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Stage design of the Foolish Bricks Comic, chapter 2 - Dwaas' house

Blog

April 17, 2021

I redesigned the interior of Dwaas’ house as a Lego MOC (My Own Creation) for season three of the Foolish Bricks Comic. In this article I will show you the build of Dwaas’ living room in chapter two.

The Lego MOCs for chapter two were pretty elaborate. I reckoned that most of the scenery would be used multiple times during the comic, so I build the sets in such a way that I could shoot them from all angles. That is why I built these sets as complete rooms. All walls were removable, so I had complete freedom of movement (see Figure 8 below).

An unpleasant side-effect of this was that building the sets was very time-consuming. I had trouble finding the time to build! Occasionally, scenes dragged a bit too long for this very reason; I needed to buy me some time.

This season I went for smaller MOCs again, with added details opposed to the tiny MOCs of the first season. I also hope to speed up my builds whilst improving my building techniques. The details included combined with improved lighting and understanding of storytelling principles can provide interesting panels without drastically having to change the angles each time. I already ordered a lot of sand green bricks for the rest of the necessary sets. 🙂

Below the season two set in all its details;

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Figure 1: Dwaas’ house; living room – overview

 

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Figure 2: Dwaas’ house; living room – overview

 

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Figure 3: Dwaas’ house; living room – overview

 

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Figure 4: Dwaas’ house; living room – close-up

 

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Figure 5: Dwaas’ house; living room – close-up

 

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Figure 6: Dwaas’ house; living room – close-up

 

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Figure 7: Dwaas’ house; living room – close-up

 

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Figure 8: Dwaas’ house; living room – walls separated

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A continuity error

Blog

December 25, 2020

Continuity in (Lego) comics

In comics, movies, or any story, to be frank, continuity is an important element. And unless you’re breaking continuity on purpose for whatever artistic or story wise reason, you’d better take care to keep continuity intact. Just so you know, there are four main types of continuity being: Content, Movement, Position and Time. Of these, I play the most with movement and position (hopefully without you noticing) and the one I sometimes struggle with is continuity of time. However, this time I made a mistake in the first one; content.

Oops

As some of you have noticed episode 18 (season 3)was a few days late because I made a giant mistake related to continuity of content. I made this mistake before in one panel and I quickly reshot the one panel… but this time I had to redo the entire episode… pfff. The image below shows exactly what I am talking about. And, I tweaked the episode a bit since I needed to redo it anyway.

(By the way, This is an episode in the pre-2022-style!)

Brick comic - continuity error Brick comic - continuity corrected

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Rain in Toy photography tutorial

Tutorial on making it rain in a Lego photo

Blog

August 23, 2020

Up until now I just could not figure out how to get rain in my images. I simply shopped it in…. it’s ok, but I always wanted the real thing! Then I read a comment written bij Anna (Fourbrickstall)- also remember to visit her VERY informative Youtube-channel if you want to know about Lighting and Lego-photography!) wherein she wrote something like that you simply need to keep your eyes open. When do you see rain on a wet evening; You see it in front of a lamppost! When there is no light… you can’t see light. So there you go; step one to get rain into your Lego-photo, you need to backlight the waterdrops!

Make it rain in a Lego photo

And that is what I did. I created a scene with the two monsters, backlit the scene (light B in figure 1), grabbed my water spray bottle and started spraying.

Nice! I saw some rain and light in the B-area of the photo…. but the rest was dark. I barely saw the monster in the back. To light the front of the scene, I added the C and D lights at the sides. That lit the C, D-areas and the monsters sufficiently. However, now it irritated me I only saw rain in the B-area. I also wanted rain in the A-area. That area was well lit by C, but from the side and not from the back. And back-light B was blocked by some trees. That’s why I finally added back-light A and voila…. rain in area A! Yay 😀

Light and camera settings

Another thing I completely ignored before were specific camera-settings. I have to admit; I feel a little stupid now because of this. Usually I don’t care about shutter speed in my Lego photography because my scenes mostly don’t have moving parts. However… rain is a moving element in these photos (DUH!). So shutter speed IS important and the shutter speed determines if you’ll see drops, strips or just a mist. With long shutter speeds I normally use I only saw a grey mist, and that was it. I needed to increase the shutter speed! That also meant I needed to have more light than usual to prevent the image from becoming way too dark. In the end my camera-settings were: 50mm macro lens, ISO400 f1/7,1 1/40s.

