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Whether we like to admit it or not, our photo gear does make a difference in our work. Not only can better gear produce better results, but having the right equipment can make the whole process more enjoyable. After all, we want to make comics and films, not mess around with our camera trying to get it to do things it was never intended to do. With this in mind, you may realize you need to upgrade your camera. You may have questions about features to look for, what all the numbers mean, and how much do you really have to spend? The goal of this tutorial is to take some of the mystery out of choosing a camera. I will be focusing on features needed for getting clean photos specifically to be used in creating films and comics, however, you should end up with a camera that is good for "normal" use like vacations and such as well. What Kinds of Cameras are there? There are quite a few different types of cameras available. Most likely anyone reading this has at least one of these and I'm willing to bet most of us have more than one. Before we talk about what to look for in a camera, I'm going to explain the different types and you'll see why the rest of this article will not be focused on the first three in this list. What does that leave us with? Well, now we have "Compact", "Advanced Compact" and "dSLR". In all honesty, if you can't afford at least a "Compact" camera, you should really start a plan to save the money for one. Anything lower than that will just mean you have to work harder and will most likely never get to the quality of photos that you want. It's a harsh reality, but sometimes we must spend money on the gear. Let's have a look at price ranges, they vary quite a bit depending on brand and features. It's going to be up to you to decide what features and price you are willing to handle. I'll be covering the most important features after this. I'm covering price first because if you don't decide on at least a price range first, you may get stuck in trying to get the "best" and end up not buying anything at all. I do want to make one thing very clear: Do Not Buy Based on Brand . No brand is worth your loyalty, you need to pick a camera with the features, feel, and price point for YOU not because your friends use Canon or you use to have a Sony or you heard Nikon is the best from Ashton Kutcher. Let's Talk Features Photographing for either Brick Flicks or Comics all comes down to taking still images of LEGO scenes. Luckily that means we don't have to consider different features for each thing. Right, so there are a lot of features of modern digital cameras. I'm going to create this list with the "Most Important" features for our purposes at the top, moving down to the "Least Important". I will not cover every possible feature of a camera because, honestly, most features that are hyped by advertisers do not matter at all for what we are doing here. When considering cameras, you can find most of these feature details for the camera on Digital Photography Review as well as staff and user reviews, sample photos, and lots of comments. Flash Control Number One, you need to be able to turn off the flash. A bare flash with LEGO elements always results in sub-par photos. Having a "hot shoe" is also very helpful for adding an external flash and for other uses such as holding "flags" and "reflectors". Macro Mode Unless you really enjoy cropping photos, you'll want to get close to your figures. Take a look at the "minimum focus distance" in the features list for the camera you are considering. The smaller the better, I would stay away from anything over 10 inches though. Manual Mode Most of these types of cameras will have a manual mode of some sort, but not all are created equal. If the controls for manual aperture and shutter are buried in menus, stay away from the camera. You will have nothing but frustrations with these, it's much better if you can find a camera with these controls on a dial or a combination of dials. One of the other things to look for is true manual control for ISO, which should always be set at it's lowest setting but auto mode likes to set it high). Being able to control the aperture and shutter and ISO manually is also very important for getting a consistent image and avoiding "blinkies" when editing your images together in an animation. Manual Focus This can be handled a few different ways. With anything under dSLR, it is unlikely you'll get a true manual focus (like manual on the lens or even choosing a very precise focus point). However, some advanced compact cameras do have the ability to choose a focus point. This is very useful because (as discussed in the Depth of Field lesson) sometimes we want to give focus to only one item in the scene and we don't want to always have that object in the dead center of the frame or the "closest" to the camera. When looking up specs for the camera, look for keywords like "Manual Focus", "Multipoint Focus", and "Selective single-point" (the last one is the very best). Filter Compatibility With a dSLR, you'll be able to put filters right on the lens. This can be very useful for in-camera effects (like using a star filter) and for corrections (such as Circular Polarizer). The more you can do in-camera, the less you have to fight with in editing. For compact and advanced compact cameras, the manual and tech specs should tell you if it is possible to use filters - usually this will require an adapter collar (sometimes even included with the camera). Megapixels This is dangerous ground. It's a huge selling point for many cameras, touting more and more MP. The thing is that the size of the sensor isn't getting any bigger, so they are cramming more and more pixels on the same size sensor. What does this mean to you? It means that the more pixels that are packed on that tiny sensor, the more likely you are to get "noise" or "grain" in your images. When looking at the reviews for the camera you are considering, take a close look at the "High ISO" and "ISO" performance, there are usually 100% crop images in this section of the review. The thing you want to understand about noise in your images is that it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to get a clean background removal. So if you want to drop in a digital background, something like that, you'll need to start with the cleanest photo possible. Another thing to consider with MP is that for this type of work you don't really need more than 8MP. For the most part, we are only displaying these things online and even then they are cropped down to no more than 1MP in actual use (not always, but usually). Even if you were printing a page of your comic, you are still looking at each image in the page being very small relatively speaking. Tripod Mount The ability to mount your camera on a tripod is extremely helpful, especially in the case of animations. I'd say most of the cameras in this range will have a tripod mount, but if it comes down to one that does and one that doesn't, pick the one that does even if it costs a bit more. Well that about covers the features that are important for our purposes. It will take some research to find the right camera, but if you take the time to do it right you will be much happier. The more work you can get done in camera the better. I'd rather spend 30 minutes setting up a shot and 5 minutes in post to crop it than spend 5 minutes setting up a shot and 2 hours in post fixing it, but that does take a camera with certain minimum of features.

Professor 'SteampunkDoc' here, and welcome to “Creating a Brick Flick: Part 1 - Pre Production.” This lesson will guide you through the very basics of making the perfect brick flick. Required Equipment: Patience/Time-Yeah, you’ll need a lot of both. Trust me. Computer-Just powerful enough to run the frame-capture software and some basic video/audio programs.You don't need anything super-fancy. Camera-Either a webcam advanced enough to enable manual controls, or a fancy digital camera/DSLR. Phone or tablet cameras are not recommended, and need software that’s $50USD just to adjust the settings and keep them on manual. (DarkDragon has done a tutorial on choosing a Camera, and you really should check it out.) Software- Frame capture programs are highly recommended, but only come free for webcams. They aren’t needed, with digital cameras, but lacking this step makes things a lot more difficult. MonkeyJam and Helium Frog are both used a lot, but also a bit buggy. Video software-Windows Movie Maker/iMovie, they’re super-basic, but free. And if used right, the results don’t look that bad. There are some really good and quite cheap video programs though, as long as you don’t mind sinking a bit of cash for a much better experience. (Sony Vegas Platinum 11 for one.) Audio software- If you plan on recording/mixing audio, plan on getting Audacity. It’s free, and beats out most paid programs. Individual frames-Photoshop or GIMP.-This isn’t usually needed unless you’re masking. Effects software-Don’t plan on spending any money on effect programs unless you want to spend several hundred dollars. Most everything can be done with a basic video editor and/or a photo editor. But don’t worry about the rest, you probably won’t start out with a Lego version of The Avengers complete with a CGI New York. And getting cool effects in-camera is nearly as effective, and a whole lot more fun. A Good Shooting Setup- You want a dark, closed-off room if possible. Plus a few lamps, an open desk, a wall, and a bunch of Lego. It’s pretty much the same as a normal MOC photography setup, but without an open door or windows letting any light in. LESSON #1: PRE-PRODUCTION THINKING UP AN IDEA So, you wanna make a brick flick, but you have got a problem. You don’t quite know where to start. Getting a basic idea is often one of the hardest parts. Normally these things start out as nothing more than a short thought, so if you ever get something that may be a cool idea, write it down. You may not use it for years, but you sure don’t want to forget it. And don't worry if the first thing thing pops into your head won't work. For that matter, I don't recommend going with your very first idea. Let it change, evolve and develop a bit before moving on. While I started out with a tale about a fiendish fish, that slowly evolved into a fiendish fisherman story, and that then evolved into the final tale of a frustrated fisherman. So, my final, finished idea could be stated like this: "A comedy short detailing the antics of a frustrated fisherman." GETTING A GOOD TITLE After you get an idea, you need a title. Of course, things such as titles can and often do change throughout production, but it’s a lot easier to organize the various elements if you have something to file them all under. You want your title to be catchy, not too long, and not too basic. Remember, when scrolling in a forum, people will only see two things about your film. The creator’s name, and the film title. And if you aren’t already famous and popular, you’ll have to rely solely on the title to bring viewers in. Here are some tips: Don’t name your film “Lego Star Wars-Clone Attack”-Why? It’s an AFOL site, so we know it’s Lego. Having the theme listed is an over-used trick to get more views and usually results in the film being written off as "N00b-ish" without it ever being seen. Lego Star Wars films are notorious for being the first thing new animators do, and are generally regarded as being on average lower quality than other shorts. Something like “The Destruction of Tatooine” sounds a lot more professional, and still gets the basic point across. It’s obviously Star Wars, and “Destruction” is a bit more ambiguous, and a lot more interesting than “Clone attack.” Keep your title creative and matching the film’s tone- Unless you purposely want to evoke a parody/comedy tone right off of the bat, you don’t want to have a title like: “Whatshisname and the Quest for the Golden Treasure of King Whatshisface in the land of Whoreallycares Part 2: The Temple of Obnoxiousness.” It can make a great title for a fun goofy film, but not for an R-rated ‘hack ‘n’ slash’ brickflick. If you want viewers to take your film seriously, show them that with a good title like “Unprofitable” “The Profession” or “How to Not Rob a Bank.” These hint a bit about the film’s content, but also get you thinking about it even before you’ve clicked the link. They’re also at least somewhat memorable. Generally short one word titles go with serious thrillers, but most movies don’t have more than a few words unless there is a really good reason for it. (Source material’s title, part of a franchise, Ect…) For my fisherman story, it’s going to be a comedy, so I’ll reflect that in a catchy, fun, and alliterated title: “Fred the Fed-up Frustrated Fisherman.” This gives viewers an idea behind the setting, (Cartoon-y) characters (Fred) and what the plot may be about. (Fred’s frustration) FLESHING THINGS OUT So, you have a title, and an idea. Next, you need a script. And this starts with fleshing out those original ideas. What is the basic story you want to tell? With Fred, I want him to have a bad day, give up on fishing, and then do something spectacular to redeem himself. Make a full character circle really. Hinckley has some fantastic lessons on the subject of creating and fleshing out characters and their stories, so if you haven’t, go check those out. (Lesson #1, and #2.) Anyway, our protagonist Fred will go through an arc in this. First, happily fishing, then getting mad, then giving up, sulking, and finally somehow doing something that will redeem himself. I also need to establish the other characters, like Fred’s rival, but if you’ve taken Hinckley’s lessons you should already know how to do that. This step is just a personal preference, but I also tend to write out, or at least think up the basic actions of the short before the actual scripting. For example: SCRIPTING So, I’ve got all that established and now it’s time to write a script. There are many, many different ways of writing/formatting a script. The more official, professional way is below, but if you’re just going to keep it to yourself, it doesn’t have to be this fancy. (But in the assignment it does.) Int. or Ext. PLACE, TIME Here goes a short but useful description of the setting, characters or important objects in the scene. This also includes any movements. SPEAKING CHARACTER’S NAME: What they say. SPECIAL TRANSITONS LIKE “FADE TO_” OR “CUT TO BLACK.” For example: There are also special dialogue markings such as “(V.O.) for a voice-over, and the little used (O.S.) for off-screen. I also recommend numbering each scene, such as adding “Scene #1” at the top of the example. It helps to keep things organized, and keep things straight during non-chronological filming. STORYBOARDING Once the script is done, you move on to storyboarding. This is a bit more controversial step, and not everybody does it. Well, not everybody does it physically. Some prefer to do this step all in their head, but it’s better to do real storyboards. Now, storyboards are somewhat similar to a comic, they are still frames/drawings that show what will be happening in that frame, where the camera will be pointing, and some basic details about that shot. They can range from simple sketches, to full-blown CGI renders. They could even be still shots of the set and characters. Their purpose is to give the animator a good idea of what will need to be in the shot, how much set needs to be built, and what movements will be performed. Here is an example of one of my hideous storyboards: (Click for larger size) As you can see, my drawing is horrendous, but hopefully you can still recognize what it is showing. Now, you don’t have to draw out your storyboards, you can instead render them in LDD, export the photos, and then add the text. Of course, while this looks a lot better, and is more clear and detailed, it takes a lot more time. Some people storyboard EVERYTHING, others only do the action sequences, and others don’t do it at all and only keep basic info in their head. It’s a preference thing, but it’s also very useful. You’re more than welcome to find what works best for you in all of this. Some storyboard, some don’t. Some can sit down and write a script without ever writing down an idea, and some don’t think up a title until the film is about to be released. You are more than welcome to experiment and find what works best for yourself. Only, you have to wait until after the test to do that. ASSIGNMENT: Find and write down a basic original idea. (No Licensed short this time, sorry.) Write this idea down in two sentences or less. And remember, your very first idea may not be what you end up with. At this stage, you want the ideas to evolve along. Just post the final idea that you decided on. Expand on your idea; write a paragraph or two detailing all the actions/events that will take place in your short. I’d like it to contain at least two locations, at least two talking characters. Get a good title, again, this can evolve along later, but you need something good to file everything under. Write your script. It doesn’t have to be long, a page or two is all that is necessary. And you don't want it too long, as you'll be animating it later. And finally, storyboard the entire thing. Present the above information in a new topic with the title of “Creating a Brick Flick: Part 1 - Pre Production”(You’ll need to post the idea, script, title, and storyboards.) The assignment will be graded on the creativity of the idea/script, naturalness of the dialogue, and overall quality of the work. Feel free to ask me any questions that you may have.

