, such a simple idea can hardly be messed up. And it was executed wonderfully. I loved the colours, and the mountains too. It's so simple yet so rich in detail. I agree about the moon, probably the only element that looks out of place.
I gave it 4/5, but thinking again about it, I should have gave it 5/5.
P.S.: re-thinking about it, I now am certain this is the best entry I have seen yet.
Last edited by MPfist0 (September 2, 2015 (03:44pm))
Simple yet very effective; one of the standouts. The skies and the tree looked great and I loved the colours. The microscale buildings were nicely done, too. It must have taken a lot of time to have a rotating camera for the whole film.
Simply beautiful! I love it!
Oh my goodness....That was stunning!
It was gorgeous, with the gentle spin, the background elements, and the subtle changes on the tree. Everything was top-notch. Sure, the green-screen was a tad rough at times, and there were a few camera bumps, but those are hardly worth mentioning.
It was very, very impressive.
Best of luck in the judging!
Congrats on second place! 
The marriage of technical creativity with good production values really made this entry stand apart for me as one of my favorites. I've never seen a brickfilm like it, which is kind of a rare thing these days. There's not a whole lot I can say other than I thought it was a really unique and beautiful little film to watch, and I imagine it was not easy to pull it off as well as you did.
I don't have a lot of critique. It's not *perfect* technically, but camera moves are hard and I thought you did quite a good job. The main reason I didn't see it as a contender for first place in this contest is because the lighting is essentially flat with post effects over it; I love the film but I don't think it pushes any barriers in the lighting category. It would have been nice to see something like this with dynamically animated sunlight achieved in camera, though that would have been even more extraordinarily complex to execute well, of course.
I will agree that the lighting is pretty boring. I was originally going to have the sky color be accomplished with a string of color filters that would raise in front of 2 different lights, creating the changing gradient. However, I ran out of time, and didn't have the resources, so I ended up going with a blue screen. I also wanted to use a small round light to emulate the sun in camera, creating a more realistic visual. Sadly, I wasn't able to figure out a logistic means of doing this for 3000 frames.
One thing I was still able to accomplish was the dynamic sun light, by putting a lamp on a tripod, and raising and lowering it throughout the film, such that it was positioned where the sun would be.
I may post a few BTS pictures, to show the overall setup, and what went into the film.
I like a lot how did you made that distant animations , the armies incursions ( this littles bricks soldiers 
) and the castle destruction...cute and dramatic at the same time. That make interesting to look not to the main part but to the long distance little actions.
Wow, I really loved this entry. Amazing camera motion, great use of forced perspective, very simple but thought provoking story, just great all around.
My only negative comment is that, more than the moon simply not being blurred, I found the fact that the background didn't rotate with the camera to be rather distracting. It wasn't horrible, but it did make it feel somewhat like it was just a rotating set versus a dollying camera. Just something to keep in mind for the future I suppose. Still loved it!
Glad you enjoyed it. I can see what you mean by the background feeling flat; yet, the sun and moon are supposed to stay in the same spot (not move across the sky), due to the fact that the camera is moving with them.
On another note, I uploaded a few behind the scenes photos, for those who would be interested.
Posts [ 18 ]