Flash-light

I always used continuous light, so I can’t say too much about flash lights. However, I will experiment with flash shortly. Remember that flashlight is usually more bright that continuous light AND it can freeze motion/ rain. Both these qualities influence the shutter speed and thus the exposure-triangle. Anyway, I’ll get back to you once I know a bit more!

The result

The resulting image “a rainy forest walk” is shown below. Thanks for reading and until next time!

brick photography - Monsters in the forest on a rainy night

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Sabbatical 2019 - 2020

Blog

July 22, 2019

I spent the past week in Greece on a welcome vacation. Overlooking the Mediterranean sea i’ve been contemplating what to do about my Lego photography, especially in the light of the shortage of time, i’ve been complaining about abundantly here, and inspiration i’ve been experiencing the past few years.

The problem

Currently, my perceived shortage of time results in a badly maintenanced site. No new blog posts, no newsletters, very sporadic new Lego photography and i just can’t figure out how to keep up the schedule of the Foolish Lego Comic. Besides all that, i always have plans and ideas for the site, but i never get around to implementing them.

Not surprisingly, this is not how i would like things to be. Sadly, there are a few things in my life that need quite a bit of extra time. Before, i tried to combine everything but between a very busy job and an equally busy private live it proved impossible. My hobby became a stress-factor and stress turned out to be detrimental for my artistic inspiration.

So, how do i proceed?

Two weeks ago i was reading the walking dead comic, issue 193. Trying to avoid spoilers, i can safely say Kirkman inspired me somewhat. Suddenly, i realised what i had to do! The idea took some time to settle, and now i am convinced there is only one way to keep Foolish bricks going at the high standard i want it to keep going on; i need to take a break.

So, that is what i am going to do, after i finish the current Foolish Lego chapter within a couple of weeks. Foolish Bricks will go on a hiatus until August 13th 2020.

Of course, i won’t sit completely still during this period. My primary concern will be the creation of the third chapter of the Foolish Brick Comic. I will be working on the script, building stages, photography, post-production, behind the scenes blogs, tutorials and hopefully improve a few aspects of the site, like the newsletter some more. Furthermore, sporadically i might post a few Lego photo’s.

I will be checking the site frequently, so if you have questions or comments, you can still find me here. Also, i will remain active as Brickcentral-mod so i can be contacted there too.

Thank you all for your continued support and after the second Foolish Lego Comic chapter ends, i hope to see you back August 13th 2020!

Cheers,

Dwaas

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Lego comic panel recreation - My world

Blog

March 11, 2019

This behind the scenes post is on the recreation of ‘my world’. Strabo brings Barry to the entrance of Eno, located in the secret basement of the antique-store.

My world – the original panel

Figure 1 below shows the original panel from episode fourteen of the first Foolish Lego Comic.

lego photography my-world- behind-the-scenes
Figure 1; the original “My World”

The original image – positives

The focus is on the globe… the new world, everything else is out of focus and so secondary. With that in mind this image does what it had to do; introduce another world!

The original image – Room for improvement

Of course, again the photo suffers from the lack of proper lighting, it really falls flat in that department. There are also a few elements, like the dragon and owl in the image. The dragon is ok, but did not really work in the rest of the panels. The owl however, was a bit strange. An owl has nothing to do with Eno, the whole story is about the Godlike dragon. To my defence, I did not know that yet at that time ;).
Furthermore, this was the first of the larger stages; in this image it doesn’t show and that should not be a problem, there were other panels following. What is a problem though, is the fact that I wanted to convey the feeling this was a secret cave with the portal embedded in it. This stage looked more like a basement, with a cave-ish wall.

