For many years people have utilized LEGO parts to create their own stop motion animated films, more commonly referred to as brickfilms. Two notable members of the brickfilm community are David Pagano and David Pickett, and together they wrote The LEGO Animation Book to share their knowledge with those who want to start creating their own.
The LEGO Animation Book opens with the basics. It introduces cameras, lighting, framing, and all the fundamental information that one would need to know to start building their own stop motion animation, regardless of whether they chose to use LEGO or not. From there, the Davids focus on LEGO minifigures and how they would move in a film.
The Davids take the time to explain the difference between the different LEGO scales, how to build the different scenes with LEGO, and how to use LEGO to support the equipment used to make the films. While there are only a couple different examples of how to build things, the way to use different LEGO bricks and elements are explored in depth in a few of the chapters.
While the book is billed as a brickfilm resource, a majority of it is the information that any nascent filmmaker would need to know. They explain the terms and techniques that one would need to know to make a film. The Davids are obviously masters of their art as they explain framing, composition, frame rate, editing, lighting, script writing, etc. They don’t just tell the reader what tools and techniques they need but how to do it and how to make the best use of the knowledge to make the best possible films.
I have never made my own brickfilm (or any other stop motion animation for that matter), but The LEGO Animation Book definitely gives the best possible information to create them, if I ever wanted to. The book isn’t just a great resource for using LEGO to make a film, but for any filmmaker who is looking to get started.
