Wednesday, May 28, 2014

LEGO Super Heroes Season 2 - LEGO Justice League

Hey everyone,


I just wanted to give you a little update regarding the second season of the LEGO Super Heroes Series. 

Season 2 will no longer be called LEGO Super Heroes. Every episode will be released under the banner of LEGO Justice League, along with an individual title. For example, the first episode will be titled 'LEGO Justice League - Superman's Rampage'.

Why this change? There are a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to differentiate the 2 seasons from one another. I couldn't call the episodes from season 2 LEGO Super Heroes because it would be a bit confusing. You could get the episodes all jumbled up. Also, LEGO Super Heroes Season 2 - Superman's Rampage is a bit long. Furthermore, no episode will have an individual title called Justice League (as Avengers Assemble!) so I'm safe in that regard.

The second reason is purely from a marketing standpoint. With the release of the video game and the countless let's play videos, it's very difficult to get your video seen and on the front page of searches. There are many LEGO Justice League videos also, but at least I'm 'competing' against other brickfilms and not game videos.

That's what I wanted to let you guys know.

The script for episode 1 is complete and I'll begin animating next week. I don't have a release date yet but I'll keep you updated.

All the best,
Atlas

Thursday, May 15, 2014

LEGO Super Heroes - Episode 6

Finally, we've reached this point. With the release of 'Avengers Assemble', the first season of the LEGO Super Heroes Series has ended; and it took one year to do it. That's an episode once every 2 months. To quote a famous line: 'I love it when a plan comes together'. Because, yes, that was the plan all along.

When I first came up with the idea of doing a series based on super heroes (not that original, I know :P), I knew I wanted to include all characters, Marvel and DC. I didn't want to just put them together for no real reason; I wanted a storyline that dealt with how they come together, so I started planning away. When writing the storyline and the episodes, it was important that they could be seen as stand alone videos too and I wanted to include most characters. That's why some characters only appear once or twice. With the exception of the Hulk, who should have had a bigger role but given his restrictive movement, I had to cut him down to one episode. Another 'rule' was that the series shouldn't drag on. That's why I didn't want to pass the one year mark for Season 1. So glad that turned out ok. I'm going to be keeping the same idea for Season 2 as well.

Season 2 is not what you guys are probably expecting. It will not be a direct continuation of Season 1. It's more of a prequel, if you will. It will show the chain of events that leads the Justice League in that same room where the Avengers end up in. Just like the first season is strictly Marvel, the second season will be strictly DC. This probably won't be such a popular decision, because I know many of you want to see the Avengers and the Justice League together. But again, this was always the plan. I actually played with the notion of doing both seasons at the same time. One Marvel episode and one DC, but I don't think it would have had the same effect.

So the second season will only have DC characters in it. Where does that leave the whole storyline? Simple. After Season 2 ends, there will be one grand finale. A 20 to 30 minutes extravaganza that will end the whole series. The BIG FINALE. 

As of this point, I can't really say when Season 2 will start because even I don't know. Probably in 2-3 months. Until then I have a couple of shorter videos lined up and I'm gonna continue doing LEGO custom figures reviews. Also, there's the question of whether I should focus all my attention on Season 2, or do some stand alone spin-off videos of Season 1. I literally have so many ideas that I'm losing track of them. I know for a fact that at least 4 of them will come to fruition and become videos.

Now, to actually talk about the 6th episode. It was pretty straight forward to do. It took a really long time in post-production due to all the effects, which were done with After Effects' built-in plugins. Masking was horrible. In almost every shot that Iron Man is in, I had to add glow to his chest piece and eyes frame by frame. Same can be said with the mouth animation. It's not rocket science but it's tedious as hell.  That's all I can think of right now.

In closing, I just want to thank you guys, the viewers, and my subscribers for sticking with me on this journey. It's been an awesome ride thus far and I hope it'll be even better in the future.

Also, a HUGE thank you goes out to my amazing cast ( +Andrew Clark +Alejandro Saab +Coulter Rail +Emily Lewis-Berry +Ell Shmell +Mickwhitefire28 +Trevor Palczynski +midgettoe2000 +Daniel Grokowsky +Aussieroth7 +John LaPiana +Paragon Interrupt). You're unbelievable at what you do and, without you, the series would not have been as successful as it is. I truly hope you'll be a part of any future videos and you'll have fun doing it.

Have an awesome day,
Atlas