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.
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I don't want to sound snobbish, but I don't think the brickfilming community needs much more attention than it already has. It's already so overcrowded as it is that we don't need to introduce too many more brickfilmers with another batch of Lego movie maker sets!
I disagree. We're already at a point where the ratio of low quality (mainly made by young children) to high quality brickfilms is overwhelmingly on the side of low quality; and a new movie maker set isn't going to make it any worse. What it will likely result in, however, is inspiring a small number of kids to really get into the hobby, and that small group, who may have never gotten interested in brickfilms otherwise, will get better and better and make some really good films. Several of the more talented members of this community got into brickfilming as a result of the original movie maker set.
As an extra point, sets like The LEGO Batman Movie Maker set also demonstrate TLG's shift to an approving view of our hobby, which is a welcome change from the way things have been in the past.
Both The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie have spread the inspiration for brickfilming as of late, true. However, I personally feel that every new influx of budding filmmakers to this community has improved the niche craft as a whole. Before the Lego Movie Maker sets, brickfilming didn't have a standard walk cycle. Before youtube, brickfilms varied more in length and quality. Before The Lego Movie, there seemed to be a period of mostly IP based fanfilms rather than original ideas...
Although small communities are nice, they often breed blind elitism. (Not saying you're elitist, William) And, in the era since Reddit, 4chan, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube - individual forums seem to be on the way out... Bricks in Motion being one of only a few exceptions.
As the head of admissions here at BiM, I can tell you that there's just about one or two new members every single day. And whenever there's a big influx of new members above the usual rate (like just before THAC), it tends to bring new ideas to brickfilming. And, I like that.
Lego Figure Productions wrote:I'm glad that they came out with The Lego Batman Movie Movie Maker Set, though...
I'm not, unfortunately. Sure, a lot of people may be making brickfilms with their smartphones, however, I feel that that crowd tends to be only temporary. Besides, I've tried making a brickfilm with my phone. I missed my webcam almost instantly.
Not to say that brickfilmers can't make good films on their phones - it's just that a phone is going to be more limited than a computer when it comes to editing programs/apps, processing power, and several other important features.
It's not like I wouldn't accept a Movie Maker set sans camera - I'd just prefer one that either came with a webcam, or was more optimized for any cameras other than the ones on an iPhone, you know?
Besides, The Lego Batman Movie Maker set seems rather small anyway... There's not enough there to keep even someone like me (a brickfilmer who loved the Lego Batman Movie) interested. Although, I'm sure that I'm not exactly the age demographic the set is marketed towards anyhow.
What I stated on the Reviving your favorite theme thread.]
We're already at a point where the ratio of low quality (mainly made by young children) to high quality brickfilms is overwhelmingly on the side of low quality
In 2009 sure. 2013 definitely. 2016's THAC had probably the highest overall output of any previous THAC from the brickfilming community. I'd say 2017 looks to be a year where the ratio of low quality to high quality brickfilms is going to flip - and that's not just because of one set.
As the head of admissions here at BiM, I can tell you that there's just about one or two new members every single day. And whenever there's a big influx of new members above the usual rate (like just before THAC), it tends to bring new ideas to brickfilming. And, I like that.
Since this is a discussion about the community's capacity for new members it bears pointing out that the registration rate for real members is much lower than one per day. We've been banning well over 3/4 of new registrations for being on spam blacklists, and many new members who aren't banned never post.
Additionally, there haven't been any noticeable influxes of overall site activity. The release of The LEGO Movie etc. hasn't discernibly impacted traffic for BricksInMotion.com.
I wouldn't say the brickfilming community is too full. In fact, it's dying. There aren't near the number of good discussion on here as there used to be. I think people are resorting to youtube and facebook because that's what they know and can find community there because people don't know about BiM enough.
That being said, there are many brickfilmers... just not here. The community isn't full. Community is made up of people who love the art and like to talk about it. You're talking about the quantity of brickfilmers in general.
There can never be "too many" brickfilms. Sure, let the kiddies brickfilm. That's how most of us started. Introducing people to the art of brickfilming is a good thing. I highly doubt people will come here because of a set, though. We're kinda hidden from the mainstream unfortunately. When people think of posting their brickfilms, they generally think of YouTube, not Bricks in Motion.
