LegoMatrix - Making of Scene 02

This scene was the 6th one we tackled out of all the scenes, and that was probably about right. The animation was pretty simple, but it required a nice smooth dolly in with the camera, which meant we had to build a crazy rig.

This rig was made up of a large metal ruler, the camera mounting plate from a tripod, Lego, and some playing cards to level the camera. Trinity was mounted on a spinning platform with some blocks placed as limits so she couldn't turn too far. The nice thing about using the metal ruler was that it had built-in calibration marks for distance.

In post production we used digital zoom to match the size and shape of the original shot. This was done with an awk script and tgl. On reflection, the whole zoom could have been done digitally in post production as our camera resolution was more than three times the output resolution.

This scene was the 6th one we tackled out of all the scenes, and that was probably about right. The animation was pretty simple, but it required a nice smooth dolly in with the camera, which meant we had to build a crazy rig. This rig was made up of a large metal ruler, the camera mounting plate from a tripod, Lego, and some playing cards to level the camera. Trinity was mounted on a spinning platform with some blocks placed as limits so she couldn't turn too far. The nice thing about using the metal ruler was that it had built-in calibration marks for distance. In post production we used digital zoom to match the size and shape of the original shot. This was done with an awk script and tgl. On reflection, the whole zoom could have been done digitally in post production as our camera resolution was more than three times the output resolution.
	Trinity and her mounting platform. As you can see, we spared no expense with this set. Indistinct backdrop combined with only a partially-built building. Your guess is as good as mine as to why she has a gun in her hand.
	Here we see Steve adjusting Trinity for a shot. As you can see, the Lego ruler guides weren't exactly technical. It's basically just a long track that the ruler could slide along. If I remember correctly, we drew some pencil marks on the baseplate somewhere that we could match to the graduations on the ruler.