For me it's easy... Joe Brickmond (series).

Hmmm, let me think here ...

We talked about this on the most recent episode of the Frame100 Podcast, so I gotta say that these are the ones. I didn't get to mention all of them on the show but these are a few that have stuck out in my work as a brickfilmer.

The Adventures of Kentucky Jackson: In my eyes, this is the height of quick-paced, off-the-wall humor in brickfilming. One day, I would love to do something like this - big and ridiculous.

Sola Luna: Don't blush Rio, you deserve the admiration I talked about this on the Frame100 Podcast and I mentioned how it completely destroys the myth that Lego is only a toy and can't be used to convey something more meaningful or serious. Plus, it's one of a handful of romantic brickfilms that work so well.

Lego Pizza Delivery: One of the first brickfilms I'd ever seen, and at the time, it blew my mind. The simplicity of it convinced me that I could learn to animate and produce brickfilms, so I credit Mr. Hickox for helping get me into the trade.

Robot Buddy: A BIONICLE brickfilm that got me thinking about comedy and animating with things other than Lego minifigs ... waaaay back in the day. Sadly, iBIONICLE is no longer active, but he had some funny films that sorta just stuck with me.

YouTube  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Frame100  |  Matthew 11:28-30

Alright, I'm going to start off by disclosing that these four films are not necessarily my favorite brickfilms, however I like each of them very much. There are many more brickfilms that have had a strong impact on me as well, but for now let's stay within the recommended limit of four.

The Han Solo Affair

The Han Solo Affair is notable in that it was the first brickfilm I ever watched as a child. I remember discovering this gem in a little side column somewhere on the old LEGO website. The simple wonder of the moving minifigs, glowing lightsabers, flashing sparks, and levitating carbonite truly amazed me as a child. This film captivated my imagination and no doubt had the greatest influence on me when I first started animating. The classic look of the sets and characters is also something that I try to reflect in my own films today.

LEGO Mountain Biking

I really love the mood and atmosphere that this film creates. The timing with the music is just so spot-on. It's able to pull off some clever and silly gags without disrupting the cool, sporty tone. This balance of a pretty serious tone with good humor is something that I try to incorporate into some of my films.

The Front

The Front really showed me what storytelling potential the brickfilming medium has. This film has a really strong tone that supports the story well. It blends a meaningful story together with some clever humor.

First Class

First Class is a classic film about a robot that faces a bunch of obstacles on his way to deliver a parcel. I really like the idea of a character that perseveres though so much hardship. The characters in this film are wonderfully imaginative, each possessing their own distinct personality.

       
                       Website  ✧  YouTube  ✧  Flickr  ✧  Soli Deo Gloria

Lego - The Force Unleashed was the film that led to my awakening to the brickfilming world. I had seen a couple brickfilms before, but until my friend showed me this video I never really realized what I was watching, let alone that there was a whole online community dedicated to it.

Unrenewable showed me that brickfilms could be more than goofy little videos. The idea that brickfilms are in fact "film". I saw it not to long after discovering brickfilms, before I had even tried animating myself, and it blew my freakin' mind.

The quick witted, absurdist comedy in Keshen's Days of Our Pizza is a long time inspiration for the kind of comedy I try to put in my shorts.

Egyptian Holiday, by Spencer Katz, is my favorite brickfilm. I had only been brickfilming for about a year when it came out, and it totally changed my idea of what a brickfilm could be. The biggest thing that I take from it is the amount of character that comes out in the animation and voice acting. And the lighting, man .

A more recent film that's gotten me thinking about animation more creatively is The Feud of Brick Hill by ForlornCreature. The dramatic pacing of the movements to convey extreme emotions in an overly cartoony fashion is something I'm trying to incorporate more into my own work.

Youtube Channel

What brickfilms define me as a person? That's a really tough one. If I was defining what type of brickfilms define my brickfilming style... admittedly, I would have to say Michael Hickox films. All my films on my channel are really uncreative and pointless. I've been working on a few writing projects to improve mine and make them either less juvenile and more emotional. So maybe I will do brickfilms that inspired me for my upcoming projects?

So...Uhh... Here we go!

The first one I have on this list is LEGO Sheep by studiosepsilon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m54kzG … jqKZG7eOAK
LEGO Sheep is by far, my favorite brickfilm of all time. It manages to convey a series of emotions. From sadness, awkwardness, curiosity, and joy, Sheep is packed full of emotion. And it manages to deliver a message that people who say your stupid for not fitting in, are actually really stupid themselves. The animation is beautiful, and the lighting is fantastic. The creator was also really creative to use LEGOs as just a medium of animation and chose to make a film about sheep rather than LEGOs.

