The LEGO Animation Book: Make Your Own LEGO Movies!
Contents INTRODUCTION VII About the Companion Film ix A Word About LEGO Animation x 1 THE BASICS 1 What You’ll Need 2 Step 1 Grab a Camera 3 Step 2 Set Up Your Studio 4 Build a Camera Cradle 5 Build a Scene 6 Step 3 Animate 8 Tips for Your First Animation 8 Basic Cinematography 9 Step 4 Watch Your Animation 10 Step 5 Adjust the Frame Rate 11 Next Steps 12 2 ANIMATING THE MINIFIGURE 13 Know Your Minifigure 14 Full-Body Poses 14 Minuscule Movements 17 Body Language 19 Basic Gestures 19 Complex Gestures 22 Exercise Show Your Feelings 23 Walking 24 A Solid Foundation 24 The Basic Walk Cycle 25 Tips on Animating a Minifigure Walk Cycle 26 Unusual Walks 27 Facial Animation 28 Purist Replacement Techniques 28 Custom Replacement Techniques 30 Digital Facial Animation 30 iv CONTENTS Jumping Flying and Floating 31 In-Camera Techniques 31 Advanced Levitation 32 Thinking Outside the Joints 33 Brick-Built Limbs 34 Animating Characters with Limited Articulation 35 Practice People-Watch and Experiment 36 3 ANIMATION PRINCIPLES 37 Exaggeration 39 Squash and Stretch 42 Exercise Ball Bounce 43 Timing and Spacing 44 Easing 46 Exercise Pendulum Animation 48 Anticipation Follow-Through and Recovery 48 Arcs 50 Exercise Minifigure Jump 51 Overlapping Action 52 Secondary Action 55 Staging and Blocking 58 Trial and Error 62 4 BUILDING FOR BRICKFILMS 63 Building Stable Sets 64 Securing Your Baseplates 65 Making Strong Connections 66 Securing Unstable Elements 66 Testing Your Set 67 Building for Movement 68 Articulation 68 Disconnection 72
Building for Versatility with Modular Sets 74 Exercise Build a One-Room Set 76 Brick-Built Special Effects 78 Exercise Up in Smoke 79 Build What the Camera Sees 80 5 WORKING IN DIFFERENT SCALES 83 Microscale 84 Minifigure Scale 86 Miniland Scale 87 PaganoPuppets 89 Puppet Building Instructions 91 Little Guys Scale 107 Other Scales 109 6 TOOLS OF THE TRADE 111 Cameras 112 What to Look For 112 Smartphones and Tablets 115 Webcams 116 Digital Point-and-Shoot Cameras 117 DSLR Cameras 118 Other Cameras 119 Tripods and Camera Mounts 120 Using a Tripod 120 Using a Camera Mount 121 Build a Camera Mount 122 Lighting 124 Big Lights Desk Lamps 124 Big Lights Professional Light Kits 125 Tiny Lights LEGO Products 126 Tiny Lights Third-Party Products 127 Odds and Ends 128 Microphones 130 Computers 130 Software and Hardware Compatibility 131 Stop-Motion Software 132 Mobile Apps 133 Desktop Software 134 Desktop Software Dragonframe 135 Your Animation Toolkit 136 7 THE CREATIVE PROCESS 137 Brainstorming 138 Ask Yourself What If 141 The Play Approach 142 The Plan Approach 144 Writing a Script 144 Script Formatting 144 Shot List 146 Storyboarding 147 Exercise Storyboard a Scene from Your Favorite Movie 149 Animatics 150 Organizing Your Work with Spreadsheets 151 8 CINEMATOGRAPHY AND PRODUCTION 153 Aspect Ratio 154 Frame Rate 156 Take Your Shot 158 Shot Types 158 Shot Movement 160 Shot Composition 164 CONTENTS v
CONCLUSION 197 Giving and Receiving Feedback 198 What Next 199 Have Fun 199 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 200 INDEX 201 Light Em Up 166 Let There Be Light Safety 166 Mood Lighting 168 Hard and Soft Light 169 Light Flicker 170 Motivated Lighting 171 Get into Focus 172 Set the Exposure 173 And Action 174 9 POST-PRODUCTION 175 Sound 176 Types of Sound 177 Recording Sound 177 Using Other People’s Sounds 179 Editing 180 Step 1 Get Familiar with Your Software 180 Step 2 Import Your Footage 181 Step 3 Sequence Your Shots 182 Step 4 Trim and Delete Unnecessary Shots 183 Step 5 Add Transitions 184 Step 6 Add Digital Effects 186 Step 7 Add Titles and Credits 187 Step 8 Add Music and Sound 188 Advanced Post-production 189 Compositing 190 Lip-Sync Prep Work 192 Digital Facial Animation 193 Sharing Your Film 195 vi CONTENTS
Introduction You’re about to dive deep into the heart of LEGO animation animation and filmmaking It only gets stranger and more fun from here Our goal was to create a definitive reference for folks of all ages and skill levels from the 8-year-old YouTuber to the 45-year-old AFOL adult fan of LEGO and beyond We’ve structured things so that you don’t need to read the book from cover to cover all at once though we’d love it if you did If you’re brand-new to LEGO animation start with Chapter 1 which introduces some key concepts to get your feet wet If you’re already knee deep in the LEGO animation hobby you might be looking to sharpen a specific skill That’s cool Feel free to skip around skim or read upside down You won’t hurt our feelings If at any point you feel compelled to stop reading and start animating please do so No amount of prose can take the place of practice We’ll be here waiting when you need us again But wait who exactly are we Allow us to introduce introduce ourselves You can use The LEGO Animation Book any way you want but we don’t recommend eating it
