LEGO Animation - How to Make a LEGO Movie

Making A Set - The Basics

Now that you have installed your animation software, you will have to think about how to create your set. Its simple to do but you should take care to understand some basic steps like securing your set , camera and using desk lamps to light you character for the best images possible.

A base plate is a must when creating a lego movie. You will really upset your viewers if your whole set moves during a movie. So tape down the four corners of a base plate ( or use sticky blu-tak ) to secure it to a desk or table. Be careful also not to bump your table during the animation process. Everything needs to be secure.

Make your LEGO® MiniFig walk

An easy step by step video guide on how to make stop motion with your lego minifig character. This video shows you the first method you can use to make a realistic walk cycle using 5 simple positions for your character. We overlay the still snapshots that were taken for each step on the video so you can see how each position compares to the previous and following positions. Make sure you watch all the video tutorials preceeding this tutorial if you are unsure as to how to set up your scene and lighting. Its a good idea when using a new minifig also to loosen its arms ,head and legs. To loosen the head for example you can sand down his neck. Just pull off the head and use a nail buffer to take the surface off the neck section. New LEGO minifigs tend to be stiff. So loosen them out before you start your LEGO movie.

Make your MiniFig/Clay Guy TALK !

iKITMovie makes it easy to create mouths and the impression of talking by using built in images that you can overlay on your characters without ever having to leave iKIT's interface. This tells you how to make stop motion come alive with mouth animations. The mouth overlays for your lego movie animation are broken up in to sylables. For example the "L" sound plays a large portion of the work "Hello". In fact in this video we show you how to make the overlay for "Hello" which is made up of  "L" and "O" predominantly.

Adding Still images in your background

Why not replace your green / blue screen backdrop with a still image. This video tutorial shows you the "animation maker" how to select a still image background step by step to make it easy. You can use an image from our library or import your own jpegs images to make a cool LEGO Movie animation. The most important thing to remember when using blue/greenscreen backdrops is lighting. You must avoid shadows under all circumstances. Also use a filter ( greaseproof / white paper ) over your lamps. This breaks the light up ( dispersing it evenly ) in order to avoid "hard" light. That is to say light that will more likely cast shadows.

Adding Chroma and Overlay to a project

Why not have chromakey and overlay in the same project. In order to achieve this effect you will need to involve two projects. You can add an overlay to a project but you must first add chromakey to the images in a separate project. Then import those chromakeyed images in to another project and add overlay to them. This method allows unlimited possibilities to add many layers of overlay to your LEGO movie.

LIGHTING - Important

Here are some examples of lego animators who have used greaseproof paper to disperse the light from their lamps. I would advise the use of at least two lamps. A third lamp will improve the image even more.

Another example here shows the animator using two lamps with greaseproof paper and a green sheet of cloth to be used no doubt for chromakeying his lego movie. Use greaseproof paper so it won't overheat.

This third example shows an animator using just one lamp and greaseproof paper. The use of one lamp in this case may be intentional to give the effect of a single source as part of the mood setting.

Notice how this lego animation maker ensures his set is good and secure by taping down his lego base plate to the desk and also to the wall for a backdrop.

Here is another example showing how the animation maker wisely tapes down his baseplate to make sure there is no movement during animation movie making.

Use masking tape to secure the corners of your Lego base plate. Masking tape is easy to use as it is sticky but not too sticky so that it would leave a mark. It can be purchased at any craft or DIY store cheaply.