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Here are some tips, tricks, and ideas to help you make better brickfilms.

Framerate[]

Framerate, or FPS (Frames Per Second) is the term used to reference how many frames are played as a video in one second. For a smooth brickfilm, the lowest you want to go is a 12-frame framerate (or 12 frames-per-second), but 15 FPS is better. 15 FPS is the standard for most professionals. Here's some more info on framerates.

Lighting[]

Lighting is one of the many important parts to making a great brickfilm. To achieve a good lighting set-up, follow these rules:

1. Use a black-out or shades to cover your windows. This will help block any natural light, and reduce light-flicker. Another option is to animate at night.

2. Set your camera or webcam settings to manual. If you are wondering how to do this, it should tell you in your instruction booklet that came with the device. This will also help to reduce light-flicker, and reduce focus-flicker.

3. Make sure to be wearing dark clothes while animating, and try to keep your hands in the same place every frame.

4. (Probably the most important step) for lighting your set, you want to have 3 (at the very least, 2) lamps. (ordinary desk lamps are fine, and they're pretty cheap.) The way you should set up your lamps is called the "Standard Three-Point Lighting". Here's a picture of how it should look:


http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z354/mrlego15/729px-3_point_lighting_svg.png


If you don't have 3 lamps, you can use a simple piece of white printer paper, and set it where your key light should go. This trick is called a bounce or filler light.

5. Putting paper over your lamps is a key way to get a nice even look to your brickfilm. It also doesn't make the lighting as harsh.

6. Many brickfilmers use 60 watt light bulbs. Another option that you may want to use is an energy saving bulb, for a more artificial look.


Here are a couple of videos on lighting:

Hazzat's (AKA Zoot101) Lighting Tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3dwXGaUvvs&list=UU_JBd6MUgFzFhebiLEQ3_5Q&index=4&feature=plcp


Fancypants' Lighting Tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5BaA-7a1R8&feature=plcp

Camera

Sources[]

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