Research

I'm pretty set on the idea of using articulative action figures rather than modelling clay, as I personally find them easier to work with and I really like Robot Chicken animations as well as animations on the internet using lego figures.

Batman Fire Drill - Robot Chicken

This animation is a recreation of the bear attack scene from "The Revenant". I really like this sort of animation as the camera angles seem almost cinematic and professional.

In my animation I'm considering using some CGI and digital backgrounds, this being the reason this animation stands out to me.

I'm questioning creating a set using a chroma key background as I believe I'd be able to get a more professional looking background for the animation, however I will also need to consider lighting setups and a badly lit chroma key can cause problems in post-post production. With a green screen as well, I can add certain things I mostly likely would not have been able to add if I used a physical set such as vast landscapes.

Making this animation, I am most likely going to use lego figures, but only figures not props as lego props could easily break apart and depending on their complexity could take a while to build. As for sets, I'm going to use a mix of green screen and physical set.

This video is really helpful, although this person uses a full Lego set, the information is transferable to my own animation such as diffusing a desk lamp's light to use as atmospheric studio lighting. Also, as mentioned previously, I would like to partially physical sets, and this lighting would help get atmospheric lighting for the props to match the environment they are supposed to be in. The lighting technique is also very low budget, meaning I don't need to pay a lot to get some atmospheric lighting for the shoot.