Lego characters are a popular choice among homemade stop motion animations.
Stop motion animation is an optical illusion that iinvolves taking a series of pictures of an object that is moved in small increments. When the images are played back in sequence it creates the appearance of motion, like a flip book. Using Lego pieces is a great low-tech option and a popular form of stop motion animation. Although Lego blocks offer a limited range of motion, the same stop motion filmmaking principles apply.
Instructions
1. Build your Lego scene. You can build a full miniature set and use the Lego people as the focus of the shot or construct a little vehicle that you can simply wheel across the screen. It can be anything you want. However, stop motion animation is very time-intensive, so keep it simple to start with.
2. Lock the digital camera down on the tripod and set it up so that it frames the shot you want to capture. If you do not have a tripod, place it on a steady, flat surface.
3. Plug the USB cable into the camera and then into the computer. Most cameras come with basic software that allows you to control the camera through an on-screen interface. If your camera does not have any software, use a third-party application such as Stop Motion Pro or Dragon Stop Motion.
4. Load the stop motion application and confirm that it sees your camera and that you have full remote control over it. Take a few sample pictures to check lighting, focus and framing of your shot.
5. Set your Lego character or object to the starting position. This will be the first frame of your animation, so position your object to the very beginning of any motion or action that is to take place on screen.
6. Take a single photograph of your scene. Examine it in the stop motion software to confirm that you are happy with the shot. You want to check every picture as you take it just in case you have to do any corrections. You don't want to be halfway through your animation and then find a mistake that you could have caught at the beginning.
7. Move the object in your scene slightly. Most movies are filmed at 24 frames per second, and if you are trying to achieve the same fluid motion, you will need to take 24 images per second of final animation. Adjust your object in very small increments so that it moves 1/24 of the distance it would move in a second.
8. Take a second picture and preview it. The picture should be identical to the first photo except for your animation adjustments. Continue this process until your object completes its motion and you have captured all of the frames.
9. Open your editing application. Go to the application's import tool and choose the very first frame of your saved photographs. Most professional editing programs have an option that says "Detect Sequential Images" or something similar. This will tell the software to assemble all of the photos into a single animation sequence. Your photos are now imported as frames and are part of a video sequence. From this point the clip is the same as any captured footage, and you can now edit it and add titles, sound effects and music.
