Fun while you’re learning is an ideal combination. And for David Pagano, the fun factor is Legos. The founder of the animation studio Paganomation is the co-author of the new book “The Lego Animation Book” ($19.95), written with Chicago filmmaker David Pickett, which teaches kids how to make their own stop-motion animated movies using Legos. We caught up with the Astoria-based animator ahead of his Dec. 3 book signing. Why should someone learn stop-motion animation? Because it’s something they’re interested in, I hope! That’s why I pursued stop-motion as a hobby, and then career — it was just something I was always fascinated by. I think it has to do with the magical nature of giving life to inanimate objects. One of the things we point out in the book is that — even though it sounds obvious — making animated Lego films should be fun. The best creative work comes from a place of excitement and possibility, not from a sense of obligation. Why do you like to work with Legos?
Even though most folks animate with Lego minifigures, I build and animate my own large-scale characters out of Lego bricks and elements. I love the challenge of creating something that is both a neat sculptural figure and a sturdy puppet rig that can be animated — all with the same pieces anyone can buy at the toy store. One of the strengths of Lego toys is that they’re all part of a system of play. Every single piece can be used and reused. Instead of working with a random assortment of materials, you can have movie characters, sets, props, and so forth that are all Lego and can all be used interchangeably. Then, once you finish one film, you can take everything apart and use the exact same pieces to build something new for the next one. What kinds of skills does the book develop? “The Lego Animation Book” starts out with basic techniques to ease budding filmmakers into the world of animation. Then we move into more advanced topics: character performance, idea/ story development, Lego building, planning and organization, photography, editing, sound and more.
We also give advice on abstract topics, like how to be a thoughtful and responsible content creator in the internet age. How might what kids learn from the book apply beyond animation? When I teach animation classes and workshops, one of the things parents always appreciate is the emphasis on two school subjects tied directly to animation — math and science. For example, if I have a character running, I need to be able to calculate how many still photos, or frames, I need to take to get them from point A to point B. There’s more math involved when you consider how far the character will need to move in between each of those frames, how many degrees a single arm or leg might rotate, which direction it’s rotating in, whether or not the camera needs to move at the same time ... the list goes on. Science is equally essential to animation — specifically physics, which helps you figure out how things move in the real world. Gravity, acceleration/ deceleration, force, inertia, Newton’s laws of motion — all of these concepts come into play constantly.
Animation also has laws and principles of its own, which we cover in the book. How long does it typically take to make one minute of stop-motion animation? It depends on what’s going on within that one minute! A 60-second scene of one character standing around talking is not going to take as long as a 60-second scene of a dozen characters flying around in robot spaceships, shooting lasers at each other as they explode. For [Paganomation’s] minifigure-based projects, I try to allot a minimum of one month of production time per minute of screen time.It’s a mainstay of Christmas stockings but why is Lego so special? As a Lego film gets the green light, Metro asks what is it that makes children and adults such enthusiasts. Ed Diment is a builder. This year he built Westminster Abbey. Last year, he built an American warship. This week he built a Christmas tree. Like all builders, he uses bricks. âI started building Lego aged two or three and never stopped,â he says.
âI remember opening up a large Lego set on Christmas morning and staring at it for a few moments, then diving in and building the model. âI used to find a quiet corner of the lounge and immerse myself in the Lego experience for a couple of hours.â Diment is chairman of the Brickish Association, a community of âadult fans of Legoâ (AFOL). Many of its 250 members take part in public Lego displays and big builds â they have just constructed a 10m-high (32ft) Christmas tree from 600,000 Lego bricks at St Pancras railway station in London. To commemorate the royal wedding in April, Diment helped build a 1m x 2.5m Lego replica of Westminster Abbey from 180,000 bricks. But even that was dwarfed by his 7m-long model of the USS Intrepid, which took a year to make. Despite these grand designs, it doesnât get better for the 39-year-old from Portsmouth than a product that was released in 1979. âMy favourite set to build was the old Classic Space Galaxy Explorer, one of the first space sets that Lego made,â he said.
The power of these little bricks is all-consuming, so much so that AFOLs speak in hushed tones about the âdark agesâ â defined in Lego blog The Brothers Brick as: âThat period in a Lego fanâs life when he or she sets aside Lego in favour of school, dating, motor vehicles, and other non-Lego pursuits.â Yet things have never been brighter for Lego. After a difficult period in which it faced bankruptcy, the company based in Billund, Denmark, has bounced back. In the first six months of this year, profits were up by 38 per cent to £242million. Legoâs minifigures (minifigs) are Britainâs best-selling toy. Much of that recent success has been based around Legoâs licensed themes from film franchises: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Toy Story and Pirates Of The Caribbean. The movie tie-ins have helped keep the brand at the top, so there was little surprise when the green light was given last week to the first feature-length Lego movie.
The film, in development at Warner Bros since it bought the rights in 2008, will be released in cinemas in 2014. It will be developed by Australian effects company Animal Logic, which worked on Happy Feet, and will be made up of 80 per cent animation and the rest in live action. The movie will be an action-adventure tale set within the Lego world. It will be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, alongside Chris McKay, who has worked on Robot Chicken. Lord has said it will depict âa universe thatâs made entirely out of Lego, to the point where if thereâs water or clouds or a big explosion, that will be Legoâ. Mirella Cestaro, editor of Toysânâ Playthings magazine, predicts extensive product placement in the movie. âThe reality is that Lego are there to sell a lot of products, sell a lot of units, make a lot of money, so Iâm absolutely positive that theyâll be shifting a lot of products on the back of it,â she said.