HAWAT #003 - Behind-the-scenes images

(This type of post would normally be exclusive to patrons.)

As with everything else I've already mentioned, this episode also benefited from having two people on hand to snap some behind-the-scenes pictures. 

At the start, I jotted down these notes on the order in which the actions in the scene would take place. Originally, I thought we might do three different shots, but as Christopher and I discussed it, we came around to instead doing one shot with all three actions, including an in-camera zoom-out lens animation. 

The only action I was really sold on coming in was having that kind of "arm flailing" action that Godzilla and other rubber-suit kaiju monsters tend to have when they get hit or otherwise lose their balance. I dunno why; it just always stuck with me watching these movies as a kid. 

Again, the buildings were all reuse from either "The Magic Picnic" or actual LEGO products from our "Adventures of Max" episodes. We tried to populate the background of the shot so that it was busy but not too busy, keeping some buildings attached to baseplates while others were simply stuck to the tabletop with blue tack. 

Godzilla's walk benefited from not being bound to a LEGO grid, so we kept the entrance area baseplate-free. Here you can see a bunch of blue tack stuck to some very not-on-model monster feet. This is from the moment right after the "building swipe" occurs. You also can see the disassembled upper floor on the table in the foreground—rather than digging around for dark red LEGO pieces, Christopher just took apart the existing upper floor and used those parts to make progressively tinier models. 

I forgot to call out this "atomic breath" build, which was also provided by BRICK 101. We rotated this little model inside Godzilla's mouth every frame, giving the flames a kind of boil. 

This pose happened by accident when we were cleaning up afterwards, and was a good visual representation of my energy level after animating all day.

- David