Topic: THAC XII - Starts NOW!
Welcome one and all to the twelfth Twenty-four Hour Animation Contest! (Or THAC for short.)
The theme is "A Fresh Start".
The color mod elements is a black LEGO piece connected to a blue LEGO piece.
The letter mod element is the letter N.
THAC is a brickfilming contest that lasts for exactly 24 hours. All the idea-making, writing, recording, animating, editing and submitting is to be done within the time limit. It's a challenge, it's frantic, and it's a lot of fun!
The contest will begin on Saturday, January 3, 2015 at 12pm (midday) GMT and will run for 24 hours. It will end on Sunday, January 4, 2015 at 12pm GMT. You can see what that is in your time zone by clicking here.
Everyone who has been a member of BricksInMotion.com for at least 1 week before the official start of THAC XII (January 3, 2015) may enter. Judges may participate but are disqualified from being ranked and from receiving prizes. Joint productions are allowed, but it is up to you to divide up the prizes if you win anything.
Your entry must be entirely made and submitted during the 24-hour period. To prove this, mod elements must appear in every shot of your animation (more information below).
Your entry must consist primarily of LEGO (or similar building-block toy) stop-motion animation. Live-action, CGI, hand-drawn, or other forms of film or animation may be used to supplement your entry, but stop-motion animation 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/explicit content is allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: swearing, excessive/gory violence, overt sexual content, and blatant drug references.
You must not make your entry public until the deadline has passed.
The entry you submit to the judges must be the entry made publicly available to everyone else. You cannot create a version of your film that includes the mod element to send to the judges, and then publicly release a second version of your film that has the mod element removed.
Use of copyrighted material (including music) is allowed, though discouraged. Use of copyrighted material will not affect the judging of your entry. There is no direct score deduction but a film that uses preexisting IPs will not be viewed as favorably as a film that creates something entirely new. Using a preexisting IP is like writing a paper but half the paper is quotes from other people. - Thanks to Aquamorph for the clarification.
While copyrighted/trademarked properties are allowed, you are discouraged from basing your movie off of pre-existing franchises (Star Wars, Marvel, etc.). Its not original, and could affect the judging of your film. Copyrighted music may be used, due to the time constraints for this contest. If you do not wish to do so, you are permitted to create original music beforehand. Original music does not have to be created within the 24 hour time limit.
To prevent cheating, the contest theme will only be announced when the contest begins. You can brainstorm ideas beforehand but you could be way off what you're meant to make. In addition, "mod elements" must be present in every shot of your film. These mod elements will also be announced when the contest begins. The first mod element is a color mod. This will be a combination of two random brick colors connected together (for example, a white brick connected to a grey brick). The second mod element is a letter mod. This could be any of the 26 letters of the modern English alphabet. You may use the uppercase or lowercase version of the letter, but the letter must be recognizable as that letter.
To prove that you made your film within the time limit, at least one of the mod elements must appear in every shot of your animation. You do not need to use both mod elements. You can combine these mod elements in any way that you see fit, so long as at least one is present at all times. You could choose to use just the color mod or just the letter mod, you could choose to use both, you could alternate between scenes, or any combination of the above. All that is important is that at least one of the mod elements be visible in every shot.
The letter may be upper or lower case, but it still must be clearly that letter. The letter can be rotated but not mirrored. Again, it must be clearly identifiable as that letter. It may be written or printed on a piece of paper or sticker, drawn directly onto a brick, printed on a piece, or built from pieces and even integrated into the set.
The letter mod element may exist on a printed LEGO piece, but it must clearly be that letter. An eyebrow or wrinkle on a minifig’s face, or a fold in the shirt on the minifig's torso are not letters.
The blue in the color mod can be any shade of light or dark blue, even transparent. The black can only be black, not shades of gray.
The mod element must be physically present in the shot. Mod elements cannot be added digitally in post-production.
Minifig parts (for example a red torso attached to grey legs) can count as the color mod, but bricks connected to or touching baseplates do not.
You do not need to include either mod element in the titles or credits.
If a shot must be clarified by changing the shot in anyway (changing brightness, black and white to color, etc) to be able to identify the mod element, the shot will be not counted as containing the mod element and the entry will most likely be disqualified. See next rule for one exception regarding the cropping of the image.
For particular shots where including the mod element would be disruptive to your artistic vision (such as extreme close-ups and shots with very low depth of field), you may include a legal mod element in the shot and then crop the mod element out in post-production. You then must provide an uncropped frame from that shot and explain in detail the cropped shot in the submission email. You will have to provide separate proof for each shot.
Send an email to [email protected] before 12pm (midday) GMT on Sunday, January 4th, 2015. Unless I am asleep, I will reply as soon as it arrives to confirm that your submission has been received, and add you to the list below. In the body of the email, please include a working link to your film, and a password if applicable.
Write the subject of your email in this format:
THAC2015 Entry, [Your Bricks in Motion username], “[Title of your film]”
For example: THAC2015 Entry, Smeagol, “Unre2able: Polytech Strikes Back”
Your entry may be in the following formats:
Unlisted YouTube video. To make your video unlisted, go to the video page and click the little blue icon next to the video title, then select UNLISTED from the drop-down menu.
Password-protected Vimeo video. To make your video password-protected, go to the video page and click Settings, then under the Privacy tab, choose "Only people with a password". Please remember to include the password in your email! If I cannot view your entry, I cannot accept it.
The judges for THAC XII are:
Nathan Wells
Timothy R.
