Ever since the release of The LEGO Movie, I’ve wondered how I could create my own stop-motion videos with my ever-growing LEGO collection. Thanks to the genius minds of David Pagano and David Pickett, I had the opportunity to learn with The LEGO Animation Book. While reading the (extremely) thorough content, I came up with more ideas than I could realistically put into action.
Chapters walk the reader through everything from the anatomy of a mini-figure to post-production for your animation. There’s a surprising amount of technical information for every aspect from light to mini-fig joints, so prepare for a a lot of content. Thankfully, it’s all written under the assumption that you’ve no idea what they’re talking about.
Along the way, I learned some big lessons that are easy to share:
- Animating can require a little or a lot of time, depending on how technical you want to get.
- You sit in one place for a long time, so get a comfy seat!
- It’s easy to obsess.
- Taking the correct number of pictures for each scene can be difficult.
- It’s better to take too many pictures and not need them all. It’s SUPER hard to re-create a scene you’ve already retired.
- Tape is magic. Glue is gold.
- Any given piece can do about a billion different things, so experimenting is important.
After my desk was a studio for far longer than my wife was happy with, I had taken all the pictures. I explored a bunch of animation theories as I put my story together. Using the great instructions from the book, I was able to add some post-production effects in and eventually compile a short animation. I hope you enjoy:
The best bit is that The LEGO Animation Book is available on Amazon, and you can get it in plenty of time before Christmas!
Thanks for the great review and congrats on making your first animation!
Thanks! It’s still a bit strange to think about, actually!