My world – the recreation

Figure 2 below shows the remake of this panel.

lego photo- alternative world recreation
Figure 2; The recreation of “My World”

The stage

I rebuild the stage with the idea this originally was a cave. The size of the set is even a little larger than the original now. I tried to make the MOC a little more interesting and less square. Look for example at the completely self-build door. Figure 3 shows a behind the scenes build with another globe (at that point I could not find the actual globe 😛 ). Also, there is still an owl, later replaced with a Dragon-statue because that fits the story much better.

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Figure 3; Behind the scenes of the recreated my world stage.

You can compare the new stage to the old one as seen in figure 4.

Lego comic stage
Figure 4; the original “my world” stage

Composition

I went for a long shot, showing the cave-like room. I wanted this image to be a bit more impressive, more in line with the impact of finding a “new world” on Barry. The globe is less present, but still in there.

Color and mood

Bright lights on the second floor, and the closer you get to the portal, the more red and dark the scene becomes, signifying the growing uncertainty of the situation for Barry getting closer and closer to a new world.

Before and after

Below are the before and after images joined in one image. You can use the slider to show the one or the other.

lego photography my-world- behind-the-scenes lego photo- alternative world recreation

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Lego comic panel recreation - Heavenly forest

Blog

February 10, 2019

This behind the scenes post is on the recreation of the heavenly forest. Actually, this forest is not as heavenly as Darryl hoped for. At this point in the comic, Amida is not in for a friendly talk with our friend.

Heavenly forest – the original panel

Figure 1 below shows the original panel from episode eleven of the first Foolish Lego Comic.

lego-original before recreation
Figure 1; the original heavenly forest.

The original image – positives

There isn’t too much going on in the image. However, the one thing that is going on, i always liked. I felt the posing of Amida as well as Darryl’s face was spot-on.

The original image – Room for improvement

Again the photo suffers from the lack of proper lighting, i remember shooting this image on a table in front of glass garden doors. I also remember this set was really small, just one green plate large. When I didn’t have much to work with, i used a close-up so I didn’t have to worry about the background. Yet, it did not work, if you look very closely, you can even see the corner of he table in left upper edge of the image.

The set in itself is pretty disappointing too… a baseplate and three trees. Pretty remakable the panel worked in the comic, now that I think of it.

In the next panel, Amida hits Darryl over the head with a stick, however, there is no stick in sight in this panel. Also, there is dust all over.

For the recreation I decided to keep what I liked, the posing of the characters (with a small adjustment), and Darryl’s expression.

Heavenly forest – the recreation

Figure 2 below shows the remake of this panel.

Lego photography forest
Figure 2; the recreation of the heavenly forest

The stage

I still used a small set. But filled it with all kinds of different plants and trees. I wanted the feel of a large, dark forest and the original image was far from that. By by changing the angle and using a printed background I feel I was able to create the illusion of a large forest even with using a relatively small stage. Figure 3 shows the behind the scenes.

Lego-photography-forest-behind-the-scenes
Figure 3; behind the scenes

I also gave Amida a stick (behind her back)… this time she is ready to hit darryl over the head ;).

Composition

In stead of a close-up, I went for a Full-shot, showing a little more of the surroundings. This way, Darryl and Amida go up in their surroundings. I used a lower angle and focused on Darryl’s bedazzled face. As compositional help, I used the Fibonacci spiral, making sure there is also enough negative space in the image.

Figure 4; compositional help by the Fibonacci spiral

Color and mood

Dark, gloomy and green are the main colors. I also added a red glow on the back of Amida and the stick, conveying the danger Darryl’s in.

Before and after

Below are the before and after images joined in one image. You can use the slider to show the one or the other.

lego-original before recreation Lego photography forest

In conclusion

You don’t need a gigantic set, to create the illusion of grand surroundings like a forest. Play with the angles, background and lighting and I’m sure it’ll work out.