Welcome back! Now comes the longest, and arguably most difficult, portion of making a brick flick. Production. Required Equipment: While you can squeak by in pre-production with nothing more than a pencil and some paper, there are no shortcuts in production. Here is a list of the required equipment. (Mostly taken from the last lesson.) Patience/Time-These are both needed in abundance. Especially at this stage. Computer-Just powerful enough to run the frame-capture software and some basic video/audio programs. But doesn't have to be anything fancy. Camera-Either a webcam advanced enough to enable manual controls, or a fancy digital camera/DSLR. (DarkDragon has done a tutorial on Choosing a Camera, and you really should check it out.) Software- Frame capture programs are highly recommended, but only come free for webcams. They aren't needed with digital cameras, but lacking this step makes things a lot more difficult. A Good Shooting Setup- You want a dark, closed-off room if possible. Plus a few lamps, an open desk, a wall, and a bunch of Lego. It’s pretty much the same as a normal MOC photography setup, but without an open door or windows letting any light in. A tiny bit of stray light is ok, but too much will cause flickering. So, with all of that in hand, it’s time to start… LESSON #2: PRODUCTION SETTING-UP So, to animate, you need a studio. Preferable one with a nice, open desk that is backed up to a wall. You’ll need just enough room for a few baseplates, your camera, and some lights, but the space doesn't have to be huge. It's necessary to be able to control the lighting in the room, so thick/dark curtains and closed doors are recommended. Here’s a picture of one desk/setup, and as a word of warning, don’t let your desk get this messy! Sets/Props/Characters, Depending on the scale of your film, it may contain anywhere from one, to a hundred different characters. Each person needs a unique look, voice, and attitude, or they will be confused. Every film needs something different in terms of character design, so the only real tip I can give you is to not just throw a lot of random parts together. Make sure the look matches, is recognizable, and fits the character as well as the film. This is also the stage where you face the dreaded question of "Yellow Vs. Fleshie," as animators on both sides of the debate agree that mixing skin tones generally doesn't match well at all. Taxmaniac has a basic set-building lesson that you really should check out, but there are also some other points you should keep in mind. Sets are most similar to dioramas, in that they need to be fairly complete, and are generally viewed from several angles. But sets are different as they are missing key segments. For indoor scenes, they leave out at least one wall so the camera can see into a room, and generally leave out the roof. And for outdoor scenes they generally end in a blue or white wall. The most important thing to keep in mind is what the camera will be seeing. Building extra not only consumes more bricks, but also wastes time and effort better spent elsewhere. And as to the size of your sets, viewers really notice the small details, so it’s better to make a small, but detailed and complex set, than a large basic one. On the other hand, if you have the bricks, build big. There’s nothing quite like a panoramic shot of a huge set. When you are designing your sets, you want to avoid using a lot of the brighter, harsher colors like red and yellow. These are good for what I like calling "Trim work", but tend to overwhelm the viewers when over used. More neutral colors like the grays, black, tan and white are more pleasing to the eye, and also help keep attention on the main focus. (Which is usually the minifigures on-screen.) You also want to avoid the "Random colored wall with holes" syndrome. This is a sure sign of a newbie, and will turn viewers off early on. That being said, your set aesthetic, and film tone should be the main factors in picking how much and how many colors you use. Obviously Fun-houses and Circuses need more bright and shiny bricks than caves or Victorian slums, but just remember what feelings you want the set to give off, and go from there. Camera, Again, DarkDragon has a great guide for picking a nice camera. And here’s where things start to split off in between Webcams and traditional cameras. Webcams- You need to make sure it has manual settings, and can take pictures in at least 640X480. You will also need a way to attach it near the set, and something to keep it from bouncing around. For that, you need a webcam cradle. The design will need to change slightly depending on the exact model you own, but here’s the basic part. The camera needs to be held in there somewhat firmly, as a loose cam can cause havoc later on. It also should be on a plate that is connected to the main set. That way, if one gets bumped, they move together and the image won't appear to move. Here’s an example of a good set-up: DSLRs- With these, set-up is slightly more difficult. These cameras are much too big and heavy for a Lego cradle, and are too unwieldy to place directly on the animation table, so a tripod is necessary. You’ll just need to get your set closer to the edge of the table, and get the tripod as close as possible. The downside to this is if something gets bumped, it’s easily noticeable. Now, once you have all of that ready, consult your storyboards and see where the camera needs to go. And don’t worry if you can’t get things exactly, storyboards are meant as a guide, not as an exact rule. Most beginners tend to elevate the camera above the characters. This causes the viewers to “Look down” on the world, and destroys the illusion of being in the world. Keep things about face-high on the figures. Again, depending on the storyboards and angle choices, you may want to/need to elevate the camera, and that’s fine. But as a general rule, keep things about face-level. Lighting, Lighting plays a huge part in setting the mood and atmosphere in films. It’s also one of the easiest ways to tell beginners from long-time pros. To start out with, you’ll want a three light setup. With at least one on each side of the set, and then another for the background, or for getting the outer edge of the set. I usually have mine positioned like so: #1, slighting behind the set, #2, on the other side of the set and about at the same level as the set, #3, a foot or two out, and about centered at the set. This gives a fairly even lighting spread, and helps eliminate highly-exposed spots. People position their lights differently, and as long as one is in front of the set, and there is at least one on each side, it’s not that big of a deal. But there are some things you want to avoid: 1. Make sure the lighting is fairly even, you don’t want to have one corner of the room glowing, and the other pitch black. One way to do this is to either ‘bounce’ the lighting off of a white surface onto the set, or wrap white paper over the lamps to help diffuse the lighting. 2. Control the lighting sources, because unwanted lighting is the #1 cause of light-flicker. That means covering any windows, shutting any doors, turning off the overhead light, turn your computer monitors away from the set, and wearing a dark t-shirt. (Seriously, as light can reflect off of the white fabric back onto the set.) 3. Return to about the same spot each time when you take a frame. Especially if the computer is near to the set. Even if there’s a tiny bit of stray light, it can be affected by your moving around in between each frame. 4. And I’m just going to say it now, turn EVERYTHING to manual in your camera settings. Special lighting Going beyond just your normal white lights, you can also create great effects with colored lighting, or special lighting. Now, special lighting pretty much means anything out of the ordinary. You can have the light come from one direction, just through some side windows, have colored light, or include products such as Lifelites into your set. Here are some examples of dramatic lighting: Left to right Top Row: Pritchard Studios-"Batman:Plastic Justice", Repelling Spider-"Don't Blink", NickDurron-"Abduction 5." Bottom Row: Dual Digital-"The Button", AnnoyingNoisesInc-"Sharks and Clowns", MightyWanderer1-"Star Wars Uncut-The Empire Strikes Back: Scene 416" Getting special lighting effects is actually quite easy. Anything from a flashlight, Christmas lights, or even the screen of your phone/tablet/computer will work. Sticking a light source behind some clear bricks really adds a lot to the atmosphere of a set. And if you want colored lighting, it's as easy as getting a picture onto your device of choice that's all one color, and then blowing it up to full screen. Don't forget, colored/Dramatic lighting can really add to a film, but it's not good for everything, and can be over-used. Software, This is one of those points were you can either go the free route, the cheap route, or the pay-out-of-your-nose route. Webcams are a lot better off at this stage, but DSLR users can still animate for free. Camera control software: Webcams-Assuming you got a Logitech webcam, you’ll have the have the handy-dandy “Logitech Webcam Software.” This includes the webcam controller that you’ll be using to adjust all of your settings. Be sure to go into the “Advanced settings” tab, and turn off all those pesky automatic settings. Other brands should have something equivalent. DSLRs- These should all have a manual setting. As well as piece of software from the manufacturer. Depending on what software choices you make, you may not need this one. Capture software: Note-You don’t need a capture software program, as the respective camera software can do a bit of the job, but it’s very highly recommended to get something else…At least for webcam users. Webcams-There are a number of free, relatively bug-free programs available, with Monkey Jam and Helium Frog being the most popular. While Helium Frog has an arguably more professional look, and has Onion-skinning, it’s a bit more buggy and unreliable. DSLRs-Well, there aren’t any free options besides ditching the animation software. (Which quite a few have done with success.) StopMotionPro and AnimatorHD are two mid-level pieces of software, but there’s also the popular (And very expensive) Dragonframe. So, you've got everything set-up, turned-on, downloaded, installed and ready to go. Now it’s time to animate. ANIMATION I’m sure you've seen the letters “FPS” before, and in the video/media world they mean “Frames Per Second”. Real live-action movies are typically in 24 FPS, and some brick flick creators do so also, but 15 FPS is more common for several reasons. It’s high enough to achieve smooth motions, but low enough to keep production form taking a long time, it doesn't take up as much memory on your computer, and renders faster. Anything lower, (Say, 10FPS) yields a choppy image, and ruins the "Moving picture" aspect, replacing it with a fast moving slide show effect. While all of the examples below will be 15FPS, but the basic principles can be applied to any frame-rate. Capturing the frames, With a capture program, you'll just need to look for an obviously named big handy button. Click that, and you'll "Capture" or take the frame. If you're not using a frame-capture program, but instead using the camera's software with a live feed, again, just click the capture button. if you're using a DSLR, and don't have live feed to a computer, you'll have to compare the frames on the tiny screen, as well as capture using either the button on top, or a remote. Clicking the button will move the camera ever so slightly, and that will result in major camera shaking later on, so a remote is highly recommended. Basic walk cycle, Walking is one of, if not the most used actions in brick flicks. And therefore getting a good walk cycle will help launch your film to the next level. Here is a collage showing the figures position for each frame: Click for larger image. There are three really big things that are usually forgotten in early attempts at walking. First, Arm Movement. People rarely walk with their arms straight down in real life, and that detail needs to be in the animated world. Second, the “In-between Frame.” A frame where the figure is balanced between the studs. This helps the transition from stud-to-stud greatly, and is necessary for a smooth walk. Third, Keeping the torso/head at the same level and angle. If the head moves around and the body changes angles, you’ll get a jittery effect that is distracting and unrealistic. Easing in/out, This is perhaps the biggest and most important aspect of animation. The amount of “Easing” determines both how smooth, and how realistic the motions are. (And there is a difference between the two.) SuburbAnimStudios’ is probably the most realistic animation I've ever seen, but it’s 24FPs, and he also used some post-production techniques to pull that off. AnnoyingNoisesInc’s has very smooth animation, but it’s not quite as realistic. (The video is also sadly plagued by light and focus flicker, things I’ll talk more about later.)To get your animation looking good, you’ll use the technique called “Easing-in/Easing-out.” That pretty much means that you 'ease' into the motions, and the 'ease' out of them. For example, here is a collage showing a smooth arm movement: Click for larger image. As you can see, the amount the arm moves varies in each frame. The arm starts out with tiny movements, and then speeds up as it goes along. The movements then begin to get smaller and smaller and the arm stops and ends the movement. And that, is 'easing'. A common mistake newer animators make is to either neglect easing altogether, or use it improperly. To put it simply, you want to ease into and out of EVERY motion. Regardless of who or what is moving. It takes a lot of practice, but once this skill is mastered, your animation quality will skyrocket. A good starting rule is to ease "halfway". Meaning for each frame you are easing in, you want to double the length the object moves each frame, and for easing out, you want to half the movement in each frame. Talking Tips Talking animation, while commonly used, is at the same time one of the easiest things to do, and one of the hardest to master. Many animators to a poor job of balancing the amount of gesturing with still talking. And by "Gestures" I mean something like an arm raise, a hand twist, slight tilting of the body, or some combination of those. Most err to the side of relying on several seconds with of still frames, making the scene boring. While others gesture for nearly every word and make the characters look like hyper-active. A good balance is two to three gestures per sentence, but a character's personally and attitude should also be reflected in the number and types of gestures used. Camera Movements, These follow many of the same principles of easing as do normal movements, but come with different difficulties and benefits. Camera movements add considerably to a film, and greatly increase the cinematic aspect, but add yet another challenging layer to remember while animating. When panning or zooming a webcam, it's best to build a track for it to slide along, since matching each frame by hand prolongs the process and leaves more room for error. This can be as simple as a few tiles laid in between a few bricks, but any number of rigs can work depending on the movement that it needs to follow. DSLR's require either much larger rigs, or the "Pick up the tripod and move it a tiny bit" method. A common issue with these is the sheer speed of the movement, the choppy-ness of the shot, or the inconsistencies of the camera's location between frames. Practice makes perfect, and as with all aspects of animation, don't be discouraged if your first few attempts aren't quite perfect. Effects Shots, Ah yes, special effects. I'm not going to go into much detail here, and will only cover the very basics. This will teach you how to set up for effects shots, but we'll be doing most of the work on them later in post. Masking/Rotoscoping, This is the erasing of part of a frame, while leaving the rest. It's used when you want something to fly/jump, or want to take out supports, or that annoying dog hair, or just about anything you don't want in the frame. There are two ways of doing this, and both need a "Clean shot" other-wise known as a frame or two with nothing on the set. Or at least nothing that moves in the shot. Let's assume you need a mini-figure to jump. You'll want at least one frame of the blank set, this will be your background plate. You then animate the shot normally using bricks or a special rig to hold up the figure. Later, in post-production I'll show you how to erase the rig using the background plate. Shots with masking AND a moving camera are possible, but you'll need a background plate for each frame. The lighting needs to be as close as possible in the plate as the real shot, or the effect will be noticeable. Green-Screen/Chroma Keying, Assuming for some reason you can't or don't want to mask a shot, or it's something that just won't work with a mask, you can use a green-screen. This effect is also useful for set expansion/extension and windows if the outside view can't be done in-camera. You take a shot of the object in front of a green background, (Or any color background, just as long as said color isn't in the figure.) then in post you'll remove the green and put the figure onto a different background. The green part (Be it paper, cloth, or a wall) should be as far back from the foreground element as possible, as that will prevent "Spill" or the element reflecting the green and either getting erased later, or easily noticed. The green-screen needs to be evenly lite, and free from wrinkles/or slight color variations. If you're trying to decide between masking and green-screen, remember this tip. If you want to erase a little, and keep a lot, go with masking. If you want to only keep a little bit, and loose the rest, go with green-screening. Lasers/Guns/Explosions/Other fun stuff, I know, ya'll all want to know how to make the lightsabers glow, well, for filming you'll just film with the usual transparent rod, and we'll add the glow in post. Moving on, for guns, have the character react to the gun's kick like normal, and use a flashlight to simulate the gun's flash. The flash only needs to be in a few frames, but that will drastically increase the realism of the shot once the muzzle flare/laser added later. And if the flashlight's light splashes off onto the set, that's even better. The same principles apply for explosions, just add a flashlight in the appropriate frames the it becomes all that much more real. Advanced Shots, This is stuff like crowd shots, long cuts with many camera movements, a wide shot with lots of action, a complex effect shot, or simply something that's really hard to do. Beginners should avoid these until they have a basic understanding of the pillars of animation, and are ready for a harder challenge. With more difficult shots like these, you may very well have to do several takes to get something usable. But don't worry, the extra time and effort are always worth it to get a quality short. RENDER AND REVIEW Rendering, Assuming you've been using a frame-capture program, the final step is to render the completed clip. A common format used is uncompressed .Avi. It's a bit big, but has great quality, and will be compressed later on. With MonkeyJam, it's as easy as clicking the render button and making sure the settings are all good before saving the file. With Helium Frog, you'll need to get the setting all set and saved before you begin animation, but once they're saved once, you'll not have to mess with them again. Other programs are similar, but you'll just have to check all the settings and preferences and set them correctly. While you're welcome to use whatever naming scheme works for you, I use one based on numbers. For example: "5.9" would mean it's the ninth clip for Scene 5. That way i can keep things in chronological order, and it helps to keep them organized. Converting pictures to video, If you're using a DSLR, or simply not using a frame-capture program, you'll be saving each individual picture, and not saving it as a video file. Thankfully, pictures can easily be strung together. One way is to simply import the pictures into Monkeyjam, then, not only can you preview the video, but you can render it easily into the format and resolution of choice. VirtualDubis another program that can very easily string picture together, but it's a bit old and doesn't always work with newer file formats. Critical review, As has been stated, if your first take just doesn't look right, or there's a major flaw, don't feel bad. just do it again. It's easy to spot film where the creator obviously went with the first thing that came through the camera, and they suffer for that. While you may never reach perfection, if you can do better, there's no reason that you shouldn't. Thankfully, capture programs have a handy preview feature that you can use to check for any mistakes before rendering. ASSIGNMENT: You remember that script you wrote last time? Well, now you get to animate it. But I’d also like to see behind the scenes pictures of your studio. So the assignment is this: Animate the script that you had written using techniques and tips learned here. Provide several behind-the-scenes pictures of the set-up, and list the equipment and software that you used. You will need to put the film on YouTube for me to see it, (Well, any video sharing website will work.) but I don’t want it to have any sound, music, or fancy titles. Just the animation, and if you want, a bit of titles at the end. What I’m judging is the animation, lighting, and any aspect of the raw footage that could be improved. KielDaMan did a basic Windows Movie Maker tutorial that you can reference to get your animation clips together and online. Judging will be on animation, set and lighting quality, and mastery over containing/eliminating light flicker and other common problems.

