Brickfilms to look out for during this year.

Here are some of the brickfilms that I am looking forward to watching when they come out this year!

BenTheCreator's TARDIS

1) Doctor Who: New Beginnings Part 2 (BenTheCreator)

Part One of Ben’s Doctor Who Series was exceptional. Introducing a new Doctor, a new monster, and possibly Ben’s companion throughout the rest of the series, this action packed brickfilm is one of the best takes I have seen on Doctor Who in LEGO form. Having ended on the cliffhanger, I cannot wait to see how it is resolved!

Link to part I

Part of the Celestial Dominion!

502nd Legion III: Update 2

Filming has been progressing swiftly, but I have recently slacked a bit as school work has taken priority. I already have three minutes worth of footage, and the first scene is completely finished! I have taken over 1,000 pictures for an awesome battle scene - there will be lots of battles in this instalment! Hopefully, this film will be well worth the wait. Don't forget, scrolling down a bit will take you to an exclusive script extract! Part III will also feature FreakDaMighet, an awesome voice actor. That's all I have to say for the mo, so here are some preview pics. Click on them to see larger versions:

502nd Legion III: Update 1

Finally, some activity on this blog! This is the first of many updates I will be posting on the progress on 502nd Legion Part III.

The current title is Struggle for Survival, and I think that this title is there to stay! I wrote the script before christmas, and have already recorded the lines for one of the returning characters, the Mayor of Theylix.

As for major plot details, I do not want to give too much away, but the Mayor is back, and we find out more about the Separatist leader I introduced at the very end of part II. Meanwhile, the Clones are baseless, so how on earth will they survive with limited supplies? Wait and see! There will also be a space battle, but at the moment, I am debating on whether to use CGI or stop motion. I don't think the CGI would be very good, but the stop motion would be difficult logistically. However, I want to try something a little different to what people such as Spugesdu usually do. CGI is very impressive, but I don't think there are any good stop motion space battles out there, so I may give that a go, and see how if turns out - it's always good to try something new! Please do comment on what you think I should do!

Finally, filming will start next week, when my easter holidays start. I will certainly film all the non-action scenes, and I will try and film the bit with a huge forest set that I still need to build - it will look really impressive once it's done, I hope.

That's it for this update, but do keep checking this blog out for more updates. Find an exclusive script extract if you go onto the homepage of this blog and scroll down to the third post!

A look back at 2011

As 2012 approaches, it seems a good time to look back at the last 365 days!

FILMS
This year, I released two major films, and two shorts.
SKIRMISH ON CORUSCANT: Link to Skirmish on Coruscant
Added on the 22nd April, this video has onlt got 341 views at the time of writing, but I always enjoy watching it!

CONFLICT ON ENDOR: Watch it above!
This is my best-performing video on youtube! It has an astonishing (in my view) 3,394 views, 44 comments, 13 likes, 8 favourites and only 2 dislikes after only 5 months on YouTube! I really enjoyed making this so it is good to see it is still getting quite high amounts of views every day!

EXCLUSIVE! Script extract from 502nd Legion: Part III - Struggle for Survival.

I have been working hard on the script for 502nd Legion Part III, and have recently finished it. It will be about 75% action and is a suitably epic conclusion to this series!! Below is an extract from the script!

SCENE 3: CLEARING IN FOREST

It is night now. Three Clones are on watch duty. They are sitting with the backs to one of the camp fires.

Beyond a clump of bushes, the mayor and some of his soldiers sneak up and survey the camp with binoculars.

New videos on my channel!

See my channel for two new videos. Instead of a behind the scenes post, I posted a commentary video instead!


I talk about trouble getting the hologram right, how I created all the different voices, my favourite bits, and how I did various bits and bobs! Check it out if you haven't yet - I hope you find it informative!

The other video is the most comprehensive list/ video with pictures and info on next year's LEGO Star Wars sets! Watch them by heading over to my channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DWSWTW52?feature=mhee

502nd Legion II Update!

The Clone base!

What happened here?

Animating on 502nd Legion Part II is progressing very quickly! I only have 6 more scenes out of 15 left to film and everything is going very swiftly. I have taken 5,000 pictures, meaning so far, it will be about 6 minutes, but it will end up being between 10-15 minutes

PROGRESS:
Script: 100%
Animation: 70%
Editing: 25%
Effects: 15%
Overall: 45%

LEGO 502nd LEGION I: Mind Meddlers Behind the Scenes

STOP MOTION: The process used in the making of this film is known as stop motion. This process works by taking a photo, moving something slightly, then taking another photo, moving it again, taking another photo, and so on. This takes a very long time and requires a lot of patience. You must also try and keep the camera as steady as possible otherwise the scene looks unsmooth. Generally, the thing that is moving is a LEGO minifigure but LEGO sets can also be part of a shot too. In total, I took 2,827 photos, which took quite a while.

EDITING: Once I transferred the photos onto my laptop, I had to edit them into a film using windows movie maker. For 50% of the time, you see each photo for 0.08 seconds, meaning that there are 12.5 frames every second, which looks very good. There are a few instances where it gets to 25fps (frames per sec)) and also some where it goes to only 3fps or even 1 if nothing is happening. Movie Maker only allowed me to put on one audio track at a time, so I kept having to publish what I had done in order to add music and sound effects on top of the voices.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: Probably the best thing about this film is the special effects. I use a special program called Effects Lab Pro, where you can incorporate nearly any effect from weather to lasers and lightsabers to optics and fire. In total, there are about 600 effects, which took a long time as I had to edit each frame of each effect separately.

FINALLY: Once all the special effects, stop motion, editing and audio came together, I just had to publish it one last time and then it was completely finished. In total, it took between 50-70 hours, there were at least 500 special effects (322 in final scene) and I took 2,827 pictures.

Click to go to my channel!

Subscriber/ 502nd legion update!

I now have 66 subscribers so if any subscribers are looking at this blog, thanks for your support!

The first draft of the script for 502nd Legion: Difficult Decisions is almost complete, as is the entirety of scene six, dialogue, effects et al! Check out a trailer with parts of the scene by clicking the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWaer-9r0a8&feature=channel_video_title

I have also filmed another scene near the end of the film, which I think is the smoothest animation I have ever produced, with barely any camara movement whatsoever! I am quite proud of that!

Keep checking out this blog for more info and updates!

UPDATE!

Just a quick update on the status of some of my movies.

At the moment, I am on my half term break from boarding school, so I will have a chance to work a lot on 502^nd Legion 2: Mind Meddlers.

I am not filming it in order and at present I am working on scene six, which is set in the old town district of the town the film is predominantly set in. The scene is set in the Medieval Market Village set, which came out a couple of years ago and is one of my favourite sets. But what is it doing inside a Star Wars video? Well, it’s just that this part of town is old, like I said, and the citizens want to keep it looking that way and haven’t developed it.

Please be patient! This film will be perhaps twice as long as part one, so it will take a lot of time, especially since I have to go back to boarding school for four weeks starting next week, but then I have 9 weeks off for summer to work on the project, which should be out by the end of August, so please don’t ask “OMG, when’s your film coming out, it’s been so long?” unless August has passed. Trust me, it will be ten times better than part one and it will contain far more action, something which I felt lacked a little from part 1.

I am also working on a short film about an alien, which I will plan to enter into TomJoetTwins’ alien stop-motion contest. I am also editing a clip of scene six which I shall enter into TheFourMonkeys Walk this Way contest.