Happy creating!

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Lego comic panel recreation - Darryl's disappearance

Blog

January 28, 2019

This behind the scenes post is on the recreation of Darryl’s disappearance in the first Foolish Lego comic. In a sense this was the point of no return for Barry. When Darryl disappeared, he could not back out of the adventure anymore.

Darryl disappearance – the original panel

Figure 1 below shows the original panel from episode eight of the first Foolish Lego Comic.

Figure 1; The original panel

The original image – positives

This stage was one of the first ones that was a bit larger than the others. I remember putting a more time into building it, yet, I still missed a lot of the building skills that I have today. What I like is that it does look like a library somewhat, and also a library that has been messed up by Amida in search of some kind of letter. Also there are some antique’s in the back, connecting the library to the Antique store. I also love the choice of face for Darryl. Because it’s almost the only thin we can still see of him, it really conveys his fear.

The original image – Room for improvement

As with almost all panels from the beginning the atmosphere in this photo suffers from the lack of proper lighting, I simply wanted to have everything illuminated and that was it.

A thing that also annoyed me, is that the style of this stage was completely different from the style of the shop itself. There was no indication of a connection beyond the few antiques in the back of this stage.

Concerning the perspective, the high point of view is not too bad, however, the use of depth-of-field is (again) confusing. The one thing that is in focus are the books, and they are not that important. I’m guessing the attention of the reader will eventually reach Darryll, but it’s almost as if it is not THAT important. The lack of importance is also somewhat stated by the stance of Barry. He looks like he’s casually walking towards Darryl, not trying to reach him or anything. You might think he is in shock, but then I would’ve expected him to stand in place.

You might also think the right lower corner is wrong; you can see the end of te floor there. However, this did not actually matter. The first comic had a different aspect ratio than the current comic. This meant that I needed to crop all photos in height, and thus, this mistake did not show up in the comic.

Darryl’s disappearance – the recreation

Figure 2 below shows the remake of this panel.

lego-disappearance-dispersion
Figure 2; The recreation

The stage

I use the same style elements in this build, I used for the inside of the store, and even for the storefront; they are all combinations of wood and stone, creating the feeling of looking at on building. I still wanted to have some books, but also displayed a few other elements. The most striking difference in this panel is the addition of the statue. Eventually, this statue will be the entrance to the basement. A small visual hint to this is the key she’s holding. When Strabo speaks his ‘magical’ words, her candle wil light up, and the passageway will open.

Composition

The one and only focus in this panel is the interaction between Barry and disappearing Darryl. Barry’s running towards Darryl, almost able to grab his hand, however in the next panel, he would’ve fallen to floor and Darryl would be gone. I also changed the perspective in such a way that both the faces of Darryl (the same expression as the original panel) AND Barry can be seen. NOW the fear/ fright of Barry shows, while Strabo looks more detached.

Color and mood

Again, the color and mood are brought more in line with the inside of the store. With the addition of the blue color emitted by the (upgraded) effect of darryl disappearing. The effect of course is the same one used for the teleportation of Amida.

Before and after

Below are the before and after images joined in one image. You can use the slider to show the one or the other.

lego-disappearance-dispersion

In conclusion

Continuity is important in comics, not only story-wise, or concerning the location of characters and objects, but also concerning styles used. So, always try to build related stages to actually SHOW that  they are related.

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recreating the inside of a lego store

Lego comic panel remake - Strabo's store

Blog

January 20, 2019

This behind the scenes post is on the recreation of the inside of Strabo’s store. This one was more difficult than the first two recreations, because I feel the original Lego stage I build was not that bad.