OK, I may be going out on a limb, but I figured that I could use a frame from my upcoming Brick Flick to enter this lesson. If not, or if for some reason it's not what you wanted, or doesn't demonstrate what you asked for, that's fine. I'll just do something else. Low-Light Entry by SteampunkDoc, on Flickr Taken with a Logitech C910, two flashlights, and a nice amount of Lego. SteampunkDoc

The Interview Set up an interview between you and one (or several) of your characters. Take the time to set it up. Write a paragraph about this character's background as if you were writing an article about the character and conducting an interview. You can also choose any part of the story to be interviewing your character during. Be as specific or general as you want with your questions, but definitely be creative. Don't try to edit yourself. Ask anything. You never know what answer you will get. The answers may surprise you. Setup a follow-up interview or interview your character at several points during the story. Some things to keep in mind: 1. Does your character know they're being interviewed by the author? If so, how do they feel about you? Are they upset with you for writing a certain incident? Do they blame you for anything? 2. Are they willing to open up right away? Do they have to warm up to you? What makes them open up? 3. Are there things that they won't tell you? Things that they're thinking that they would never say out loud? If so, write those down in a separate document! Those are the most interesting! There's a very clear point to this exercise and hopefully you will see it without being told. Let yourself go and have fun with it. Once you are comfortable with the format, it should flow naturally, like a conversation between author and character. Once it gets there, let it go as far as you are able and then we can look at what you have when it's done.

