Brickfilm Tutorial

[SupremeCommmanderGrievous]

Welcome to the first EB Brickfilm tutorial for Mac users! Captain Zuloo has requested that I create a basic tutorial for those of us on a Mac. Although I highly recommend investing in a good Stop-Motion program, I will be using freeware for this tutorial. Note: Even though this is Mac specific, some things I say here will be useful to PC users as well, and I recommend that all prospective Brickfilmers read Captain Zuloo's Basic Animation tutorial as well. (Which can be found here) Because we are both covering the same basic subject, simply on different programs, I will attempt to mirror his format. Now, without further ado, onto more interesting subjects!

Part 1 - The Set-Up

This is pretty much the same no matter what kind of computer you are using, and as Captain Zuloo already wrote about this subject quite well, I will merely touch upon what I am using.

Lighting- I find that if you are not using charmoa keying (green screen or blue screen), you only need one light to cover your entire set, and one light focused on your subject. I try to do most of my filming in a dark room, because then you have complete control over all of the lighting. Also, set your camera's exposure to manual, if you can. This keeps your film from flickering when the white balance changes in your film. (EG. Stormtrooper minifigs walking into a dark-colored room)

Backdrops- Unless you need moving backgrounds, I like using physical backdrops. This usually consists of a combination of LEGO-built sets, whenever possible, and using photos, printouts, or drawings as a background. Not only does this allow you to have control your background while you are filming, it keeps you have having to use charoma keying. I have only seen two different experiences with charoma keying, it can either be relatively quick and easy, or it can be a massive, time consuming effect that you never expected to need much manual work. Personally, I have only had the second kind of experience.

Power - Simply, get a power-strip set up next to your desk, you will be surprised at how many different things you will need to power whilst you are filming.

Camera - You can either use a standard webcam, or a digital camcorder. I use a Canon ZR-850, connected to my computer with a firewire cable. I have also used an external i-Sight camera, which works fine, it simply has no zoom or exposure controls and gives a smaller image. You will also want something to help angle your camera at the main subject, which be higher or lower (minifigs are almost always lower) than the camera. To this end, I simply put my camera on-top of a wooden wedge. (Pic later)

Baseplate - You will almost always be filming on a baseplate of some sort. ALWAYS secure your baseplate to you desk. I use a bit of duct tape in the edges of my baseplate.

Here is a picture of my setup for reference. Note: My main lights are in storage until I begin filming my next film, so I am showing a temporary lighting system.

FrameByFrame

We will be filming with FrameByFrame for this tutorial. FrameByFrame (FBF) can be downloaded for free Here. You will need to download either the Tiger or Leopard version. Tiger is Mac OS 10.4 and Leopard is Mac OS 10.5 (If you do not know which one your computer is, look under Apple>About this Mac. That should tell you which OS you are running)

First , turn on your camera, and aim it at your main subject. Turn on your lights and adjust them until you have the look you want.

Now open FBF, it should look like this:

The first thing you should do is create a project. Do this by saving your film. (File>Save As) Exiting the program, and reopening your new file.

Now, I will go through the basics of FBF, the program is so simple this is much more efficient than an advanced tutorial. The things you will need to know are labeled below:

1. Use this to change the Frames per Second (FPS) This controls how many images of your film flash by per second. The more you have, the smoother your film will be and the longer it will take to film. I like to film at 10 FPS, but experiment and see what works besot for your animating style. However, If you go much below 10 FPS your film will animate jerkily, and won't be very smooth. Now, if you try to make an entire film at the maximum 30 FPS, you are either making a very short film, or simply have way too much time on your hands.

2. Press this button to play your film from whichever frame you have selected.

3. Click this button to take a frame of whatever your camera is pointed to at the moment. The frame will be inserted into your picture strip right before the frame you have selected.

4. Clicking this button will delete the selected frame.

5. This area simply shows what your camera is seeing. Whatever you see here is what you'll get.

6. This box shows both what is in your camera and your last frame combined. This is extremely important for seeing exactly how much to move your subject between each frame, Because you can see both before and after the movement in the same spot.

7. This slider controls the balance between what is in your camera and the last frame you shot. (See above)

8. This is your picture strip, this is where all of your frames are saved to. Click on a frame o selected it; the selected frame will turn blue in your picture strip. You can manipulate them here either by dragging them along your picture strip, or using copy and paste. (Hold apple while selecting to select more than one frame).

9. Here you can select to have your second box inverted. I have yet figured out why that is in there. If someone knows what that is useful for, let me know.

Filming

We are now ready to film! All you need to do at this pint is, set up your main subject for the first frame. Once everything is ready, click grab (Button number 2).

Move slightly for your next frame, and click grab!

Repeat until your are finished, then save, or export your film as a Quicktime file to import into iMovie or other film editing software.

[Tinn-man]

This is JUST what i needed!!!

I was trying to make brickfilms by taking all of my pictures and dumping them strait into imovie, which caused my computer to crash various times. This should help a lot. One question though: my camera automatically burns everything to a disk. Will it still work, or do i need another camera?

[SupremeCommmanderGrievous]

Try removing the disk from your camera, if you can, if not, the camera itself should not need to be recording, tthe image-capture is made through your computer, not the camera.

[Captain Zuloo]

Thank you very much for that, this is a very good and easy to follow tutorial. You have done well, and I have added this to the index.

Keep up the good work!