Well for me it was a case of 1) not having the golden masks and 2) messing up the whole visual storytelling thing I was trying to do. But hopefully it wasn't too distracting :)

@TheBohrokMan it was still glorious

Thanks so much! For this animation, I just tried to focus on making the movements smooth and with a lot of acceleration (also called ease-in/ease-out). I definitely have a lot of room to improve, so it's always just about practice and going frame-by-frame with movies and other animations to see how things move on a frame-by-frame basis. Also, a big help for me has been the ability to watch the animation play back as I'm animating, using software like Stop Motion Studio (phone app) or Dragonframe (Mac and PC). That way, I can see how much to move the limbs based on what looks good when I playback the captured frames. As for the Mata, I didn't do too much. In the behind the scenes video, I talk a bit about adding a shaft to the head stalk so that their heads can turn smoothly. Otherwise, I use clay to prevent the joints from moving, and often have supports for the characters to keep them standing up!

@@Däl-user Funnily enough, it used to have Linkin Park music before a copyright strike made me replace it with other music from the era

I'm always happy to see people watching my videos! I'm hoping to make some more animation, but it's always tough balancing hobbies with life. But I appreciate you commenting!

I used a black lightsaber piece so that the heads could rotate. I think I show it in the behind the scenes video

Thanks really nice to hear! That's my favorite part about making stop motion - it's a good excuse to play with bionicles

@@Zjacnz thank you so much!!

@@lees_l822 Yes of course!

@@TheBohrokMan the video has been uploaded! thank you for your amazing video!!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXLWlYFtjMdglZYsi=UtvMbBuVuN6VanDL

Dang, I'm getting old...

Fortunately not! You can see what I did instead in the behind-the-scenes video :D

That's awesome! To get started, I'd recommend looking up Kevin Parry on youtube and seeking out his tutorial videos. Two good ones are titled "Learn STOP-MOTION Animation!" and "STOP-MOTION with Kevin! Ep. 1". He recommends using your phone and the stop motion studio app, and I can also recommend that as a good starting point. Other than that advice, I'd recommend animating on a steady table, mounting your phone securely so it doesn't move around, and using lots of light. Most importantly, have fun! Let me know if you have any questions, always happy to help!

@@TheBohrokMan I got a question right off the bat actually - 1st one, do you have any advice for animating in a setting with lots of Shadow? As a first project for practice i'd like to animated the brief minute-long sequence from Mask of Light where Makuta wakes the first three Rahkshi. I have every set needed and I figured it would be fun to experiment with and recreate with the actual toys themself. 2nd question - Do you have any advice on how to keep Bionicles standing for stop motion, especially as theyre moving or on one foot, and for keeping them stiff in place for any models that may have loose or worn out joints? 3rd - As a general routine, what kinds of actions or movements should I try to consistently practice with the most to learn important fundamentals that will segue into more complicated techniques? What did YOU find the most important lessons to learn from early on? -Thanks! - The Dirvish

@@TheDirvish For animating with lots of shadow, you might try animating with a good amount of light, and darkening the images being taken. That way the image won't be super noisy with low light. For keeping the Bionicles upright, it can help to use sticky tak or clay on their feet. I also often use "helping hands" rigs, which you can buy on amazon or in hardware stores. They can hold the characters upright, but of depending on the angle of the camera, you might have to photoshop it out. There are lots of tutorials on youtube for how to do this, especially with lego animations, but if you can get away with some sticky tak on their feet, it saves a lot of effort. I think the biggest thing to get down in the beginning is the idea of acceleration, or "ease-in" and "ease-out." Basically, keep track of how far you move a limb for each photo, and have it move in tiny increments, then larger increments, and then tiny. In the real world, objects often speed up or slow down, but usually never go at the same speed. If you look up "ease-in, ease-out" on youtube you'll find tons of lego animation tutorials. For example, "The ULTIMATE Guide To Animating PUNCHES" by "NonStop Animations." I also find it helpful to animate things with fewer degrees of freedom. A bionicle character has so many joints to move that it can be hard to learn everything. So it can be helpful to just animate a solid object, like a pencil (see "Can I Animate a Pencil?" by Kevin Parry on youtube. I like animating the bohrok Va because there are fewer joints to worry about, so I can really focus on the movements. But I think the most important thing is to get practice and make a lot! Usually the tutorials make more sense once you have some experience under your belt. And it's always good to just animate as much as you can, and have fun with it!

Like, id literally regularly pay a chunk of every paycheck to help support it. I'd nurture that project from afar like I was a loving daddy paying child support