LEGO + CGI + stop motion animation + Donkey Kong

by Christopher Grant { Oct 9th 2006 at 10:45AM }

There are few certainties in life, but we're confidant that one of them is that the combination of LEGOs, CGI, stop motion animation, and Donkey Kong will always result in wonder and joy. BitFlicks is a newly formed repository of like-minded videos, released weekly, all following the same basic recipe, replacing Donkey Kong with Mario (not Jumpman, see), Space Invaders, or a funny conversation about the relative merits of the PlayStation 3 and the Wii.

We bet you're wondering exactly how these are made. Mr. BitFlicks isn't about to reveal the man behind the curtain, but he has thrown us this bone: they're "a mix of stop motion animation, LEGO and CGI. We start with an effect or an idea and then determine what approach will yield the best result, so the exact method used to create individual animations will differ." We understand, secret sauce and all that.

Tags: Art, BitFlicks, Donkey Kong, DonkeyKong, Jump man, JumpMan, NES

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jeffler @ Oct 9th 2006 10:52AM

Awesome stuff.

Core_12 @ Oct 9th 2006 10:58AM

Bullshit, this isn't stop-motion nor are those actual Lego bricks. The whole thing is CGI. The Lego are so obviously fake (rendered, that is), and a baseplate that big doesn't even exist.

What they probably did was write a small program to convert an image stream into models (similar to LDraw) and then render them.

foobob @ Oct 9th 2006 11:06AM

Jumpman was Mario before fame...

Andy @ Oct 9th 2006 11:49AM

Move the controller to move JumpMan!! Memories, of the way we used to beeeeee!!

dantebk @ Oct 9th 2006 11:52AM

Neat-o! Though it makes me feel like I suck at Donkey Kong. No way do I finish the first level that fast.

_habit_ @ Oct 9th 2006 11:55AM

Do LEGO even exist in the color of Peach's dress?

David @ Oct 11th 2006 12:20AM

Yes there is that color purple in her dress, there are about 130 different Lego colors.

There are also Lego CAD programs that means the Lego's are fake. The Lego Company themselves uses CAD to design new sets.

strider_mt2k @ Oct 9th 2006 12:23PM

Hmm, somehow even with all the "debunking" it still seems extremely cool to me.

I like Mario, I like Legos, ergo I like this!
Well done.(However it was done.)

Lynx @ Oct 9th 2006 1:36PM

One step behind Kotaku again eh Joystiq? More original content, abd less blog nabbing please, it's starting to get a little noticable. I won't comment on this again, in the hopes that you'll see that people are catching on.

We read blogs - we know what's been taken and what hasn't.

Paul Gale @ Oct 11th 2006 1:08AM

Now that's a cool idea. Good job to the creator of this project; it's always cool seeing Nintendo fans be creative and do stuff like this. Mario, Donkey Kong, and Princess meeting Legos and Stop Motion = Awesome.
Paul Gale
1up.com

pierski @ Oct 9th 2006 1:53PM

I would rather watch a imperfect Lego stop animation made with real Legos than a spot on computer generated one anyday. Its neat, but its obviously a computer animation (perfect example of why: http://www.bitflicks.com/2006/09/28/musical-rhythm-games-on-the-nintendo-ds/).

C. Grant @ Oct 9th 2006 7:27PM

Lynx: sorry! I totally meant to email you and make sure you hadn't already seen this!

Sorry everyone else on the internet. Lynx has already seen this ... move along, nothing to see here.

karmaghost @ Oct 9th 2006 10:02PM

Paul Gale apparently did not real the previous comments, explore the site, or watch this video (http://www.bitflicks.com/2006/09/28/musical-rhythm-games-on-the-nintendo-ds/) which gives the entire concept away. It's all CGI and saying it's a mix of different techniques doesn't make it ok.