Making of Dive into the dark (with video)

Lego stop motion video

I have recently uploaded a lego stop motion video titled "Dive into the dark". (see video at bottom of page) It features the tale of a scuba diver searching the dark depths of the sea. For those who own much lego and are interested in stop motion, this is how it was done.Story

There are so much lego stop motion videos on the web, but so few take place underwater. I've always wanted to make a video that takes place underwater, and to stand out from a crowd of competition, I decided to give it a try. The story is very basic, but most lego stop motion videos are.Camera

For years, I've used a low budget camera for my lego stop motion. But after searching YouTube for camera comparisons between my camera and more expensive ones, I found that the Logitech Pro 9000 was leagues above mine and offered possibilities which mine could not. I purchased the camera and soon undertook a difficult stop motion project, noticing instantly the difference in quality. The image could be made clear at any reasonable distance and was very good for stop motion. Not only that, but the camera's software was also compatible with stop motion and allowed unique camera tricks that were previously unavailable, and such tricks are used constantly through the video.Stop motion

Stop motion can be very difficult and time consuming under the best of conditions. Much of the video takes place in the dark depths of the sea, so most of the video was shot at night to surround the character in darkness. But not all was stop motion. The intro, for example, was just normal camera movement, and the sequence following contained no stop motion either until the movement of the character. There are sequences scattered throughout the video that hold the illusion of stop motion, but were actually just tricks, such as when the character first dives into the dark. Tricks aside, most of the video is stop motion. A major problem was the segments in which the character swims beneath the water. He appears to be swimming in the darkness, but is actually suspended by lego blocks and lego rope which is hid in the dark. Stop motion animating a character suspended in the air (and in the dark) has a set of challenges. Lego is easy to use for stop motion for several reasons, one being the pegs on the baseplates, which makes it easy to make characters move. Without a strong foundation or these pegs animating a character through the air (or underwater as it appears in the video) is difficult.Light tricks

There are little computer generated special effects in the video, but there are several light tricks to make it appear as though the diver has a working flashlight. This trick can be difficult to make work, but all it is, is simply holding a real flashlight behind the lego flashlight (out of view from the camera) and it appears as though the lego camera is actually shining the light. The reason this can be difficult is because this means the light has to be animated with the character.Sound effects

The internet offers good sound effects, but there are copyright issues for using most. To create the sound effects in my video, I just used household appliances and edited them with movie maker. For example, the boat motor is just me making a long sound in slow motion. The bubbles when the diver submerges is simply bubbles being blown with a straw in a cup of water. And the sound of the diver putting on his equipment is just the sound of items being moved and a zipper.Finished project

The video is not perfect. The stop motion is sometimes rough towards the end, and the sound effects are not great, but much time, heart, soul, and creativity was put into this project, and the good thing about lego stop motion is that when all of this is applied, it shows.Please, tell me what you think of the video, and I am open to any constructive criticism. If you are interested in lego stop motion and have any questions, please ask.