I started to shift toward other mediums (hand drawn, live action) when I went to college. Ironically, of course, most of my early college work in live action was not as good as my LEGO stuff because I was starting over my skillset on the technical side of things.

I still think LEGO's a fun medium when you have an idea for a short film and you want to make it without needing actors, expensive equipment, a crew, etc. and I'd totally make a brickfilm if I had an idea I liked that lent itself to that. Admittedly, I am more interested in long, dramatic stories that aren't suited to LEGO animation, hence my focus on live action in recent years.

It depends what your intentions with your films are. It's perhaps inherently amateur, unless you're being paid to make LEGO videos, but dismissing any hobby as childish seems childish to me. A lot of people here are adults who make LEGO movies as a hobby, which is very different from pursuing filmmaking as a career. Live action filmmaking, IMO, is not really something that can be a small, part-time hobby and be done well, unlike brickfilming.

Not to mention, I'm not sure how old you are, but I've seen a lot of good brickfilms made by high schoolers. I haven't seen any good live action films made by high schoolers. It's just hard to make something credible with young, inexperienced actors, and you need a lot of very specific equipment and skills and crew to pull off live action well.

This is a topic that I have some pretty strong feelings about, so sorry if this gets a bit ranty.

First point: the world is made such a better place by people do what they love instead of following the norm. For example, if when you turned say, 16, you became officially to old for LEGO, and everyone who loved LEGO just said okay, and went on to fulfill an average life (let that be whatever you want), there would be no one to work at LEGO and design new sets. LEGO literally couldn't exist without the adults who refused to let everyone else tell them they were to old for LEGO.

Secondly, not doing something you love because someone says that you're "too old" for it is (expletive) stupid. It is absolutely no one's place to tell you that you're wrong for doing something you love (assuming it's not illegal ). If you love making brickfilms, then you should make brickfilms. It's that simple. There's no such thing as being to old too like LEGO, too old to brickfilm, too old to play video games, too old to enjoy the art of animation (this one really bothers me), too old to anything; it's all just (another expletive) created by the social insecurities of the general public and the human desire to belong. You should do what you love, because you love it, and the love of that thing will bring you happiness. If making brickfilms makes you happy, then that should be the only reason you need to keep making them.

Also, I find the idea that brickfilms are intrinsically amateur to me comical. Are there very amateur brickfilms, yes, but there are infinitely more amateur live action films out there. Calling an entire artform amateur is absurd. You would never say that since there are many amateur painters in the world, there are no professional painters. Brickfilming is it's own medium of animation, and like any other there's a whole gradient of quality, from terrible videos made by 12 year olds, to films made by professional animation studios like the brickfilm segments on Robot Chicken, or by Paganomation, which David Pagano has pretty much turned into a legitimate studio at this point. There are plenty of brickfilms around, many by members of this site, with quality that's up to snuff with any professional animation studio. The fact that you make brickfilms is not what makes you an amateur film maker.

Lastly, you've been improving with every film you've made and I don't think you should stop.

I could probably say a lot more, but if this gets much longer you probably won't read the whole thing . You can stop making brickfilms if you want, but never let anyone pressure you out of doing the things you love. You should do what makes you happy, make whatever art you find joy in creating.

Youtube Channel

I can see a time where I out grow lego and move on to clay (yuck) or other armature stop motion (as in wire frame puppets).

Lego is an enabler and a barrier.  You can get sets up very quickly - so its an enabler, but everything is square and you can't walk in a diagonal line (barrier).  When I tire of those restrictions I'll move on to armature stop motion.

But it will still be stop motion.    Perhaps you need a new technical challenge.

Last edited by togfox (October 12, 2014 (06:53am))

I consider brickfilming a form of professional stopmotion, except that it's with Lego. Nothing wrong with stopmotion itself, why something wrong with doing it with Lego?

This is why I love THAC, because you can quit Brickfilming yet still do THAC. If life takes over and you don't have time to animate, you can stop animating throughout the rest of the year - but THAC is just a weekend (which most people usually have free, or can make free) where you're given an idea, and given plenty of encouragement from other Brickfilmers.

Dyland,

I have to say, you and me then arn't very different!

I've also been inspired by brickfilming so much that I'm also looking into courses for filming! It's also something I would love to do for the rest of my life as well.

Good to know theres others that feel the same

And as Dyland mentioned, you have to love it and have a passion for brickfilming or anything in life. If you don't its never going to work for you, and people telling you otherwise will make no effect if you don't feel it. It's like a craving, some days I just want to sit all day and animate. Other days It may not be a day of brickfilming.

Sincerely,
Divine.

Perhaps a better question to ask yourself is whether those two options are exclusive. You don't have to give up brickfilming to start working on live-action.

A lot of people drift through life without ever really finding something they're truly passionate about. If you really have a passion for brickfilming, keep doing it. No one is handing out cool points for having "mature" adult hobbies- this is your life, and as long as it isn't hurting anyone you might as well live it in a way that makes you happy. It sure beats the alternative.

Thanks FlyingMinifig, although some could debate if I have been making films in my adulthood. The last time I finished a real short was seven years ago, although I guess I started working on my current film 4 years ago and had one project that was never complete between 2007 to 2010.

I do not consider Brickfilming to be my hobby, I don't know that I would really consider animation or stop motion to be my hobby either, I consider myself to be a film maker, and making films is my hobby, I don't think that I'll ever make it into a career and I'm fine with that.

I also hate monetized YouTube content so I avoid serious breaches of copyright so I can keep my tiny YouTube channel ad free. But that is just my personalized conviction.

LEGO and for that matter, animation is just another medium which I can use in the craft. When I finish (or abandon) something I have to ask myself: "Do I want to make another film?" (Y/N), if yes then: "What medium to I want to make that film in?" If I choose to make a film that is not created with LEGO I am not abandoning my hobby, or Brickfilming or whatever, I am simply choosing another medium. Right now LEGO is my medium of choice.

Shortly after making my first Claymation I had planned to move away from LEGO and switch to clay, starting a vampire project that was to ambitious which I never finished, in the middle of my vampire movie I got my first and only freelance animation job. I planned to become a freelance animator but that never panned out. To be honest I thought I was a lot better at animation then I was. At some point I came the the conclusion that I wasn't going to stop making films, but my films would not pay for themselves so as long as I planned to release my films for free I didn't need to worry about any sort of copyright conflict from using LEGO bricks.

The stories I want to tell lend themselves well to the LEGO aesthetic so I plan to continue making films with them, if I really want to make something that is better suited to another medium and the film making can be done within my means I won't feel like I have abandoned anything.

Personally I have found that if I start another project in the middle of a longer project the long project will never be finished. So I don't see any room to make a short LEGO project in the middle of a live action project or vise versa, I can only focus on one project at a time, so I need to see a film to completion before considering working on something else.

All I can say is, I hope for the best for you GHB! We can only advise you, but it's you who makes the decision. If you truly love brick filming, then stick with it! Whether money, fame, success comes or not, keep striving to do what you love! I hope that I never become rich or famous, so that I can focus more on creativity and not just what other people want me to do. Once again, good luck! I wish the best for you and your career.