Experimenting with live action Lego films

We’ve all seen some pretty good stop-motion animations with Lego, but the method is not without its limitations. Tyler Clites and Jordan Schwartz recently experimented with making short clips of live action Lego films featuring their Oasis Mech and Anubis Statues respectively. You can read more about each creator’s thoughts by following the links below each video.



Helmet Cam Replay – KIA


Mummification Chamber

4 comments on “Experimenting with live action Lego films

  1. wunztwice

    Interesting experiments, especially given the amount of real-time movement now provided by NXT and PowerFunctions, etc.

    From a film critique angle, they are a bit rough, but present some interesting new ground. The lighting could be improved, but we all know how hard lighting miniature models is. Miniature dollies, cranes and jibs could prove very beneficial, as the ‘handheld’ approach is amplified drastically by the scale, and pulls me out of the world of the video far too much. (it ruins my suspended disbelief)

    But yes, interesting concept, and worth exploring!

  2. ranwanimator

    Yeah, so I made the mistake of listening to these with headphones on. Let’s just say heavy breathing directly into my ear is not a turn-on. I agree with the hand-held scale issue. Someone needs to build a movement reducer so that motions made with a “real camera” can be reproduced at scale with a “minifig camera” That would make it loads more realistic.

  3. travisgriggs

    It’s interesting, but I think I’ll prefer the stop motion. One of the whole points of Lego’s is that they discretize your world into little bricks, making it, well, blocky. The “stop motion” effect actually takes me “inside” the Lego world, it harmonizes what I’m seeing with the way I’m seeing it. The real life effect just makes me feel like I’m watching someone else play with their toys, because it enhances the real world effect, and diminishes the imaginary blockified world.

  4. JimmytheJ

    I found the Mummification chamber vid quite effective. I liked the effects used to make it feel like an old/battered film. The scary breathing one… I think it would do much better with some stop-mo. Or at least a wider setting with green plates. But that shooty bit at the end was fun.

    For those interested in lego anims… *PLUG!*

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/10962799@N04/4746275662/
    http://www.youtube.com/user/jednetuk#p/u/8/XMkjPNQm4YM
    No snazzy effects here, but there was a heap-load of work, so, y’know. Am I posting this because I think I posted in the wrong time-zone and my flickr-post was drowned in the Lego pool? …probably… -_-

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