Low Light Photography and Practical Light Effects Advanced Photography Lesson Warning, this is not for the faint of heart, many of these results can be done by simple photoshopping, and it might be much faster. But do you get a better result? That's up to you, but I'm believe if you can do it for real, it looks that much more real (or even surreal). Much like how Lord of the Rings looks so fantastic is cause so many of the grand shots of castles and landscape were just that - actual shots of (large) miniatures and real locations, not computer generated effects. This also probably doesn't apply much to stop motion films, as the normalization process to get all your shots to be consistent may make even the most patient film maker go crazy. So to you, the comic creator (or simply photographer), I write this tutorial. How to create cool looking pictures and effects by taking a really good photo. Background/Streetcred Let me preface and admit that I am not a photographer, I have never studied photography, and while I'm somewhat familiar with the concepts and science - I am by no means an expert. What I am is lazy - I know the bare minimum to get cool pictures. I have been told I have a great 'eye' for shots, I might not know the science behind why, but I know what's cool when I see it. I also used to spend a lot of time doing night photography - I used to love wandering around with a tripod taking random pictures at night. Especially during fog: So what does that make me? I would say I have practical experience. I have a bag of tried and true tricks that have historically worked for me. The object of this tutorial is not to talk about the theory of low light LEGO photography, but to share my practical tips and a layman's how-to guide to shoot in the dark. Lighting Overview Before going in depth different ways to light (or lack thereof) your build, there are roughly 5 types of lighting strategies I will cover: Ambient light - This is the amount of light in the room anywhere from bright, to low to even none. Embedded light - lights that originate within your actual build. Directional or Spotlight - using an additional light source to provide light to a specific area of the build Special lighting - using coloured lights to change the mood of the picture. Black Lighting - special case of special lighting, with glowing results! More on these later! Your Build Wait, build? I thought we were talking about how to shoot and using fancy light? Well we are, but before you photograph your build, you have to build it! And before you build it you have to PLAN on how to build it. This is probably one of the more important keys to low-light LEGO Photography. You have to build your MOC to suit what method you may use. If you're going to use embedded lights, well you have to put them in ahead of time! Do you have small lights? or big lights? You obviously can't put a massive light into a micro, but you could put in small lights with wires hanging out (to Photoshop out later). Or if you're going to use black-lights, well you need to use one of the LEGO elements that glow! Other things to think about when you're building - which angle(s) will you be shooting from? Do you need to hide wiring? or even where the lights will be. Do you want to actually see the LED/Light bulb? or do you want it hidden/away from view? Don't forget that if you're shooting at really low light, even the weakest light will wash out all your other details - so light placement will be key. As you start off, remember: patience. This will take time for you to set up, to photograph correctly, and often rebuilding to get things 'just right'. Required items. Before you start there are few things you need to have, and know how use. Mandatory: Patience This is the most important thing to have. It takes time to set up, it takes many shoots, and it can be frustrating. So have patience and just know that it will look cool in the end. Camera! Most cameras, even the smaller pocket cameras have the ability to set the shutter speed - which is the amount of time your camera 'takes a picture'. This will become important, as the darker the room, the longer picture you need to take. Some cameras will have a "M" or Manual setting that lets you configure the shutter speed, as well as FStop (or aperture and other fun things). Alternatively you might have a "S" (Shutter priority) setting that controls just that, and the rest are automatically. Note that the FStop is also useful for certain effects (see DoF tutorial). If your camera doesn't have a "M" setting or "S" setting your best bet is "night time" or "stars" setting - that's the camera's setting for low light, not the best, but it can do in a pinch. Tripod! If you have ever tried to take a picture without a flash in a dark place, you'll know why you need a tripod. Simply put, our hands aren't steady enough to hold a camera to take shots in the dark. Even braced against something we vibrate the camera too much and it becomes blurry (unless you're into that). Any tripod will do, it doesn't have to be super fancy, or honestly you could use a stack of books, it just makes it harder to reposition and set up. But for me, I have cheap ball joint tripod that lets me quickly rotating the camera and change angles. Optional Light sources Depending on how you're going to light your build, you may need external light sources, you can use your standard lights, LED's, flashlight, laser pointers, black-lights IR from remote controls, whatever creates light that is visible to a camera. Try different things for different effects! Light Tent Ironic eh? But a light tent is still useful. The purpose of a light tent is to disburse light over your build, this rule still applies, you're just not applying AS much light. Lighting Explained I will now go through each of the different lighting techniques. Of course for maximum fun you could apply several of these techniques together to create a master piece! Ambient light This is the easiest and most important trick that you need to master. Simply put: turn down/off the light. This by itself isn't usually overly useful - if you set your camera right it is almost the same as taking a picture with the lights on. The key hear is to change the shutter speed of your camera to take a longer exposure picture. A regular picture is around 1/60 of a second. If you dim the lights, your picture might be 1 second or longer. Why this is so important is when you start using the other lighting tricks. You do this to make the OTHER lights seem brighter than they really are. So a very dimly lit fireplace, using normal room lights is barely noticeable turn off the room lights and set the shutter for 5 seconds and it becomes a roaring fire. Knowing how to set the shutter speed is also useful for every day MOC taking pictures. Many people prefer to take the MOC's outside to shoot, the sun provides extremely bright light. But if you know how to set your shutter speed accordingly you don't need to wait for a sunny day! I routinely use long shutter speeds even when I have my large photography lights and light tent... Embedded light I hope you were paying attention to the build section. Cause if you've gotten here without adding lights inside, it maybe too late Generally there are two types of lights that can add within a build: Small LED's such as the Power Function lights or third party Lifelites. Larger less specialized lights can also be used - these are far cheaper than the above and work far better lighting up large areas - downside is you need a lot of space to hide these. An example of a build that uses a standard LEGO light brick (in the hallway): An example of a build using cheap LEDs: Of course you can start combining tricks - such as lowering the ambient light level so that we maximize the lighting effect, the same temple, with lowered ambient light: Note how changing the ambient light changes the entire image feel. In a large enough layout you could even use a combination of smaller specialize LED's and cheaper ones, like here: The inner ring of the station is lit up by LED light bars that from dollar store. The rest are light bricks, and Lifelites. The key to photographing embedded lights is to do a proper light balance - between the ambient light and the embedded light. Here is an example where the embedded light is actually TOO bright relative to the ambient condition: I turned down the embedded light (switched from wall mount to battery power): Better! Now you can see that if I retook the second picture with a longer exposure, it'd be just about right. But the first shot, if I decreased the shutter speed (faster picture) it would be too dark, and the light would still be too bright, so I would have to turn up the ambient light to compensate. Black-Light My favorite trick is probably the Black-Light, it gives such a fantastic glow to an otherwise flat picture. Though not all pieces glow - mainly the trans-neon colours. Some pieces that you wouldn't think glow, actually do, take a black-light and go over some of your pieces, you'd be surprised When you build a black-light MOC - you should think about where and how the black light will be situated and where the camera will be. Another fun trick is to build chunk of the build in a clear brick - so that the black light goes THROUGH your build (see title images), or alternatively situate the light UNDER your build: The black light is actually sitting under a glass table, and there are 8x8 grill plates under each vat and a pile of neon orange dots and pieces to create the glow. Pro Tip: Get a good black-light. Stay away from the ones that fit in the light bulbs, they're rubbish (usually), get a good old fashioned tube one, they're by far the best. Directional or Spotlight Another trick is to shine a light on specific parts of a build. This obviously should be done in conjunction with low ambient light. You can use this to flush out or highlight the subject of your build, while not not ruining the lighting effect behind it. Here, because I had the gate glowing from black light I didn't want to wreak the feel by lighting it up too much. But I wanted to make sure the ship is the subject. So I took a little LED flashlight and lit up the ship. Pro Tip: When you shine a spotlight, make sure the light doesn't hit anything else! light up and away from your build whenever possible. The other method is using harsh light in one direction to forcibly create shadows. Not overly useful, but it can create some stark pictures. This entire build is light-bley but you can clearly make out the details. Special lighting Last but not least you can use some special coloured lights - like black light, or simply coloured filtered in front of lights. In the past I have used trans coloured LEGO pieces in front of a flash light to add a glow to a build. Or you could even prop up a laser pointer to create some pew pew pew action! One of my most ambitious shoots include all of these: This shot included every trick here, except black-light. It took me several nights to get this particular picture, by the end there was a entire procedure that took 60 seconds per attempt to align all the tricks: Laser pointer (not too long otherwise it over-saturates), No ambient light - pure darkness. Spotlight - to shine the ship and highlight the space marines Special light- the background (white backdrop) was actually lit with a light trans red plates to create a sunset type feel. Pro Tip - another way to change up the feel of your picture without changing the actual light, is changing the "AWB" or Auto White Balance of your camera settings (what your camera 'thinks' is white. An incorrectly set AWB can be useful, but most of the time annoying Conclusion So there you have it. Every single one of my tricks. It's not the easiest thing to do, but it's not really that hard either. The key is patience. Take the time to experiment and try new things. Assignment Use the skills you have learned here to produce a low-light photograph of your scene. Size doesn't matter, but ambiance does. Create a new thread in the Academy titled Student Enrollment: Low Light Photography to post your work.

One of the integral parts of comics is character dialogue, which is as valuable as the images themselves in conveying the story of the comics (of course with the obvious exception of “speech-less”/”silent-type” comic strips). Adding the character dialogue is usually done in conjunction with the post-editing of the images after the principal photography. At this particular stage of comic-making, one is expected to already have a general idea (or even better - a working script) on how the exchange of dialogue would be. This lesson will teach you how to add character dialogue in your comics – with emphasis to the proper usage of speech balloons and comic-book grammar. Lesson Sections Section 1: Types of Speech Balloons Section 2: Adding Speech Balloons to Comics Using Adobe Photoshop Using speech balloon custom shapes Manual drawing of speech balloons [*]Using Microsoft Office Word Speech Balloon Positioning Section 3: Traditional Comic Book Lettering and Grammar Deviating from the Norm & Exercising Creative Freedom Section 1: Types of Speech Balloons The visual tool used to represent speech/dialogue/conversation of characters in comics is Speech Balloons (also referred to as Speech Bubbles, Dialogue Balloons, Word Balloons). There are different types of speech balloons depending on the emotion of the dialogue, the nature/manner of delivery, and the source of the speech/sound. This lesson will tackle the various types of speech balloons used in comic books and its conventional proper usage in comic-making. Examples: (Click on images for higher resolution.) Left: LOTR Funnies by Sextant Images Middle: Tabloit by Oky - Space Ranger Right: Wolverine's Worshipers by Oky - Space Ranger Examples: (Click on images for higher resolution.) Left: Forever Alone by The Penguin Middle: No Wiener? by Kiel.Da.Man Right: Princess Quest by Sandy Examples: (Click on images for higher resolution.) Left: Raging Plankton by Kiel.Da.Man Middle: Unlimited Powah by Oky - Space Ranger Right: To Infinity and Beyond? by TinyPiesRUs Examples: (Click on images for higher resolution.) Left: Hey I just met you by Kiel.Da.Man Middle: Lego Bin Laden Watching TV by Here Be Zombies Right: Do the Robot by pong0814 Examples: (Click on images for higher resolution.) Left: Shhh by Kiel.Da.Man Middle: Day 346 by Dan (LEGO365) Right: Day 270 by pasukaru76 Examples: (Click on images for higher resolution.) Left: Must save Friends by Kiel.Da.Man Middle: Day 271 by Dan (LEGO365) Right: supercutstext by TheLegoJoker Examples: (Click on images for higher resolution.) Left: Pay Attention by darkdragon Middle: Puny God by Oky - Space Ranger Right: My Precious by Kiel.Da.Man Examples: (Click on images for higher resolution.) Left: Triceratops Dewback by J.V.D. Middle: Civilian Marvel Heroes by Hobbestimus Right: Forgot to blow dry by Clone O'Patra Sources: 1. Speech Balloon , Wikipedia 2. Comic Book Grammar & Tradition , by Nate Piekos (www.blambot.com)

LEGO is a medium with which virtually anything can be built - oceans, landscapes, ships, castles, spacecraft and more. But now that you've created that great set for your brick flick or comic, you might be thinking, "What about the sky?". Yes, you could build a big blue wall and various clouds and celestial bodies to attach to it, but maybe you don't have enough bricks, or maybe you just don't like the way that looks, and you would prefer the simpler look of a sky and its atmospheric effects created in photo-editing. This will be done in this lesson using Adobe's Photoshop. Prerequisites: You'll need to know how to use your camera and how to take a crisp and well-composed photo with it. Photoshop is a terrific piece of software, but it can't completely fix an image that's out of focus, blurry, significantly grainy, poorly composed, or otherwise lacking. If you want to know, I shot my photos for this lesson with an entry-level DSLR, the Nikon D-3100, with a basic 18-55mm lens and an exposure time between two and six seconds and an aperture of f13. You will of course need Photoshop. This lesson was written using Photoshop CS5 Extended, but the techniques should work with other versions, though I have no experience with them. (I do know that the only features that CS5 Extended has and CS5 does not are 3D tools and image data analysis tools - you won't need them for the editing described in this lesson, so if regular CS5 is what you have, you're fine) Contents: Preparation: Setting up to take the Photo Daytime Effects Adding a Daytime Sky Adding a Sun Adding Daytime Clouds Nighttime Effects Adding a Nighttime Sky Adding Moon and Stars Adding a Starfield Adding Nighttime Clouds Adding a Sky to a White Background Assignment

