Tag Archives: brick

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Plaster Minifigures – School Holiday Activity!

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A lot of parents I have talked too find the Summer Holidays a difficult time to be a parent, trying to entertain kids that are full of energy and who like to complain they are bored, especially when it is raining outside and they are not allowed to sit in front of the TV or play the XBox constantly. We are always trying to find new ways to entertain our two kids, and my wife came up with this fantastic idea the other day.

Last summer I purchased some Lego minifigure and brick silicon ice cube trays from Amazon and to be honest they have hardly been used. So my wife decided to re-purpose them as plaster-of-paris moulds to make some little plaster minifigures for the kids to paint. You can pick up a bag of plaster-of-paris very cheaply from a nearby hobby store, or online. Quite simply, follow the instructions on the packet to make the plaster, pour it into the moulds and let it set, again consulting the guidelines on the packet to see how long it takes to dry.

Once the plaster is dry, (it is probably best to leave it overnight) remove the figures from the mould very carefully. The plaster is quite soft, even when set, and can be quite brittle, so take your time and be sure not to snap off their heads or their legs. Once you have liberated all of the little plaster dudes from their mould, use a small bit of fine sandpaper, or a fine file to carefully removes any unwanted edges and then it is time to start painting.

We used some acrylic modelling paints I had in the house, and these worked really well. They are thick enough to give a good strong colour, where we found that water colours soaked into the plaster more and gave a much weaker colour. I would advise a small thin brush to get into all the gaps, and put plenty of newspaper down so you don’t get paint everywhere…

Once you are set up, lets the kids go wild. They could paint their plaster minifigures in the style of one of their favourite Lego figures, or make up their own designs. Evie, my 5 year old daughter even suggested that these plaster minifgures would make great statues for use in stop frame animations.

However you decide to paint your figures this is a fun little project that the whole family can join in with.

If you decide to do this, please send us some photos of your creations to ian@minifiguremotion.com

We hope you and your kids enjoy this little time filler and look forward to seeing your creations soon!

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Lego Star Wars, The Clone Awakens…

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Like many many people, our household is full of Star Wars fans, with myself being a fan since I was a kid all those many years ago… When they announced that they were making The Force Awakens, we watched all the trailers eagerly and kept up with all of the fan theories that were speculated on way before the films actual release… One of our favourite fan theories was that Kylo Ren was collecting Darth Vader’s possessions in an attempt to clone him. We wondered exactly how that would work, so we decided to do an animation in Lego to show just how that might go, with some comedic effect!

The whole film, as usual is filmed in Stop Motion Studio on an iPad2, using an iPhone 4S as a remote camera. This was also one of our first attempts at using green screen techniques, which I am quite pleased with, although I know that with a bit more patience and practice we can get that looking better… Lego plastic is a very reflective material, so overspill from the green screen onto the characters and set’s was very difficult to overcome, and this is something we need to think about in future green screen work.

All of the green screening and editing was done on an iMac in Final Cut Express, and sound FX, music and dialogue were added in Garageband. The music was a collection of loops and jingles that come in the Apple Jam Packs which I strung together, and actually work quite well I think… At least it stops Disney and John Williams from trying to sue me for using the official Star Wars theme…

Some of the cool lighting was with LED’s purchased from Firestartoys.com and they are the same lights we used on the stage set in The Devil Made Me by Paul Miro. The light set actually comes from a company in Holland called www.brickled.nl and they provide some great stuff from light bricks through to street lamps, all of which are Lego compatible.

One of my favourite scene in this animation was Kylo Ren exiting the shuttle… It is a brief scene, but to get a good distance shot and figures that matched the smaller size spaceship we built, I decided to use micro figures from the Lego Star Wars Battle Of Hoth board game… Kylo Ren was actually Darth Vader, but with his back to you its hard to notice and the Stormtroopers were just Snowtroopers from the game… Over all I think the scene worked really well, even if those little figures don’t really animate well…

We hope you enjoy our latest offering and would love to hear some of your comments either here or on YouTube…

Keep animating,

Ian Husbands

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Lego Bob’s Holiday Adventure!

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LegoBobSunset2

So this year we took a family break for a few nights at Pontin’s in Brean Sands, Somerset and we decided that it wouldn’t be a proper family break without at least one Lego minifigure joining us… So we made Bob, and his sole purpose was to help us record our holiday in a series of photos! It was a lot of fun to do, and the whole family got involved, making sure that Bob was included in our activities whilst away and looking after his every need! He came out on a trip to Wookey Hole Caves, played board games with us, joined us at meal times and even got himself a tan on the beach…

Below is a quick photo slideshow of Bob’s holiday… Enjoy!

 

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Featured Animator Sergio Marques Dias

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SergioMarquesDiasName: Sergio Marques Dias
Location: Differdange, Luxembourg

Q1) How long have you been animating?
1 year

Q2) How did you start making stop-frame animations?
First stop motion I did, was the video invite to my wedding. We posed, took a picture, took another picture and so on…

Q3) Why have you chosen Lego® and other brick products as your main medium to work in?
I’ve always loved Lego, and I had a few in the basement, so I decided to give it a try. I love animating with Lego because you can touch on sensitive topics, but with humor.

Q4) What is your setup like? Which camera and software do you use to make your movies?
I use a Nikon D7100, my first DSLR, with the basic lens 18-105mm. I use mostly Adobe Premiere.

Q5) On average, how many hours does it take to create your animations?
Ooohhhhh… Well depends on the animation. The brickfilm “The Engineer” took me 3 weeks, it was my first try at brickfilming. “The Parking Spot” took me 2 weeks. The problem is that everytime I do an animation video, I try to incorporate new movements or techniques that I never used.

Q6) Do you have a favourite mini-figure to animate, and what makes them so special?
Hahaha! My Mini-Me and my wife’s Mini-Her. He is, and will be in every of my future Brickfilms. Why it’s so special? Because they were a gift of my best friend for my wedding, and they sat on top of my wedding cake.

Q7) What can we look forward to in the near future from you?
Trick question. I don’t know, I go day-by-day, and when I have an idea, I write it down and hope to have time to realize it.

Q8) Where can people go for more information or to view your animations?
On my Youtube chanel → https://www.youtube.com/user/SergioMarquesDias and on my twitter account → https://twitter.com/SergioDiasLUX

Q9) What one piece of advice do you have for people wanting to start in stop-frame animating?
Don’t start right away, read a book or two about stop-motion for beginners. And afterwards, go for it. Don’t isten to people telling you it’s hard. Take critics well, most of them can take your animations to another level. You don’t have the material? Of course you have. Take your smartphone, a lamp, a figurine, and start taking pictures. Don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t do it.

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