In the name of diversion and the desire to actually animate something, I was inspired when I stumbled across the site brickfilms.com. They describe themselves as:
We are a community dedicated to the art of stop motion animation. Our main focus is the animation of plastic building toys, or bricks (LEGO, Mega Bloks, Best-Lock etc), which we call “brickfilms” (these films are also commonly called “LEGO Movies”).
It appears that LEGO has a cult-like following in the animation world. From a technical perspective it makes a lot of sense as LEGO offers instant characters (puppets) and related sets. This frees the stop-motion animator to focus on the process of story creation and physical animation. With this in mind, I’ve developed a very rough outline for a story, Side Tracked.
I’ll build an outline page and character specific pages once I’ve gather the related materials. In the time being meet the two main characters:
- Sylvia a Spanish executive who is seen as a “fun loving girl” who has a shrewed business sense and
- Bud, a bad ass from the wrong side of the tracks that has scraped his way to a top position in the local organized crime scene.
Bud and Sylvia cross paths through their regular travels on a commuter train. Where the train takes these characters, physically and otherwise is the basis of the story.
16 responses so far ↓
1 Sara // Nov 14, 2006 at 9:39 am
sweet…. Bud looks so sexy upclose.
Sara
2 alexg // Nov 14, 2006 at 1:16 pm
i think bud needs a pencil mousteache and some swooshy latino sideburns. And have you noticed that sylvia is olfactorily challenged? plastic surgery gone wrong?! –i think there could be story waiting to happen!
3 Dee // Nov 14, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Indeed Alex… more to the point I see you coming into the story as “Cam” the train conductor who does plastic surgery as a hobby on the side.
As for Bud’s moustache and burns, the wonder of stop-motion animation opens up all kinds of possibilities. I have every intention to animate the facial expressions and lip sync so there’s no reason that there couldn’t also be some hair growth too.
4 julia // Nov 14, 2006 at 5:41 pm
Finally! A female film character who’s as flat-chested as I am. Thank you!
5 Dee // Nov 14, 2006 at 5:59 pm
julia,
I know for a fact due to “accidental” gropings when giving you a hug that you in fact have a perfect little chest which is relative to all the other perfect little things you have.
I’ll leave it up to Alex and his characters interest in “olfactorily challenged” people to provide any additional insight. I’m all for representing the “little people” in media so stand up and consider yourself counted… or groped… or at least poked.
6 Junko // Nov 16, 2006 at 1:25 am
Is it possible to stick a stem of rose, a flag, or a light bulb in Bud’s head depends on a situation?
e.g.
1) a moment he falls in love with Sylvia –> rose
2) a moment that he thinks Sylvia is absolutely sick –> flag
something like that..
7 Dee // Nov 16, 2006 at 1:37 am
Junko, do you mean replace Bud’s head with these objects in the way that only Lego can - snap on, snap off? If I understand correctly, I think you’re absolutely brilliant!! … well even if I’m not getting your point, you’re still brilliant and well, this idea is brilliant too. Man it’s great to be in such great company!
I’ll do some test shots to try out the idea and post them on the site as soon as they’re ready.
8 Morgan // Nov 16, 2006 at 8:37 am
For lightbulb-in-the-lego-head ideas, check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/265878996/in/pool-evilmadscientist/
Which is part of the inspiring Lego Abomination series -
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/LegoAbominations
9 Dee // Nov 16, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Morgan, I have to ask as you’ve pointed us to a site with the slogan “Making the World a Better Place, One Evil Mad Scientist at a Time” that you’re in fact a card carrying member of the site?!?
A huge thank you goes out to you as there’s in fact some really valuable technical info on the site. The use of a watch battery to power small lights placed within the LEGO characters is nothing less than brilliant. Once again I’m impressed with the company I keep.
As a nod to our Mad Scientist friends and the crazy Harajuku Girl, characters will be swapping out their heads from time to time - sweet!
Keep the ideas coming…
10 Jessica // Nov 16, 2006 at 6:53 pm
ahhh… read this last night and then came back today and read it again. Dee it reads very slimey.
Other than the comment… I like the lego post! Go lego!
And hi Morgan - will check out your site also!
11 Dee // Nov 16, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Jess, one persons “slime” is another persons “grin”. I have confidence that all those that I care about will be in the “grin” department.
Do check out Morgan’s site; Mobu has some great writing there.
12 julia // Nov 16, 2006 at 9:54 pm
Being the recipient of Dee’s hugs, I should mention that, in fact, there have not been any gropings, accidental or otherwise. His comment was made in fun and was taken that way. I hope this wipes any trace of slime from the post.
Just an idea… Is it possible to build items using the Lego people as pieces? I was just thinking that since you’re using Lego people as puppets, why not incorporate the Lego-ness of them into the film. For example, say a character does something really stupid and feels like a tool, why not build a Lego tool and incorporate the body bits and Lego head as part of it. (I hope that makes sense…) Just an idea… I haven’t actually checked out the mad scientist site which probably has done something like this already…
13 Dee // Nov 17, 2006 at 1:50 am
Indeed Julia, you’re but a click away from seeing what you’re suggesting. The Mad Scientists have been very busy:
14 Jessica // Nov 17, 2006 at 11:21 pm
I believe it was just the use of the word “grope” that got me. Meant no harm by my comment
sorry.
Hark the Herald
Parrots sing
Glory to the new hatched beek
15 julia // Nov 18, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Jessica, it takes a real friend to call it as they see it. You were right to make that comment because other people, not knowing the context or the people, might have gotten a negative impression of this site and the person behind it. That would be a shame. So rather than being a cause of harm, your comment prevented it.
16 Sara // Nov 19, 2006 at 1:40 pm
Ooooooooooooh, you guys have no idea how you made my morning and that of everyone in my house with the lego talk and links to the Evil Mad Scientist’s site (we really must get lives! Haha!). Well, Darren you’ve met some of my crazy family, so you probably have an idea–I think my brother’s hacking into lego heads as I write this. I also really liked Junko’s idea (but did you mean sticking a symbol free-floating above the head like in comic books? I think that would be cool too). This was my favourite abomination: “In the lego world, fish do not need bicycles, but they certainly enjoy them.” Not only is the image quirky, but it kind of expands on (and makes good fun of) this classic line: “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”
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