After you've completed the principal photography (taking the necessary photographs and/or videos), and doing some initial post-editing work (image enhancements, addition of graphic effects), it's now time for the last phase of your brickfilm/movie project - the post-production process of compiling and putting together all the movie elements to come up with the final movie/video product. To do this you will be needing a video-editing program, there are several dedicated high-end video-editing software around but these are usually costly since they are primarily catered to professionals. Good thing for aspiring beginner film-makers there are some free video-editing programs like Windows Live Movie Maker - which can be found in almost all Microsoft-based computers as part of Microsoft's Windows Essentials software suite (You can download Movie Maker here for free). Windows Live Movie Maker may not be as sophisticated as other professional programs like Adobe Media Pro or Avid Media Composer, but it is a good tool to learn the basics of video-editing in film-making. This tutorial will introduce you to the different features of this program with respect to the various aspects of post-production video-editing. Hopefully, by the end of this tutorial you'll be able to apply these to complete your movie project. Pre-organizing Files Before proceeding with the main post-editing work it is considered best practice to organize all the necessary files you'll be using for your movie project. It is recommended that you do the following: Identify, sort, and save all the files you'll be using in a single file folder, preferably with separate sub-folders for images, videos, sound effects, music, etc. If possible, re-name the individual files according to the order of their use in the project (eg. Scene 1-A, Scene 1-B, ...Scene 2-A, etc.) When the files have already been imported to a Movie Maker Project file (*.wlmp), DO NOT move these files to other locations. DO NOT move the main file folder (and sub-folders) of the imported files in the project. Avoid re-naming imported files. Doing these will not only make searching/locating of files faster and easier, but these will also be especially crucial in properly maintaining all the imported files in the project files. Movie Maker 'remembers' the last known location of all the imported files - so any changes with the file locations, or even file names would lead to missing files in a project. Importing Files After all the necessary project files have been properly organized, it is now time to import them into the Windows Live Movie Maker. The pictures and video clips can be imported by clicking either of the two Add videos and photos button (one at the Home tab and the other at the storyboard) > locate the file folder(s) > select all the files to be used for the project > click Open > the files will be imported in the storyboard/timeline. Below is the view of the imported images in the storyboard. Note that you have the option to change the sizes of the images in the timeline depending on your liking. To do this, just click on View and choose the size you want (I personally prefer the Extra-small icons thumbnail size since I could view the overall storyboard better). If you are making a music video-type project, you should import the music file this early since the music will dictate how the images/videos will be edited in the timeline. To import the music file just click the Add Music icon (you have the option to add your music at the start of the project or at specific parts of the timeline) > locate the file folder > select the music file > click Open. The imported music file will appear as a bar above the images, with its duration visually depicted by the length of the bar: As a good practice, it is recommended to save the project file this early: click the File Menu icon at the top-left corner > select Save Project As > choose the folder location to be saved (the same folder for the project files is recommended) > type in the File Name > click Save. Moving/Editing the Files Moving Files in the Timeline Move the image and movie files according to the order of appearance in the movie by manually dragging the thumbnails left/right/up/down. You could also use the Cut-and-Paste shortcut command by selecting and cutting (Ctrl+X) an image or a video and pasting it (Ctrl+V) to the desired point in the timeline. Note that this is where the pre-organization of files will prove to be beneficial - if you re-named your files in chronological order then they will be imported and placed in the timeline in the same order - so no need to move and arrange them one-by-one. Editing Photos There is only one editing option for images in Movie Maker (but a very important one) - adjusting the time duration of the image in the timeline - which will dictate how long would a certain image appear in the movie. To edit the time duration of images: select a particular image, click Edit below Video Tools (highlighted in yellow) in the Function Menu above and set the desired time duration (in seconds) either by: a) choosing one of the pre-set time durations in the drop-down list; or b) type in the exact time duration (allowable time duration can be as low as 0.03 sec. up to 84,000.00 sec. = 1,400 mins. = 23.33 hours = almost a whole day! ) Editing Videos Considering Movie Maker is a video-editing program, video files have understandably more editing options. These can be found in Video Tools > Edit (same as in editing images). The video-editing features include: Audio Settings Adjustments: includes Video volume adjustment (no sound to full sound) and Fade in and Fade out speed selection (none, slow, medium, fast) Video Speed Adjustment: create dramatic "slow-mo" effects as slow as 0.125x or create "high-speed, fast-paced" action scenes with playback speeds as high as 64x Split Tool: enables you to split your video into two or more segments by moving the vertical bar to the specific point/time you'd like the video to be split and clicking the Split icon. Trim Tool: allows you to remove certain parts of the video and/or to specify the starting and end points of the video. You could do this by following either of these two methods: Manually move/drag the vertical bar to the specific point/time you'd like the video to start, then click on Set start point to trim the video at the specified point. Do the same to set the end point, clicking Set end point this time; or Click on the Trim Tool icon > a new sub-toolbar will appear > set the Start point and End point by typing in the exact times or clicking the up and down arrows > click Save Trim. Editing Music Music files have editing options similar with those of videos. These can be found on Music Tools (highlighted in green) beside the Video Tools. The music-editing options include: Audio Settings Adjustments: includes Music volume adjustment (no sound to full sound) and Fade in and Fade out speed selection (none, slow, medium, fast) Split Tool: enables you to split your music file into two or more segments by moving the vertical bar to the specific point/time you'd like the music file to be split and clicking the Split icon. Set start time: allows you to set the point in the timeline when you'd like the music to start playing. You could do this by either typing in the exact start time or clicking the up and down arrows. Another alternative method is to manually drag the music bar to the point in the timeline you'd like the music to start playing. Set start/end point: an exact equivalent of the Video Tools Trim Tool, this enables trimming of the selected music so it starts/ends at the specified point in the timeline, which could also be done in two ways: Manually move/drag the vertical bar to the specific point int the timeline where you'd like the music to start, then click on Set start point to trim the music at the specified point. Do the same to set the end point, clicking Set end point this time; or Set the Start point and End point by typing in the exact times or clicking the up and down arrows. Miscellaneous File Tools There are other tools and commands that you may find useful when moving/editing files in your project: Duplicating Files: you may copy images/videos/music files by simply selecting the thumbnail/item > click the Copy icon or press Ctrl+C > paste it on the specified point in the timeline. Note that the copied file will have the same added effects (transitions, pan & zoom, etc.) as the original file. Removing Files: just select the file(s) you'd like to remove and click the Remove icon or simply press the Delete key. Selecting Files: you may select a single file (clicking on a thumbnail/item), multiple files (batch selection using Ctrl+mouse click or Shift+arrow keys), or all files (clicking the Select all icon or pressing Ctrl+A. Rotating Images/Videos: click on the Rotate Left or Rotate Right icon to change the orientation of your images or videos (useful if proper re-orientation of images was overlooked prior to post-editing in Movie Maker). Adding Animations & Visual Effects Movie Maker comes with several sets of special animation and visual effects that you could use to add more 'spice/flavor' to your movie. These include transition effects, pan and zoom effects, visual effects, and pre-set AutoMovie themes. Transition Effects Transition effects allow you to give a distinctive special effect on how your movie plays from one video clip or picture to the next. You can add a transition between two pictures or video clips in any combination on the storyboard/timeline. To do this: Transitions are added at the start of images/videos, so click on the particular item where you'd like the transition to start (i.e. the second of two images should be selected to add a transition between them) Click on the Animations tab > click the drop-down button > hover the cursor over the thumbnails to see the preview of each transition in the preview screen > select your chosen transition effect. Set the time duration of the transition either by typing in the exact time or choosing from the pre-set time durations (from as fast as 0.25 seconds to as slow as 2.00 seconds). An opaque triangle will appear on the side of the item thumbnail indicating the transition effect has been successfully applied Playback and review the transition effect in the preview screen. Adjust the time duration as needed. If you intend to use the exact same transition for all your pictures and video clips, just click the Apply to all icon to apply the selected transition to all images and videos in the timeline. If you want to only apply a certain transition effect to a select number of pictures and video clips, you can use the Ctrl+arrow key or Ctrl+Shift to batch select the items and then click the transition you'd like to use and set the time duration. The transition effect will be applied to all selected items in the timeline. To change or remove transitions, simply click on the image or video and choose No Transition or choose other transitions. REMINDERS: While adding transitions can be exciting in giving your movie a distinct professional look, bear in mind that these effects should be used wisely so as not to risk overdoing it. Use transition effects only when the change in scenes calls for it. For stop-motion films, obviously it does not make sense to apply transitions between small changes in action poses. The number and type of transitions to be used would depend on the type of project you're doing. For example, romantic music slide shows may require slow dramatic transitions (like Fade, Overlap, Blur) between images while an intense action-packed video with fast and abrupt changes in scenes might not require transitions at all. Timing is very important so transitions would have to be in-sync with the background music or sound effect (a slow 2 second transition would not go well with a fast-paced change in music). Complete set of transition effects: Pan & Zoom Effects Pan and zoom effects refer to the movement of the image or video within the viewing screen. Pan effects include movement in the horizontal (left/right), vertical (up/down), diagonal or even rotational directions, while Zoom effects are zooming in or zooming out of the screen (in combination with pan effects). To add these effects to your project: Select the picture or video clip you'd like to add an effect on. Click on the Animations tab > click the drop-down button > hover the cursor over the thumbnails to see the preview of each effect in the preview screen > select your chosen pan & zoom effect. A four-square icon will appear on the upper-left corner of the item thumbnail indicating the pan and zoom effect has been successfully applied Playback and review the zoom effect in the preview screen. Change or removeeffects if needed (click on the image or video and choose No pan and zoom or choose other effects). If you intend to use the exact same pan and zoom effect for all your pictures and video clips, just click the Apply to all icon to apply the selected effect to all images and videos in the timeline. If you want to only apply a certain pan and zoom effect to a select number of pictures and video clips, you can use the Ctrl+arrow key or Ctrl+Shift to batch select the items and then click the effect you'd like to use. The particular pan and zoom effect will be applied to all selected items in the timeline. REMINDERS: Much like with adding transitions, pan and zoom effects should also be used appropriately to yield good results for your project. Use pan and zoom effects only when they're applicable to the scene(s). Since the pre-set pan and zoom effects is not customizable (directions, speed cannot be changed), its use can be limited to music slide-shows or select portions within a movie project. In cases where pan and zoom effects are applicable to use, the number and type of effect to be chosen would depend on the type of project, but generally for music slide show videos it is recommended to use a 'good number' of pan and zoom effects - not sticking to one type to avoid visual redundancy nor too many effects to prevent an overdone look. Like transition effects, timing is also important and the pan and zoom effect should be in-sync with the background music or any accompanying sound effect. Complete set of pan & zoom effects: Visual Effects Movie Maker also has a host of visual effects that you could apply to your pictures and images to give them a distinct feel or atmospheric look - from a classic grey-scale monotone to artistic touches like posterize and threshold. Take a look and explore the various visual effects available and test what effect will they give your images and videos. While these are not commonly utilized, these can be extremely useful for special scenes where their effects are tailor-fitted for, like black and white for vintage scenes/flashbacks or spectrum colors for disco-type scenes. To use these effects: Select the image/video you'd like to give a visual effect > click the Visual Effects tab > choose your desired effect. There is also a brightness adjustment setting you could use for your images/videos. Like with the transitions and pan and zoom effects, you have the option to apply a certain visual effect to all of your images/videos by clicking the Apply to all button. There is also a special option where you could combine two or more visual effects together. You could access this by clicking the drop-down list > go to the bottom of the list > click on Multiple effects > select the visual effects you'd like to combine from the list of Available effects on the left to the list of Displayed effects on the right > click Add > click Apply. The resulting combined effects will depend on the chosen effects - some may work well together, some will result in one effect overpowering the other(s), etc. It would be up to you to explore and decide what's best for your movie. Much like the other animation effects, visual effects should only be used when they're deemed appropriate or depending on the artistic taste of the film-maker. Complete set of visual effects: AutoMovie Themes Movie Maker also offers AutoMovie themes which you could use to instantly give your project the necessary movie elements in just one-click of a button! Each AutoMovie theme comes with its own pre-defined set of animations and visual effects that serves as a guide/suggestion on what you could do with your set of images and video clips in your timeline. The AutoMovie themes can be accessed under the Home tab, and by clicking on a selected theme, its pre-defined animations and visual effects will automatically be applied to your images and video clips in your storyboard. You have the option to adjust your images and videos to fit the theme or adjust the theme settings to fit your set of images and videos. The AutoMovie themes are perfect for quick 'fun movie projects', but for more serious projects it is recommended to take the more tedious but more customizable route of post-editing individual movie elements. Adding Titles, Captions, Credits Text can also be added in your movie project in the form of titles, captions, and credits. These three differ in their locations within the timeline: titles are added at the start of the movie, captions added in the middle, while credits are added in the end. These can be added by clicking either the Title, Caption, or Credit icons in the Home tab > a text box will appear in the particular slide or image/video > type in the text > re-size the text box dimensions as needed > move by dragging the text box to the desired area in the screen. Texts appear as peach-colored bars at the bottom of the pictures and video clips in the timeline (see example below of the three text files within the timeline). Text-editing options are available via Text Tools (highlighted in peach). You can access these by simply clicking on a text bar in the timeline to open the Text Tools sub-menu. The text-formatting options include: Font Settings: enables you to change the font type, font size, font color, bold, italicize. Paragraph Settings: change the text alignment (left, center, right) and the transparency of the text. Edit Text: allows you change the text. Background Color: enables you to change the background color (whole screen) of titles and credits, but not of captions (since they are positioned over images and videos). Start Time: set the time when you want the text to start showing in the timeline by typing in the exact time (in seconds) or using the up/down buttons. Text Duration: like with images and video clips, you could set the length of time you'd like the text to appear in the movie (by typing in the exact time or selecting one of the pre-set time durations). Effects: text also have animation options like images and video clips. Simply hover into the thumbnails in the grid (more in the drop-down menu), choose and select the text animation you like. Adding Sound Effects and Voice Audio Sound Effects and Voice Recordings(voice-overs/narrations) can also be added to your project. As long as the files are in the acceptable formats (*.wma, *.mp3, *.wav, *.aif, *.aiff, *.m4a, *.ogg), they can be added to the timeline like normal music files (click the Add Music icon > locate the file folder > select the file > click Open). However, there is a significant limitation in this particular aspect in Movie Maker: music/audio files cannot be added over existing music/audio files in the timeline (no overlapping is allowed). So if there is already a music file in the timeline (like in music video type projects), sound effects or voice-overs cannot be added over the music file, doing so will instead abruptly cut the music file at the point where you added the new music/audio file. In short, there is only one room for a music/audio file at a specified time. Though fret not, as there is an alternative solution for adding another layer of sound effects in Movie Maker: For projects with existing music in the timeline: finish first your movie project without the sound effects/voice-overs and save your movie. Then open your movie file in Movie Maker > identify the exact point/time in the video where you'd like to add a sound effect or voice-over > add the sound effect/voice-over file via the Add music button > edit the sound settings in the Music Tools (start time, start/end points, fade in/out). You may also adjust the volume of the added audio file relative to the video music by clicking on Project > Audio Mix > adjust the volume to your liking (higher volume for the video music or the sound effect/voice-over). Other Project Options Under the Project tab are a few more options you could set for your project: Audio Options: Audio Mix - enables you to set the music and video to play at the same volume, or play one louder than the other. Fit to music - automatically adjusts the duration of photos so the movie and music end at the same time; this is primarily used for quick fun projects but not advisable for projects requiring proper timing of photos and music. [*]Aspect Ratio Options: use either the Standard (4:3) or the Widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio for your movie project. Reviewing & Finishing the Movie So you've arranged, compiled and edited the images and videos for your project and added the necessary animation, visual and sound effects, text captions and titles - now you're ready to complete your movie! But wait - there's more! Every film-maker, especially the perfectionist ones, always make it a point to review their work several times before 'calling it a wrap'. So here are a few key reminders for the final review of your project: TIMING IS EVERYTHING: Make one initial viewing of the whole movie and keenly observe for the timing of the minifig movements, scene transitions, visual effects, sound effects, and background music with respect to each other. Ideally, all the movie elements should be in-sync together overall. Record any off-timed elements and the exact times of occurrence so these could be corrected accordingly. Visual Quality: Check for any inconsistency in the quality of the images/videos in terms of brightness, contrast, lighting and correct these if possible. If animations were used, observe for any image/video which might've missed an important transition or visual effect. Do the same for text captions if they were used (check for proper spelling, visibility of text style, size, and color, etc.) Sound Quality: Listen for any issues in sound quality (abrupt changes in volume, presence of background noise, incompatible fade in/out, imbalanced sound of music/sound effect/voice-over, etc.) Correcting Issues: After gathering all the findings in the initial viewing, correct all issues observed (if any). Final Review: Make one last final viewing of the revised movie. If everything is ok, you can now save your movie. Otherwise, revise again until you're completely satisfied with the final product. Saving the Movie: In the Home tab, click on the down arrow in the Save movie icon > select the quality of the movie to be saved (either the recommended setting for the project, for high-definition display, burn for CD, for computer, email, mobile devices, or even set your own custom quality settings) > type in the file name > click Save. The movie will be saved in the default Windows Media Video File (*.wmv). You may need other video converter programs if you want to have your movie in other video file formats. Sharing your Movie: Movie Maker allows you to share your movie directly from your project file to online video-hosting sites like YouTube, flickr, Facebook, SkyDrive, and Windows Live Groups. Simply click the icon of the site you'd like to upload your movie to > choose the quality settings of the movie > Movie Maker will save it (again) and upload it to the specified site (you may need to log-in to the site and continue the uploading process online). Finished Product: Even if it was not originally part of the plan in making this tutorial, I went ahead and completed an impromptu comic-video out of the various movie elements I imported and compiled for the examples above, to show you how Movie Maker really works: Borrowing the wise words of Dr. Emmett Brown, "please excuse the crudity of this video, I didn't have time to come up with a brand new brickfilm material". I just used the images from my Superman vs. Power-Armour Lex Comic, and fortunately I found a suitable music that goes well with the flow of story of the comic. The features in Movie Maker that I prominently used in this project are: Transitions: No transitions were used for most of the images for them to be in-sync with the sudden changes in the beat of the background music. "Blur-through black" transition were specifically used for the scenes where Superman got struck by Lex's Kryptonite Blaster (at 1:29) to give the scenes a dramatic effect. [*]Pan & Zoom Transitions: I used several pan & zoom effects to depict the movement in the images (notable ones include Superman flying at 0:48 and Superman falling at 1:32) [*]Timing with the Music: Note how the transition of images are in-sync with the sudden changes in beat of the music. I used the beat of the music to define where I'd set the starting time of an image and how long will its duration be (it took a few trial and errors to get the timing right) [*]Use of Text: I used a Credits to add the text caption in the end to ask a hanging question. Other Examples Here are a couple of examples to illustrate how the various features of Movie Maker can be used effectively in a movie project. Even if there are a lot of great brickfilms around, I specifically chose these two videos as examples for their simple yet effective and noticeable use of video-editing elements. Example #1 This is a video slide show I made for my wife, again using Movie Maker. The subject might not be LEGO but I'd just like to highlight the various Movie Maker effects I used (so pls. excuse if you have to bear seeing my unsightly mug throughout the video ) Transitions: I prominently used a combination of "Overlapping" and "Blur-through black" transitions for almost all the slide transitions to produce a dramatic (and hopefully romantic) reminiscing effect. Pan & Zoom Transitions: I used mostly "Zoom In" and "Zoom Out" effects, with several pan & zoom effects (the ones that I liked the most are at 1:10 and 3:14) Use of Text Captions: I highlighted some lyrics of the song (with some slightly tweaked) in the form of Captions (mostly using the "Zoom In-small" effect plus the snazzy "Cinematic Burst" effect in the end). Timing with the Music: As always, I made it a point to time the transitions and text captions to be in-sync not only with the beat of the music but the exact lyrics of the song for the text captions. Example #2 by hinckley39 (YouTube) This is a stop-motion video made by fellow BFC Academy Teacher Hinckley for his Forest II mafia game. Note that this was not made by Movie Maker but its iOS counterpart, iMovie. Nonetheless, the video depicts features that can be done using Movie Maker, and some of the effects used in this video are good examples which we could learn from. The things that I really liked about this video are: Minimalistic Movement: The movements may be minimal but they fit well with the simplicity of classic 70s/80s music videos, particularly the music in this video, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Moreover, the subtle movements are perfectly timed with the music and visualizes the lyrics accurately. Timing with the Music: Here are some examples of very good timing of the images with the music: Piano at 0:49 - Nice! "Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango" scene at 2:04 - Very nice! "I'm just a poor boy..." at 2:24 - then the group singing at 2:24 - then back being alone at 2:32 - Wow! The "Let him go" scene at 2:41 with the "appearing-disappearing act" the trio of Pancho Parrot, Gilda Goat, and Edgar Elephant - EPIC!!! [*]Visual Effects: The negative polaroid effect for the "Thunderbolt and lightning" scene at 2:14 is just spot-on! Now that you know the basics of video-editing using Windows Movie Maker, you can now start embarking on this exciting and rewarding task of completing your movie project! As always, this tutorial serves as a general guide but ultimately the choice of the visual effects, animation, etc. would depend on the type of project and of course, the personal creative taste of the film-maker. For any questions, clarifications, comments, and suggestions feel free to post in the Questions & Answers Thread. Sources: 1. Windows Movie Maker, (http://windows.micro...ker-get-started)

