BRICK 101 LEGO Godzilla | How About We Animate That

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

When deciding on the subject for HAWAT episode #003, I had to consider the following:

- Dave Pickett was nice enough to send us the Godzilla model (the only copy in existence) but needed it back by 6/12. 

- Christopher Gearhart was in town and interested in collaborating on an animation. 

- A few folks on YouTube were asking us to "animate LEGO". 

These turned out to be the perfect circumstances under which to create a HAWAT episode. 

Like I said in the wrap-up, this turned out to be a long animation clip—mostly because, together, Christopher and I had so many ideas for what could happen. Things like the police officer being inside the building after the top floor is knocked off, the distance 'star' after the building recedes into the distance (looks like Team Rocket is blasting off again), the officer throwing the ladder off the side of the building... all of these things were concocted on-the-fly. 

The ladder solution took the most time to develop, as I wanted to go with an option that didn't make it look like the police officer had died. Other possibilities included: 

• the officer jumps from building to building and escapes off screen
• the officer jumps off the building and has a parachute
• the officer gets burned up by Godzilla's breath and becomes a solid black 'charred' microfig (which moves, indicating that the officer is cartoonily still alive)

Multiple people (including Christopher) had made the suggestion to have Godzilla's spine 'light up' by changing the colors of the slope bricks used, so that was getting included no matter what. This is a common occurrence at Paganomation: we'll be animating an episode of something or other (typically on a tight deadline), and someone on the crew will make a suggestion that is too cool not to do, despite whatever extra work it may require. I typically respond by saying, "well, now we HAVE to do that." 😄

Even though Dave Pickett built the Ginza Wako building to go along with the Godzilla model (as seen here), he didn't send that to us. The buildings used in this episode were all reuse—most you'll probably recognize from The Magic Picnic, while others are actual LEGO products we used to stick in the background of "Adventures of Max" episodes and the like. 

Again, this isn't the kind of shot I'd have animated solo, but with the two of us together, it became less about "how can I keep this simple enough to make sure this episode is released on time" and more about "let's have fun hanging out and animating some wacky monster antics." 

The episode itself actually didn't go live until early Saturday morning. This was made during a particularly busy week (~75 days left until LGIS), and the final render didn't come together until about 4am Saturday morning. I accept that this may happen sometimes; but ideally, not too often. 😴

I'll have some behind-the-scenes photos from this episode coming later.

- David

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Support Godzilla on LEGO Ideas: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/d65caaf7-5ca2-4fbe-b0c5-5af830d09754 

In this episode, David and guest animator Christopher Gearhart (of Bricks Brought to Life) animate the BRICK 101 Godzilla model designed by Mark Larson and Dave Pickett.