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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My Missy's bedroom set was missing a few pieces! So I ordered n bricklink and am animating a different scene. I almost ALWAYS shoot in chronological order unless something like this happens.
I'm animating Melissa's Bedroom scene #1. a few stills are onmy tumblr page:
http://holding-our-own.tumblr.com
One day was sacrificed a to reshoot the first of two Missy's bedroom scenes. I dreaded anticipating doing it, and said to myself, "Maybe I should leave it as it is and advance to the next scene." It is a good thing this was given a second chance. Not only did I find the optimum settings, and not only did the images come out much crisper and consistent, but the movements came out extremely smooth in take 2. If you're reading this, this will delay the release of episode 4 one day, but remember this scene when you watch. Missy is really nicely animated at the beginning of the scene, and the walk cycle and a very broad gesture by Brent looks fluid, organic, and really smooth. Getting the faces to be sharper is my current dilemma. I want to find out how to get some better focus on the faces while maintaining this high a quality. But, these current settings will be recorded.
Animation is finally 60% complete. Hopefully I can get 5% done a week at the MINIMUM. New pictures will go up on tumblr soon. If you haven't been there lately or ever, the link is below. Enjoy.
I'm making some progress, but the mall scene is next, and I have no mall built!! I'm going to get to work without direction!
Just released a test shot for the party scene in episode 4.
Learn about the shoot and the characters:
http://holding-our-own.tumblr.com/post/ … -test-shot
Comments are welcome!
Last edited by HoldingOurOwn (February 7, 2016 (10:58am))
I just completed an arduous 18 seconds of animation, because it features a constantly moving figure int he background, and I have to guess how the vocals will be spoken. I hope it comes out well!
I've said this before and will say it again.
You should consider turning this into a live sitcom.
That's how much I like this show.
Your dedication to this series is really a blueprint for others who
want to develop a successful series.
Look forward to the next episode.
Thank you so much for the compliment. Although I have a director friend, I don't think we could make this work as a live action series... and I know with almost 100% certainty that no TV network would accept it!
I finally got back into steady animation schedules again. About a half minute of animation was finished in the last two days, including some animation of Chay (voiced by BiM's own AC Films), Brent, and the new character Kikka, who is Melissa's 5th best friend and Chay's "interpreter". (You'll find out). This animation sequence will be used twice in this scene.
Also, there's some Grisjahilde (Missy's 3rd best friend) animation that's completed. In a little bit, I'm going to post a few photos, and you can guess what they're talking about in the scene while you wait for episode 4's release.
ADDITION:
One other thing, here is my original LDD model of the basement. Compare and contrast it to the final model in the above post.
Comments are always welcome.
Last edited by HoldingOurOwn (April 6, 2016 (07:51am))
Only about 5 minutes of animation for episode 4 remain. For now, only a faw seconds of animation is being done per day, but once this scene is through, the pace should increase somewhat.
I'm getting there. Did some significant animation with Johnny Strange today!
I'm really mad at myself. While reviewing mid-episode stills, I see that I had some setting where the minifigures were in-focus, and there was little color flicker/variance. Now, everything's shooting like my old camera did (except for the stability issues that have been corrected). I'v tried every setting you can imagine and I just can't get the lighting consistent from one frame to the next anymore. I'm mad at myself because I thought the camera settings that worked seemed so straightforward and basic. I'm thinking of resetting the camera to its factory settings and just switching to M mode to see what happens. Anyway, you will see much of it is improved over episode 3, but this basement scene has a lot of consisteny issues. This bothers me because I was hoping to have ep 4 at a quality good enough to submit to a film festival.
I'm almost done the arduous birthday party scene. I think the remainder of the animation will be much much smoother and efficient.
I did some nice, funny animation with Hedwig, who spontaneously gets excited and heads toward the basement window. If you ever see a basement window, they're typically small and towards the top of the walls. I'll have some pictures soon.
I've been experimenting with the characters a bit. There is a character named Perahta whom I decided to be quicker in her movements. So whenever she's animated, I shoot at 20 frames per minutes (called "ones"), and animate the rest of the cast at 15 frames per second (in "twos"). So when I move a character, Perahta gets moved on the next frame and no one else, and the first character (in this case, Hedwig) only is moved every other frame to be at a normal pace (15 fps).
Maybe I'll post some test animation when I process the frames.
-
EDIT: Thanks to postings from the community, I am correcting my mistake. Where it says 20 frames per minute, I meant 30 frames per second. Substitute the phrase above.
Last edited by HoldingOurOwn (May 22, 2016 (08:20am))
I'm almost done the arduous birthday party scene. I think the remainder of the animation will be much much smoother and efficient.
I did some nice, funny animation with Hedwig, who spontaneously gets excited and heads toward the basement window. If you ever see a basement window, they're typically small and towards the top of the walls. I'll have some pictures soon.
I've been experimenting with the characters a bit. There is a character named Perahta whom I decided to be quicker in her movements. So whenever she's animated, I shoot at 20 frames per minutes (called "ones"), and animate the rest of the cast at 15 frames per second (in "twos"). So when I move a character, Perahta gets moved on the next frame and no one else, and the first character (in this case, Hedwig) only is moved every other frame to be at a normal pace (15 fps).
Maybe I'll post some test animation when I process the frames.
So I'm a little confused on what you mean when you were talking about animating Perahta. are you talking about shooting at 20 FPS for Perahta because you want her movements to be faster but you take two photos for everyone else per movement? Sorry if I'm just repeating everything you said but I was kinda confused 
HoldingOurOwn, if you're shooting twos as 15 fps, that mean that a character moving twice as fast will be animated at 30 frames per Second
Yes, you are right! This is a typo. I meant to say *30* Frames per SECOND, and not *20* frames per MINUTE. And yes, everything else should make sense with that correction.
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH!
The basement scene was completed today. Some nice dialogue animation finished out the scene. It was much easier than the rest of the scene.
Now only about 3 minutes are left unanimated. The rest of the story takes place in the municipal building, except the tag (a final short scene that comes after the climax/commercial break of a comedy series), which is back at home. Then I do have to go back and finish the mall, which should be easy to animate once the set is complete. The rest is post-production!
Can't wait for episode 4!
One of my children lost the Female Municipal Clerk, without whom I can't finish the story. it turns out she's made from Ginny Weasley parts (from Harry Potter) and it is setting me back about $11 for the torso, legs, and an alternate head. Curse the secondary demand for defunct licenses.
In the meantime, I'll be animating a scene that WON'T require them.
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