Stop Motion Effects: Opening an Umbrella

This tutorial will guide you through the process of opening a Lego made umbrella without any post production. A YouTube video has been embedded, and a written piece is included below.

Pieces That You Need

(Orange plate used for size reference)

1-4 rods of your colour choice

2 cylinders

1-2 cones

1 large cone

1 MEGA cone

1 disc (preferably one without a symbol on the top like mine)

Animating the umbrella

Now that you have the pieces ready, it's time to animate them. This example is without a minifig, but farther down the page there is a GIF of a scene with an umbrella.

Frame 1: Umbrella Closed

Snap two cylinders together, then add the cone. Push the rod through to create the first frame.

Frame 2: Umbrella Opens

Put the large cone and small cone together, the add the rod to make the second frame.

Frame 3: Umbrella Opens Wider

This frame merely has the MEGA cone and rod together.

Frame 4: Umbrella Full Opened

Put the disc on top of the rod to create the final umbrella.

Bobbing and smooth in/outs.

Now add some bobbing up and downs and slowdowns to create a smoother effect.

In the end, you may end with something like this. The conversion caused the smoothness to lower slightly, but you can still see what it looks like.

An example of this effect used in a film is seen in the video at the top.

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