Making a movie

[El Bucanero]

,

[Scouty]

Well. There are MANY ways of doing things. First off, which programs do you have/use to be dedicated to this stuff? Because I need to know what you have and don't have so I can explain much easier how to. I use at least 3-4 programs for this: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premire, Stop Motion Maker, and Smartmusic 9, for sounds and voices.

Here is a good website to help explain some process, if not all. http://www.brickfilms.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page :-)

[birdmaster51]

Hi there, I think I found a solution for the LEGO Kraken tentacle problem, and now I'd like to make a movie, but how do I do that? I haven't got any experience with making LEGO movies, so I'd be happy if someone explains me how to do it. There are also some specific details I'd like to have explained: How do I create "flying" objects (like wood splinters and flying people) and how to handle with music and sounds? And what materials do I need to film?

Please let me know

Mr Tiber

Wow. Thats really interesting! Hey uh... if you can,try to post me back about how to make a popping sound.you see,I'm trying to make a movie when a monster pulls a lego minifig's arms off.

*y* *sweet* FROM masterbird51

[Bonaparte]

Very ambitious Mr. Tiber.

I had the same idea after watching the men-o-war animation.

But when I found out how difficult it was, I gave up the idea.

Maybe you have more persistence then me...

[Scouty]

Yes, SMA is quite hard. I sometimes find it frustrating, as I do it alot. I attemtpted a 24 hour contest before but dropped out. MOW for sure was a great movie and I'm sure inspired quite a few. Bonaparte, with your army, my oh my, you could have some great stuff there.

Mr. Tiber,

General animation itself is done in many ways.

First you need a camera and a stopmotion program, which some can be found free on the internet. Then once you get all the sets and props ready, you can start filming. But, be advisable, use proper FPS(frames per second) so animation won't be choppy. Usually 12 FPS to 1 fps is good. Though, I'm doing it at a higher fps at 20 fps.

Here are some ways to make flying people:

1. Use string, but best if you can hide the string in any sort of way or used colored string to hide into the background. Though, it's best to suspend with 2 pieces of string because if you use 1, your minifig will just go round and round X-D .

2. Bluescreen it. Use a small stick that sticks out(colorwise) and attach it to the minifig using stickytak or something sticky. Then in a editing program, just take the stick away and apply a background in replacement of the stick.

3. Bluescreen the minifig. By doing this, you are more freely to just cut away back ground around the minifig and then add the minifig in the frame shot.

Splinter Ways:

1. same object as no. 1 listed above.

2. Photoshop it in. Draw some relatively wood like splinters and add them about in your frames, they'd be small, so pretty unoticable unless it was a plank of wood.

Most of these are hard to accomplish, but best of luck to you Mr.Tiber!

MUSIC AND SOUND:

1. A good sound program is good, for recording. Materials you'd need would be a microphone and whatever object the sound you need from.

[Mister Phes]

Yes, SMA is quite hard. I sometimes find it frustrating, as I do it alot. I attemtpted a 24 hour contest before but dropped out.

Why did you drop out Imperial Scouts?

[Scouty]

It was too much for me then. I'm still getting into this, which is why my first(well next as I have done some before) project I plan is to be big. I have done much practice to get the right animation for future movies.

Also I dropped out because it was 8 in the morning and I was tired X-D

[Mister Phes]

Never surrender lad! Right until the end if you are to conquer the animation! :-D

But why do your projects need to be big?

[Scouty]

They don't. But I want them to be. Anyway, I'll see if I can get an example for Mr.Tiber soon (video) , who seems to not have posted in this thread?

[El Bucanero]

,

[Scouty]

A good video camera (camcorder) is the best, but if on low budget, webcams are the way to go. One stopmotion program that is free is SMA or Stop Motion Animator.

Bluescreen is a pretty hard technique. You film everything with a blue or green screen behind it. THen in an editing program, you delete the blue or green and then replace with your own background. For ocean scenes ou can just have a blue background that'll work.

[El Bucanero]

Would a blue baseplate succeed?

[Scouty]

No, unless it's for background only. For the editing process, because the studs make different colors since it's not flat, typically a showboard or a blue foam board or posibly blue cloth will do well.

[Mister Phes]

I don't have a camera or stopmotion program, wich do you reccomend me to use?

How are you going to do anything without a camera? Will you acquire one to do this project?

And how do I bluescreen?

You'll need a constant blue background with very little variation in colour and to achieve that you'll probably need artificial lighting. It will also mean you can't use similar shades of blue (I.e. Imperial Solder torso) otherwise they'll be keyed out too, although depending on the program you use you can limit the keying area.

But another problem you'll no doubt encounter is spillage where the the haze from the blue background shines onto the LEGO. Its very difficult to set up.

[Scouty]

Well, MisterPhes, you can always use pink/green/purple/red/yellow/and any other collor backgrounds as long as there isn't another color like it.

[Mister Phes]

And whenever you're dealing with pale coloured objects which are extremely that are close to the background you're going to encounter spillage - unless the camera is brilliant and the lighting has been setup properly.

[Scouty]

Like my rebel poster that can be found in Grievous's sig or in the Tie Army thread, the pale fellows were flushed out, thoguh my yellow y-wing pilot is as well.

Unless, MisterPhes, that you use a dark colored background, like Navy Blue.But there aren't any flesh tone pirates so we don't have to worry about that :capn: .

[Mister Phes]

Dark coloured backgrounds require more lighting however because they absorb light. If its too dark then you've got to contend with accidentally keying out the black too.

However, I'm no expert in this area, I just know keying with software available to the average user is a very fiddly process getting it to work properly.

[Scouty]

That is true. You can always just have a printed background like a sky... Well, anyway, Mr.Tiber how goes it?

[Mister Phes]

Like my rebel poster that can be found in Grievous's sig or in the Tie Army thread, the pale fellows were flushed out, thoguh my yellow y-wing pilot is as well.

Could you post that here so we know exactly what you're referring to? I don't think I've seen it before.

[Scouty]

Used with a bluescreen. You can kinda see the flushed out faces.

[El Bucanero]

,

[Mister Phes]

Used with a bluescreen. You can kinda see the flushed out faces.

And there's also the spill or matte lines which is noticeable on the lighter colours like the white of the helmet or the yellow of the heads.

Do you have a link to this animation Mr ImperialScouts?

[Scouty]

Animation, have I said anything on animation? I'm not quite getting what your looking for.

[Capn Kirk 911]

You should go to outsidehollywood.com , remember the guy who did the men-o-war, this is where he tells you how he did, and what you need to do,plus all the materials you need to complete it! ;-)