AquaMorph
Funsucker
Smeagol
Entries will be judged on criteria including originality, production values (animation, set design, cinematography, sound, etc.), story, and creative interpretation of the theme by the 5 judges. Films will be discussed and ranked collectively by the judges until a consensus is reached. The top 3 films will eligible for the prize pool. Entries below 10th place will not be publicly ranked.
This year, like earlier years, we will be offering a prize pool of three prizes. This means that 1st place gets to choose which of the three prizes they want, 2nd place chooses from the remaining two and 3rd place gets whichever one is left over!
#71007 - Collectable Minifigures Series 12 (2x)
#4431 - Dump Truck - Donated by JonnDThunder!
#70804 - Ice Cream Machine
Don't worry, this THAC is not radically different from years past! Smeagol and I have worked together to tighten up and clarify a few rules, which are repeated and emphasized below. These rule revisions are mostly designed to clear up confusion on what and what does not count as the mod element. We don't want you to be stressing over your mod elements, we want you to be focusing on making a film in 24 hours! Make special note of the general mod element rule: the mod element only needs to be in every shot, not in every frame like previous years. This should make including the mod element a lot easier!
Your entry must be entirely made and submitted during the 24-hour period. To prove this, mod elements must appear in every shot of your animation.
The entry you submit to the judges must be the entry made publicly available to everyone else. You cannot create a version of your film that includes the mod element to send to the judges, and then publicly release a second version of your film that has the mod element removed.
The letter may be upper or lower case, but it still must be clearly that letter. The letter can be rotated but not mirrored. Again, it must be clearly identifiable as that letter. It may be written or printed on a piece of paper or sticker, drawn directly onto a brick, printed on a piece, or built from pieces and even integrated into the set.
The letter mod element may exist on a printed LEGO piece, but it must clearly be that letter. An eyebrow or wrinkle on a minifig’s face, or a fold in the shirt on the minifig's torso are not letters.
If a shot must be clarified by changing the shot in anyway (changing brightness, black and white to color, etc) to be able to identify the mod element, the shot will be not counted as containing the mod element and the entry will most likely be disqualified. See next rule for one exception regarding the cropping of the image.
For particular shots where including the mod element would be disruptive to your artistic vision (such as extreme close-ups and shots with very low depth of field), you may include a legal mod element in the shot and then crop the mod element out in post-production. You then must provide an uncropped frame from that shot and explain in detail the cropped shot in the submission email. You will have to provide separate proof for each shot.
If you want to participate in and keep up with everyone's THAC progress on Twitter, use the hashtag #THACXII and keep an eye at the top of the forum!
You can also post your progress in this thread on the forums.
Jay has started a thread where people can search for on-call voice actors.
Here is the final playlist of entries!
Please note that this isn't a guarantee all of the films in the list are eligible. I did keep a cursory glace out for the mod element when watching them, but I didn't go shot by shot. I don't expect there to be many problems, though.
Fangorn - Poor Rich Man
AntihumanFilms - The New Day
mkstudio - Fresh Start And Not Fresh End
Willow Tree - Umbrella Umbrage
thatsfinestudios - LEGO Second Chance
MotionHero2001 - Spring Renovations
Hoverfrogfilms - A Fresh New Start
Mustache Maniacs - The Kingfisher
Funmi Productions - Fried Hobby
thefourmonkeys - Galactic Smugglers: How Captain Dude Got the Buffalo Skies
PrestigiousPieProductions - The Food Chain
Cheddarbob10 - The Truth Behind Going to College- NO LINK PROVIDED!legokingmike217 - Redone
baamodt - New Year's Resolutions
Galactic Films - Love at First Sight
Wammy - The Chemist
jaxcychan - Time Machine -
ahnt - Wheel of Jeopardy
Greenshirt - Creepy Crook
Not4snail - Autobiography
tenny1028- He Had No New Years Resolution
Pritchard Studios - Ax 3: The Survivor
END Films - A New World
Infinity Prime Studios - The Teleporters, Cowboy, and the Suitcase
Gentry Studios - Missing the Bus
DewVinci - Director's Cut
HearttAttack - A New Day
RandomBoaz - Fresh Restart
TheLoginProductions - Run Please
Binding Brick - Against the Grain
Regan - The Transition
Mighty Wanderer - Circle of Truth
StefanMuscat - A FRESH START: Moving House
LMDigitalMovies - Unforgettable Past
LASF - The Great Coming of Paul
SonicLuvr36 - May I Have This Dance?
prisac - Protected
rioforce - New Recruits
OsomStudios - The Theif
Legofan Productions - A Fresh Start for the Both of Us
Sonjira - A Fresh Start'N
Brickcrazy - Priceless
brickmationfilmscompany - The Apple Salesman
legolover16 - A New Beginning
BuilderBrothers - Second Genesis
Talipoli Studios - The New Appearance
LPGPictures - The American Dream
Squash - Face
Walrus - Priorities
Max Butcher - N
fartifartek - A New Beginning
Realm of the Unreel - Waiting for a Fresh Start
nswihart - Protected
BoatsAreRockable - Good Morning Simons
Harborlight Productions - The App
Indyception - Over Again
GHB - In Hindsight
ForlornCreature - Fried Circuit
backyardlegos - The Red Button
OnecrasFilms - Fresh Lemonade
sillypenta - Warshaw
SEeE - Mirror
Seaotter71 - There Are No Fresh Starts
AnW - Released
KobbleThePenguin - Green
Sean - Turning
dewfilms - Costumed
Legostudio01 - New Love
ZombieFlowchart Something new Something fresh -
bataton - Rookie cook
gomotion100 - The Cook- SUBMITTED AFTER DEADLINE
