Building My LEGO Millennium Falcon: A 20-Week Time-Lapse Journey
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I undertook a monumental task of constructing the Millennium Falcon LEGO set, which took me roughly 20 weeks to complete, and during the process, I documented it through a time-lapse using my iPad Pro and LumaFusion. This experience turned out to be more challenging than I had initially anticipated.
To my embarrassment, I once made fun of a coworker for his fondness for LEGO when he mentioned he would dedicate his weekend to building a large Millennium Falcon model. Fast forward to a few years later, and I found myself equally enchanted after impulsively purchasing a LEGO Harley Davidson. That led me down the path to assembling the Millennium Falcon myself.
This project was no quick endeavor; it required a significant investment of time. I decided to film a time-lapse of the build, thinking it would be a simple task. However, I quickly learned that capturing time-lapses is not as easy as it appears.
This narrative details how my iPads and LumaFusion came to my rescue during this journey, much to the amusement of my former colleague.
For clarity, I have no affiliation with LumaFusion or LEGO; these are solely my thoughts.
Constructing the Millennium Falcon
The LEGO Millennium Falcon 75192 is no longer the largest set available; that title now belongs to the Eiffel Tower. Nonetheless, this set is still quite sizable, comprising 7,541 pieces divided into 17 bags.
Building a model of this magnitude requires more space than the final product occupies. My approach to complex LEGO builds is straightforward: I sort all the pieces into distinct piles after emptying each bag. Although this method can be time-consuming, it saves considerable time searching for elusive pieces. Unfortunately, I lacked a sufficiently large table for this particular set.
Even the instruction manual took up most of my available space. As a compromise, I organized everything except for the smallest pieces, which I stored in clear plastic boxes that once held chocolate croissants from Tesco.
As I progressed through the build, I realized I needed to assemble significant sections of the Millennium Falcon separately before integrating them. This posed a challenge, as the structure became heavy, requiring careful handling to avoid accidents.
A few early drops tested my patience and vocabulary. Eventually, I resorted to placing the main body of the Falcon on a tray for safer transportation.
My Time-Lapse Approach
Initially, I envisioned the Millennium Falcon rapidly assembling itself, propelled by an unseen hand at lightning speed. With countless examples on YouTube, I figured this would be a breeze.
However, my reality diverged significantly from that vision due to several factors:
- The build extended over a prolonged period, and I lacked a dedicated studio, making it difficult to keep the camera stationary.
- I began by taking photos every five minutes, but this practice quickly became tiresome, leading to a shortage of images necessary for a cohesive time-lapse.
- My building pace was inconsistent, often interrupted by the need to sort through new bags.
- I frequently forgot the last photo location, complicating the process further.
In hindsight, I should have found a stable location for my camera. Moving forward, I’ll ensure I have a designated spot.
Within days, my strategy evolved to capturing a photo at the end of each building session, which occurred on our cramped landing.
LumaFusion
I aimed to complete this entire project using my iPad Pro, curious to see if it could handle the task. While I appreciate iMovie for iPad, my experiences with it for creating simple videos had already pushed me toward the Mac version.
Ultimately, using iMovie would have been a mistake. Though it allows for photo assembly, the constraints of my environment required more robust editing capabilities.
Given my unorthodox photo-taking methods, I found myself needing to zoom, crop, and adjust images significantly. While I could have edited them in the Photos app before importing them into iMovie, that would have consumed a lot of time.
Having been eager to try LumaFusion, I decided to make the leap. Despite my limited video editing experience, I found it to be an impressive tool.
Unlike iMovie, I encountered fewer limitations with LumaFusion. In fact, the myriad of features available made it initially overwhelming. I spent several hours watching tutorials on YouTube to familiarize myself with its capabilities.
Fortunately, the functionalities I needed were readily accessible.
Video Editing Performance
I possess two iPad Pros: a 12.9” model from 2021, which serves as my primary laptop replacement, and an 11” model from 2022, used for media consumption and note-taking. Initially, I attempted to perform all tasks on the 12.9” iPad:
- Editing with LumaFusion
- Writing this article in Ulysses
- Creating images and clips with Vectornator
However, the iPad soon reached its memory limits, forcing LumaFusion to restart every time I switched apps. I began to regret not purchasing the 1 TB version with 16 GB of RAM.