That being said, I do think that TLM did help BiM a bit. I mean, not much, but I do know a lot of the users on here now and in the past couple years revived their brickfilming interest because of The LEGO Movie. Though, most of them didn't last long, unfortunately.
So there's really no need to complain about people getting into brickfilming. It may be frustrating that the mass of brickfilms being uploaded on youtube these days make it harder for people to find the good brickfilms, but with effort, the good animators will shine through the crowds and no worry about the masses. In fact, they'll encourage the masses to do the same and put in the work and make great stuff. So don't get discouraged because you may think that the thousands of brickfilms on the internet are making your brickfilms less visible, just do better than them and think differently and build a community. That's the way to stand out.
There are two types of people on youtube. Day one-ers, and One day-ers. These One Day-ers watch a video and may subscribe or enjoy the vid, but they may not share it or last long as a subscriber. Bu the Day One-ers watch videos when they are first out and stick around and share with their friends. These are the people who really care about the content and want to help the creator grow. These are the people who you should appeal to in order to break through the "overcrowded" brickfilming world.
That was kind of a tangent, but I thought I'd say it anyway. 
@Rioforce you make a good point. The issue I have is that there now tends to be like a dozen brickfilms released on the forum every day. I'm not sure if this is just a recent thing, or maybe it just feels like there are more simply because I have less and less time to really sit down and watch them properly. I mean, I used to watch every single brickfilm that was on the forums, but since I joined BIM the number of releases seems to have kept increasing and now I'm lucky if I watch one.
The distinction between brickfilming in general and this community in particular is an important one. My original comment was about all of brickfilming, not just this community. That being said, the release forum has definitely changed over the years. I remember the days when I watched every film in the release forum, and when I waited to join BiM until I felt that my films were worthy of being put in the release forum. I'm not saying this was the right way for me to view the release forum, but I saw it as a place where the best brickfilms on the internet were.
For the past couple years the volume of films in the release forum has been large enough that only those who are still in their childhood have time to watch them all; and to be frank, the quality of the animation in most of them is below what I consider to be watchable. It's not that there isn't good stuff being made, I just usually hear about it via my YouTube subscription feed first. As a result I stopped using the release forum as a discovery tool a long time ago, and have probably missed some worthwhile stuff. I still try to look through it every once in awhile though, and I have been noticing a gradual increase in the overall quality, so I'm hopeful for the future.
I hope this comes across how I meant it, I'm not feeling super well and thinking straight is a little difficult.
Usually out of all of the not very good quality animations that can be found on YouTube when another batch of people try to get into the hobby, there is usually a few which will continue animating and become very good at it. What I think is great about BiM is that unlike YouTube everyone here is very experienced in animating and I think we are fortunate to have most of the best animators around in one place 
I say most because there are some others who are very good but are not in the BiM community, which I think may be due to a lack of advertising of BiM. However, the awareness of BiM should be controlled, because otherwise it could end up like YouTube where it is very hard to gather up all of the good brickfilms amongst the sea of what I call 'meh' brickfilms.
It would be nice if the directory could be restored to its former glory - on Brickfilms.com it was an excellent way to browse quality animations. I agree with the sentiment that the Releases forum is muddled with too much mediocrity to be useful (dear newbies, I mean that in the most loving way), which ends up discouraging participation and discussion. Like backyardlegos, I haven't discovered anything through that forum in a very long time.
As for elevating discussion across the website, that's up to every individual. Start topics that push your understanding of the medium and challenge conventions, participate, etc. Veteran animators don't stand to gain a lot from this website at this point, so we've got a bit of a negative feedback loop. Sparse high-level discussion -> veterans discouraged from participating -> veterans do not provide high-level discussion -> sparse high-level discussion.
I'm not sure how this can be reversed, I just like to complain.