So you've taken the photographs for your comics, made the necessary photo-adjustments/enhancements, and did the initial panel layouting, now it's time to put some elements in your images to give them a distinct "comic-book look/effect". This tutorial will teach you how to put various elements popularly found in comic book pages - "hand-drawn" panel borders, text boxes, comic fonts and sound texts - using Adobe Photoshop. For this tutorial, I'll be using the image below as the subject (640 x 732 pixels) and a plain white background for the comic layout. Click for higher resolution image Part I: Adding a "Hand-drawn" Border on the Image 1. Open both the image file and the background file in Adobe Photoshop. 2. Go to the image file > select all (CTRL+A) > copy (CTRL+C). Then go to the background file and paste (CTRL+V) the image. The image file will become a new layer (Layer 1) in the Background file. Rename it as Main Layer (renaming is optional, it's used only in this tutorial for easier reference). 3. Add another layer above the Main Layer by clicking on the Add Layer Icon at the bottom of the LAYERS pane. Name the Layer as Border. 4. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) on the Tools Palette at the left. Make a rectangle selection by dragging the cursor from the top-left corner to the bottom right corner of the image. 5. Select Edit on the Function Menu at the top > choose Stroke > and set the following parameters: Width: 5 px / Color: Black / Position: Center > Click OK. The border will now be added on top of the image. 6. Deselect the current selection > go to Filter > Blur > Blur More. 7. Go to Filter > Distort > Ripple > set Amount: 20% and Size: Medium. 8. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen More. This will be the resulting image with a border resembling a hand-drawn border characteristic of comic books: Part II: Adding Text Boxes to the Image 1. Create another layer below the Border layer. Re-name it as Text Box 1. 2. Select the Rectangle Tool (U) on the Tools Palette. Make a rectangle on the top left corner of the image. a. To set the text box border: Right-click on the Text Box 1 layer > choose Blending Options > tick Stroke > set the following parameters: Size: 4 px / Position: Center / Color: Black > Click OK. b. To set the text box color: In the Tools Palette , set the foreground color to orange (#fdd515 in this example) and the background color to white. Right-click on the Text Box 1 layer > choose Blending Options > tick Gradient Overlay > set the following parameters: Blending Mode: Normal / Opacity: 100% / Gradient: Foreground to Background / Angle: 90 degrees > Click OK. TIP: Save these settings for faster and easier use the next time around. To do this, just double-click on text box layer > click New Style > Rename it (eg. Comic Book Text Box) > tick both Include Layer Effects and Include Blending Options > click OK. Next time you'll be creating a text box, just click on the particular icon in the STYLES pane and you'll instantly get the desired text box settings. 3. If the story narrative of the comics requires it, a second text box may be added to an image - with a different look to avoid visual redundancy. To create the second text box, add another layer above Text Box 1 and name it as Text Box 2. 4. In the Tools Palette, set the foreground color to white. Select the Rectangular Tool (U) and make a rectangle on the bottom of the image. Right-click on the Text Box 2 layer > choose Blending Options > tick Stroke > set the following parameters: Size: 4 px / Position: Center / Color: Black (NOTE: If the resulting text box still has the previous gradient overlay settings, just un-tick the Gradient Overlay box in the Blending Options and the text box will be filled with the white foreground color). This will be the resulting image with the two text boxes added: Part III: Adding Text Captions using Comic Book Fonts 1. To give your text captions the desired comic book effect, there are text fonts specially designed for comic books. Download the free font Digital Strip and install it in your computer. 2. Using the Horizontal Type Tool (T) in the Tools Palette, create a text caption over the orange text box. For this example I set the following settings in the Text Toolbar: Font: Digital Strip (Regular) / Color: Black / Text Size: 22 pt / Anti-aliasing: Strong / Left-align text. You may also emphasize certain words in the caption, in this example I made the "Lasso of Truth" Bold for emphasis. 3. Re-size the text box as needed by dragging the edges of the text box to the appropriate size. If the text caption goes over the orange text box, re-size the text box by: Single-click the Text Box 1 layer in the LAYERS pane > Go to Edit in the top function menu > choose Free Transform > drag the edges of the text box to the appropriate size > click the icon. 4. You could also highlight the first letter of the text caption to further give it a comic book look (which is usually done only at the start of the comics or certain parts/chapters). To do this: a. First go to the text caption layer, click and delete the first letter. You may need to put additional spaces in place of the deleted first letter and to provide space for the highlighted letter. b. Click on tool in the Tools Palette > type in the first letter > and set the following settings in the Text Toolbar: Font: Digital Strip (Regular) / Color: Red (#fd030f) / Text Size: 48 pt / Anti-aliasing: Strong c. To add effects on the first letter, right-click on the First Letter layer > tick Stroke > set the following settings: Size: 4 px / Position: Outside / Blend Mode: Normal / Opacity: 100% / Color: Black > Click OK. To give the letter a shadow effect: tick Drop Shadow > set the following settings: Blend Mode: Normal / Opacity: 100% / Angle: 120 degrees / Distance: 5 px / Spread: 75 px / Size: 5 px > Click OK. TIP: Save these settings for faster and easier use the next time around. To do this, just double-click on text box layer > click New Style > Rename it (eg. Comic Book First Letter) > tick both Include Layer Effects and Include Blending Options > click OK. 5. For the second text caption on the white text box, repeat step #2-3. The image with the text captions should look like this: Part IV: Adding Sound Texts Some images/panels may require the use of sound texts (like the classic KABOOM!, KA-POW!, etc.) or even exp<b></b>ressions of rage (screams), distress calls (HELP!, SAVE ME!), etc. These special text captions require more emphasis to stand-out inside the image panel. Here is an example on how to do this: 1. There are a lot of good comic book fonts for this particular use, but my personal preference is this BadaBoom BB font (by Nate Piekos, Blambot fonts). Download this free font and install in your computer. 2. Type in the sound text using in the Tools Palette. For this example I set the following settings for the text: Font: BadaBoom BB (Regular) / Color: Red (#fe0000) / Text Size: 100 pt / Anti-aliasing: Strong 3. To add stroke to the text: right-click on the layer > choose Blending Options > tick Stroke > set the following settings: Size: 4 px / Position: Outside / Blend Mode: Normal / Opacity: 100% / Color: Yellow (#f1f414) > Click OK. TIP: Save these settings for faster and easier use the next time around. To do this, just double-click on text box layer > click New Style > Rename it (eg. Comic Book Sound Tex) > tick both Include Layer Effects and Include Blending Options > click OK. 4. To add text warp, right-click on the layer > choose Warp Text > set the following settings: Style: Arc / Horizontal / Bend: +60% / Horizontal Distortion: +60% / Vertical Distortion: 0% > Click OK. 5. Re-size or re-orient the text caption to your liking by using the Free Transform (CTRL+T) function: Select the layer > Go to Edit in the top function menu > choose Free Transform > re-size, rotate, re-orient the text > click the icon. The finished image should look like this: Notice how I intentionally left the sound text caption slightly extend outside the border. This is just one form of 'creative leeway' that I exercised based on my personal preference (WW's aggressive personality and strong vindictive emotion 'breaking the barriers' of the image border). The same goes for the highlighted letter A in the top text box. You too could also exercise artistic freedom when adding these comic book elements in your images, based on your personal taste and liking (choice of font type, font color, text box color/design, border type, etc.). This tutorial just gives a basic background on how to add these comic book elements to your comic layout, but ultimately the specific choices would all depend on the comic material and the artistic taste of the comic maker. Other Examples Example 1: Pay Attention by darkdragon In this particular example, I played around using a lime-colored "hand-drawn" border in combination with a special "Slimy" font visualizing the zombie's brain appetite. Sources: 1. Give your Photos a Retro Comic Book Effect, by Enrique Flouret (www.photoshoproadmap.com) - majority of this tutorial is based on this. I just removed/added some elements/topics to make it fit for this particular use in BFCA. 2. www.dafont.com online source of useful fonts (the Digital Strip and BadaBoom BB comic book fonts downloaded from this site).

