Animated Forum Battle?

[ForlornCreature]

Hi, I'm kinda new around here, and come from the animation counterpart of Brikwars.com, BricksinMotion.com, which is a forum for 'brickfilms'.

Yesterday I had an idea for a forum battle, which instead of reporting with pictures and captions, I could animate the battle in a brickfilm. The outcomes of the combat and such would be determined via brikwars rules, just each turn would be animated at the end.

I am a bit more experienced at brickfilming than brikwars, I'm still getting through all the rules, and have only played a couple games. The field would have to be kind of narrow to fit on my desk, perhaps the equivelant of 3-4 32 x 32 baseplates lined in a row, with up to 50 mixed minifigs on two sides, although I think that would be a little too much.

A previous animation to show you what I can do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcFW0oGgFls
Anyway, waddya guys think? Good or bad idea? Any suggestions?

[Ross_Varn]

This would be BRILLIANT. The amount of work required would be triple the amount of a normal fourm battle, but the end result would be astounding and probably make it to the front page.

Only problem is, Warhead can't play.  

[Warhead]

Bonus!

...

*sob*  

[samuelzz10]

Actually, I'm a brikfilmer too. I have a friend who always says "lolololol, lets record this battle as a stopmotion!" but I'm like "it would take forever!" and so we never do it. anyways, It would be a great idea and I would like to see it done.

[MicVash]

Nice video on youtube!  Just curious, but what do you use for all your special effects, like the muzzle flash, and the sound effects?  I think a brickfilm of a BrikWars battle would be awesome but very challenging and time consuming.  

I think a scenario you could have for a narrow battlefield would be some sort of saving-private-ryan-last stand-protect-the-bridge skirmish.  You could have ruins on the edge of the base plates as a background, perhaps a tower sniper too, and have just a squad of minifigs defending, maybe have 2 heroes.  For the enemy you could have a vehicle or two plus 2 squads of infantry.

[Cpt. Zipps]

Try a skirmish first, maybe two squads each and a tank.

[Rocket_Saint]

That would be something else. Perhaps Zipps has the right idea. My suggestion would be try different styles of combat in small fire-fights or melee duals?

[Cpt. Zipps]

Better yet, a small, overladen mech so you ca ntest the mechanics of filming vehicles, turrets and heavy weapons.

[ForlornCreature]

WOA, that was a lotta replies in a single day. Anyway, I like these ideas, @MicVash those were just a third reading lamp on top of the normal 2 desk lamps I use, to give it a 'muzzle flash' I just flicked it on every couple frames of animation; the explosion was just that and playing around with the camera exposure/gain functions. I have sony vegas now so I can put in blood and muzzle flashes etc. in post-production.

I can have a go at building a field, I like the idea for a 'defend the bridge/other random thing' sort of thing, and I guess I could have a go at building a mech or a tank. Why Warhead no can play? It probably won't be made for a while, I'll have to build set(maybe a little shorter but generally about the length of this), work out teams, grab some voice actors off bricksinmotion to  do some screams, yelling, dialog etc. plus do one or two test matches first.

Any moar ideas?

EDIT: http://www.bricksinmotion.com/forums/to ... animation/ is my thread for this on bricksinmotion
(don't necessarily need to have only two teams)

[Blitzen]

I commented on YouTube to say the lighting effects were good. Also, animation was pretty smooth. I think you could manage a project like an entire BrikWar, but keep in mind how much time it takes to animate. I'd really love to see this happen; I only hope you don't give up and quit half way through.

[Olothontor]

I only hope you don't give up and quit half way through.

... Like so many of us do when we actually do something that requires motivation.

Anyway, I second just about everything that's been posted so far. ' Nuff said, really. It's a good idea, but it'd be time consuming, blah blah. I'd really like to see this happen, though. Good luck, man!

[naussica]

I was thinking of doing this. Heck, I was thinking of making a brickfilm series on Youtube! But I don't have alot of legos though.

[MicVash]

Forlorn, thanks for the info, didn't know it was that simple with the light effects.  I actually like Zipps' second idea about the mech.  You could have a really cool lookin heavy mech with all kinds of weapons against a squad or two of infantry and a light vehicle or two.  Take a look at this example Legohaulic has played with:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/legohaulic/4746342046/

The video is in first person and I thought it had some cool effects like the HUD and bullet holes penetrating the helmet cam.  You could have the battle mostly through the first person view of the main hero.

[DarthBrik]

This actully seems like it could work!

Now the only problem is the whole stop motion thing which i suck at!

[ForlornCreature]

I have done some tests on first person stuff, might throw in a couple shots like that, although it would not be a very good report nor would it be very nice to do everything in really long shots with a first-person view. But, anyway, thanks for the suggestions! (oh, and this test too (ignore the light flicker, I was playing with the settings during the filming))

EDIT: I worked out that my field can be up to 48 x 144 studs - that's what, 4-5 32 x 32 plates long? (just to give you an idea of the size). Any idea for what to put on it? Bunkers at each end? river + bridge? random open space with lots of cover?