I started animating back in September of 2015. I had seen some of Brotherhood workshop's videos and I was amazed at what he was able to achieve. All I had was a good quality Sony camera which was 200 dollars which I still have. I would always have in my mind oh, I will fix this in post. I would try and do composite shots. I would animate with natural light because I didn't know any better. When I eventually was able to finish a video, I went into Power Director and put all the frames together. It was a meh/ ok brickfilm, but I loved it. I continued making brickfilms, but eventually knew that my brickfilms were not to par with other animators. I was confused why other people could achieve better animation. I soon realized that Power Director was not made for stop motion. I soon found out that you could use Movie Maker to put your pictures together. In June of 2016, I got my first webcam which was a Pro 9000. At the time, it was the best webcam/camera in the world to me. My animations improved and I strived to do better. I actually made a channel in 2014 and used to make brickfilms in May for a book report. I made some decent films, but I didn't like how my videos were. I wanted to quit because this was time consuming and I just didn't feel the satisfaction of completing a brickfilm. I left the scene in September of last year. I just watched other brickfilms. Because of this, I took up art. I had been drawing for a while, but I really improved my art skills during that period. Then one day, I was bored. So I went through my computer to look at some of my art that I had done. I then stumbled upon my old brickfilms. I remembered the joy of making a brickfilm. I guess I had been thinking oh I will be as good and popular as Brotherhood Workshop. I learned that if you want to be a brickfilmer, you need to be patience and have a passion for it much like drawing. In November, I started getting back into making brickfilms. Eventually, on December 8, TheLegoBrick was born. The same day, I uploaded my first video which was Lego Hulk vs Superman. It was filmed on Stop Motion Studio. There was room for improvement, but it was amazing and I am still proud of it. I recently got a Logitech c615 which is better quality than the pro 9000. I also got Stop Motion Pro Eclipse and a new laptop with Sony Vegas Pro 13 transferred to this computer. I might not be Brotherhood Workshop or Forrestfire101, but I am someone who is passionate about this who is striving to improve. I have improved a lot since the days of animating with natural sunlight. Basically what I am saying is that its nice that we have new people getting interested in brickfilming. We have to remember that even though they are not the best at animating, they will improve. The one's who continue to make brickfilms and have a passion for this amazing hobby will want to improve. The one's who stick with this might be the next generation Forrestfire101 or Fancypants. I feel that our job as animators isn't just about making great quality brickfilms, but to inspire people to make something magical. I want to make amazing brickfilms yes, but I also strive to inspire other people to pick up this hobby. I feel that instead of talking about how there is a large ratio of meh brickfilms to amazing brickfilms even though its true, we should be encouraging and helping other younger channels to continue this and try their best to improve. The fact is all of us will not be here making brickfilms forever, but we can help continue the trend and hobby of brickfilming for the next generation.
I would just like to note that I don't think brickfilming is "dying", not even remotely. The state of the current community is simply that it's hugely unfocused. BiM actually only represents a sizeable corner of the wider community, but as social media usage changes, sites like this are becoming less popular because of the format.
The majority of brickfilmers are kids for whom forums like this are unfortunately obsolete. Even Facebook is falling out of use amongst younger kids. Most brickfilm discussion happens directly on YouTube videos or on instagram, which is unfortunate given how they don't really lend themselves to in-depth conversation in the same way. The forum community also doesn't seem that inviting to the younger, instagram community, and vice versa. There's a real disconnect between the two most prominent attitudes that these subsets of the wider community have developed that makes proper inclusion pretty difficult.
What I'm trying to say in my own long-winded and haphazard way is that the community as a whole doesn't really have a centre anymore, and as time goes on, and the TLBM Movie Maker set invites more and more kids to try it out, that means the gap's only going to get larger and larger. It would be different if there was an app for younger brickfilmers to centre around, but sites like BiM being, y'know, websites almost acts like a barrier now. Kids are enjoying the kind of immediacy that didn't exist for many of us even five years ago. Many of them start brickfilming with stop-motion apps on their smartphones or tablets, then find a community when posting to instagram, and never even need to start browsing Safari or Chrome to find like-minded people. It's an odd little pocket that's sprung up independent of any pre-existing brickfilm 'history'.
As an experiment, I started a project called Brickfilm Multiverse to try and introduce predominantly the Instagram community to other types of brickfilms (well, among other things, but I haven't had much time to work on it), since this subset mainly cultures superhero brickfilms (just as Star Wars was heavily prolific in the mid-noughties). Obviously, my own reach is limited, so it's not exactly going to reach a whole lot of brickfilmers, at least not to start with, but what was actually surprising was how many people told me they'd either never seen brickfilms as stylistic and cinematic as the ones I'd added to these playlists, or they had no idea that the community was so big and so old (I say old as a relative term).
