How many Lego pieces did it take to make The Lego Movie? As it turns out, the film’s creators, directing and writing duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, didn’t just rely on actual Legos for the film; as the New York Times pointed out, just the number of bricks required for the task alone would’ve already cost millions of dollars. According to Warner Bros. Pictures, there are a total of 3,863,484 unique Lego bricks seen in the movie. But if you were to recreate the entire film only using Legos, you’d need 15,080,330, the studio said. With a unique blend of CG animation and actual Lego sets, the final look of The Lego Movie has a surprising visual depth; it almost appears as if someone painstakingly animated each and every movement through stop-motion. That’s because the animators went to great lengths to ensure that they included aspects of real Lego pieces when creating their characters. In the video above, which was edited using footage provided by the studio, several animators of the film describe the intricate process of bringing virtual Lego bricks and scenes to life.
“We tried to be quite authentic with the actual Lego product itself,” said CG supervisor Damien Gray. “There’s a lot of detail put into the sticker work, the decal work, the mold lines, chips, chunks, scratches — we tried to incorporate a lot of that.” In order to achieve that “played-with” look for Emmet and the other 182 unique minifigures that appear in the film, animators observed the physical models under microscopes to get every detail right. In addition to scrutinizing the appearance of the Lego bricks themselves, Lord and Miller also took into account other factors they wanted to mimic from stop-motion videos. “If you were animating this in real life, there would be all of these dust particles, and there is a bit of actual dandruff,” Miller told the Times. “We did a little test of how much was too much.” So what else from the film resembles real life? Take a look at this blooper reel in which the Legos (or is it their voiceover actors?) have a little too much fun:
The Lego Movie (2014) 6 February 2014 (Singapore) 4 more credits » See full cast & crew » See more awards » 5263 news articles » A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives. The special bond that develops between plus-sized inflatable robot Baymax, and prodigy Hiro Hamada, who team up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes. The LEGO Batman Movie Bruce Wayne must not only deal with the criminals of Gotham City, but also the responsibility of raising a boy he adopted. A family of undercover superheroes, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world. A rat who can cook makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famous restaurant. After his swamp is filled with magical creatures, Shrek agrees to rescue Princess Fiona for a villainous lord in order to get his land back.
When a criminal mastermind uses a trio of orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, he finds their love is profoundly changing him for the better. When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his friends vow to rescue him, but Woody finds the idea of immortality in a museum tempting. Ash Brannon, and 1 more credit » Princess Fiona's parents invite her and Shrek to dinner to celebrate her marriage. If only they knew the newlyweds were both ogres. Kelly Asbury, and 1 more credit » When the newly crowned Queen Elsa accidentally uses her power to turn things into ice to curse her home in infinite winter, her sister, Anna, teams up with a mountain man, his playful reindeer, and a snowman to change the weather condition. A hot-shot race-car named Lightning McQueen gets waylaid in Radiator Springs, where he finds the true meaning of friendship and family. In order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, 2 monsters realize things may not be what they think.
David Silverman, and 1 more credit » Cast overview, first billed only: Lord Business (voice) / President Business (voice) / See full cast » The LEGO Movie is a 3D animated film which follows lead character, Emmet a completely ordinary LEGO mini-figure who is identified as the most "extraordinary person" and the key to saving the Lego universe. Emmet and his friends go on an epic journey to stop the evil tyrant, Lord Business. See All (59) » The story of a nobody who saved everybody See all certifications » View content advisory » Release Date: 6 February 2014 (Singapore) Also Known As: La gran aventura Lego Fox Studios, Moore Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia See full technical specs » Emmet's name isn't said for the first 12 minutes of the film See more » When Emmit runs by in his giant construction-themed robot, WyldStyle and Unikitty shout, "Emmit!" - but their faces and mouths do not move to acknowledge him.
He's coming, cover your butts. The Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures logos are made up of Lego bricks. Featured in The Nostalgia Critic: When Are Critics Wrong? Written by Collin Hegna and Carl Werner Performed by Federale See more » This FAQ is empty. Add the first question. Contribute to This PageFilmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller have made it their business to turn seemingly tired properties (a children’s book about giant food, an eighties television show about cops masquerading as kids) into intelligent and incredibly funny feature films that appeal to kids and adults alike, and their latest outing, ‘The LEGO Movie,’ is no different – it just comes with the added caveat of centering its action on tiny plastic things. If anyone could make a film about LEGOs work, it’s Lord and Miller, and that’s just what they’ve done with their witty and inspired take on the classic toys – but how did they actually make it, well, work?
Despite looking curiously as if the entire thing was made from actual LEGOs, ‘The LEGO Movie’ is a mostly traditionally-animated affair with some special touches. Though the film is not a stop-motion endeavor, Miller and Lord did draw their initial inspirations from fan-made “brick films” that utilize actual LEGOs to build out their settings and characters. Using real LEGOs for the film was, quite simply, extremely cost prohibitive, as the New York Times notes that “it would have cost millions of dollars for the bricks alone,” and considering that even a relatively small ‘LEGO Movie’ branded playset will cost you a cool thirteen dollars for just over one hundred pieces, that estimate is right on the money. Instead of going full-LEGO, Miller and Lord went for CG animation that mixes in real LEGO sets for some added veracity. Co-director Chris Miller addressed some questions about the film’s animation technique directly on Twitter, saying: @DrewAtHitFix it was mostly CG with some stop motion & also some real LEGO still sets comped in.
But Animal Logic made the CG photoreal.— Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) February 3, 2014 Using computer-drawn 3D animation allowed ‘The LEGO Movie’ team to utilize the same techniques of other animated films. The process for crafting ‘The LEGO Film’ by way was relatively standard – the animation team started with a fully hand-drawn version of the script, before moving into what is known as “layout” (a rough animation that centers on imagining both character and “camera” placement), followed by actual animation, and then lighting and grading (which turns flat animation into something nuanced and very real-looking). They also used a modeling program that approximated the experience of snapping LEGOs together, one so intelligent that it would reject brick combinations that wouldn’t work in real life. Of course, the ‘LEGO’ team also spent plenty of time playing with actual LEGOs, including building models of vehicles like Bad Cop/Good Cop’s police vehicle, and even a larger-scale piece like Metalbeard’s giant pirate ship.
The actual LEGO model for Metalbeard's pirate ship alongside the computerized rendering. The animation team didn’t just mix it up with big LEGO set pieces though, they actually put whole batches of LEGO minifigs under a microscope to examine them, to encourage their maximum understanding of how they are put together, how they move, and what they really look like. Perhaps some of the confusion regarding the realism of the LEGOs in the film is due to, well, the seemingly very realistic look of the Legos in the film – animated or actual. As the Times notes: Research went into exploring how many digital smudges and thumbprints would go on the figures and even how much virtual dandruff should be in the shot. The aim was to make the pieces look as if they had been played with out in the real world, not to make them pristine and perfect. The Charlie Day-voiced Benny, an eighties-era spaceman, looks like he’s been well-loved, buried in a sandbox, stepped on, bit and shot out into actual space – he even has a cracked helmet to complete the look.