The Brickfilm Day Animation Contest is back, taking place between Friday 19th July and Sunday 4th August!

As with last year, it's based purely on stop motion animation. So, any set design, cinematography, digital effects etc. will not be judged. Just slap lego down on your desk, set up the camera so that your subject is clearly visible and start animating to the given theme. Think of it as a series of animation challenges or tests.

Judging will be broken down into 3 categories.

• Technique

• Character Animation

• Creativity

Technique
Technique is where you'll be judged upon your use (or absence of) easing in and easing out, anticipation and rebound, arcs, squash and stretch, and all those other fancy animation terms. If you're unsure what the hell we're talking about, this video covering the 12 Principles of Animation is a good introduction.

Character Animation
We'll also be judging how you convey character and emotion through your animation. Even something as simple as a walk cycle can convey character to the audience. A good example of how effective character animation can be is Gromit of Wallace and Gromit. He never once has a line of dialogue, yet his character brought to life through motion and expression. With something as limited in movement as a minifigure, don't be afraid to exaggerate movement to emphasise emotion.

Creativity
On top of the previous two categories, we’ll also be judging each entry on the creativity of their theme interpretations. Feel free to experiment with your animation, whether that be trying out a new technique or style of animation, or using bricks or brick-built characters rather than minifigures.

This year's judging panel will compose of...
Bricks and Pieces Animation, Sean from sillypenta and John of Future Past Productions, as well as a fourth guest judge for each round.

These three guest judges will include...
The Action Brick (Round 1 Judge)
TofAnimation (Round 2 Judge)
MindGame Studios (Round 3 Judge)

The best thing about this event is that anyone can take part, whether you've been animating for years or even a week. It's more about having fun and being creative than it is about who wins.

As with last year, the contest will take the form on a knockout tournament. However, rather than splitting the entrants into two separate groups, all participants will be competing against each other from round one. The creators of the top 50% entries from round one will progress into the next round, and the same will happen from round two into the third and final round.

The first round will begin at 00.00 British Summer Time on Friday 19th July, with the theme being announced on our YouTube channel, Discord server, Instagram and Twitter account. From the moment the theme goes live, each participant will have exactly 72 hours to animate a stop motion animated clip anywhere between 5 and 20 seconds in length, using primarily LEGO bricks or figures.

Please upload your entries as unlisted YouTube videos, and email us the links to [email protected] with the subject "Contest Entry, [You name]".

• Please note only one entry per participant will be accepted. Entries may be made public after the round deadline passes.

• ROUND 1

  00.00 BST Friday July 19 - 00.00 BST Monday July 22

  Results announced July 23

• ROUND 2

  00.00 BST Friday July 26 - 00.00 BST Monday July 29

  Results announced July 30

• ROUND 3 (FINAL)

  00.00 BST Friday August 2 - 00.00 BST Monday August 5

The overall winner will receive a 25 US Dollar Amazon online voucher, with two runners up each receiving $10 vouchers.

Please feel free to ask any questions or queries regarding the event either below, or by emailing us @ [email protected].

Last edited by Brickfilm Day (July 16, 2019 (12:21pm))