The solution was to run LumaFusion on my 11” iPad Pro, which allowed for smooth operation without app reloads. Transferring videos to the larger iPad via iCloud proved to be straightforward. Next time I upgrade, I’ll opt for a model with more RAM.
Incorporating the Photos
A sensible person would have created an album for the Falcon build photos, but I apparently missed that memo, resulting in extensive searching through my Photos app.
Fortunately, Photos has an AI-based search feature, so I searched for “LEGO.” To my surprise, it recognized the brand.
I expected Photos to recognize text and objects but was impressed that it identified branded items. I could easily organize the relevant photos into an album.
This was my first interaction with LumaFusion, which was mostly straightforward, with one hiccup. Upon importing the photos, the latest images appeared first in the time-lapse, giving the impression that the Falcon was disassembling in reverse.
After some thought and button tapping, I realized I simply needed to adjust the sort order of the creation dates from descending to ascending.
Additionally, I needed to modify the duration each photo displayed. With 48 images, the default of one second felt too long; a quarter of a second worked much better.
A Time-Lapse, But Not as I Envisioned
I had high hopes for the time-lapse, but I felt let down during my initial playback.
The first issue was my inconsistency in using either portrait or landscape orientation. Thankfully, correcting this in LumaFusion is straightforward; a double-tap on the frame does the trick.
The next concern was the varying distances at which I captured images, primarily due to having to move the model as I built it.
The shifting camera positions made it challenging to track the progress of the build. After some deliberation, I utilized LumaFusion’s cropping and resizing tools to focus on areas of each image that showcased progress.
Though it took time to adjust each image, I found the task oddly captivating. I was trying to convey a narrative by isolating specific parts of each image.
Adding Filters
As I became more immersed in LumaFusion, I decided to enhance my video with filters. I recognize that just because you can add something doesn’t mean you should, but I was on a creative roll.
LumaFusion offers an overwhelming array of filters and LUTs (look-up tables).
I faced challenges navigating the extensive feature set. However, once I located the correct icons, applying them became much easier.
Despite finding the right tools, I initially struggled to apply filters to multiple frames. After some searching, I discovered the icon for multi-selecting frames, but certain options disappeared at that point. I ultimately applied vignette and black-and-white filters and moved forward.
I attribute my struggles to my lack of familiarity with LumaFusion. As with any powerful software, understanding its functionality takes time.
Adding a Fade
As I neared the end of my creative journey, I decided to include a backing track. As with everything else, LumaFusion offered countless options.
I opted for a track from FreePD, composed by Alexander Nakarada and uploaded in 2020, which is available for both commercial and non-commercial use.
I recorded the track and added it to the audio track, automatically removing the visuals.
All that remained was to implement a fade, which I did by adding key frames in the audio editor.
Uploading to YouTube
Uploading the completed video to YouTube was the simplest task. There’s a specific option in the Share Menu, and Google requires authentication for the first upload.
So, here it is! Enjoy! I’m not expecting any Oscar nods!
Lessons Learned
This project imparted valuable lessons:
- For the love of all that’s holy, try a smaller project first.
- Building a large LEGO set cultivates patience and trust; investing countless hours into something requires faith that it will yield positive results.
- There’s no room for repetition, so meticulous planning for photo documentation is essential. The iPad can handle video editing well, but memory is crucial. Even this simple time-lapse demanded substantial resources. The processor can manage it; the challenge lies in handling large files requiring ample dynamic memory.
- Take the time to learn LumaFusion’s features.
Final Thoughts
I’m genuinely pleased with my experience, but I wish I had planned better. Undertaking such a project presents numerous technical and creative challenges, necessitating as much preparation as possible beforehand.
Despite the memory issues, I was satisfied with executing this on an iPad. LumaFusion lives up to its reputation, demonstrating that iPad apps can accomplish significant tasks.
As for the final time-lapse, I’m not entirely satisfied with it; it’s merely adequate.
This dissatisfaction isn’t a reflection of the tools used; I’m genuinely excited about their capabilities. I underestimated the level of creativity and preparation necessary for a project of this scale, which left me drained by the end.
However, this experience won’t deter me from future endeavors. I have the Titanic model waiting in a box in the spare room.