[Brick Flick] CYCLIC

[pe668]

I have recently released a new brickfilm called CYCLIC.

If your bandwidth handles it make sure to watch it in YouTube HD.

[Captain Zuloo]

Hey man, great film! I hope you do well in the BiM STAR contest - it had some cool entries, but this was the best. My favourite part of CYCLIC (after the pirate scene) would have to be the minifig head banging. How did you achieve that? Great work man, keep your films up!

[fallentomato]

Very cool. The animation was very slick.

[pe668]

...minifig head banging. How did you achieve that?

I took a few photos while animating which should answer some questions.

Set Photos are HERE.

The head banging involved some masking. I took a background shot

Then all the animated frames of the head was composed onto the background in photoshop.

In fact there was a lot of work in photoshop to put all this together. The shark has a transparent layer of water over it's body but it's dorsal fin and tail are opaque. The best example of masking is the skate boarders accident. I actually shot every frame twice. Once with just the background and again with the fig on bricks. I then used the background frame to mask out the green bricks.

[Thor Lund]

Great work with really good story telling. And thanks for sharing some of your techniques, that is really valuable and inspiring!

Best of luck for the contest.

Thor

[Front]

I am amazed, very good quality. Keep up the good work.

Front

[KimT]

This is fantastic.

I love the humor used and the especially the Travel Scrabble scene with the robots is extremely hilarious.

You are quite the skilled stop-motion director

[Kliq]

Holy cow, what a fantastic job! Not only was the animation expertly done, the storyline was like something out of The Twilight Zone! Great work!

[Sandy]

Wow, the quality of the animation was really slick and smooth, and I just loved the Australian accent of the voice actors. I don't know what it is about that accent, but it makes my knees weak.

The "time loop" was quite clever, I didn't see that one coming.

What I didn't like much was the dumb, immature "fratboy"-ish main characters. It seems so overdone in these BrickFlicks, to me. I've been watching these a lot lately, and too often the plot is about a pair of bumbling fools who get theirselves in trouble, and all the humor comes from that. Can't people think of something more original for a change?

I liked the robots, though. Too bad they could've just as well be cut off the film and it wouldn't have affected anything.

[pe668]

I've been watching these a lot lately, and too often the plot is about a pair of bumbling fools who get theirselves in trouble, and all the humor comes from that.

Your right about buddy films it's a popular idea. However I tried to script it so there was a smart character and a dumb one. The Radar technican's, the robots and the spacemen. The main character John was a man of action a psychopath that got things done (not bumbling at all). It was Frank that was a coward and idiotic.

Even the robots were a contrast, Iain was the brain and Robert the brawn.

In the scrabble game Robert opens with 'Lego' which would score 5. Iain opens with 'Bodville' (which isn't scrictly a scabble word but hey it's my film), 7 letters onto a tripple word score for a score of 104.

Most of my gags involve visual comedy but this film was the first I have made with any real dialogue. I guess everyone finds different things funny, I thought the robot scene was a bit flat.

For me the funniest part was Frank's inabillity to out play the 1st mate. John legs it leaving Frank alone with the nasty pirate. You can almost hear him thinking, "I have to get out of here", but he's not too bright and he takes too long to make his move. The second he flitches there's a sword at his throat. The irony is the 1st mate's line "not so fast". Cracks me up everytime I see it.

Anyway by the sound of it you liked it which is the main thing.

[Dr Kilroy]

Wow! Nice brickfilm! Now you can start "Brickflickers Academy" I like this scene in the grocery.

[Sandy]

Most of my gags involve visual comedy but this film was the first I have made with any real dialogue. I guess everyone finds different things funny, I thought the robot scene was a bit flat.

But the robots were endearing, something which I can't really say for the main characters. I felt for the robots, but the main characters were so off-putting to me that I didn't really sympathize with what happened to them. I'm sure other people could relate to the pair much better than me, though.

As for the other guy's smartness, it didn't really come up very well. Sure, he could handle a sword for some reason, but he didn't come across as very intelligent to me.

Anyway by the sound of it you liked it which is the main thing.

Yes, I did. It was skillfully done in the technical sense, and I admire you for that.

And the plot wasn't bad per se, just not to my taste. Just like I can't say some action film is bad just because I'm not into action genre myself. You had some great ideas there, too.

[pe668]

Thanks again your comments it really helps me to make better films. It's hard to get constructive criticism from YouTube viewers. I have in the past concentrated on CG animation but I’m really enjoying stop-motion and Lego for building it’s an excellent medium to work with. The robots ended up being very fun design and to animate.

John wasn’t so much an intellectual, more a man of action. To contrast Frank who was timid. Great that you didn’t care much for these characters that was kind of the idea. To soften the impact of their final fate. I tried to give them dark traits to their personalities. Originally I had planned for John to kill all the pirates but I changed my mind at the last minute. It would have been too over the top. The same was true for the robots. Iain totally dogged his mate as soon as the rescuers arrive. Robert wasn’t much better by domineering over Iain when he wasn’t getting his way. Perhaps the robots were still a bit too cute I should probably use them again in my next movie, maybe a love story?

[Sandy]

Perhaps the robots were still a bit too cute I should probably use them again in my next movie, maybe a love story?

Aww, that would be nice! As long as it's the two of them, and not some "girl robot", since robots don't have genders to begin with.

[Cloned Gunner]

Nice BrickFilm ! Very well made and put together. Must have took you long but it was really very well done.

LV 426. Haha. For a while there I thought they were really gonna discover an Alien race.

[dunamis]

Wow, that was fantastic! I loved the robots and I liked the irony of how the main characters died. Very clever...

[Apache]

Pe 668. Fantastic job, I'm pretty picky and cynical so things really have to stand out to make me go "Wow" . Excellent Job my man.

Favs: - Title animation and sound

- Space Ship sounds

- headbanging

- time travel

- background in pirate scene

- story

- robot pieces dissapearing as he's getting shot

- changing the studs on the robots to show lights blinking

- robot parts moving during the dialogue

- scrabble word shot

- music gets lounder when timemachine faces camera

Things I noticed that bugged me:

- like you said, little flat during robot scene...

- more variety with voices

- too textured, maybe more tiles and slopes on sets ( The planet for example)

- killing off the robots, I found myself liking the one and then he's gone

Fantastic job, loved it. I look forward to more from you.

[JimBee]

That was hilarious. My favorite part was the beginning, when the two guys are at the computers and one of them is playing Solitaire. Amazing animation, too, I loved the flying skater.

[KimT]

- killing off the robots, I found myself liking the one and then he's gone

That was the point, wasn't it?

Personally I love that we get to know these robots and even like them a bit and then >BAM< they're gone

[Nich Artri]

If this doesn't win STAR, I will be surprised...

What an amazing piece of work! 8O

[Raven Brickroft]

Animation was amazingly superb. Top notch.

Voices could be improved. It had too much "air".

Script feels a bit rushed.

[GIR 3691]

That was fantastic! The animation was flawless, the sets were very well designed (I particularly liked the crashed ship,) the characters were great, the lighing was great, and most importantly, the story was a great twist and I had no idea where it was going until it was revealed. Great stuff!

I am thoroughly impressed.

[Tom Bricks]

Great job throughout the entire movie but I especially liked the sound the minifigs made when they where walking. The entire scene in the 1920's was perfect. Did anyone else notice the names of the probes?

[darkrai's nightmare]

ian lets play travel scrable. u noob

[Nuju Metru]

Superb animation, so clean and smooth... I'm very, very impressed.

-Nuju Metru