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BRICK FILMS |
an introduction by Dave Watterson |
Brick films are animations using toys, especially bricks and characters in the LEGO ® range. (LEGO ® is a trademark of the LEGO Group)
| The Magic Portal is generally recognized as the first "brick
film". Double click on the movie to see it at larger size. It was created
on 16mm film by Lindsay Fleay from Perth, Australia between 1985 and 1989.
Though at a film school, Lindsay says "It was made entirely outside the
curriculum with external funding. Truth be told, I was mainly studying just
to get my grubby hands on some free equipment. I had extensive support from
both the Film and Media Design schools, mainly with facilities and
equipment." You can find out all about the movie and its maker at
www.rakrent.com
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<-- The Knob is Everything is a remarkable Brick Film which had success at Germany's FISH Festival of Fantastic Films. |
In Brick Films the actors are much less trouble than live ones - no coordinating diaries, arranging transport, supplying refreshments ... or arguments. And if their performances leave something to be desired, who has not seen plenty of "wooden" live actors who are just as limited? Lighting is less of a problem than usual because actors and scenery are pretty small. There is little lip-synch to manage. You don't need cranes, dollies, sound booms. You don't even need a camcorder.
And it need not take forever. With cheap digital technology award-winners can be made overnight ! Whether you want to start creating movies yourself or entertain the kids for an afternoon, Brick Films could be the way to go. Most people put their movies onto the web to get the widest possible audience ... check out the websites listed later on this page.
Take a look at these examples:
The Gauntlet by Jay Silver from |
Jane's Brain by Chris Salt from |
America: Outlawed by Doug |
Choose your stars: LEGO ® bricks and Minifigures are very popular for this, but Mega Bloks, Best-Lock, Stikfas figures and others are all frequently used. Sets and backgrounds can be made from items in those toy ranges or with cardboard, wood etc. Foil-covered styrofoam of the type used in insulating buildings is good for metallic surfaces.
Get your equipment: Most brick-filmers use webcams to capture the images. The Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 is popular and can be found for around $70. Choose one which gives a full screen resolution - some older ones only produce small pictures. (While it is possible to use digital stills cameras the processing they do to optimise each image can create strange results when viewing the pictures rapidly as a movie ... besides you also have the fuss of removing the memory card and reading it into the computer. A regular camcorder can be used when connected directly to the computer so that you can watch it live but only take a screen-capture when each shot is ready.)
A simple microphone is helpful for recording voices and any special sound effects you produce yourself. For most films this can be a cheap one like the Jasco Computer Headset at around $14.
If you are reading this, then you already have the necessary computer !
For lighting a couple of 60-watt bulbs works fine in most cases.
Software: Any edit system could be used - including Apple's iMovie and Microsoft's MovieMaker. [MovieMaker is no longer available on the MicroSoft website but can be found here. ] There are commercial programs for the other work too, but staying with the no/low budget theme some suggestions for free stuff:
Monkey Jam - is a good stop-motion program which allows you to capture, "onion-skin" (think of it as tracing), and preview short sections of animation.
Videomach - the free version includes 2-second banner-ads. Among other things this helps compress files for download. (To compress files for use on YouTube see our tutorial starting here.)
DivX - is a popular format for brick films.
"Shooting" speed: Normal NTSC video runs at nearly 30 fps (frames-per-second), but few animators create 30 pictures for each second of screen time. Around 12 fps is a good starting point but 15 fps looks better. It is acceptable for almost all motion and, of course, takes half the time and effort that working at 30fps would do.
Stop-Motion Animation: start with these tutorials and for some lip-synch animation look here.
General Information: there are lots of websites devoted to brick films. A good one is www.brickfilms.com which has masses of help and some great films. Try the useful Brick Films Wikipedia. Try also Best Bricks , Bricks in Motion
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