Atlas • Lego Brickfilming at Its Finest

Uploaded to YouTube by Monitogo Studios.

Monitogo Studios recently succeeded in raising over $5000 on a Kickstarter campaign to fund their second brickfilm, Atlas. This comes after their initial success with Bound, released in 2015. Bound clocked in at 50 minutes and was shot over an almost-six-year period at twelve frames per second with 43 characters and over 60 extensive sets. Atlas, currently in production, is just as ambitious if not even more so. In this first video, you can see the level of attention that is going into each shot.

Director, writer and animator Greg Tull describes Atlas as “a stunning stop motion brickfilm about sacrifice and the power of love.” The film centers on a father, son and uncle who work at a railroad drawbridge control center set in the 1930's. A train is running ahead of schedule and a damaged rail line promises catastrophic results. With inability to contact the train en route, the three must make a critical and costly decision in a desperate move to save it.

According to Monitogo’s website, the artists at the studio strive to “capture the hearts of our audience and inspire them to glorify God through genuine characters, clever stories, and realistic worlds. Our niche specialty, brickfilm, has opened the door for us to use a medium that is little recognized as a serious filmmakers tool.  We hope to redefine that perception of the most loved toy of all time!”

Uploaded to YouTube by Monitogo Studios.

This second video is a wonderful inside look at the animating process at Monitogo.

On Atlas, Tull is collaborating with animators Jack Nop, Spencer Berglund and Benjamin Ely. Nathan Ashton is performing sound design, Micah and Monica Austin are contributing story, post production and visual effects and Rick Holets is composing. Monitogo animates on DZED Systems Dragonframe Stop Motion with post production in Adobe Systems Creative Suite 6 and CC.

Find Monitogo Studios: on YouTube / on Facebook / on Instagram.