LEGO + Tools = Win

While I'm a purist when it comes to building, for animation I break all the "rules" all the time. We glue parts, drill them, cut them and modify them to make them work for the project, it's just practical to get the job done. I know it would make a lot of you cry to witness all that activity with tools and bricks in the same space, but here's a fascinating animation by BricksBrosProductions that has both, and as far as I can see, no bricks were harmed in the making, enjoy!

Birdemic: Shock And Terror - The LEGO Edition

Something that you might not know about me is my love of bad movies. Not just films that are poorly made, but those movies that are so bad, but made with such earnestness and passion, that somehow they've gone past awful and ended up good again. I'm a huge fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax, and they're unique take on the bad movie shared experience. When I heard that RiffTrax was having a contest inviting people to recreate some moments from James Nguyen films, I knew just what had to be done. 

Please note, this is awful, just like the film that inspired it, you've been warned.

American Ninja Warrior

We don't watch much sports at our house (is American Ninja Warrior a sport?) but we do watch this from time to time. And when you combine it with stop motion animation and LEGO, well, that's a winner in our book. Find out what happens when the Ninjago team faces the course. The animation in this is pretty amazing, and the build is fantastic. I don't know who to credit for it, but it's excellent work.

Rogue One Trailer In LEGO

I'm very proud to have played a small role in bringing this to life. This is the result of small group of talented artists called The Animators Collective working very hard for just a few short weeks. Two of the shots were completed here at BrickNerd Studios, and we contributed several elements for use in other shots. Check out the breakdown below to see just what went into the 28 frames of the bacta tank shot alone. 

Doritos: Dark Alley

When I watched the video promoting the Doritos Crash the Superbowl contest, this commercial immediately popped into my mind. After reading the rules, it was clearly breaking many of them (wait a minute, they showed Batman in the brief, but I can't have Batman in my video?). But I made it anyway, because that's how I roll. So when I submitted last night I wasn't at all confident, and of course it was immediately rejected. But I'm still proud of it and want to share.

Big thanks to EclipseGFX for the custom printed Doritos tile, and a huge shout out to everyone that helped make it happen, full credits in the YouTube description.

"We Spared No Expense"

Friend and fellow filmmaker Paul Hollingsworth and his daughter followed in John Hammond's footsteps and spared no expense making this EPIC tribute to Jurassic Park. If you're a fan of animation, LEGO, dinosaurs or humor, you're going to love this film. There's also a great behind the scenes video, where you can see that making these films is as much fun as watching them. I chatted with Paul this morning and he said "Teaching Hailee how to animate has been a great way to spend time together doing what we love." I couldn't agree more.