Strabo’s Store – the original panel

Figure 1 below shows the original panel from episode five of the first Foolish Lego Comic. However, strickly speaking, the panel I created, is not in the original comic. It shows Darryl peeking into the store whilst Strabo is busy. This would’ve been a panel I would have added before the whole episode – “panel zero” – to give a feeling of the store atmosphere, before Barry and Darryl went in. It probably would’ve been a separate episode. Funny to realise how different everything would’ve been if I rebooted the story… or if I’d given the comic a bit more thought back then 🙂

Lego inside the old store
Figure 1; the original

The original image – positives

There are many old objects lying around. I still remember stuffing the scene with all kinds of old-looking Lego items. To me it does feel like a store in antiquities. I also like the perspective of this shot. It’s kind of an over the shoulder shot, the store seen from the viewpoint of Barry. Lastly, I really like the way Strabo is positioned. Casually looking at/ cleaning, straightening the image on the wall. All in all, I’d say, not too bad for the purpose of the comic.

The original image – Room for improvement

This build also suffers from the one thing each and everyone back then suffered from; lack of invested time and building skills. This is really obvious by the look of the wall and the floor. The wall lacks any contrast and some kind of variety in it’s look. It’s also kind of empty (that’s probably the reason for that chain hanging there).

Moving on to the perspective, as I said, I like the viewpoint of Barry in this shot, yet, the use of depth-of-field is confusing. It’s unclear what is important in this panel. Is it Barry or Strabo? The way it is now, only part of the store is in focus; hardly the part the readers should be focusing on. The focus should’ve been on Strabo, especially since the shot has been set up as an over-the-shoulder shot. Furthermore, the atmosphere suffers from the lack of proper lighting, I just did not pay ANY attention to the way the scene was illuminated.

Lastly a nitpick, the location of that gladiator helmet should probably have been more to the front of panel since Darryl will be picking it up when both Barry and Strabo weren’t paying attention.

Strabo’s shop – the recreation

Figure 2 below shows the remake of this panel.

Lego old shop inside store
Figure 2; The recreation of the comic-panel.

The stage

I still wanted the look of a small, crowded and messy store, where all kinds of objects are lying around. And even if there are less objects within the frame, i believe I pulled off the look. Also, to create some depth, I placed several objects, out of focus, near the lens. Lastly, I thought it would be nice to have the door and some windows in the shot so I could play with light-fall.

Composition

There are a two foci in this image, first Strabo in his little shop (this is the main focus), second Darryl peaking through the window of the door. Using the golden ratio, Strabo is positioned quite right. However, if I use the Fibonacci-spiral, this photo should’ve been cropped at the top and right side. I decided against this; the stage is already more extensive than is shown in the image and I didn’t want to loose more surroundings.

Toy photography composition fibonacci golden ratio
Figure 3; Golden ratio (on the original size) and Fibonacci spiral within proposed crop.

Still, playing around with the Fibonacci spiral shows there is a pretty decent flow in the image going from Darryl, via the mouse to Strabo himself (Figure 3).

Color and mood

Even though the outside of the shop, and also the interior, is a bit darker than it was I felt the lighting should convey a warm feeling. So, there are a lot of yellow-ish colors in the scene. The lights through the window should create a bit of a mysterious atmosphere, but I am not convinced that actually worked.

The little things

I changed Strabo’s green sweater to this one, I simply didn’t like the first one. When I first use Strabo I did not know he would play such a large role in the comic, otherwise I would probably have gone for another print. For this reason, I had to change his position, the back of this torso does not have a print on it.

Furthermore, it’s nice to have all kinds of little easter eggs in an image. For example the light grey sword is a genuine antique sword. This one is from one of the sets I got as a kid; the illustrious “Yellow Castle (375 – 1978)“. Also the helmet has a more notable postion, light and highlight. And it looks as if it already caught Darryl’s attention. Lastly, there is one more giant easter egg concerning the (temporary) faith of Barry and Darryl in the first Foolish Lego Comic. Do you know what I am talking about?

Before and after

Below are the before and after images joined in one image. You can use the slider to show the one or the other.

Lego inside the old store Lego old shop inside store

In conclusion

This time I realised rules aren’t rules, at least not when it comes to photography. Looking at the composition of the final image, I’d much rather use the compositional rules and consciously break them too. As long as the final shot feels good to you and you thought about what you wanted to achieve by breaking conventions.

