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.

First Update!

Filming on part two of 502nd Legion has commenced! I have taken over 1000 photos already...just for one scene! (thats about 80 seconds of footage!) In contrast, I took 2,800 photos for part one in total - just an intersting comparison!

I am now back at boarding school so I won't be able to work on it for the next two weeks but filming will pick up again in earnest in my half term break!

The film is currently scheduled for a summer release - perhaps late june-late august.

Stay tuned for more updates!!

DWSWTW52 channel link: http://www.youtube.com/user/DWSWTW52

Welcome to the official DWSWTW52 Productions blog

Here I will be posting exclusive news and updates about my latest videos and projects, and also some other random stuff on LEGO, Star Wars and Doctor Who

You tube account (please subscribe!) http://www.youtube.com/user/DWSWTW52 I only have 24 subscribers at the moment but I feel I deserve more...

I also have a brickli.me account with the same name so feel free to add me as a friend!

Look out for more updates on this blog!