CMU School of Drama


Saturday, February 15, 2014

How they made The Lego Movie (Spoiler: Free Lego + computers + awesome)

sploid.gizmodo.com: Everyone is crazy about The Lego Movie—solid story, nonstop humor, good characters, and absolutely spectacular visuals. It's not surprising, looking at how much work and care these people put inside this film—and how much fun they had making it.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I really enjoyed watching the video of how they made parts of the lego movie. I felt like I could have gotten more out of it if it was a more cohesive commentary and if there was dialogue were some of the videos are currently silent. The format aside, I was really surprised that the characters and such are built virtually like lego pieces. It reminds me a lot of Minecraft. I liked seeing the progression from storyboard to final lit and gradated animation. I also found the short clips of them making decisions and collaborating quite fascinating.

Hunter said...

Well this looks exhausting. I know how most stop motion films used to be made where they took a photo of every frame and then changed the physical objects to the next frame. This actually doesn't seem that far off from that. It seems like they are almost virtually playing with legos. When I first heard of this film I had assumed that I would hate it but after seeing the trailer and this video I think I might actually try and see it.

rmarkowi said...

So I made a comment last week about stop motion animation, and this movie follows exactly what I was saying. In the movie in talked about last week, the producers used a 3d color printer to make all of the intermediate expressions of the characters. In that case, the effect was smoother and more life like color and transitions between frames. As for a movie like this, you get much choppier and less realistic transitions. Although this would normally be a bad thing, audiences are much more willing to overlook the terrible animation because of the nostalgia of legos.

Lukos said...

I think this is really interesting. I've never really been a fan of stop motion films specifically because of the choppiness of them. It bothered me and distracted me from the story being told. Ive also thrown shade at lego movies and video games in the past. But this movie looks really interesting and I can't pinpoint what it is but something about this movie feels like it was made with more finesse that traditionally given to these types of films. Maybe it is the microscopic detail they put into it maybe its just apparent how much fun they had making this happen. Either way I'm probably going to go see it now thanks to this article.

Trent Taylor said...

When the first ad for the lego movie played, I thought it looked extremely dumb, but Ive heard great things from friends who have gone to see it. I think its really interesting to see how they made the movie. I like how despite being computer graphics, everything is centered in the actual lego models themselves, even down to the amount of pieces needed. In middle school I actually made a feature length stop motion lego film with some friends and so for me personally, it really cool to see how a real production studio would approach a similar task.

Unknown said...

I agree with what Hunter said, this looks absolutely exhausting. But it must have definitely been worth it. This movie is receiving phenomenal reviews from so many people. Many of my own friends have expressed their love for this movie multiple times. Having grown up playing with legos all of my childhood, it is amazing to see just how this movie was made. It reminds me of how I used to build things when I was a child.

jcmertz said...

Although the video isn't really cohesive, it does show a lot of angles of the behind the scenes world of the Lego Movie. It also adds more reasons to the increasingly long list of why I want to see the movie. I only heard about it for the first time a couple weeks ago, and my immediate reaction was that it sounded pretty awful, but I soon caught wind of all the reviews and fantastic press surrounding it and now I am excited to see it as soon as I get the chance.

Unknown said...

This movie looks so interesting. It is very child like but still be humorous to adults. It is really interesting to see into how the film was made. It is such a tiring process, and I hope that it really pays off. It looks like it will because the film looks so cute.