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Creating a lego antique shop

Lego comic panel remake - The old antique shop

Blog

January 12, 2019

For the second recreation I decided to recreate Strabo’s antique shop. Those who already read the comic, know it’s an important location and I never felt the storefront I created back then, did it’s importance any justice. In the old days I build most locations within half an hour. If I remember correctly, this one even took below ten minutes. And it shows.

The old antiqueshop – The original image

Below is the third panel from the second episode of the first chapter of the Foolish Lego comic: “Could be an adventure” (Figure 1). It was published August 24th 2013.

lego old store build
Figure 1; The original panel

The original image – positives

Darryl – hoping for some kind of an adventure – convinced Barry to go to the antique shop to ask about the stolen dragon document. At the very least, this panel establishes the fact that the reached the store and are going in. Also, Darryl looks somewhat more enthusiastic compared to Barry. I personally liked the sign too though it is not very accurate since there is only one shopkeeper.

The original image – room for improvement

Again, I’ll start with the little things. The image is somewhat crooked; it looks as if I wanted a symmetrical image (with the exception of the sign), but it isn’t, besides that the lower part of the image is rotated somewhat compared to the upper part.

Furthermore, because I created a very small Lego MOC as a stage, I zoomed in way to much. Usually a zoomed in panel means something important or intense is going on… but there isn’t. Also, Barry has a very strange stance. It’s like he has a problem with his extrapyramidal tracts; both arms besides his body, almost falling backwards. Lastly, even though some stuff can be seen trough the shop windows, it is kinda dark and there is obviously a plate behind the door.

The old antique shop – the recreation

Below in figure 2 you can see the recreation of this panel.

Lego old antique store storefront
Figure 2; the recreation

The stage

This time, I build a modular-size MOC of the antique store as a stage. I always like to add a few details these days even if they don’t show in the final panel. An example of this is the doorknob; it’s the print of an old fossil, als there is slightly more in the shop windows than can be seen.

Composition

Because of the larger build I could zoom out a bit more and in stead of using a medium-shot, like in the original panel; I could use a long shot (wide shot), establishing the location and immediate surroundings. The camera angle is slightly from above, giving a better view of the situation.

Color and mood

The recreation is more dark than the original panel. Shooting the original image I didn’t have any lighting setup so I shot the image outside in the sun. For the recreation I still didn’t want a dark image, bit also not as bright and sunny as the first panels in the comic. Darryl and Barry are slowly moving towards unknown territory besides I feel the store is a quasi back-alley where less sunlight comes in compared to the main street where the comic started. Color-wise; Barry and Darryl are still bathing in golden sunlight, while the right side of the image is darker, and more blue. Lastly, the small amount of vignetting I did to show a new scene has started (Like in a few old films where a scene ended and started with a circle closing and opening).

The little things

I added a few easter eggs related to dragons. And those who read the whole comic, might recognise the knights’ armor in the window. You can also see the creature (Noldor) peeking around the corner more clearly (Did you know that he is actually present in episode 1 and 2?), raising questions about what is going on.

Before and after

Below are the before and after images joined in one image. You can use the slider to show the one or the other.

lego old store build Lego old antique store storefront

In conclusion

That’s it. I hope you enjoyed the post and that it might inspire you to look at past work you did (it could be anything), and see if you can remake and improve that work. Lastly, if you have any feedback on these recreations, please let me know in the comments; live and learn.

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lego edit transporting teleport

Lego Comic panel remake - Teleporting Amida

Blog

January 5, 2019

It is time for remakes! Over the years, my experience in creating Lego comics has grown somewhat and it’s already been over five years ago since the first episodes of the Foolish Lego comic were published. That’s five years of experimenting and creating my brick comic by trial and error. Many times before I’ve written about how I would’ve liked to have written the story differently. And of course, in hindsight, there were more aspects in the comic that could’ve been better than they were back then. However, I have to start with something and that is a recreation of some of the comic panels.

