Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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THAC XII - Circle of Truth
This was made in about 19 hours, starting at 5 in the morning on Saturday and reaching completion at around 0 midnight Sunday.
So, production-wise, it's good, but I don't get the story.
Yeah, he's in a loop, but why, how, where does the story go, who is he, Ect....?
It's like a small scene from a much bigger story, and holds a sense of incompleteness thanks to that.
And while yours doesn't suffer too badly from it, when doing a repeat-timeline, it's good to use a different camera angle on a few shots to avoid a "recycled footage" feel.
Moving on, the set is great. It has a clean, white, sci-fi look, that is detailed, but not too busy. It's efficient, and appropriate for the setting. And LEDs are always a plus. Both the bright and dark lighting look great on the set. Random flashes and lighting changes are sometimes hard to time correctly, but you've managed it perfectly. The animation is smooth, and his bouncing around looks great. What story we see is really interesting, though I would have liked a bit more.
I know it sounds like I'm tearing it apart, I'm not.
It's a good film, and I like it. But it would feel more at home in a larger narrative.
I can only repeat what Pritchard said. I didn't really understand the story either, but the technical aspect of it was really nice. The bouncing around was very realistic, and the lighting was superb.
EDIT: You might want to remove that picture from the description in the films directory. It is breaking the formatting of it and making the page crazy. 
Last edited by rioforce (January 4, 2015 (05:18pm))
really nice effect, but what was the plot?
Great idea behind this one, I love the way you left it unexplained too. The only thing that might improve it would be not re-using the same footage again so that it takes longer for the viewer to realise that the stories looping. Still really liked this, well done! 
Thanks for the critique! It's not really tearing it apart, just showing me where I can improve in future films.
Random flashes and lighting changes are sometimes hard to time correctly, but you've managed it perfectly. The animation is smooth, and his bouncing around looks great.
Thanks! This was my favorite part to animate (lots of fun), and you may or may not see a timelapse of it happening in my upcoming THACumentary.
About the repeat animation comments, I was originally going to have a little bit more variation, but I didn't finish the first loop of interior shots until about 8:00 (16 hours into the contest), and I knew I wanted to shoot the flyby shot(s) and then start editing pretty quickly.
You might want to remove that picture from the description in the films directory. It is breaking the formatting of it and making the page crazy.
Haha, thanks. Apparently BBCode works on the directory pages now.
Last edited by Mighty Wanderer (January 5, 2015 (10:34am))
That was really cool. I really like the small scale space ship. And the way it slowly smoothly moved looked really really sweet. One thing it sometimes doesn't look as good when you switch angles just slightly as it would if you would switch them a bit more or cut in closer but you probably already know that. Speaking of angles I really like the shot from the top.
OsomStudios
Thanks for letting me be apart of this. I didn't know I would be the only other voice actor. 
Great film. Good luck in the contest.
Great job with this! I like how it's almost like a mini-sci-fi adaptation of something like Groundhog Day. I was wearing headphones when I watched, so the jolting really had an affect, and I could tell the sound effects and animation matched very well throughout the film. Aside from what others have pointed out, the only other thing I would critique is that the frame-blending is noticeable, especially when the chair is turning, for example. Other than that, it was certainly an enjoyable short. Best of luck! 
Great job with this! I like how it's almost like a mini-sci-fi adaptation of something like Groundhog Day. I was wearing headphones when I watched, so the jolting really had an affect, and I could tell the sound effects and animation matched very well throughout the film. Aside from what others have pointed out, the only other thing I would critique is that the frame-blending is noticeable, especially when the chair is turning, for example. Other than that, it was certainly an enjoyable short. Best of luck!
While I appreciate the comment, I didn't use frame blending. So thanks a lot!
Yeah, I've actually got to say that I'm not really crazy about these types of storylines. I love Groundhog Day, because at the time, I thought it was pretty creative. But, I completely avoided watching Edge of Tomorrow because I thought it looked stupid, it was just a paint-by-numbers rehash of Oblivion, and it looked just plain unoriginal. I can't help but think that these types of movies are uninspired and lack creativity, especially when the feel of deja vu really is present, and I actually am watching the same thing over and over again. Still though, the animation is nice and smooth, and the lighting is pretty good. Great job, overall.
I thought the sets were lovely and unique and I really appreciated the style and feel of this film. The minimalist space exterior shots looked good to me. I liked the monochromatic color palette, I think it complimented the lighting setups and feel of the film.
The amount of repetition was a little too heavy for my taste. Perhaps if something had changed each time or the repetitions weren't quite as long it would have kept interest a little better?
But, I completely avoided watching Edge of Tomorrow because I thought it looked stupid, it was just a paint-by-numbers rehash of Oblivion, and it looked just plain unoriginal.
Having seen both, Oblivion is a pretty terrible (though well-shot) movie, and Edge of Tomorrow is excellent. I feel like it'd be hard to make a case that there are any strong plot similarities other than Tom Cruise and a war with aliens, let alone resemblance to Groundhog Day in the case of Oblivion. Edge of Tomorrow,, eh, sure, though it was based on a book inspired by the mechanics of videogames, so the similarity is coincidental.
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