As I often do, I developed a mini obsession with how they animated the Lego movies, and watched a bunch of videos showing interviews with the animators and how they pulled it off. So, as an end-cap to my obsessive dive into this, I decided to create my own Lego animation.
I drew character inspiration from various existing designs and figures, and then re-created their outfits and built out a mini Lego world, brick by brick. Below you can see the 3D character textures, the UV mapped face animations, and the 700 piece animated structure that I built from scratch.
Initially I animated the characters with really fluid body movements, but it almost seemed too lifelike. So, I ended up cutting down the key-framed movements and gave the animation more of that classic stop-motion feel.
Initially I animated the characters with really fluid body movements, but it almost seemed too lifelike. So, I ended up cutting down the key-framed movements and gave the animation more of that classic stop-motion feel.
