The Twenty-four Hour Animation Contest, or THAC for short, is a brickfilming competition that lasts for exactly 24 hours. This coming January will mark THAC XVII. All writing, recording, animating, and editing must be done within the time limit. It’s a challenge but it’s a lot of fun!

Check out the announcement video:

The contest will begin on Saturday, January 4, 2020 at 7:00 am EST. It will end on Sunday, January 5, 2020 7:00 am EST. You can check your time zone by clicking here.

Anyone who is a registered member of Bricks in Motion and in good standing before the start of the contest can enter. Judges may also participate but will not be ranked or considered for prizes. Joint productions are allowed but it will be up to your team to divide the prize amongst yourselves should you win.

• Your entry must be entirely animated and edited during the 24-hour period. To prove this and as a long-time tradition of the contest, mod elements must appear in every shot of your film with the exception of 15 seconds. More on this below.

• Your entry must consist of primarily LEGO (or similar building block toy) stop motion animation. Live action, CGI, and hand drawn animation are allowed but stop motion must be the primary focus.

• Your entry must consist of at least 30 seconds of stop motion animation. There is no maximum time limit.

• No mature or explicit content is allowed. This includes but is not limited to: swearing, excessive gore, overt sexual content, and blatant drug references.

• You may not make your entry public until after the deadline. The entry you make public must be the entry you submit to the judges. You cannot create a version of your film that includes the mod element to send to the judges and then release a second version of the film with the mod element removed. Once the judging process is over and the official results have been announced, you can make any changes you wish.

• Use of copyrighted material (such as music) is allowed, though be aware of copyright infringement. Use of copyrighted material will not affect the judging of your entry. Additionally, due to time restraints of the contest, music may be created before the contest. While using copyrighted/trademarked material is allowed, you are discouraged from basing your entry on pre-existing franchises such as Star Wars, Marvel, etc. There is no direct score deduction, but a film that uses pre-existing intellectual properties will not be viewed as favorable as a film that creates something entirely new.

To prevent cheating, a theme will be announced at the start of the contest. You can brainstorm ideas beforehand, but there is no guarantee that your ideas will match the theme. The theme will either be a single word or phrase. 

In addition, “mod elements” must be present in every shot of your film. A mod element is a visual component that must be physically included in each shot of your film to prove that it was made in the 24 hour timeframe. There is an exception however, with a 15 second lineance rule. You do not have to include the mod element for a maximum of 15 seconds. Hopefully, this will allow you to film close ups or other shots where it may be difficult to incorporate the mod elements. Additionally, we want to provide leeway to entrants who forget to include a mod element in a shot or two. In short, if you omit or forget the mod element in a few shots–that’s okay! Just make sure the shots without the mod do not exceed 15 seconds.

There will be two mod elements to choose from–you do not need to use both, you can pick one or the other, or even mix and match them. As with the theme, these mod elements will be announced at the start of the contest. The first mod element is a color mod. This will be a combination of two random bricks that must be connected together or touching. (For example, a green brick connected to a white brick.) The second mod element is a letter mod. This could be any one of the 26 letters in the English alphabet. You may use upper or lowercase versions of the letter, but the letter must be recognizable. Please see the two pictures below that demonstrate the two types of mod elements.

• The letter mod may be upper or lowercase. The letter can be rotated but not mirrored. It must be clearly identifiable as the particular letter. It may be written on a piece of paper or sticker, drawn directly onto a brick, printed onto a piece, or built from pieces and even integrated into the set.

• The letter mod may exist as a printed LEGO piece, but it must clearly be that letter. Expressions on a minifigure face or folds in clothing on minifigure torsos are not letters.

• Mod elements must be physically present. They cannot be digitally added in post production.

• Minifigure parts such as a green torso attached to white legs do count as the color mod.

• You do not need to include the mod elements in the title or credits.

Entries will be judged on criteria including originality, production value (animation, set design, cinematography, sound, etc.), story, and creative interpretation of the theme. Films will be discussed and ranked by the judges until a consensus is reached. The top three films will be eligible for the prize pool. Entries below 10th place will not be publicly ranked.

The judges this year are:
darkdragon
Nathan Wells
Pritchard Studios
Willow Tree

If your entry places in the top 3, you are eligible for the prize pool! Check out the prizes below!


LEGO Creator Townhouse Pet Shop & Cafe 31097, custom printed minifigure, brick-built trophy
LEGO Ideas 21320, custom printed minifigure, brick-built trophy
LEGO Creator Fairground Carousel 31095, custom printed minifigure, brick-built trophy 

A special thanks to Pongowl for creating the THAC banner and designing the THAC XVII exclusive minifigure!

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contribute to the discussion below!