Brickfilm crowd shots

[jluck]

Forgive me if this has been asked. I'm working on a brickflick and I want to have a 5-10 sec scene of a crowd at a concert. I'm just unsure on how to film in a way that won't take an eternity and I can keep track of movements, the latter being more important. Any advice on filming crowd shots?

[SteampunkDoc]

There are several ways of keeping track of everything, but there's not a short and easy way of animating a crowd shot.

#1, Get a buddy. Even if they don't know Lego from Mega Bloks, they can at least help you keep track of which figures have been moved. But if he/she can animate, then you've just split the crowd responsibilities in half.

#2, Make a grid/track sheet/whatever you wanna call it. Basically, write on some paper the different moves each figure should make, and check them off as you move them.

The best set-up for that is some grid paper. Mark the figures on one edge, adn the moves on the other, and then check everything off as you go along.

#3, Split the figures up into groups. Then just make sure each person in said group is in the same pose. For example, Figs A, C, J, K and Z should all have both of their legs down in frame 1, but Figs B, H, I, and X need to have their left feet forward. You don't need to write this down, but it would help. Just keep an eye on which ones match each other.

#4, Check your previous frames...A lot. If you have onion-skinning, use it. If not, then flip back and forth between the last frame and the live view. This will instantly reveal any non-moving figures.

#5, Work in a logical order. Left-to-right and top-to-bottom, or something like that. That way you won't loose track of which figure you're on.

And don't forget, budget a lot of time for that shot. Like, a whole lot.

It will always take longer than you think, and you may very well have to try it more than once to get something usable.

That being said, crowd shots can look great when done well, and nothing else can quite set the scale of a setting like a great overhead view of a bazillion people walking around.