I don't know if I've ever talked about this before, but for a lot of people, brickfilming is less about filmmaking, and more an extensive of the play experience of Lego. A lot of what I've seen the past couple of years is a weird extension of the latter. That's not a bad thing, everyone's entitled to their own experience and I'm somewhere in the middle myself (I use brickfilming as a way of getting away from my anxieties and social issues, as much as I do it to create a short film I can be proud of).
So I don't think it's dying. I think it's just undergoing a very ugly mitosis. It's happened organically, and it's not exactly a bad thing, but it's a shame that all these people who have so many different things to say about the hobby to each other...aren't.
EDIT
It would be nice if the directory could be restored to its former glory - on Brickfilms.com it was an excellent way to browse quality animations. I agree with the sentiment that the Releases forum is muddled with too much mediocrity to be useful (dear newbies, I mean that in the most loving way), which ends up discouraging participation and discussion.
I'm not sure how this can be reversed, I just like to complain.
I do agree with this.
Last edited by jampot (March 23, 2017 (07:44pm))
I don't know if I've ever talked about this before, but for a lot of people, brickfilming is less about filmmaking, and more an extensive of the play experience of Lego. A lot of what I've seen the past couple of years is a weird extension of the latter. That's not a bad thing, everyone's entitled to their own experience and I'm somewhere in the middle myself (I use brickfilming as a way of getting away from my anxieties and social issues, as much as I do it to create a short film I can be proud of).
Well, I guess I started off one way and slowly steered the other. Most of these kids that have just started brickfilming for the first time are, I am assuming anyway, around 13-14 years of age - that age where you're just a little too old to play with Lego anymore, but you still have fond memories of playing and don't really want to stop just there. That's pretty much where I started off, and if I'm being honest, isn't brickfilming an extension of childhood to all of us in a small way?
I didn't really like the forums when I first joined, as it was the first time I had really heard someone criticizing my work. Slowly, as I acted on what people on the forums said, and started to hone my skills I started to take brickfilming more seriously, and it's become much more about being a good filmmaker than just having some fun. And there's nothing wrong with having kids on the forums, sharing their films. It's good to offer advice and help them out, and if they're willing to take that advice they might have a completely different outlook on how they see brickfilming altogether. The only problem is, there's just so many on the forums now, and sometimes it's hard to give advice if people don't know they want that advice, especially if they've initially only come here to share their work and have been used to nothing but praise on YouTube!
Fantastic insights guys!
That being said, there are many brickfilmers... just not here. The community isn't full. Community is made up of people who love the art and like to talk about it. You're talking about the quantity of brickfilmers in general.
Of all the great discussion in this thread, I was drawn to this paragraph in particular. I think there's a lot of truth in this.
It may be a side-effect of my slowly drifting away from the hobby, and thus, being less active in the forum, or maybe just a quick of miss-remembering the past, but I haven't seen the community side of things as strongly as I remember it being when I first began. Even though it was just a forum, and I really didn't know them well at all, I honestly felt closer to guys back then. Others seemed more closely tied back then.
I came in about six years ago, and the community certainly had a different flavor back then. But you know what? They were having similar discussions even back then! I mean, that was more centered around the kinds and qualities of films, as opposed to the community itself, but certain parts correlate.
"...I don't think brickfilming is "dying", not even remotely. The state of the current community is simply that it's hugely unfocused."
I have to agree. Back in the Golden Age, Brickfilms.com was the ONLY place (more or less) that you could find weirdos like yourself that made movies with those silly little kids toys called Lego. So they naturally huddled together and did what they could to help others and get to know each other. They had to if they wanted to survive!
Now, you find brickfilms on YouTube, Rebrick, Bricksinmotion, Facebook, Twitter and all kinds of social platforms. Some of the most well known brickfilmers now (Brotherhood Workshop, Forrestfire101, MICHAELHICKOXFilms, ect) don't have anything to do with us here. You don't NEED the community to survive, or even thrive, as a brickfilmer. So many don't.