DYNAMIC PANELING Thinking like a comic-stripper At its basest form, comics are just a series of boxes assembled on a page, but that’s much the same way that music can be said to be simply a series of notes. Those descriptions belie how complicated they both can be. Those boxes can be manipulated in countless ways, to change the way people read the work, how fast they take in the pace of the action, and the mood communicated. As this is tutorial is for Brick Comics, I doubt anyone here is aiming to win an Eisner award for their work, and if they were, they probably wouldn’t need my advice. All the same, consideration of how images are arranged can make your work look that much more exciting and fresh. Placing a series of photos online and calling it comic is all well and good, but it’s not making use of the screen, and not adding much for the reader. With a little effort, you can dramatically improve the quality of your brick comics. Pacing Comics have gone through a lot of shifts over 100 years. If you check out an old comic from the 30’s to the 60’s, each panel often represents a fair chunk of time, usually assisted by narration. (Click images to enlarge) Art by Steve Ditko Looking at that work now can often feel clunky and slow, not to mention shallow. Even the greatest artists of the past feel pretty dull by modern standards. These days, the trend is toward something called “decompressed story telling,” where scenes are spread out into multiple panels. Art by John Cassidy It’s generally more pleasant to read (in my opinion), but the result is that what used to be told in one page is now told in ten, and story arcs that used to be told in one or two issues are now told in six. Within these polar opposites of story telling, a tense moment can be blown up and magnified, so that a second seems to take a minute to occur. Art by Frank Miller It’s up to you and the story you’re telling as to how you choose to approach it. Ideally, you should want to be comfortable with a wide variety of techniques to suit your story, but not feel compelled to use them all. Comics have time built into them, and they convey it in different ways. After a series of medium shots, throwing in a long shot in a larger panel dramatically slows down the page. Conversely, having a number of smaller staccato close-up shots has a brisk rhythm. Generally, you’re going to want to have a somewhat consistent rhythm, except in places where you want to highlight something out of the ordinary. For example, a series of small panels are used to show Batman quickly tossing off batarangs and incapacitating a number of small time crooks, to emphasize his efficiency. Or the end of a heavy fight scene pulls out to a long shot with multiple subjects and their surrounds to let the reader take in the awesomeness of what has come before them. In comics, you can even have the subject in multiple places in one picture, and the reader reads it as time passing, rather than somebody being cloned. This sort of technique is used with the Flash all the time, but it could be used to show someone puttering around the house. With multiple mini-figs, the choice it yours. Art by Chris Ware Structure One thing that I strongly recommend is to start with a simple structure, maybe four to six panels a page, in a clear sequence, regardless of how ‘compressed’ your story is. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that this is the easiest way to tell a story clearly. The reason people have done it for 100 years is because it works. Crazy lay-outs can be mind-blowing, but they require a lot more thought from the reader to process, and can be tiring. The second is that the simple approach allows you to be mind-blowing when you want to be. If you always have big splashy images, then the end result is none of it is very splashy. Rather, keeping your images restrained allows you to have an effective punch when the time calls for it. Let’s imagine the panel is a video image, and we’ll rank the image from 1 (boring) to 10 (zany). 1 in this case is a static image, just the same image repeated, as if the camera was locked in place. 10 is a crazy, Men In Black-style flying around the room and between people’s legs camera. 5 is in the middle; your average movie, with close ups, establishing shots and the like. Enough camera changes to give the scene a mood, but not enough to make an octogenarian sick. In the 90’s, comics got splash page heavy (a splash page is a page with a single large panel), and the effect was that they had little effect. Rather, a splash should be saved for a big moment. A comic book like the Walking Dead is a great example of something which uses effective splash pages, with usually one per issue, always the most emotional moment of the issue. It hits you like a punch in the gut. If you’re creating an action sequence and you repeatedly have in-your-face images, the reader will be as numb as someone watching a Michael Bay film marathon. Rather, save it for the right time. Techniques like this should be used sparingly. In modern comics, there are lots of images overlaid on images. Whereas in the past, every panel had its own white space, now most artists layer panels on top of panels, like windows on a computer screen. This can be exciting, but the best artists are still showing the action in a fairly traditional way, where the order of the panels is never in doubt. Design should never overwhelm your page. Art by Frank Quitely Technique Okay, enough theory. Let’s put it into practice. This being a Brick Comic forum, there is a good chance of humor being used here, and all the stuff about drama and effect still holds true for comedy. Actually, keeping a straight face can be very important in humor, so utilizing these techniques can improve your comedy even more. Art by The Perry Bible Fellowship For my example comic page, I'm going to work with something already completed, since I'm not here to tell you about taking photos or even writing. The idea is to punch up and present something to the best of our abilities. I use Photoshop to throw things together, though for a simple project like this, other programs might do the job. I'm merely assembling pictures, not editing them or doing special effects on them. I've chosen to work on the four-photo zombie tale that Darkdragon has done recently (at the time of typing). Please go look at it now, I'll wait Pay Attention It's well-thought out and conceived. Not exactly as a comic strip, but as a story. If it were conceived of as a comic page in the first place, I would have done a few things differently, which I’ll mention after looking at the finished product. Anyway, there is a lot to work with. So, my first thing is to sketch it out. THIS DOES NOT REQUIRE TECHNICAL SKILL. Just a concept. My sketch was done on the back of scrap paper while I was 'working.' The point is to decide on the images you’ll need when taking photos, and have an idea of how they'll flow on the page. This can be changed of course, but it's a heck of a lot easier to draft it on paper than it is just to start with a blank computer screen. The key points I went for are these: -The first photo is broken down into two panels. The main one is a larger establishing panel, with a quieter one to establish the zombie danger. Essentially, it's now got two beats, despite being one cohesive scene, and also makes the happy face on the character even more natural, since there is no 'danger' in the first panel. -The second photo is broken up into two close up shots, and shown at Dutch angles. The original was a full body shot, but all that info wasn't necessary to the story. The key info is the fear on the human's face, and the violent action. The smaller panels done in close-up give it a faster pace, and the tilt on them make them a little more action-y. -The third photo donates an image to the violence mini-panels, though the whole of the main picture is used in the next panel, with a little cropping to fit the page. Because the first one is a close-up, you don’t even notice the image is used twice. I give it an enlarged border to give the image a stronger beat. This is a technique Calvin & Hobbes used a lot, and, sparingly, it's neat. -The final one is large panel, pulling back to shown the punchline/true scene. By making it larger, the characters can stay near the same size, helping keep the rhythm, but also slowing down for a dramatic final image. The rhythm of the page should go: Bum-da-da-da-DUM-duhhhhhhhh! Let's see how it turns out. I like it Love, no, but it's satisfying. If I were to change a few things with the original pictures, I would take a one more action pic to throw into the violence montage, like of the arm swinging. Also, in the final pic, I would change the expression of the main character to an "oops," as he realizes what’s happened, simply because the facial expression is repeated and it doesn't add new info to the page. Much like I took out the background in picture two, there is no reason to repeat info, unless it's for a purpose. Each panel should portray something, be it narrative or simply mood. These things are in order to create a comic page, as opposed to a critique of the original, which works as it is. As for what I might change with what I did, I like most of it, but the second-last panel could have had a colored border instead of a white one. Maybe something in red might give is more zazz. As well, I’m not deeply attached to the color of the page or the lettering, but those are not so related to the paneling. The three violence panels could have sharper borders, to get that action across more. But, overall, I think the page works, and has made the original story more readable. Now, how about you give it a try? Create something dramatic, something romantic, something gut-busting! It’s up to you. ASSIGNMENT For this lesson, you need to create a comic page (or even pages, if you like). Step 1: sketch out your idea. It doesn't need to be fancy, just get an idea of what you're going to do. Do you have a variety of panels? If not, why not? Is the information in each panel important to the mood or the story? Has anything superfluous been removed? Step 2: Build it, photograph it, use the other tutorials here. Step 3: Put it together, tweaking your original idea as you go along to see what works. Step 4: Explain it. A good comic stripper usually doesn't over-analyze their own work, or get very conscious about it when making it. But, after the fact, there are things that work and that don't, and part of being a competent artist is understanding why things work. So, much like I explained why I did my page the way I did, I'd like you to give some conscious thought to what you've done. In the future, you never need to do this again For this assignment, you need only show the finished product, and an explanation of it, though if you want some guidance early on, you may post your sketch. Please start a new thread to show your WIP strip. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Addendum These are some artists whose page designs I respect, just if you're curious, or want inspiration outside your sphere. Eiichiro Oda- artist on Japan's number one manga, One Piece. A vibrant, kinetic artist. I'm not a fan of manga, but his work stands out for its liveliness. Frank Quitely- A Scottish artist known for slowly-produced, but impeccable work. Mind-bendingly exciting work on Batman & Robin and All-Star Superman. He has a very flexible structure, but always clear story-telling. Bill Watterson- The creator of Calvin & Hobbes. He had a brilliant jazz-like page, especially in the later years. His Sunday strips put the rest of the comics page to shame. Chris Ware- In my opinion, the greatest comic artist alive. His page and panel design drastically overshoots what most on this site would aim for, but his stuff is simply the most complicated, intricately created comic work ever done. You don't have to love it (and a lot of people consider it overly depressing), but you need to respect it (like this bastard of a page that needs to be turned in all directions to read). He might be the only comic artist in the MOMA in New York. There are many others, but those are the artists which jump out at me when I think of exciting pages, you will likely have your own inspiration. Go for it!

