this is a 20 minute VHS tape about a
Lego character called Jack stone when it
came out in 2001 it was the first real
computer animated lego movie but it
hasn't aged that well incredible
fantastic 13 years later the lego movie
looked like this
let's watch that again this is 2001
there you have it and this is 2014 yes
that's me that is a huge difference
here's how they made it happen
my name is Brett freckled and I'm a
production designer at Animal Logic he's
overseeing the animation style of movies
like legend to the Guardians 300 and
more recently the lego movie with
co-directors chris miller and phil lord
chris and phil were determined to sort
of make sure the audience were confused
about what they were seeing you know is
this actually stop-motion a resister cg
film and that became a big debate before
the movie came out there was a lot of
conversation about whether the movie was
stop-motion or computer animation it is
I would say 99% CG animation but it
respects the rules of stop-motion
animation that's designed to emulate
that style
to understand what made that style so
unique you have to look back at what
lego movies used to look like early
productions for themes like Bionicle
Star Wars and Batman helped establish
the whimsical feel of lego movies but
the animation didn't fit the physics of
the toy itself there was this tendency
to sort of treat the plastic as if it
was kind of flexible rubber which mean
that the characters could flex and move
a lot more than they might be able to in
real life that style is typical of more
traditional computer animation like what
you'd expect to see in a Pixar movie
take a shot like this for example the
background isn't made of actual blocks
plastic limbs or bending in ways that
they couldn't and the faces are a
bizarre blend of skin like texture and
Lego geometry it doesn't look like a
scene you could make at home with your
own Legos
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compare that to scenes from the lego
movie where everything gunshots smoke
water fire explosions clouds even mud on
the camera are all made up of LEGO
pieces as they look in real life we
respected the the hardness of the
plastic by sort of not necessarily
bending on the elbow which you can't do
in a real Lego minifig that means that
any movement you see on screen simulates
the adjustment or replacement of an
individual Lego piece a joint or facial
expression will never actually bend or
stretch it'll either move slightly or be
replaced by another piece early Lego
movies lacked that level of discipline
they struggled because they fought back
against the limitations of the medium
instead of embracing them but the
creators of the lego movie saw things
differently characters that have you
know limitations force you to find
solutions and charming players of doing
things in different ways I mean you know
look at r2d2 he's like the ultimate
limited character he's basically have
been with wheels that makes beeping
noises and that's all he's got to work
with yet he's a really charming
character and everybody loves him same
with baby
and an other kind of saying with the
Muppets you know they're essentially
sock puppets with googly eyes that you
don't really have much control over but
it's from those limitations you actually
get a lot of charm every now and then
the lego movie animators would let some
joints overextend slightly to make room
for a nod or a shrug of the shoulders
but overall sticking to the plastic rule
made for a believable movie you can
freeze-frame any part of the lego movie
and look at a scene that you could
practically make it home always trying
to sort of echo and talk back to you
know how a child might make a film in
this so we would alternate between you
know thinking like responsible
filmmakers working on a large budget
Warner Brothers animated film and then
we would suddenly approach a scene as if
we were like a kid animating in their
basement
but the history of lego movies actually
does start with kids animating in their
basements in 1973 two danish cousins
aged 10 and 12 shot a short film called
journey to the moon on super 8 film they
made it for their grandparents 50th
wedding anniversary and it's widely
considered to be the first time anyone
made a motion picture with lego blocks
note that the people in this film are
just little cylinder blocks this was
before any version of the minifigure
design came out movies like this came to
be known as brick films
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when fans were making these at home they
shot them in traditional stop-motion
footage was usually shot on twos which
meant that they would take 12 pictures
adjusting the characters every other
frame to make one second of film
shooting on ones meant taking 24
pictures per second this was usually
reserved for making faster movements
like running look smoother when the
Danish cousins sent their movie to the
managing director of the LEGO Group they
were rewarded with a tour of the Lego
Factory and sent home with large LEGO
sets but Lego hasn't always had the most
positive reaction to homemade fan films
like this one between 1985 and 1989 a
teenage animator named Lindsay Flay
worked on a 16 minute short called the
magic portal he used borrowed equipment
to shoot it in his parents basement
before entering festivals and
competitions Flay sent the film to Lego
to see if they were interested in doing
something with it at first Lego
responded with a letter of approval but
soon the company started expressing
legal concerns and issued a letter
demanding flase surrender all copies of
the film within seven days
Lego ultimately backed down but Flay had
already missed out on most major film
festivals by then play actually went on
to work at Animal Logic he left before
production on lego projects began but
his movie had a huge influence on the
world of brick films if you look at the
live-action portion of the the lego
movie you'll see Finn the little kid
holds up a sort of cardboard tube and
across the side is written magic portal
the lego movie of course was a huge
technical feat there are 15 million 80
thousand 330 animated LEGO pieces and
182 unique minifigures in the movie
early mock-ups of buildings and vehicles
were drafted out on a free software
called lego Digital Designer later on in
the animation software Maya each brick
was given profiles for fingerprints
dents seam lines scratches and dust it's
hard to imagine what the lego movie
would be if it weren't for the legacy of
these early home experiments where most
animated films use soft lighting modeled
after paintings the Lego movies lighting
was harsh replicating the actual lamps
that animators like flay used playful
non stop motion interludes like
levitation via fishing line were
part of journey to the moon long before
they appeared in the lego movie even the
final break from the lego world into the
real world to meet a human creator
parallels the magic portal really
closely it's easy to miss on screen but
the lego movie pays tribute to fan films
in the background of this scene these
four clips are shorts submitted by fans
look at all these things that people
built
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the homage was a nod to the fans by
doing that the movie embraced the idea
that amateur creators matter and
sometimes the way they handle source
material is far better than the way
major studios are used to doing it
if you want to try any of this at home
you can actually use the same software
that the animators of the lego movie
used it's called lego Digital Designer
it's totally free off the internet when
I talked to grant freckles and he
challenged me to make this sort of pig
drawn carriage I tried I got the pigs
and I got the wheels but not much else
it's very very difficult
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