Egyptian Holiday by mobdeli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg6uX_6j10E
You folks probably don't know this but, I have a crazy love for theme parks. And despite it being a kid's park, Legoland is one of my personal favorites. (Especially with the addition of the Ninjago ride). And the song that suddenly starts playing from the car we hear in the beginning, is the exact same song from one of thair iconic rides. I was immediately sucked into the story. The characters were really developed, a common flaw in most brickfilms. I could really tell everything about their personalities and laughed all the way through. I want to strive to make my characters deep and entertaining, even in a short little LEGO brickfilm.

Sola Luna by rioforce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys8pmM6RKNE
The reason I love this brickfilm is that it defied the standard for brickfilms. This isn't just a good brickfilm, this is a good film. The first time I watched it, I literally broke down crying, no joke. I also loved rio's attention to detail. Every sound in the film was accurate and necessary for the reaction I had. While most brickfilms make absurd comedies that make literally no sense, Sola Luna made a brickfilm that yanks at your heartstrings.

Bound by MonitogoStudios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nttd12f … mp;index=8
Here's something you don't see every day. A feature-length Christian brickfilm. I loved this film when I saw it for the first time. It's entertaining, funny, and has a pretty darn good story. The characters could have been a little bit better, and the voice acting wasn't the greatest, but it was still an exceptional film. It's inspired me more towards incorporating messages and mediators into more of my films. I hope to start making films with more of a serious tone, rather than the goofy tone I have been doing.

So there you go. That's my list. I literally spent an hour writing this when I could have been brickfilming. So... yeah.
Make good brickfilms guys!

As a started to grow older I needed an excuse to hold on to my Lego collection because I didn't play with them anymore, I would just display them on shelves or store them away. I enjoyed building things with Lego, whether MOCs or sets, but once I found brickfilming I knew I found something special. There were many brickfilms that helped to get me started in brickfilming, but the following five films are ones that I have picked out to be the most influential in inspiring me to start brickfilming.

Country Buildin'
by Paganomation

My introduction to brickfilming all started with a Lego Club DVD I got in the mail because of my subscription to the magazine. On it were various videos promoting the current Lego themes. But what caught my eye the most were the brickfilms. I really enjoyed the animated music videos by Paganomation. I would watch them over and over again. His brickfilm, Country Buildn', intrigued me the most because it used big, brick-built figures instead of minifigures. This brickfilm showed me the creativity and possibilities of brickfilming. 

Adventures of Max - LEGO Universe

I also really enjoyed Paganomation's Adventures of Max series on the DVD. These videos were fun and quirky. I enjoyed watching Max interact with all of my favorite themes. I was always curious about where he would end up next. The Adventure of Max I chose was not made by Paganomation, (if anyone knows who made it please let me know!) but this one has always been one of my favorites. I was really in to the Lego Universe game at the time, and still look back to the game for inspiration in my creativity. After watching the DVD, I became very intrigued at how the brickfilms were made and started looking up brickfilms on youtube.

NNN - The End of Sports
by Nightly News at Nine (now Brick 101)

One of the first brickfilms I found online was the Nightly News at Nine series. I really enjoyed Pickett's series and was amazed at the out of socket animation. His video on the end of sports was a classic for me because I wasn't really in to sports and to see them done away with was funny to me. I also entered his police show contest which challenged me and helped me develop my animating ability.

How to Not Rob a Bank
by Annoying Noises Productions (or Squid)

Another brickfilmer that I found was Squid. His videos were crazy and fun which inspiried me to start telling any kind of story that came into my head, whether it was a knights quest or some toys going on a march. Squid's video How To Not Rob a Bank was my favorite because of how wacky and insane it was. It starts off with two friends on a bench and ends up in a chaotic battle. I also liked all the weird names Squid came up with. 

There were lots of other brickfilmers that helped to inspire my creativity and my interest in brickfilming, like Brotherhood Workshop, Loïc, and Fancy Pants, but these brickfilms/brickfilmers I feel were the beginning catalysts for my journey in brickfilming.:) I can look at my animations today and see where these early experiences shaped my animating style and passion!

There are many cool responses in this thread, and I love to see how much variety there is in the films that have been mentioned. To respond to Divine, I like to see someone mention The LEGO Clan. It felt like one of the "big" films when I was first watching brickfilms, but I haven't really ever seen it brought up since. I think it is one of those films that now doesn't look up to much at first, but if you're willing to give it a chance, it will draw you in.