The Pyrate

That's a tough one! Haha...get creative?

I saw that Sala Baker was listed as playing Khamûl. Given that the Nazgûl were present in Dol Guldur with the Necromancer (was the Witch King still in Arnor at that point?) But that means we'll see more Nazgûl with The Hobbit sets, no doubt. I hope we don't see any sets that are too Nazgûl heavy, or we'll end up with about fifty of them by the time a decade has passed!!!

Sorry for posting old pics, I've been through about forty pages of this thread and hadn't seen them posted/seen any mention of them, so my bad! I'd also seen plenty of posts where people were still hypothesising that the horse legs were articulated (only a few pages back) so I don't think getting so worked up about it was entirely necessary. The Witch King is bound to get a helmeted version for the Battle of Pelennor, but since he didn't wear it prior to RotK I think the generic Nazgûl are fine. I'd like to maybe see a set of the 'Twilight' Nazgûl, but I don't think any other differentiation is necessary. Curious as to what will be covered in next season's sets (LotR, not The Hobbit). Bound to be Battle of Pelennor, though I hope we see some Imladris as well - council of Elrond maybe? Except that seems like it would be overwhelmingly minifig heavy. Thinking of most of the scenes in LotR it will all be really minifig heavy, but I think TLG have done a great job with the current sets as they are now. I imagine the Hobbit will be a nightmare too with that massive party of Dwarves!

I may be chiming in late here (after 168 pages) but has anyone else seen these pics of the box art? Boxart for 2012 LEGO sets Obviously preliminary, but the rearing horses don't look like they have an articulation in their hind legs. Are they a solid piece like the horses of old, or do the back legs move - does anyone know? I'd imagine Hobbit sets will release at the end of the year, a la Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I am still disappointed that Glamdring didn't glow in the LotR trilogy of films (and especially that it wasn't added in the extended editions). Easily explained in two seconds at the beginning of the Hobbit. Ah well, made Sting seem all the more special I guess. Still, I'd assume a 'glowing' variant of Sting is bound to be made. Hopefully there's a glowing Glamdring too but I won't hold my breath

Haha - the first tip would be take really great care making movements! Where possible I try and anchor parts of a minifig when I have to move their head/arms etc. A great help can be using capture software that supports 'onion skinning', which allows you to overlay the last frame captured with your current frame so you can realign the stuff in your scene to match the previous shot (I'd recommend some but I currently do not use any stop animation capture software, I do it slowly and painfully comparing images...bleh). If moving a head, I usually use Blu-tack to hold the headwear in place, and I try to hold the body if possible and make the movement of the head. With the headwear held solidly in place, you should be able to grip the hair/hat and turn the head. Demo your minifig heads before shooting - make sure they aren't too tight or too loose on the torso. Jumping is easy if you can use photoshop. I'm sure there are tutorials around - I have seen a few on Youtube - that show how to make people and objects fly through the air. I'd assume spaceship battles could be done very much the same way - though depending on the scale and the desired effect I'm not sure exactly how difficult that would be. Watch behind the scenes footage of the original Star Wars - they had to use 'low tech' special effects to achieve what they needed to, which is basically how you would achieve them today. Either that or greensceen it!

Absolutely brilliant. You can certainly see the hard work that went in to this. I have just restarted animating as a hobby, and this level of quality is certainly something to aspire to. Congratulations!

For sure! Your MOCs are pretty darn awesome...maybe we could collaborate on the LOTR trilogy? That'll probably be unreasonably massive for three one-minute films, but that's what it's all about, right? I really need to re-organise my LEGO collection...

I loved it, especially the little epilogue at the end. Reminds me of lots of traditional stories - very dark!

Hi all! I've just joined and I am looking forward to becoming an active member of the community! I thought I'd start things off with the first film in what I'm building to be a series of brick films, all being shortened versions of Hollywood blockbusters. Films in the pipeline include Pirates of the Caribbean and The Last Samurai. I'm just getting back up to speed with animation, and a lot of my technique is pretty sloppy at the moment (hairs and dust everywhere! Gah!) Still, happy to hear some feedback :)

That's damn funky! I'm not sure why I never really considered using those lion face pieces to make an actual lion statue...

Brave shooting an animation with that large crowd in the background! Could probably use technic to make a mechanism that would alternately move the crowd up and down as you turned a wheel...actually, I think I'm gonna have to try that out sometime soon!

That could have just been the Council of Elrond and I would have been suitably impressed with the simplicity and style of the design. I love the curved hall and the walkway, and the Greyhavens was a classy closer!

Not a bad idea! I know it's way too much to ask, but I'd love to see some Second Age stuff from Dagorlad - Gil-Galad and Sauron figs? They'd be boss!

I love the Gollum and Uruk-Hai, but the Nazgûl is disappointingly plain. I'm not sure how to do it better though. Boromir is amazing, and the Hobbits are pretty much perfect. Gandalf, Aragorn and LEGOlas are all a little meh, but they can't all be perfect. I too preferred the lighter-bearded Gimli to this darker one.