When I started the comic, I mostly concentrated on the quality of photography. So, as long as everything was in the frame, I was happy. Nowadays, there are other things I consider too, each time I shoot a photo for one of the panels. This year I will take a look at past episodes and try to improve some of the individual panels. This will be within the context of the story up until that point and, of course, within the, relatively unimaginative, four-panel-formatting.

Teleporting Amida – the original image

Below is the third panel from the second episode of the first chapter of the Foolish Lego comic: “Thief!” (Figure 1). It was published August 17th 2013.

Lego original teleport effect
Figure 1; The original panel

The original image – positives

Barry and Darryl have just met, when a woman (Amida) steals a document from Barry. Our two protagonists chase her until she runs around a corner and vanishes into thin air. I like the fact that it looks like a sunny day and, considering my photoshop skills in those days, the teleport-effect is not too bad. For some reason i am also fond of the white stripe on the window/ door behind Amida. Finally, i like my use of depth of field. It puts the focus on Amida and shows that Barry and Darryl are behind a little.

The original image – room for improvement

First off, the little things! There’s dust (!) on the tiles, the flower is crooked and even the background is a little tilted. That last part would not have been a problem if it wasn’t by mistake. If it was intentional I should have made the tilt more clear to create a Dutch tilt, thus conveying a sense of ‘uneasiness’. Also, everybody’s happy, I did not pay any attention to everyone’s facial expressions. Even though I kind of like the transportation-effect in itself, it is a little out there. The colors have no meaning (and they look like the colors – red, yellow, green, of carnaval in my city Maastricht). Furthermore, the composition is a bit boring and misses tension. All in all, I don’t believe it’s too bad, but there is some room for improvement.

Teleporting Amida – the remake

Figure 2 shows the remake of the teleporting Amida panel. I changed quite a few things.

Lego dispersion photoshop teleport effect
Figure 2; Teleporting Amida, the remake

The premise

A significant change is that I wanted to show that Barry and Darryl actually saw Amida dissolve. I always felt that the reason for those to going to the antique-shop were a bit weak, and actually seeing the thief mysteriously disappearing might’ve been a stronger incentive to seek an explanation at the shop.

Composition

One of the main changes I made is in the composition. I used a low angle shot to make Amida look strong and powerful. Because of this angle Barry and Darryl sink into the ground a little because they’re a bit further away. This dwarfs them somewhat compared to Amida, adding to her current dominance (it also makes the flowerpot look smaller, which is annoyingly large in the original image). Combined with the depth of field, and the space Amida gets in the frame, she is undeniably the main focus of this panel. Also I tried to balance the composition a bit more by, amongst other things, using the Fibonacci-spiral (Figure 3).

Lego Fibonacci composition comic photography
Figure 3; The Fibonacci-spiral as compositional help.

The teleportation-effect

Obviously, I changed the teleportation-effect. Simply by making it ook a bit more spectacular and coherent, besides making Amida float in the air a little. In the original panel it was not immediately clear that she was disappearing, so I added a dissolving effect in the remake.

Color

There is a distinct difference in color within the panel. On the left we see Darryl and Barry, stil in their own, golden-yellow, warm, sunny world. As opposed to Amida bathing in blue. Blue is seen as cold; conveying contrast in their current worlds/ thoughts. Even so, blue is also the color of tranquility and faith. And red is not used within this image… maybe she is less violent and/ or evil than Barry and Darryl might think at the moment?

The little things

The facial expressions are different, a yelling Darryl, a stunned Barry and a relieved-that-it-worked Amida. The specially observant readers might notice the glowing blue necklace; might that be the transportation-device?

Lego original teleport effect Lego dispersion photoshop teleport effect

In conclusion

The remake would (mostly subconsciously) have brought much more emotion and tension to the story, besides conveying more visual information and possibly even questions. Usually I don’t have the time to think about panels this way, however, recreating this panel was a real eye-opener to me, mainly because it all came together relatively easy. Next time a new panel. For now, thanks for reading.

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