You may get well-known in the community, but you probably won't get a million views on anything if you post it here. You won't get lots of ad money, or comments by big-name guys, or high subscriber counts, or any of that. You'll get told that the film needed refinement and that runs off some.
Jampot again nailed it when he mentioned that brickfilming has begun to shift from the filmmaking process to an extension of Lego. Now, I'm, like he, in the middle somewhere. There are guys like Smeagol who took this and grew it into professional filmmaking, while others, like myself, have faded away as life has take a different path.
If you're doing it to extend your play, then things won't be perfect, there is less motivation to film things at that higher level of quality. Perhaps one of my flaws is that I subconsciously expect every new brickfilmer to be looking to grow as a filmmaker, and not a play maker. Instead of reviling in the joy of childhood dreams, I cut it down to the lifeless technical aspects.
One thing I've learned from Bible college is the need to cultivate a balance regarding the Bible. A pure enjoyment of its beauty and power, but also a desire to get in deeper and see the technical side of its language, (in the Greek and Hebrew) doctrine, and organization. With just the love, you tend to be light, while solely the second could turn you into a harsh critic, or lifeless encyclopedia. To properly experience and live and know the Bible, you must find a balance between the two.
Perhaps, as a community, we are going through the pains of learning that balance. The YouTube world may be, in the words of some, more "modern" or "relevant," but if we really dig deep, and look for it, we would find that the community of Bricksinmotion is both "relevant" and capable of actually maturing those that are in it. While the "truth" of our criticism may nto be appreciated by all, it, tempered by kindness and understanding, is the only thing that can really grow and develop somebody into a good filmmaker.
TL;DR
Yes, times change, though memory may taint our perception of the past more than we think. Bricksinmotion may not seem like the same community it once was, but if we pour ourselves into it, and approach new members and films with the right attitude, then we can continue to be the leading, most helpful, and most amazing brickfilming resource out there.
You don't NEED the community to survive, or even thrive, as a brickfilmer. So many don't.
While this is true, I think people are very much mistaken if they believe in this. I had known about BiM for roughly 4 years before I joined, and the reason why I didn't immediately join was because I didn't think that it would benefit me that much.
Biggest mistake of my life.
Okay, slight exaggeration, but still...
Having a place where everyone enjoys the art of brickfilming is a huge gaping door for the imagination, as it is a source for endless new ideas. I have also had the pleasure of meeting/finding out about many awesome brickfilmers, and looking at how people approach their animations and how their imaginations work is fascinating to me.
I don't see the brickfilming community as having too much attention. In fact, it seems that the 'filming' aspect of it seems to be slightly fading. Not that I think the straights are too dire, though.
The bigger issue from people starting brickfilming is that they most likely won't find BricksInMotion, which is a pity. For example, the first site dedicated to brickfilming that I ever found was Brickfilms.com...I only discovered BiM several years later when trying to find who hosted THAC. A lack of awareness of this wonderful resource could severely cripple beginning animator's work toward improvement.
I recall seeing in an older thread that the trademark for brickfilms (or it might have been the owndership of bf.com, can't remembr) would expire in 2018. While this reasoning might be a bit of a stretch, I think even having brickfilms.com just redirecting to here could have a positive effect on the community.
Hope this post makes sense
I recall seeing in an older thread that the trademark for brickfilms (or it might have been the owndership of bf.com, can't remembr) would expire in 2018. While this reasoning might be a bit of a stretch, I think even having brickfilms.com just redirecting to here could have a positive effect on the community.
The trademark could have expired at the end of this year, but the owners of brickfilms.com filed to renew and can continue to do so indefinitely, meaning it will not. Even if they did lose the trademark, they would still be the owners of the site itself and could legally argue that another site's use of the word brickfilm in a url is infringing on their trademark (which may legally belong to them even if they lost the federal registration).
The long and short of it is that to get brickfilms.com to redirect to BiM, someone would have to purchase it from the current owners. Unless someone is sitting on a large amount of money (that they basically want to throw in the garbage- because again, brickfilms.com has very little value beyond being the top Google result when you search for "brickfilm") it's not likely to happen soon.
I don't think the brick filming community has enough attention.
Look at animators like Pongowl . They're very high quality, yet, they have very little support.
Is there a solution to this problem?
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