Since I was a kid I have been fascinated with stop-motion films and short videos. Over the years I have worked on many short pieces, many of which never reach completion. Stop-motion is a long process made by taking a picture of an object, then moving it slightly before taking another picture. After repeating this process, the pictures are then played in order really fast to make the object look like its moving. The primary objects that I use is some of my old Lego bricks as it is extremely easy to build expansive backgrounds and the figures are easy to work with. They don't have very many points of articulation and I don't have to worry about them falling over when they're connected to other Lego bricks.
I made the project above while hanging out with a few of friends. We were at one of their houses and I quickly made this short video with his little brother's Legos. I quickly made a stand to keep my phone from movie between frames with a few pieces. There was a shelf in one of their closets with good lighting which I used to animate in. Once I got home, I added a few sound effects.
While this project doesn’t have any sound, it is more action-oriented. This was really fun to animate the different action scenes, but something that made this project take a lot longer than usual is my limitations with how many Lego pieces I had. This meant that in between each shot I had deconstruct and reconstruct the set based on the new angle. Despite this, it still feels cohesive and part of a larger structure.
Looking to the Future
Something that I am really excited about is taking my stop-motion projects to the next level with Adobe After Effects. Since learning the program, I have started experimenting with adding more complex compositions and more complex shots. This is just the beginning!
The project above is a work in progress where I am re-creating the ending scene from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones with Lego. This is the first complete shot showcasing the Clone Army as it goes off to war. While it may not look like it at first, this shot showcases a number of skills and programs that I am proficient in. The programs include Adobe Photoshop for the background and the color markings on the figures. I also used Photoshop to remove the backgrounds from the figures, as they are all duplicates of a single figure that I own. It also shows my skills in Adobe After Effects, as I composed everything together, as well as adding color filters and grain to make the shot cohesive.