Brickfilm Day has announced their annual summer contest. It is a multi-round brickfilming contest that aims to encourage participants to challenge their animation skills and experiment with their style of animation.
A theme will be given at the start of each contest round that all participants must interpret into a 5 to 20 second animated video.
All participants will be given 72 hours to complete this challenge, and will be judged only on their entry’s stop motion animation.
The contest will follow the same knockout tournament format as in the previous three years. The creators of the top 50% entries from Round 1 (as decided by our judges) will qualify for Round 2. Likewise, the creators of the top 50% of Round 2 entries will progress into the third and final round.
Anyone is eligible to enter Round 1.
Each round will begin once the round theme is simultaneously announced on the Brickfilm Day YouTube channel and Discord server, as well as @brickfilmday on Instagram and Twitter.
From this moment the round theme goes live, participants will have exactly 72 hours to animate stop motion animated clips anywhere between 5 and 20 seconds in length, primarily using Lego bricks or figures.
The 1st place winner of the final round will receive a $100 gift card for citizenbrick.com. The 2nd place will win a $50 voucher, and 3rd place will win a $25 voucher.
Round 1 will begin on Friday 12th August at 1pm EST and end at 1pm EST on August 15th.
The results of the first round will be announced on August 16th, and all animators who made the top 50% of entries will be contacted confirming that they have qualified for Round 2.
This second round will begin on Friday 19th August at 1pm EST, and again last for 72 hours. For those who qualify, the final round will begin on Friday 26th August.
Only the stop motion animation in each entry will be judged. None of the following will be taken into account by judges:
- Story
- Set design
- Cinematography
- Voice acting
- Editing
- Sound design
- CG visual effects
- Music
- Any other element besides in-camera animation
The judging criteria is broken down into the 3 following categories: Technique, Character Animation, and Creativity.
Technique is where you'll be judged upon your use of core animation principles, including easing in and easing out, anticipation and rebound, arcs, timings and secondary action. Remember, choosing to ignore these techniques for effect at certain points can be effective, like using sudden un-eased movement to comedic effect.
If you're not sure what we mean by any of the mentioned animation terms, this video by Alan Becker covering the 12 Principles of Animation is a good introduction to core animation techniques.
The judges will also be looking for strong character and emotion to be conveyed through animation. Think about how you can use the movement of characters to express their feelings and personality.
If they're in a joyful mood, they might bound across the frame in energetic leaps. If they're angry, they're more likely to aggressively stomp. With something as limited in movement as a mini-figure, don't be afraid to exaggerate motion to emphasize emotion.
On top of the previous two categories, each entry will be judged on the creativity of the animation on show. BFD encourages participants to try out inventive animation methods and to think outside the box when creating their entry.
This year’s judging panel will compose of Lewis Townley (Bricks and Pieces Animation), Seán Willis (sillypenta) and John McErlean (Future Past Productions), as well as a fourth guest judge for each round.
These following rules must be adhered to:
- Participants should primarily use LEGO in their entries, although limited use of other elements is permitted.
- All entries must be 100% animated using stop motion animation. Use of 2D or CG animation is forbidden.
- Each entry submitted must contain between 5 and 20 seconds worth of animation.
- All entries must be animated specifically for this contest, within the mentioned time limits.
- Moderate violence and cursing is permitted, however, entries that promote hate speech or discrimination will be disqualified.
- Entries may not be publicly posted online until after the contest round deadline has passed.
To submit your entry once the contest begins, send an email to bfdsubmissions@gmail.com before the round deadline, with your entry linked as an unlisted YouTube video. Your video may be made public after the deadline, and it will be added to a public playlist on the Brickfilm Day YouTube channel.
Whilst you can include multiple clips within your entry, your video must be under 20 seconds in length and one entry per participant will be accepted.
If you have any questions, please ask the BFD team any questions or queries regarding the event by contacting them via email or @brickfilmday on Instagram or Twitter.
Official rules HERE.
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