Working with LEGO has always been fun, but LEGO is shiny and more often than not, there is glare from a light source when we photograph them. There are several ways to remedy this. One option is to place the lamp in a different location so the light reflected is hidden from the lens of the camera. Another option I've heard of is to use pencil erasers to dull the shiny brick. The least invasive way to remove glare from your set is through a circular polarizer. What is a Circular Polarizer? A circular polarizer (CPL) is a filter that only allows a certain angle of light to pass through it. Here are two articles that go into depth of the physics behind a polarizer. To put it very simply, scattered light passes through the filter and either the vertical or horizontal band of light will pass through. The angle of which the source light hits your object is important, and usually a 45 degree angle to the object will get you the best results. Most circular polarizers are also Neutral Density filters (filters that darken the shot without affecting color) and are usually graded to stop down an image by 2 stops. So if you have an f/stop of 4 on your lens, it will result in an f/stop of 8. You will need to add more light if it makes the scene too dark. A CPL will not completely remove a glare, depending on the angle and strength of the light, but it will cut it down a lot. This is the circular polarizer I used for this topic. I had a better one (which had a smoother rotating ring), but that got stolen . These things range from $6 to $200. The one I used is from the lower end. The price doesn't affect the effect, but you'd probably get a better quality, longer lasting product going for a medium to high range polarizer. A side view of the polarizer. Here you can see that this is a two piece filter, one that screws onto the lens and the other that can rotate freely, changing the angle of light that passes through. Here are some photos of the circular polarizer in use with LEGO pieces. The first picture is to demonstrate how much light is cut out from the neutral density aspect of the filter And now it's not over-exposed. The next two pictures will demonstrate how well the CPL removes glare from LEGO pieces As you can see in the above pictures, the glare on the eyes and nose, as well on the side of the black body, has been removed significantly. You can also see that the glare on the seams of the LEGO bricks and around the studs on the floor has also been removed. Two more examples: In the previous examples, I showed you how the CPL worked with figures and objects. In this next example, I'm using the very shiny bricks in the background. Straight on, like in the previous pictures, provided little effect in removing the glare. Changing the angle of the set, with the source light directly in front produces a dramatic effect in removing the glare. I've recorded a video of the CPL in action so that you can see exactly is happening when the filter is rotated. Take note of the frog, the eye of the panda, the handlebars of the motorcycle (and the blue plastic of it, as well), and the minifigure's hair, head, and leg. The back wall and LEGO studs are also affected, but not as much as the other pieces. Like I noted in the above example, the reflections in the back wall are hardly removed by the CPL, which you can clearly see my hands rotating the CPL on the camera lens. Sorry for the shakiness. VIDEO In conclusion, the CPL is not a necessary part of your photography set up, but it does help reduce unwanted glare/reflections on your set. Without the glare, the LEGO pieces are no longer washed out and have more contrast. Obviously, not every camera will have a CPL that will fit on it. There are other ways to attach a CPL to the camera and different types of CPL's (like a square plastic gel, like the polarized lenses of 3D glasses). Just holding it with your hand will work just as well,. One last interesting tid-bit about the polarizer: If you put two CPLs in front of each other, it is possible to completely block out light.

Protagonist vs. Antagonist Now that you have a good idea of your story's theme and the character development, define the main conflict between the Protagonist and the Antagonist and how it demonstrates the theme. Protagonist - The character the audience identifies with. The action should revolve around this character and the theme should be most evident in their journey. Antagonist - What the Protagonist is fighting against. The Antagonist is either the person, people, concept or institution the Protagonist is trying to overcome. How they fail or succeed against the Protagonist should demonstrate the story's theme. Lesson 2 Identify the Protagonist and Antagonist in your story and discuss how they convey your story's theme.

Controlling Depth of Field What is Depth Of Field? Depth of Field (DOF) is the depth in front of and behind your focus target that is also in acceptable focus. A shallow DOF means that there is very little distance in front or behind the target that is in focus, deep DOF means there is a lot of distance in front and behind the target that is also in focus. Another thing to keep in mind is that DOF is slightly shallower in front of the target (toward the camera) then it is behind the target (away from the camera). For some real in-depth information, see the entry on Wikipedia. Prerequisites (things we will not be covering) Know how to use your camera and it's available manual settings. Know how to choose what you want to focus on or use manual focus. Know how to set up your lighting for the effect you want. Why should I care about DOF in my comic or film? Controlling the DOF is controlling what is in focus in your photo. The items that are in focus are the ones the viewer will (obviously) focus on. Keeping unimportant items blurred will keep your frame cleaner and less confusing for the viewer. All images shot with Canon G9 on manual, macro mode, no flash, ISO 80. Focus point is always the face of the motorcycle cop-zombie. Camera was not moved between shots, but the first two shots were cropped to match the general field-of-view of the third photo. Aperture: f/8 Shutter: 1/10 second Aperture: f/2.8 Shutter: 1/60 second Aperture: f/3.2 Shutter: 1/60 second Additionally, the background zombies were moved back (~3 inches) and the zoom was used. How do I control the DOF? What does Aperture have to do with it? Not only the depth of field, but also the amount of blurring your out of focus areas will have can both be controlled by adjusting the aperture or f/stop of your lens. The wider open your aperture is, the shallower the depth of field will become, and also the more blurred the out-of-focus areas will be. What does Focal Length have to do with it? The more you magnify your subject, the shallower your depth of field will be. What this means is that the longer your lens' focal length, the shallower your depth of field. It is very difficult, for example, to get a deep DOF using a 100mm lens and, inversely, to get a shallow DOF using a 24mm lens. Of course, it is all relative to the actual magnification of your subject and the distance between the lens and the subject. What does Shutter Speed and ISO have to do with it? Absolutely nothing. Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter is open and letting light hit the sensor. ISO is the light sensitivity setting of the sensor. Can I fake DOF control? As great as DOF control is, we are limited by the gear we have available. Luckily there are ways to "cheat" so that our end product comes out looking the way we want. Blurring in post production One of the most common solutions suggested is to blur areas you want blurred after you take the photo, using software such as Gimp or Photoshop. This can be an effective solution, but it is not something I recommend. For most folks, the image will end up looking edited and unnatural (because it is). Another reason to avoid this method is the time involved. If it takes you an hour to edit one photo, how long does that add up to when you are working on a film? Hint: there are 15 to 30 images per second for a film. Stretching the set With a lot of small cameras, the problem we run into most is that everything is in focus. For most scenes we want shallow DOF but these small lenses don't do it so well. We can fake it by expanding the set and then zooming in. The lengthening of the set will mean that even with a deep DOF we can have our background out of focus. Utilizing the optical effect of zoom compression, by zooming in, can in turn compress the set so that it appears to be not so stretched out. This is the method I recommend because you only need to set it up once for each scene and shoot as many photos as you want to, no extra editing time in post. Assignments For these assignments you will be posting images. Be sure to keep your images at or below the 800x600 pixels limit, I'd like them all to be at least 640x480 though. Assignment 1 Create a small scene with foreground, middle-ground, and background. Your focus target will be an item in the middle-ground. Keep the same target and angle for each photo, preferably the same focal length too, if this is possible with your camera. If you are having trouble with this, take an overhead photo of your set and post it in your student thread, I will help you out with some tips. Submit three images for grading: 1. ONLY your target in focus (shallow DOF) 2. Foreground AND Middle-ground in focus (mid DOF) 3. Everything in focus (deep DOF) Once this assignment is passed, move on to Assignment 2 for final grading. Example Assignment 2 (final) Using the skills learned above, create a 4 to 6 panel comic that imparts a story to the reader WITHOUT using any text call-outs or speech bubbles. Use post-production techniques sparingly, this assignment is about controlling the Depth-of-Field to convey the message, not about text and special effects. You can move the camera and objects in the scene just like any comic production. In your submission, use the spoiler tag to describe what is going on in the comic. If the idea came across in the photos you pass, otherwise you'll be given changes and information as to why the task didn't quite work. Example Image is a link to a super-sized version. More sizes on Flickr You can see the actual stage setup on Flickr

So you've got a plot and some characters all nutted out and you're ready to start making your comic/film. The first thing to work out is where is the scene taking place? This shouldn't be that hard as you've probably got foot notes in your plot/script. The next step is to decide how many angles this scene will be shot from, the best way to get an idea of this is to sketch up a story board (you don't want to build more than you need and be temped to change the composition of the shot to capture parts of the scenery). Step 1: Sketch Up/Story Board Here is where you'll plan both the composition and scenery needed for each frame, it doesn't need to be too detailed (simple stick figures will do), but it will give you an idea of the perspective of the shot and exactly what you need to build. Don't forget to position your speech bubbles for a comic. Step 2: The Moc Up Set up your camera and characters (and any items important to the scene) according to your story board so that you know what's needed to fill out the shot, from here you can start to fill in the blanks, bearing in mind your speech bubbles will cover up parts of the scene. Step 3: The Build By now you should have a good idea of what you need to build to complete the shot, it's just a matter of realising it with LEGO bricks. Keep it simple, remember the back ground is not the focal point of the shot it's simply there to add a feel of the location. Here is an example of how back ground scenery can be effective and basic at the same time: If you would like to try this method, please do so in a new thread and I'll meet you there to lend any help I can....... You can do eet. If anything above needs clarification please let me know.

Theme Simply stated, the theme of a story is the point the author is trying to get across. What does your story say about life? It can be a simple, open-ended theme. For example, the theme could be about humor. The author could be trying to remind everyone to have fun in life, and try to help them along by making them laugh or giving them good ideas to have fun in recreation. Or it can be a more complicated concept like trying to convey a point that makes the reader realize that over-automation can lead to killer results for those who rely too much on technology. Character An author should have a good idea of how their characters would react to any situation. Their characters should have unique reactions to each situation, some varied, some nuanced. Getting into small details of a character's personality takes a lot of time and in-depth thought. This usually happens organically and it's good to keep a word doc with character info that you can easily access and jot in notes about your characters. Let's start very generally with the definition of a character, in terms of a comic's theme. A character's story is often described as a through-line. The through-line is the characters journey. How does the character change from the beginning of the story to the end of the story? The change the character goes through should convey the story's theme. Lesson 1 Simply state your story's theme. Analyze how you plan to demonstrate this viewpoint with a basic story arc. Choose three characters from this story and detail how they will change from beginning to end. Compare these characters' through-lines to the comic's theme and explain how their journey demonstrates your theme. Start a new topic to complete this lesson. Ask any questions you have about the lesson in the topic you start. You can always update the first post with new ideas or changes to your lesson's answer. Have fun!