Lego Stop motion builds - any feedback welcome

[BooTheMightyHamster]

Hi,

When my wife bought me the 8070 Supercar for Christmas, I thought I'd like to have a crack at making a stop motion movie of the build. But given that I know nothing about it, I figured I'd start small.

So I made a couple of attempts, using the 9390 Mini Tow truck.

The first one's got all sorts of problems, the second one's marginally better.

If anyone's got any comments of feedback, I'd be grateful.

Thanks!

Boo

Edited February 8, 2013 by BooTheMightyHamster

[Darkdragon]

Your films look pretty good. I think the only thing, for me, is that the about of time on each photo is a bit much. If you cut that down by half, it would make for a smoother video. The only other thing I'd do is add some sort of backround music, not that it's required for everything but at least for me personally I like to have some sound.

Looking forward to seeing some story-driven animation from you.

[BooTheMightyHamster]

Thanks Darkdragon.

Ironically, the slightly 'jerky' feel was the only bit I was completely happy about! That was what I was aiming for, rather than smooth 'film-like' animation.

The things I need to gen up on are focussing, framing, lighting and appropriate backgrounds, to name but a few.

I take your point about sound / music. Really not sure what to do about that. For copyright reasons, I can't just add a piece of music that I already own, and while I am a musician, nobody wants to listen to a three and a half minute drum solo!

I'll either have to start investigating copyright-free music, or start playing around with Garageband.

[Darkdragon]

Oh don't get me wrong, I don't mind the 'jerky' feel at all, it's just that it's a bit slow for me. As in, can't hold my attention the whole time. Maybe I just have a very short attention span, but I think just cutting the time between frames by half (or even less, maybe cut out 1/3 of the time) would keep the look you want and give the whole film a slightly quicker pace. It's all subjective.

For a film like this, I thought your lighting was very decent. The only part that was distracting was a bit of camera accidental movement at the start where the chair came into frame. Otherwise, even the backgrounds seemed fine to me here.

I guess it all depends on the goal and what kind of film it is, there's really no set rule for something like that.

For lighting, just always remember to cover all windows and make sure you control the light. Then you should be fine. Windows will create shifts in light and color as the day moves forward, even in an hour.

Oh, and there's lots of royalty free and creative commons music out there if you want to use it. I am very strict myself and never use music without a license.