Well, I can't say I've animated as much as I hoped to last week however I did make progress in the music making aspect and that's pretty much all sorted out now. I also recorded the noise that I will put at the start of the film. Before the film starts I'm going to have a short section where the screen is black and the ambient noise of a city plays increasing in volume until it's very loud. I'm hoping this might improve the feeling of the city later on in the film feeling abandoned by emphasizing the unusual quietness of it compared to the usual background hum that a city always emits. Or at least my city does!
Anyway. Here is a frame

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This looks so cool. I'm actually kind of jealous that I didn't think of this. I look forward to following the progress and seeing the final product.

Are you you using a DSLR? I feel like this shot would look better with a longer focal lenth.

It looks pretty good so far, though I feel that there should be more taller skyscrapers in the background--right now there's really only the one filling out the upper half of the frame, which makes it seem imbalanced.  I think the skyscrapers should also be staggered a bit, as it looks like there's a just solid block/line of them with nothing in front of them, which creates an awkward-looking gap in the foreground of the frame.  I'd either add something in the lower left corner to fill it out or re-arrange the buildings to structure a more natural-looking vanishing point as in the Blade Runner frame.

The skyscrapers could use some work too; I'm not much of a fan of the light-and-dark-grey striped look (though this might be personal preference).  I'd also vary the shapes somewhat, using slopes, antennae, or domes, or even building something like the CN Tower in Toronto or the Seattle Space Needle to create some variety.

Also, you could improve on your lighting.  I feel like lighting is often overlooked in Brickfilming, but don't underestimate it as good lighting can vastly improve your shots.  Right now it's a bit basic.  One problem is that you can see a shadow cast on to the backdrop by the skyscraper, which ruins the illusion of it being a city against an open sky.  It also looks like you have only one light focused on a particular spot; it's much better to use more than one lamp to get rid of shadows and make the light more diffuse.  This particular yellow colour also looks slightly off to me.  Personally, I've found that using lamps with coloured gels (or coloured transparent paper, if you're cheap like me ) against a white backdrop can create a really nice look.  Red and blue works especially well, in my opinion:

It kind of gives it a surreal and stylised feel without becoming too unrealistic.

In addition, consider focusing your camera on the building in the foreground instead of background.  This will blur the background and might help sell the illusion of microscale buildings in the background.

Last edited by Mr Vertigo (April 2, 2015 (04:00pm))

I really like using long lenses on wide shots, it make it look like you are really far away from what is being photographed

in this shot I used a 105mm lens for the forced perspective

and on this shot I used a 300mm lens to make the city seem really distant

What do you think? In my opinion, this is an improvement:

Although I liked the digital clock, there's a place later on in the film that would suit it much better.

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I don't think the red building on the right should be casting such a long shadow on the other buildings, especially if you are going for a realistic look. Try and get the same type of lighting on all the buildings and then only use small LED's of some sort to convey the street lights or window lights.

It's been quite hot recently and that seems to really mess with my camera. Either that or the shutter on it is giving up after six years of use. Once every 50 - 100 frames the shutter will just downright refuse to lift back up again until a second frame is taken and the first deleted. Next time it happens I will put the picture on here. Usually it's either over/underexposed and sometimes the shutter can actually be seen in the shot.
Although this sounds bad, it did happen last year when I was animating in summer and then in winter it completely vanished so I dunno. It's a real bummer. Have any of you had similar experiences? I'm using a Nikon D90. 

Also. Anyone know how to change settings on the Logitech C920 so it only takes JPGs instead of memory eating TIFFs?

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Here's a panning shot where the main character is hit by several flying saucers. (I'm sorry, I'm in a weird mood right now).

The white wallpaper will disappear once the image is converted to 16:9.
Here's the set.

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