This featured brickfilmer post is part of a series of articles highlighting animators who supported the Bricks in Motion Documentary project on Kickstarter.

Jumpei Mitsui is a Japan-based sculptural artist, one of 12 LEGO Certified professionals in the world. He began playing with bricks when he was three years old, and built continuously from there. In high school, he began to find ways of building sculptural models, which appeared on several Japanese  television shows.

In university, Mitsui tried his hand at stop motion with this short animation:

"I decided to make this stop motion movie to show how to build SNOT (studs not on top) sphere which I designed. This sphere is easy to build and have enough strength, so I think this is good example for beginner builders. It was not my speciality to shoot a stop motion movie, but it is always fun for me to try new challenges."

Eventually, Mitsui became a professional for the LEGO group, building large-scale sculptures on commission for corporations. This year, he established a company and became a full-time builder.

While Mitsui hasn't made any other stop motion films to date, he's interested in exploring the medium further: "I hope I will have an opportunity to make new stop motion movie in the future "

To see more of Jumpei Mitsui's creations, visit his website and his Brickshelf archive.