Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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How Do you all go about achieving dolly shots? I'm trying to figure out a practical way to use this technique, as it is a great storytelling tool sometimes. Right now a pvc track with a wood platform seems like the best idea. I've tried it with lego railroad tracks as well, but the latter is impractical and not easy to keep a camera stable, especially an SLR camera.
Any thoughts?
David
I built a little cart , stuck the camera on top using a cradle, put it on lego tracks, and pulled it using a rope and pulley.
yeah, that's probably the best way to do it.
if your not sure, look at some other brickfilms
to see how efficient it is. i am sooo cheeky! 
That's not to bad Splodge, It was a little jerky though.
oh, I didn't make that! oldscrath did! 
(I wish I'd made it)
Last edited by Splodge (August 29, 2009 (02:19pm))
Ah I should have paid more attention, That's pretty sorry compared to the rest of what Old Scratch does.
Ah I should have paid more attention, That's pretty sorry compared to the rest of what Old Scratch does.
it was just a test, on his 'hurtinator' extra channel.
I just use my hand. I simply take a frame, move the camera a but, take another frame...and I'm quite good at it also. I never take my hand off the camera though.
I did a dolly shot test a while ago and here's my set up:
What I did was move the camera down the track only when the minifig actually moved in the walk cycle, keeping it in the middle of the shot.
I think it might be better when you don't move the camera only when your minifig moves... Actually, I don't know how your test looked like, but here's my idea: If the figure "moves" in every 4-5 frames, the camera won't move in these frames and it might seem something like "go-wait-go-wait", it won't flow...
I may be wrong as well, of course (If I could explain well) 
Actually, I can do dolly shots digitally in my editing program, MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 14, but it's $50 (a.k.a. not free)
ehh dude, that looks cheesy (and I have MAGIX too), the quality is quite poor when you're doing something like that digitally.
I'm just using a sleigh (you know, those sleigh-bricks). And it looks quite good.
It does look a bit cheesey, but look at the end of Unrenewable, with the dolly shot of the plant. No one said that was cheesey.
It does look a bit cheesey, but look at the end of Unrenewable, with the dolly shot of the plant. No one said that was cheesey.
Now wait a minute. That shot was a simple, slow zoom, which is why it worked. Lateral movement looks terrible. If you're talking about the closeup rotation, the plant was done in 3d, so it rotates realistically, which is why the shot works. I would guess that the background is 2d, but it works because the foreground plant is rotating normally.
- Leo
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